Chapter 3 – Vampire Group
According to www.wikipedia.org, a social group has been defined as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. And to be more precise, characteristics shared by members of a group may include interests, values, representations, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. Obviously, a vampire group would consist of vampires whose kinship is based on the bond with their ancestors acting as leaders, a mother and a father of all vampires. As Wikipedia’s definition goes, a social unit consists of a number of individuals interacting with each other with respect to a number of characteristics such as: common motives and goals, an accepted division of roles, established status relationships (social rank, dominance), accepted norms and values with reference to matters relevant to the group, development of accepted sanctions (praise and punishment) if and when norms were respected or violated.
Anne Rice is the author of The Vampire Chronicles series in which she describes a vampire organization in details. As one of the most suitable for describing a vampire group, I have chosen the third volume of the series entitled The Queen of the Damned. It comes after Interview with the Vampire, and The Vampire Lestat. The novel itself consists of the Prologue and five parts in which there are three plots continued. One of them concerns vampire Lestat and the preparations for his big rock concert in San Francisco. The other is related to the legend about two red-haired women twins as they are the key to the vampire origins. And the last plot is with reference to the vampire ancestors, the mother and the father of all vampires – Akasha and Enkil.
In the following pages of this chapter I would like to concentrate on describing the vampire group created by Anne Rice in The Queen of the Damned by analyzing its structure and referring to its origins. I will also comment on the relations within the group and the division of roles. Then, I will focus on the description of common goals within the vampire group, as well as accepted norms and values relevant to them. Finally, I will analyze a family aspect in the vampire group and its influence on certain characters.
In the Prologue of the novel, Lestat introduces himself and reminds the reader of the previous Vampire Chronicles volume (The Vampire Lestat) where he became a rock star and wrote an autobiography. In his book and songs Lestat reveals all that he knows about the vampire origins, he tells the story of Those Who Must Be Kept – Akasha and Enkil, a mother and a father of vampires. He reveals the secrets that he once promised to keep. His actions infuriated especially those of his own kind who have the belief that such secrets should never be revealed to the human kind. Even though the people do not take it seriously, only treat Lestat’s stories as good entertainment. Still, vampires are planning to punish him for his irresponsible behavior. In the Prologue, Lestat explains the reasons for his actions and then he mentions the concert. He does not give many details, except for revealing two of his allies: Gabrielle de Lioncourt (his biological human mother whom he changed into a vampire) and Louis de Pont du Lac (Lestat’s favorite offspring vampire). What is more, he realizes that he has one more powerful friend who has burnt a lot of his vampire enemies and that he has awakened with his music some old, prehistoric forces. Lestat informs the reader that he will start his story by describing 10 nights before the concert. He will also show different opinions and views about him by introducing multiple narrations so that the story could be objectively told from different points of view.
After the Prologue and before Part One, there is one more, short introduction called Proem. It starts with the full text of a message to vampires written on the vampire bar wall (called Dracula’s Daughter). In the message somebody describes unacceptable Lestat’s actions – revealing his true vampire nature in the book and in the music video clips and that he is going to reveal the whole truth at a live concert in San Francisco. Then, the author focuses on the long list of sins that Lestat has committed, for instance creating a vampire child (Claudia), creating a vampire of his biological human mother, exposing vampires’ stories to the world, or appearing at live concert, and so on and so forth. The author’s intention is to gather as many vampire followers as possible, and to kill Lestat at the concert in San Francisco. The whole message is called “Declaration” and the author asks to copy and send it worldwide. The message is read by a vampire stranger who appears to be Marius, Lestat’s creator and the guardian of Those Who Must Be Kept. After leaving the bar, he meets a girl whom he paid for recording all Lestat’s video clips and he manages to telepathically locate Gabrielle in the city. Then, he goes back to his house where is horrified to discover a destroyed temple in a deeply hidden basement. But what horrifies him even more is Akasha’s disappearance and Enkil’s transparent-looking body. After a while, Marius feels Akasha’s presence – she is no longer a statue as she was for the past two thousand years, but a healthy-looking person. He waited all these years for this moment only to hear that she is mocking him by implying that she has known all his thoughts, desires and doubts – and that it did not mean anything to her. Marius becomes infuriated when he also figures out that she killed Enkil to gain his power. This part ends with Akasha leaving Marius in the shrine and burying him under the tones of steel and ice. Marius’ body and face is horribly damaged, he is trapped, yet he still lives and sends warning messages to Lestat and other vampires, using his telepathic skills.
Part One: “The Road to the Vampire Lestat” is divided into six smaller parts and each has its own subtitle and is told by a different person. The first of them, “The Legend of the Twins,” is connected to the story that takes place in Rio de Janeiro. The story includes two people: a ninety-year-old researcher and his daughter. The man took research on the pictures of twins he had found in the cave on Mount Carmel, in Palestine. They were carved in the rock six thousand years ago. And a year later he discovered another carving, on the other side of the world, when he was travelling with his daughter across the Urubamba River, Peru. The story on the pictures concerned the life of two women, red-haired twins: their joyful dance, the ceremony during which they carry plates and kneel by the dead woman, then the ceremony being spoilt by the soldiers who imprison the twins, and their escape from the hostile tribunal. Other pictures continue the story; an infant red-haired baby appears whom they must hide as once again the soldiers come to imprison them. The last pictures show only one twin amid the jungle – she is reaching her arms as if she was looking for her sister. Then, another year later, a vase had been discovered in a Berlin museum – and on the vase were the same pictures and a title written in ancient Sumer: “The Legend of the Twins.” It was dated 4000 B.C. The man tries to convince universities to finance his studies but he is only laughed at. He decides to cover the costs from his own savings but that only leads him to bankruptcy. In the meantime, new discoveries connected to the legend are done: a clay tablet with drawings found in Manchester and another one in London. Although the man never gives up his researches, he is eventually on the verge of becoming homeless and a bankrupt. And at this point, a mysterious woman appears in his life. Not only is she the one to believe him but she wants to finance his studies on the legend, too. She also gives him an ancient papyrus from Upper Egypt containing the same very pictures of twins. It appears that she bought the newly discovered clay tablets from England and gives them to him as a present. The woman is extremely interested in the legend and is really excited about his Peruvian discovery. Thanks to her financial support, the man is able to travel worldwide in search of any other sings of the legend. Unfortunately, throughout the years he finds nothing. At the end of his life, when he is a ninety-year-old man, he is having the dreams about the red-haired twins. They disturb him as he does not understand them. But after one of them, he is really moved and keeps saying that he has seen everything that happened to the twins. After that, he notoriously insists on calling the woman, and as she is on her way to Rio de Janeiro, the man dies. His daughter finds a note in his hand saying: “In the jungle – walking.”
The second story has the title: "The Short Happy Life of Baby Jenks and the Fang Gang.” It is a story of a teenage vampire who was a heroin addict and died at the age of fourteen during an abortion. When she dies at the hospital, a vampire called Killer comes and changes her also into a vampire. He is one of the members of a small vampire group, which they humorously called “the Fang Gang.” Baby Jenks joins them and they hang out riding motorcycles and killing bums. She is a vampire for a year when Lestat releases his songs and publishes his autobiography. The whole gang decides to go to the San Francisco concert as Lestat’s fans. Before that, Baby Jenks separates from the group in order to visit her home town, Gun Barrel City. However, her visit is not going to be friendly, because she bears a grudge against both her parents. It has all resulted from her father being an alcoholic, often turning violent towards his wife and daughter; and her mother – an extremely religious and kind-hearted woman devoted to selling hand-made religious accessories. Changed into an immortal vampire with inhuman strength, Baby Jenks finds the courage to approach her parents and puts into practice what she has always wanted to do – and that is to kill them. She ends her mother’s life by hitting her in the head with an iron, and when the father appears she splits his forehead into two and then buries him alive in the garden. After that, she rides off to look for her vampire friends. They did not appear at a fixed location and that worries her to the extent that she decides to visit old vampire covens in the Central West End, St. Louis. Her anxiety grows when she finds the covens completely burnt. While examining the place, she finds a young looking vampire named Laurent. He informs Baby Jenks about all coven houses being burnt lately and that all vampire residents have been incinerated. When they plan to leave the place on Baby Jenks’ motorcycle, they begin to sense unsettling presence near them as well as hear disturbing noise. It appears to be Akasha who in the end burns them alive only with the power of her mind.
The third story entitled “The Goddess Pandora,” is connected to a vampire woman who has been a great love of Marius. She is travelling in the Himalayas to see Azim – a thousand-year-old vampire who has created himself a god and is worshipped by the incessantly coming pilgrims. Pandora’s visit is caused by alarming messages she has been receiving lately. When she finally gets to the temple, she is horrified with the size of the crowd and with the fact that the pilgrims have come all this way to sacrifice their lives and feed their god – immortal Azim. Meeting him in the eye, Pandora informs Azim about the alarming messages she is receiving and Lestat’s actions which caused so much stir among all vampires. Azim does not care about the royal couple, he is also indifferent towards Marius, and then he incidentally informs Pandora that messages calling for help and warning about the danger come directly from Marius. Pandora is stunned because she did not expect Marius to need any help. Also, Pandora as Marius’ offspring cannot hear him directly – she can only receive his messages when they are passed from other vampires. Remembering the relationship they have once had and strong feelings she nurtures towards him, Pandora plans to rescue Marius. Before she leaves, Azim offers her to join the ceremony in the temple. After a moment of hesitation, vampire instincts take control of her and she feeds on a few of Azim’s believers. Full of energy and determination, Pandora leaves the place flying by herself to North America.
“The story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire” is the fourth story in Part One. As the title goes, it concerns Daniel Molloy, a 32-year-old journalist, who has interviewed Louis and has written Interview with the Vampire...
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