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Good at Being Evil: the Demons of The Vampire Chronicles 177“‘None.’“‘And no vampire here has discourse with God or with the devil!’“‘No vampire that I’ve ever known,’ he said, musing, the fire dancing inhis eyes. ‘And as far as I know today, after four hundred years, I am theoldest living vampire in the world.’“I stared at him, astonished.“Then it began to sink in. It was as I’d always feared, and it was aslonely, it was as totally without hope. […] My search was over. 27The demonic quality of the vampires remains inexplicable in the firstpart of the Vampire Chronicles. Apparently they are the only supernaturalelement in their world – an aberration without any God- (or Devil-) givensignificance whatsoever. Louis’s search for meaning ends in a void. He isdead, in the corporeal sense, after all, so he cannot find any meaning in thematerial world any more. The opposite sphere of signification, the spiritual,would be of utmost importance for him, but this alternative is denied, aswell. In the world of Interview with the Vampire there hardly exist any otherlevels of significance except those connected with individuals, their selfrealisationand need for each other. “The only power that exists is insideourselves,” verifies Armand. 28 Louis cannot accept this; he loses first hismortal brother, and then his immortal child-lover Claudia. In the end he deniesall value in such a life – a life that cannot grant “indestructible” meaningsand secure love-objects. This is embodied in a gesture at the end of thenovel: Louis finds weak and withered Lestat, but rejects him and takes awaythe little baby that was meant to give Lestat sustenance. 29 The vampire becomespositioned as a demonic self, one that exists in the absence of meaning,and is haunted by this purposelessness from inside, and therefore isforced to suck the life of others to fill this incurable lack. This is an interestingreformulation of the demon and the demonic, but it is also faithful tothe “high” tradition in the demonic discourses: excessive individuality andpride in one’s special value has been interpreted as demonic. 30The petrified and passive quality of the oldest vampires becomes morecomprehensible in this light: they fix into an immobile image the purposelessnessof their demonic existence. However, The Vampire Lestat and laterbooks (particularly its direct sequel, The Queen of the Damned) are moreopen to new departures on the “Devil’s Road” towards final emptiness. Narrativedesire can be seen to offer temporary answers for this paradoxicalquest of nothingness. This is also connected to the way these novels aremore self-reflexive. The Vampire Lestat purports to be written by Lestathimself. It describes how he finds out that Louis has told his story to a reporter,and that it has been published as Interview with the Vampire (supposedlyunder the “pseudonym” of Anne Rice). The curious structure of27 IV, 257.28IV, 258.29 IV, 357.30See above, page 38-39.
178Demonic Texts and Textual DemonsLouis (Brad Pitt) destroying the Theatre of the Vampires in Interview with the Vampire(dir. Neil Jordan). © Warner Bros., 1994.The Vampire Lestat has to do with the change of attitude – from the mainlyexistential anguish of Louis in the first novel we step into the world of Lestat,who calls himself “the James Bond of vampires.” 31 The main part of TheVampire Lestat is made up of “The Early Education and Adventures of theVampire Lestat” – an embedded narrative of autobiography with a jokinglyeighteenth century title. This is a contemporary narrative: it is written forLouis, not to be “an answer to his malice in Interview with the Vampire,” asLestat rationalises, “but the tale of all the things I’d seen and learned beforeI came to him, the story I could not tell him before.” 32 This novel within a31 BT, 5.32VL, 16.
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TAMPERE STUDIES INLITERATURE AND TE
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Tampere Studies in Literature and T
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ments, and also such further lines
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IllustrationsCover: “Possessed Re
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The BeginningsAnd Jesus asked him,
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The Beginnings 3mons form an import
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The Beginnings 5negative, demonic a
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The Beginnings 7chapter four), but
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The Beginnings 9scious conflict, fo
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The Beginnings 11that is produced o
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The Beginnings 15emphasised that su
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1. The Ancestry of the DemonicÑH.
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 37The f
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 43Chris
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 51tween
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2. The Demonic in the SelfBut ancie
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The Demonic in the Self 61A number
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The Demonic in the Self 67sciousnes
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The Demonic in the Self 69influence
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The Demonic in the Self 71LEADER:Yo
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The Demonic in the Self 73Particula
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The Demonic in the Self 77ing into
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The Demonic in the Self 79Nietzsche
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3. Unravelling the Demonic TextThe
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Unravelling the Demonic Text 83in o
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PART II
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114Demonic Texts and Textual Demons
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BibliographyA note on this bibliogr
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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