From: forb0004@student.tc.umn.edu (Eric Forbis )
Subject: Re: questions, comments
Keywords: yarbro, dark shadows, rice (small spoiler)
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 03:32:23 GMT

In article <1gh7qaINNjp0@agate.berkeley.edu> annaleen@garnet.berkeley.edu (Annalee Newitz) writes:
>
>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.

I've lost my old Dark Shadows fan book, but I don't believe that Barnabas 
is discovered in the old Collins house chained in his coffin until the 
mid- second season. The last episode I saw had David talking to what's his 
face (Willie?) the handyman. Somehow he starts looking for what he thinks is 
a treasure, and instead finds Barnabas. Apologies for the lack of detail; I 
haven't seen this for several years, and then unfortunately didn't see it 
all. If the show is where I think it is, Barnabas should be showing up one 
of these weeks. 

>
>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!
>
>*************************************************************************
>
>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?  

That was probably me. Anne Rice hasn't exactly painted your standard 
Christian worldview in her books, and so I was surprised to hear of a 
potential Devil in one of her books. I'm reading _Witching Hour_ now 
(excellent book!), and can see that she's not following traditional paths 
here either.

>
>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  
>
>
---------

Eric Forbis      forb0004@student.tc.umn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.vampyres