Opinions please????

I just wrote this little bit before going to bed. Not bad for a first draft,
though i don't know what point it'll have writing it... I haven't read Blood
Canticle yet (I thought the US edition get here sooner than the UK one, man
do i hate it when i'm wrong!), but the word oxymoron and the reason why I
like the books so much just kept going through my mind the past few days. I
don't know if the below even crudely gathers up the feelings others have, if
I'm way off base or what. But this is how it works for me, more or less... I
suppose... Why am I blushing? <grin>. I'd just like some feedback is all.
Don't worry, it's a little shorter than regular column-length so it won't
take long. Just curious...Does this go for most fans or am I the odd one
out...? (because if I am I can toss the entire piece and forget about
editing it to bits -which it will need, with my miserable english... I make
such stupid mistakes sometimes- and finding a magazine or something for it).
Please remember I haven't read Canticle yet and this does focus more on the
persona's in IwtV, waaay before Lestat's 'change' with Memnoch. This crosses
over to the Mayfairs, but also to the Matrix for instance, or just...
Anything with two or more faces. None of them less than the other, or more.
Just thought I'd stick to one book and three persons for clarity.
Hopefully, enjoy!
Jo
~~~~
That Vampire Touch

Humans are strange beings. Incorporating all emotions and preferences,
dislikes and passions, we are nothing but walking, talking oxymorons. And it
is more than possible that this is wherein the attraction to Anne Rice's
books lies.
Casting aside the obvious talent for writing, her capability to make the
characters speak to us and our imagination has put Rice's name on the
literary map. Taking 'Interview with the Vampire', the first of 'the Vampire
Chronicles' as an example, the contradictions within the characters are
quite clear. And looking at the so-called 'coven' as a whole, it could very
well be the psyche of one person.
Lestat, the leader of the pack, is the sheer embodiment of power and
cruelty. Grace and elegance are his as well; blue blood will not be denied.
A feline quality lies over him as a magical veil. Something a large amount
of the worldpopulation hopes for: some extent of power and the grace to
carry it well.
Louis, his chosen child and brother, has that same power, but the guilt
and shame of this power -and more importantly its price- prohibit him from
using it to its full extent. Not realizing that being a vampire doesn't mean
losing your humanity entirely, makes his quest for holding on to it a folly.
Like most of us, we just strive to be the best human being we can be, but we
still have to accept our dark side. Which is just as human as the rest of
our persona.
Within this family, Claudia appears, with the traits of both her 'parents
'; the little girl has her own brand of cruelty, a deep love and hate toward
her vampiric fathers, an innocence and ruthlessness combined in the body of
a mere child. Doesn't that read like puberty all over again?
With the risk of Freudian babble, the underlying eroticism springs forth
from not only Rice's capability of making her blood-drinkers human to a
level where they appreciate beauty, feel more than just bloodlust and being
more than able to give actual love. The contradictions within work their
magic as well. Take and be taken, grace and power, primal and sophisticated
needs and reactions. The power-struggle in our own minds and our own torso's
at night, with or without a lover: who is on top? Who surrenders, who doesn'
t? And how much fun is it to have one one moment, and the other the next? In
the end it is the oxymoron that wins out. We don't know exactly which we
want, can't put our finger on it, because we want both. The power, the
surrender. The grace, the primal fire. Love and hate. Sometimes with a
smidgen of guilt tossed in for good measure.
The vampires give us all that, and then some.

(c) Josepha van Lieshout 2003