Not the upgrading a rental and writing on random people's walls. We have a lot to talk about this episode, that's for sure. Find Candace and all their cool things here: https://linktr.ee/candacethemagnificent → Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Barelybookish → Merch: https://barelybookish.threadless.com/ → Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barelybookish/ → TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@barelybookish?lang=en → Twitter: https://twitter.com/barelybookish → Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/barelybookish/profile → Barely Book Club: https://discord.gg/RpznKHq About Us: Barely Bookish is a book podcast where Rachel reads through classic literature and modern classics to see if they hold up to modern readers. In this, Rachel and a guest take deep dives into the novels you know and love, making it perfect for people who have read these books in school or those who have never read them before. New episodes come out every Wednesday. Find out more about the podcast over at https://barelybookish.com/. → Book Recommendations: https://bookshop.org/shop/BarelyBookish
Chapter 1: What is the main theme of The Vampire Lestat in this episode?
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Barely Bookish podcast.
Today we're continuing on with the Vampire Lestat and I am once again joined by Candice. Hi! Okay. Okay. What the fuck is going on with Lestat? That's what's happening, pretty much. He's miserable.
That's what's going on with Lestat. He's sad and miserable and lonely all of the time, even when he's surrounded by people. That is what's happening to Lestat.
And hallucinating a little bit.
Correct. A little bit of that as well. Just, you know.
Yep. But we are on chapter five and I guess we may as well just get right on into it because I know us and we can never continue on a linear path anyways.
So.
So Gabrielle says that she's tired of all the vampires, their rules, their word, weird humanity. And she wants to see the world, which Gabrielle, my girl, my fricking girl, because when I travel, I, and look, I'm immediately on a tangent. I don't want to be in a big fucking city. Like me and the stock would never hang out because if you were like, Hey, I want to go be in Paris.
I would say, fuck you. I don't like Paris. I don't like big cities.
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Chapter 2: How does Lestat's emotional state affect his relationships?
Let her run barefoot in the woods.
Yeah, I mean, like, I think that like. She can't understand Lestat, but kind of takes for granted that he can't understand her and vice versa. I feel like he's like, why don't you understand me? Why can't I understand you? And she's like, why don't you understand me? Why can't I understand you? It's kind of like a standoff here between the two of them.
It's high noon and they're both in the center of town square or something. Like... I'm just like, when do either of these people just get sick of their shit, right? Like, when do these people go, we're probably not very good for each other, and then leave.
Well, it's like, it's always that thing where it's like, you realize if you weren't family, you would never hang out with some of your family. Because you guys are, like, not similar at all. Like, you have nothing in common. You're nothing like each other. Like, I think about that sometimes. Like, especially when it comes to, like, you know, your extended family, like it's hard. Yeah.
And like, they are getting to the point where it's like, okay, we are not forced by blood anymore to spend time together. And when you really boil it down, we have nothing in common. Yeah. Yeah. So Lestat believes that Marius is alive and Gabrielle says that the entire story around Marius sounds like a made up fairy tale. Which like, yeah. Yeah, I do.
I love how skeptical she is, though, especially like in the face of Lestat being so like curious. Like this is like the first thing he's been passionate and excited about and forever. And she's like, poo poo. Like, you know, I feel like this is her at her most matronly. Like we talked a little bit last episode about how she her like her like mom side has been coming out.
And I feel like this is just more of the same. Right. Like there's like a certain amount of protectiveness. And I don't want my son to get disappointed that's happening here. That kind of is almost a throwback to like that first time that we meet her, like in the beginning of the book. Where she's like, she doesn't really care what Lestat does, but at the same time is like, please don't get hurt.
Like, I don't want you to get hurt, right? Like, I'm going to send you to this school because I don't want you to get hurt.
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Chapter 3: What journey does Gabrielle embark on in this chapter?
I'm going to let you read books because I don't want you to get hurt. I'm going to encourage you to, you know, take charge of the family because I don't want you to get hurt. I'm going to encourage you to stop fighting with your brothers because I don't want you to get hurt. This feels like a very kind of similar thing.
caveat right where she's like snap out of it yeah like don't do this right i love the line though where she's like i want to go to the north woods where white men have never been and i was like same girl period
Period.
Lead the way.
Get out of the colonialism. The love of God.
First of all, yes. Second of all, do you know that once you get there, you've kind of ruined it already? Truly.
Truly. I'm like, you are your problem, actually. No offense. So as we kind of talked about, Lestat's fully a city boy. And he's like... getting scared of the, like, distance that's forming between them. This whole, like, thing about how Lestat figures out that, like, some Egyptian myths are actually Marius. Yeah. Which I was not super following, but I was like, okay, that's interesting.
Like, I felt a little bit too much like Lestat's mom, where I was like, yeah, okay.
She, like, kept poking and poking and poking at him, though. And I was like, man, like... y'all are like perfect for each other in many ways, but also deeply mismatched. Like you can tell she's like tuning him out. I liked the story about Typhon and Osiris. I thought that was cool. I do like, they bring it back to Egypt. Cause like, I feel like, although Egypt also feels very safe.
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Chapter 4: How do Lestat and Gabrielle's perspectives differ on their vampiric existence?
Yes, there are a lot of, like, Middle Eastern North African people who are tan, right? Who are beige or... Not beige, but tan or, like, light brown, right? Sure. Right? That have more Middle Eastern features and all that stuff. But, like, there are a lot of Black people. And, like, whenever people argue that, like... Like, I knew a girl once who was Black. Definitely Black. Had Black features.
And she was like, I'm not Black. I'm Egyptian. And I was like... Why is being black so unpalatable, right? Yeah. I think there are a lot of people who, like, don't really question that reality. Like, why can't Cleopatra be a black woman? Like, why is it better for Cleopatra to be a light-skinned woman than a dark-skinned woman, right?
And not even light-skinned, like, in a light-skinned black person kind of way, but light-skinned, like, white. Like, they usually make her, like, very, very fair or, like, slightly Middle Eastern looking, right? But it's, like, why... I don't think that people understand that that's, like...
low-key anti-black you know i'm saying yeah like it feels like it feels like they're just like well no it's just different it's not wrong that you know it's not wrong blackness isn't wrong it's just different and it's like right but you hear cleopatra was supposed to be really beautiful these egyptians were gorgeous and you don't associate that with them being black right what are you saying about being black
Like, I don't think that people really understand that like dichotomy. So like you're reading all of this. I remember when I was younger and I was reading this, like all these people were instantly black. I'm like, Marius is black. Fucking everybody here is black. Like, I don't care. Right. But there are so many people who read this and then interpret it as just Middle Eastern.
And it's like, why? Why are you so upset about blackness? Right. Like, why are you doing this? So I'm curious to see how.
how Anne Rice is going to kind of move through the rest of this narrative because I don't really remember like obviously I was reading it through the glasses of somebody who was marginalized for being black among other things when I was younger so now that I'm older I'm like man I don't remember how I like netted out with this like where my brain kind of went so I'm very interested to kind of see how it unfolds um one of the things I wrote down though is I was like maybe they're going to make Marius Swanna right like uh which is um
which is Southwest Asian and North African, right? So instead of Middle Eastern, we use Swana. And I kind of wonder if they will make him Swana. Like, for example, the actor, oh, what is his name? Hold on. He's from The Mummy, the original Mummy that made everybody bisexual. Odette Fair. Yes, Odette Fair. He played Ardeth Bay in The Mummy.
I feel like he would be the perfect Marius because he's like an older gentleman.
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Chapter 5: What insights do the characters gain from their travels?
I know. I know. I think I've seen him in Resident Evil. Rachel! I know. Don't distract from the topic at hand.
I know. I'm terrible. I understand that you are a mostly straight individual. However, if you watch The Mummy, that might change some things for you. Straight? Questionable. This is what I'm saying. I mean, once upon a time... In 1999, when you were but a child, if you were even born at that point, there was a movie called The Mummy. And it is a film about a brother and sister, two siblings.
The brother is Brendan Fraser, who is an ultimate heartthrob. Even thick now, still hot as fuck. Fucking normalized fucking plus-size men, because damn. Uh, and then, uh, Rachel Weisz, who is, like, eternally sexy and has married Daniel Craig, and I'm pretty sure they both are bisexual and swing all the time. That's my headcanon about those two. Oh, ideal. Honestly. Yes. Genuinely.
Living your life, having a good time. Um, and so, like...
actually i'm totally wrong rachel vice's brother is actually this dandy uh played by john hannah who's an english actor and he's hilarious he's like the the comic relief um i don't know what you would know him from if you've seen sliding doors or spartacus that's what john hannah is from seen spartacus i think okay yeah spartacus blood like the the tv show or the original movie
It would have been an original movie. Okay, then not that one. Okay. He's a very charming English guy. He's awkward as fuck, but he's still sexy in this movie somehow. Everyone in this movie is hot. I'm going to tell you that right now. Literally every single person in the movie, you're like, yeah, okay. And that's why it's a bisexual icon.
So Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser are each other's love interest. They are not siblings. Yeah. Rachel Weisz is like a hot librarian. It is a movie that is just so obviously there to just make as many people question their sexuality as possible.
Okay. So I just need to go watch it. Maybe then we'll finally get a title. I don't know.
You don't need a label as long as you know what you are. Okay. It's like that meme.
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Chapter 6: How does the discussion of vampire culture evolve throughout the episode?
She's also hot. Like, it doesn't make any sense. It's crazy. There's a scarab beetle in it. Scarab beetle, somehow attractive. Ridiculous. You know what?
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Ridiculous movie.
yeah it's very good i'm gonna i'm gonna have to watch it i it's been on the list for a while i'd like there's multiple movies that i want to watch i want to watch that i want to watch jennifer's body like i don't care that it's not the greatest i want to see it classic yes gabrielle decided she wants to see if she can sleep in the earth itself and if she doesn't come back we'll know she failed which what a woman what a fucking woman love her
So then she descends into the earth as if she belonged there, which is wild imagery to me. Like I was just kind of imagining like, you know, Minecraft when it's like night one, you just dig two holes down and you like jump into it and you cover it with a dirt block. That's the visual I was getting.
I feel like it's so punk rock in some ways. She's like, I don't need a $1,500 coffin. I just need this grass. Alright, hippie. So hardcore. Get in your fucking hole then. I love her. She looks at Lestat and is like, if I don't come out tomorrow... I'm like, what the fuck? That's so ominous. Like, Jesus Christ.
Like, oh, if you don't see me, know that I was swallowed by the earth or that the sun has leached its way and fucking rendered my flesh from my bones. Like, what? Okay, ma'am. Like, suddenly we see where Lestat gets his drama from. Okay. Literally. She's such a serotonin chaser, and I'm obsessed with her. She is. She's like, I am so melancholy. Lestat's like, I am melancholy.
She's like, you're a wimp. I'm leaving. Yeah. What a queen.
What an icon.
Honestly. Oh, my God. Obsessed with her.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the letters Lestat writes?
Man, now I want fudge. Same. Love fudge. So they ended up traveling more and ended up in, one more time, Carousel? Oh, Cairo. Cairo. What? Am I thinking about alcohol right now? What is happening?
I don't think they get to Cairo yet, right? Isn't he still in the European area?
So they went there. Basically, they just lightly recapped and then they said they ended up in Cairo. And then every place they went, he wrote a message for Marius.
can you imagine the humans that are like finding these messages i know because you know it's like some freaking architecture kid like i'm i want to like headcanon that it's like an architecture like intern yeah and like like a hundred years in the future who are these people why are they writing to each other who is marius who is listat what does listat want out of this situation are they in love you guys should fuck already god
how rich was this dude that he traveled all along and this was like a lifetime thing for him yeah i'm imagining lestat being like going through a museum and like seeing the letter that he wrote to fucking marius on the wall and him being like oh my god that's so embarrassing this is a breach of privacy i'd like a word with your manager yeah literally Can you imagine?
Because they've got people's love notes and letters they write to husbands and shit. If I was a vampire and I went to a museum and I saw the freaking poetry I wrote to my XXXX whatever... I'd be pissed. I'd be so pissed. I'd be like, that is so fucking embarrassing. All of my vampire friends have seen this.
Absolutely.
They knew I was down bad.
They're gossiping about it. What do you mean someone's written an entire thesis about this? A thesis? A thesis? They present it to a board of their peers and superiors? Aww. And you're like, and he was never even worth it. He ended up being a giant asshole. Oh my God, this is so embarrassing. What do you mean Oprah has put it on her book club?
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Chapter 8: How do the characters reflect on their identities and choices as vampires?
I want to know more about the Turkish vampires. Is there a Turkish vampire association? Can we talk about how like, cause like the Turkish vampires, he's like, oh yeah, they just like wear clothes and they live in these castles and stuff. And people just think that they're regular people and it's fine. And like, nobody has to be weird about it. And I'm like, hello, why aren't you doing that, man?
Yeah.
Can you imagine like, I'm, I'm equating it to like a vampire UN, you know what I mean? Like,
that's what i want yeah shout out to anybody who watches uh what we do in the shadows that vampire meeting episode that they have where it's like the like all of the vampires from like different movies and pop culture and they all like meet to talk about their vampirism that's one of my favorite episodes of any television show ever um and i absolutely love it that's very much how this feels truly international instead of like just mostly american and uk vampires
Mm-hmm. So Lestat does see a variety of other lone vampires and they all keep their distance from each other. And he's like, okay, so we can kind of survive alone. Mm-hmm. Which like, I don't think Lestat can physically ever be alone. No. To be honest.
Mm-mm.
But it is nice to know that there are vampires out there like that. There is an option. It is an option. It's not one he will ever use.
He talked about how he doesn't meet any old vampires either. And how no one's heard of Marius or any of these other... There's some stories or whatever, but no one's seen or heard from any of these...
those who would be kept people like these fancy vampires and I'm like if you're not meeting any old vampires like and you're only meeting like fledglings like new vampires who the fuck is going around making all these new vampires Who is the person that is begetting all of these new vampires? Clearly there must be at least one old one somewhere. Who the fuck is making all these vamps?
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