Interview with a Vampire

Both Louis and Claudia are interesting characters to me. Louis for his resistance to his vampire self and his perservation of his human soul. Even though Claudia is eternally a child on the outside she matures in the mind and becomes an assertive intellegent woman. When Claudia is turned she is quickly adaptable to the ways of a vampire. Since she is only about 5 at the time the only things she knows is gaining intellegence and feeding off humans. This does not supprise me though, children are very easily influence and able to adpat very well, Anne Rice probably knows this. For example, there are many instinaces when matured people cannot figure out new technologies, where as children can learn how to use things like a new computer or a television in as little as a few hours. I think this is because children are always in a learning mind set and Claudia is always in this mind set. Maybe this is because as we grow older I think we loose some thirst for knowledge because subconsiously we may think we know everything.

Lestat is an annoyance to me because of his needyness and his ability to manupulate people. I dislike this character because i dislike people like this in my own life. The relationship between Lestat and Louis is like a homosexual relationship to me, with Claudia as there adopted daughter. Lestat has a fear of being left alone. He is the kind of person in a relationship that clings to another and with all their might no the other leave, even if the other no longer wants to stay. Claudia is needy as well but in the different sense like the need of a parental figure in her life. This could be due to loosing her family to the plague or the fact that she is a child forever. Lestat and Louis are an example of opposites attract. Lestat is immoral, needy, and manipulative. While Louis has morality, is a loner, and has compassion.

I've seen the movie long before I read some of the book, but I've notice no HUGE differences from the book to the movie. Some minor characters and minor details are switched around. I believe Anne Rice had done this when writing the script so that the story would make more cinematic sense to someone who hasn't read the book.

Monster Island

It's interesting how the author mentions HIV many times in this story. I believe that it is an excellent comparison to the "Zombie" virus. Prior to more advanced research and breakthroughs on HIV, most infected people with the disease probably felt like the undead living their daily lives, because they had a death sentence on their minds, if not already dying. In the past people felt  perhaps completely hopeless to the disease, maybe the same way that humans in the story feel hopeless against the zombies. You can kill some zombies, but there are so many in the world that your chance of survival is slim to none. Zombies are like the HIV virus, humans are the like the T cells, and the soldiers are like medicine or the immune system. I wonder if later in the story the HIV medications will contribute a cure to the zombie epidemic or stop the effects of the dead coming back to life? 

This story is a lot about survival and adaptation, both are animal instincts. The scientist or doctor in this story changes himself to become the undead to survive, while other people idea of survival is to fight and kill. The doctors way is more con-formative while others are more rebellious. Which is similar to government and control. When a new government takes power the people with in it either conform to it or rebel against it. Some of it is choice. It is interesting to see the scientist go through this adaption to his new body trying to accept his dead body and forgetting about some of his being when he was alive. He learns from this. For example he is hungry he tries to eat snacks and doesn't work, so he tries raw meat and it helps. Adaption and survival are almost entirely the same thing. 

Another form of adaption is the Women's Republic in Somalia, which is a group of very empowered women fight for survival against the aliments, warlords, and the undead! It is interesting to read about how a culture where women maybe oppressed or maybe have no power in their lives, rise up to be forceful, to change into more of a masculine form, to have all the power they want, in times of desperation and change. It ties into gender issues, what is feminine and what is masculine? Is masculinity and femininity just an illusion? Are male and female just assignments given at birth; just different body types and no more? or are there duties that we have to follow/ or can one be the other, or both at the same time? 

So far it's been a great read, can't wait to finish it!

Response to Frankenstein

Conventional Things About Horror

Horror stories usually involve dreary dark settings, such as grave yards, tombs, old spooky houses, cob-webs, and thunder storms. These setting are suppose to set the mood of fear. There are also superstitious qualities involved such as black cats, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns. Some horror stories involve the reanimation of death such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Zombies, but most or perhaps all horror stories have to do with death. Monsters are always a big theme in horror, some creature that is very abnormal looking. Sometimes horror is about serial killers, and bloody scary weapons such as knifes or chain saws. Chase scenes are popular as well as high pitched screams. Some fear in horror comes from sounds such as drips in the sink, moans, creaky doors, and the scraping sound of tree branches. The element of surprise is always there. A popular scenes are when a woman opens the medicine cabinet and closes it and the killer is in the mirror, or someone opens the shower curtain quickly or someone turns around an bumps into a friend instead of the killer. A lot of scary situations happen in the bathroom. Demonic possession and the occult/ witches usually really scare people because the subject matter cannot be seen but it can still hurt you, and you are powerless against it. Children's horror consists more of monsters hiding in closets and living under beds.