Interview With the Vampire

What resonated most with me while reading Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire was the format in which the story was written. As the title suggests, the reader travels through the plot as a boy interviews a vampire. Essentially, the vampire reveals to the boy the intimate details of how he became a vampire.

The fact that the novel is in fact an interview relates to the oral tradition of storytelling, which is an effective method of delivering a story (especially horror stories). The reader reminisces of telling stories around a campfire, or imagines being in the room with the boy, echoing his nervous movements and interactions with the vampire.

The context of the story was not particularly gripping for me, however learning about the vampire in the format of an interview increased the interest and held my attention much more than a straightforward narrative would have.

Another interesting aspect of Interview With the Vampire was the sexual undertones of the vampire’s experiences. I thought it was interesting that although lustful feelings were evident in much of the transformation process, the vampire discussed them very matter-of-factly. The objectivity of his discussion perhaps reflects the hopelessness of changing any aspect of his circumstance. In other words, the vampire did not speak to the boy looking for pity, but instead presented his story as if to say “this is just how it is, I had no choice but to adapt.”

In the midst of the Twilight craze, I see the derivation of the sexuality that often accompanies vampire stories. It seems that this is one reason why vampire stories are appealing: their existence explores beyond a physical want and throws its characters into desperate need, which presents a unique set of problems. The physical traits of vampires reflect this idea as well. They are often beautiful, more or less, but hauntingly so. We witness a vampire’s existence as a limbo between satisfaction, disparity, vitality, beauty, and death. The contrasts that vampirical “living” presents provide context for a wide range of stories, and allows for the legend of vampires to be revisited time and time again.