From: annaleen@garnet.berkeley.edu (Annalee Newitz)
Newsgroups: alt.vampyres
Subject: questions, comments
Keywords: yarbro, dark shadows, rice (small spoiler)
Date: 14 Dec 92 05:58:34 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu

I am presently in the process of doing research for my dissertation, which
concerns American vampire stories in TV, movies and popular fiction roughly
between 1970-199? (i.e.: up through the present).  

I have very little information about vampire movies/books from the 1970s.
Could someone please send me or post a list of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's
vampire books (I know they are mostly out-of-print)?  Also, I notice
that there is very little discussion of the original _Dark Shadows_ on
this newsgroup, and I'm wondering if anyone might tell me at what point
in the show Barnabus shows up?  I'm trying to tape it off the SciFi 
Channel (it's on--two episodes in a row--from 8 am to 9 am weekdays), but
so far it doesn't look like there's any vampire action to be had...
Also, I would be delighted to receive letters from anyone who wants
to offer information/commentary on my above-mentioned dissertation topic.
I will respond in nearly all cases.

In regards to recent posts about Anne Rice:  I would be very much in
favor of an alt.fan.anne rice newsgroup.  

I also just finished _The Tale of the Body Thief_ and...SPOILERS AHEAD!

*************************************************************************

...and I have to admit that I thought Raglan James ended up being a much
more interesting character than Lestat.  Although I am a huge fan of
Anne Rice's work, I think Lestat is beginning to get just a little bit
boring.  I'm tired of his endless worrying and complaining about how evil
he is and how much he loves everyone.  And I think the whole quickie 
justification of "raping" David Talbot at the end was a just a little
too pat.  

In regards to other Anne Rice creatures, someone (I forget who) implied
that Lasher of _The Witching Hour_ was supposed to be Satan.  I don't 
think that's true, actually.  Lasher is simply another one of Rice's
"demons"--like the demon who entered Akasha and Enkil's blood in
_Queen/Damned_--and the Catholic characters in _TWH_ simply *mistake*
Lasher for Satan.  I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Lasher.
What kind of powers does he have?  And what might it mean that he comes
into the world in the body of a newborn baby?  

Finally, I'd also like to comment on the "bi/homosexuality" controversy
surrounding Rice's vampires.  I think it's fairly clear that one can read
the books _both ways_:  it would be easy to argue persuasively that Lestat
is asexual, and also easy to argue that he's mostly homosexual.  A
colleague of mine and I recently taught _The Vampire Lestat_ in an English
Reading/Composition class, and our students debated this issue endlessly.
Most ended up deciding that since the vampires aren't human, one cannot
apply the same ideas about "sexual preference" to them that one might to a
human being.  A question I raised in class about Rice's vampires which I
notice no one has really debated here concerns the incestuous sexuality of
her vampires.  Lestat and Gabrielle (a mother and son in their mortal
lives) become "lovers", and Claudia, Louis and Lestat all have rather
sexualized and familial relationships.  Incest is also a big theme in _The
Witching Hour_. What do y'all think about the "incest" theme?  How does it
relate to the "homoeroticism"?  Does anyone think that Rice is also
referencing miscegenation (that is, the interbreeding of different races)
when she describes vampires as a "hybrid" of two different species (read:
races)?  _The Feast of All Saints_ is a more "realistic" treatment of
miscegenation, written after _Interview_.

Annalee