# 15 "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice

When I start my shift at work I usually listen to music or talk to my coworkers for the first couple of hours. At 6:40 in the morning my brain's gas tank needle that usually points towards a quarter of a tank is sitting on E. So, with the help of Target's yummy variety of flavored coffees and a shuffled list of music containing Metallica, Now Hits, 80s hits, U2, Tom Petty, and POD, I am usually ready to listen to my books with my almost undivided attention. I also like to spend some time talking to my coworkers. No matter how much I enjoy reading not many things can replace human interaction. I've never seen the new movie titled "Her" but I would have a hard time choosing to have a relationship with a computer operating system even if the voice is Scarlett Johansson. One of these weeks at work I listened to the audio book "Interview with the Vampire".
In "Interview with the Vampire" the vampire Louis details for his interviewer the cursed life he has to suffer, not by choice, but because of another vampire named Lestat who made him this way. Now I'm a vampire. What am I supposed to do with this? The quest for knowledge about his new life begins and unfortunately his only source of information initially was with the one who infected him. How convenient.

I can't help but compare my life with Louis'. I wouldn't say TODAY that I would view my life as cursed. I can however relate with the feeling of being thrown into a hopeless situation. I remember the day my wife and I brought home our first baby girl. Now what are we supposed to do? I've read books about being a dad but nothing prepared me for the real thing. Is her poop supposed to explode up her back? She cries all the time. Is it colic? When will she finally sleep through the night? For us that would be at 3 1/2 years old. At four months old we found out after she started having seizures that she has a rare neurological disorder called lissencephaly. We could only find a minimal amount of information about it and all of it was negative. Very few books published about her disorder and doctors, family, and friends had no advice to give. We were told she would not live past the age of 2 years, that she would experience impossible to control seizures, she would need a feeding tube, she would require suctioning of her throat to prevent choking on her own saliva, and severe disability. Most of it was unfortunately true but my wife found a group of people whose children were suffering from the same situation. Through their guidance, support, and friendship we have survived many difficult times and learned how best to help her live a more comfortable and happy life. My different take on a common saying; misery loves needs company. She is a happy and healthy almost 4 year old today thankfully.

Normal brain

Lissencephaly brain

In the case of Louis he was a slave to Lestat and the latter knew it. The tale takes place in the late 1700s and early 1800s. There was no Internet, accessibility of books was limited and who will you ask that will know more about your new self than someone just like you. Louis had questions and Lestat was baiting him with the few answers he was willing to give. By doing this Lestat was the one constantly in control. Fortunately the lissencephaly friends my wife found were forthwith with any information they could help us with. I am in no way saying our friends are like vampires just to clarify. Just that our need for information was similar to Louis' need for information.

While Bramstoker's "Dracula" discusses the details of a vampire and the attempts to kill it, Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" reveals the other side of the story. If we were to be put in Louis' shoes as a vampire how would we handle it? Among the many plot lines in the story the main focus was the moral issues Louis comes face to face with. Would we have a problem taking a person's life to sustain our own? Am I doomed to live an eternity in hell when I finally die? By taking my own life now before I kill someone will it bring me salvation? How do you make someone a vampire? The books and movies I have seen recently about this topic have glamorized this life. Special powers sounds appealing but at what cost? Eternity sounds fun but to accomplish that we have to commit murder over and over again. To kill just one person can have tremendous side effects to our mental state. Look at what war does to people. PTSD. I enjoyed Rice's take on the life of a vampire. It seems like a more realistic outcome than other points of view.

Rice also reveals in her story about temptation. In the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 7:19, "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." The life of a vampire is comparable to the fight against temptation. Initially we are able to be strong but the thirst starts to become overwhelming and eventually we do what Paul described.

I was told by a friend of mine for encouragement that all the suffering our family has to endure will eventually pass. I'll amend another saying. There are two three certainties in life: death, taxes, and pain. I agree that our ordeal will ultimately come to an end but the pain won't. It will only change form. The day our daughter is taken away from us will be a day a big part of me dies too. The only release from this pain is through our death.