Week Two: Vampires

For this week I read Interview with a vampire. It raises some unthought-of questions about immortals:  When you live forever, do you still crave the love of another? Especially when you crave blood as your primary source of food. This book features several relationships on varying levels, with those of friends, and of lovers. It seems as if mortality and the the repeated heartbreak that occurs over hundreds of years cause the heart to become cold (no pun intended), and unfeeling. This is an interesting aspect that might also explain why vampires are cold and unfeeling in general. The passions and feelings that we have through the mortal sense have to do with the impulses we have to continue on. We feel the need to establish relationships and continue ourselves through our children. We do this through the common means but if one reaches immortality, the meaning behind these actions disappears. The pressures of finding a mate diminish but it leads to another aspect of immortality: loneliness. The perfect example of this is Louis and Armand. They both are vampire males and seek to establish a relationship with only emotion as the kicker. They do have a relationship that lasts until Louis visits Lestat and sees what he becomes. He appears to care less for his emotions and thus his feelings of love and anger. Armand brings up the fact that he had killed Claudia in an attempt to stir feelings of love and or anger, but it effects him in no way whatsoever. When the feelings of passion disappear, what would be left for an immortal? He becomes more secluded and hates his nature. However, he is one example in the text. Lester provides another example, what happens when an immortal falls in love but cannot move past the feelings. He pursues Louis repeatedly and also kills for him, while Louis repeatedly tries to kill him. He is the lover scorned. With immortality, one unable to get past feelings can experience several lifetimes of thinking, and drive themselves into madness over getting that lover back. Immortality changes the game in the way that living forever can allow for extreme love, and extreme hatred. This leads to some truths about relationships, the first being passion. A relationship without passion is as eventful as a limp vegetable. Passion is what keeps a relationship lively and healthy, and once it disappears a relationship becomes distant and slowly fades.