Hi Coven Members-

Thank you again for all your unwavering support of this coven. We are now entering the zone of becoming a serious vampire coven, as we enter our sixth week here.

One of the things that greatly impressed me was the greater quantity of your thoughts about last week’s discussion questions. In order to show my appreciation for our coven member’s many wide-ranging, articulate thoughts about the book.
Let me highlight just two, for the sake of space!

Gary Swafford’s thoughts (from the Lestat Book Coven Facebook Page):
“Claudia is one of my fave characters in the Vampire Chronicles. I find her endlessly fascinating and weighed down almost with dark themes. Her attempted murder of Lestat for me has always been the stuff of Greek tragedy, a child turning on a parent. One huge mistake the movie made was to leave out her line (just after he stabs him): ” Don’t you like the blood of children.” Filled with irony and hatred and despair and the black spirit of revenge. I wish she’d return in the Chronicles now that Anne has Lestat back with the coming of Prince Lestat. I’d think it’d be great to see the gang dealing with her ghost, or better yet perhaps, to have her possess a grown woman to regain a place in the world as a grown woman and seek what happens from there. I’m definitely a Claudiaphile. Long ago Anne sent me a tee shirt with a rendering of her done by an artist under Anne’s instructions.”

Candice Gariepy’s thoughts: From the comment section of this week’s discussion post:

“Personally, I wasn’t all that surprised with Claudia’s plot to murder Lestat. Given what you read up until that point it gets pretty clear that his “death” at one of their hands will be inevitable. You almost begin to ask yourself who will be the one to end their captivity, but then you begin to take stock in what you already know about the characters up to that point. Louis is an unlikely candidate because he values life too much and has something that most vampires appear not to, he has a conscience. He may see himself stuck with Lestat, but he could never bring himself to end Lestat’s existence regardless of how useless and irritating he might find him to be.”

Claudia, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from that same malady because by design she is perpetually stuck with a child’s anger. Until a child is taught empathy their entire existence is all about them regardless of the cost to others. Children are the epidiome of the term sociopath until they learn to care for others. Claudia it appears never finished that developmental stage before she was turned so she has no moral compass. Her desires are that of a child’s so she goes by the primal instinct of “if I want it, its mine. If I think I like it , its mine and if I say its mine, its mine.” Its the same mentality that a two year old understands. She sees Lestat as a roadblock to hers and Louis’ freedom and since freedom is what she wants, she will have her way, just like any child.

I think the movie did a better job at portraying Lestat as a villain than a sympathetic creature. It showed more of his ability to manipulate people than it did how he cared for any of them. You almost begin to wonder if he truly was capable of caring for anyone really. It isn’t until Queen of the Damned that you begin to see Lestat differently I think. Vampire Lestat gave you a better understanding of where the whiney rich kid attitude stemmed from, but it’s in Queen of the Damned that he begins to show some type of emotion for others. Far be it a small amount to start with, but its there.

2) I think Louis initially agrees to Claudia’s plans because it gives him a way out, so to speak. I mean, he’s been whining about wanting to be free of Lestat whom he feels he can learn nothing from and up until Claudia’s plan has taken no action to do so. She presents him with a golden opportunity and in true Louis fashion he agonizes it to death. He can’t just accept the gift that’s been handed to him ( a morbid gift to be sure, but a gift nonetheless) and take some small amount of pleasure from it. No, he has to agonize over the moral aspects of it because they did after all just destroy their maker and his only companion for a time. I love the fact that Louis has such a high respect for life, but come on dude…enough whining already!”

Thank you again to both of these coven member’s thoughts, and for all the rest of the other prized members here, who might have contributed in some way to the discussion!!

Due to Sunday being Easter, I am again assigning a short reading section, as always, for the sake of people who have busy lives or just need more time to catch up on the readings!!

Assignment Details:
 Again, page numbers are arbitrary due to different book editions have different font size, and such. In the Barnes and Nobles omnibus version, we are picking up at pg. 139, and reading till pg. 166,  For all editions, this section includes the iconic scene where Louis confronts the priest in an important discussion that sheds a lot of light on Louis’ core ethical and psychological dilemma.  This section begins with the sentence “The great adventure of our lives,” and ends with “The vampire sighed.”

  Questions:

I hope none of you are offended by the fact I’m leaving this week’s question more open-ended.

1.Basically, what are your thoughts about the entire sequence that takes place in the church, between Louis and the priest. What is the philosophical and religious implications for Louis?  How does this scene compare  and contrast with a similar confession scene in The Wolf Gift?

2.Do you have any other interesting observations on any other particular scenes in the story?

Thank you everyone for your continued participating. Have a great holiday weekend, depending on whether or not you celebrate Easter or have already celebrated Passover this week!!  I might be forgetting other religious holidays around this season, so I ask that you forgive me for unintentional ignorance on the issue!! The Lestat Book Coven is very inclusive, and thus very mindful of such marked differences in people’s religious  or ideological views.

*By clicking the photo below of the Prince Lestat cover, you’ll find details on the Barnes and Nobles online website about pre-ordering your own signed edition of this  much-anticipated novel!*

Here are some other exciting tidbits from the page:

**Watch Sumiko’s lovely video, about #PrinceLestat!!**

Check out this rather exciting novel, from one of our own members of the coven:

William Massa’s Fear the Light: Who Murdered Dracula?
Also, we have this #PrinceLestat contest from editor and regular contributor on Anne Rice’s Facebook Fan Page: Todd Barselow (freelance editor for many self-published writer’s novels). He is also a venerated member of the Talmasca!! (unofficially)

**Click the banner below to access details about this giveaway of copies of Prince Lestat!!**