And just when some thought it would not happen again, lo and behold, we had our second meeting yesterday at Powerbooks Megamall. Admittedly, its been a long time coming, but as the old adage says, better late than never.
First off, I would like to thank those who went. I know how important most of our Saturday nights are to each and every one of us, but you still came and I’m so glad and thankful that you all were there. Those who were in attendance were Pinky, my Rowan Mayfair for life; Boots, who missed out the last time but whose enthusiasm for what we do is infectious as always; Lynn, our Talamascan representative who came in black and whose accessories stole the rest of the evening (ehem!); Ruby Mae, who had to come after her curiosity was aroused after much persuasion. She is also my colleague from “Echoes of the Heart”, the radio talk show I do every Saturday afternoon with our one and only Ms. World, Ms. Evangeline Pascual; Eman, Boots’ friend and manager of Kenny Rogers Megamall; and a new recruit named Letty, who along with her 11 year old son, Lester simply sat in our area and didn’t think that a discussion was going on prior to when we started.
Sadly those who were not in attendance were missed namely Toby, Powerbooks Megamall Book Club leader and facilitator, Babette and Marie, both dear friends and fellow Powerbooks Book Club members. 3 members of CharmedPinoy, Penny, Deks and Jo were also missed as they had their own meeting to be at as well. Jonatz, a fellow Terry Brooks fan and finally Beng, the sister of Boots responsible for our logo and hard at work with our website too.
And so we started as everyone was coming in and kicked off with the usual introductions and updates. Ruby Mae, starting it by revealing that she had to come and see for herself what transpires in Book Club discussions like these. No doubt that after tonight, she would be attending more and has become Anne-curious. Boots who was also a former colleague from DWIZ, came with Eman and was so happy to be finally attending.
She added that although her sister Beng, was absent from our gathering, she is nonetheless hard at work at our groups website. I just can’t wait. In fact, she is also responsible for our “logo”. Before moving on to Pinky who sat beside me, the turn fell to our new “recruit”, Letty.
She was merely seated at our area to have a little reading time of her own when our Vampire books laid for everyone to see on the low-rise center table caught her attention; not to mention that we, beautiful Children of the Millenia simply could not be anything but noticeable. Pardon my indulgencies. If we don’t do that, then who better than ourselves lest we wait for the promise of a compliment from others who cannot give it. Ha, ha. Lestat speaking. Ah, Le Attention. Oui.
Little did she know that she would be in for a treat and this automatically warrants her invitation and eventual inclusion into our coven; the mother of 1 and an entrepreneur at that. This just reminds me of the other parent who initially joined us the last time we met. I would be hard pressed not to think that meeting other people who just happen to discover us is merely an accident. And at the risk of waxing a little bit of fatalism here, nothing is of course is an accident. And after Pinky introduced herself as well, who happens to be a former colleague of mine from the now defunct, SVI, we were well on our way.
To say that what they discovered about the Lestat in this second helping of the Chronicle as being different and not the abrasive, impetuous vamp everyone got a taste of in Interview is an understatement. Lestat in his own tell-all book, redeems himself to a point and sheds a little more light into his own life before becoming a vampire as well as a take on the mythology of vampires in Anne’s universe.
You see, Lestat was the son of a marquis in the French province of Auvergne. His title doesn’t exclude him from certain accordance of respectability and affluence but he certainly doesn’t feel that way. Reclusive and always searching for the meaning of his own life, he displayed a restlessness that was unchanneled and shelved. From his father’s blatant disregard and prohibition of a proper education, to his mother’s indifference and ironic display of voracious reading, Lestat only had his dreams and the quest to find meaning in his dismal existence to contend with.
This clearly marks the foundation of a certain degree of bitterness that we see in Interview. His quest to find meaning finds him single handedly going out into the woods and killing a pack of wolves that have been terrorizing the village. His brave act earned him the nick, Wolfkiller and the attention of Magnus, the degenerate Vampire who turned him and Nicholas de Lenfrent; another marquis son and who would later be his lover and friend and at the same time an antithesis to Lestat’s own positive quest.
Lestat’s quest has extracted consequences as he had to make decision after decision. From both turning his mother and best friend Nicholas into vampires after escaping to Paris to become an actor and be turned into a vampire by Magnus; to meeting Armand, the auburn-haired vampire who lives below the Paris catacombs, Les Innocents; to abandoning them both in search of new mentor, an older Vampire named Marius who both sired Armand and keeper of the 1st vampires, the Mother and Father. The book has successfully reworked the vampire mythos and its subsequent stereotypes and simultaneously give us an origin that is both supernatural and scientific; not to mention, original.
Most of us in the group also agreed that Gabrielle, Lestat’s mother was not a sympathetic character, as she would in her own way tease Lestat with her books and yet lift not a finger to openly challenge his Father’s ban for him to get a proper education. Ironically in the book she would be seen reading to herself in her room or if not, foster his "street smart” capabilities, and urging her own indulgencies through him or in support of his very own.
What mother would deny her own child the one thing that would make him happy and give resonance of a meaning in his life? What parent would do that? Of course, this brought rise to the prohibitions that our own parents imposed on us as we were growing up; from urging us to take a different course at school, to the restriction of certain types of people to be with and befriend as well as to the imposing of certain living conditions as we stay with them under the same roof.
Anne’s take on Gabrielle was certainly a far cry from her own mother who actually allowed her to have her own way as she grew up; from changing her name to Anne from a previous masculine name of Howard, to just writing and scribbling words and phrases on the wall with the use of crayons as she ran around the house with her other siblings. Clearly, Gabrielle would not have tolerated that.
But more than tolerate his own mother did Lestat do. Rescuing her from certain death as she was suffering from consumption, a fatal disease, he turned her into an Immortal to be his longtime companion, after he himself was made into one. She was ideally the perfect mate for him; however she became mad and went on to travel the world, mingling with tribes and living in the forests, and learning from nature what it can about beauty and peace, in search of her own aesthetics.
Lestat’s action of turning her mother can certainly be viewed as selfish in the modern world and with our current and ever changing sense of norm and values would still frown upon an affront display of self preservation and blinded love and affection.
And because Lestat was not given a choice by Magnus, his absentee maker when he turned him into a vampire, our hero makes it a point to give his victims a choice that he was never given; to either be an immortal or simply be fodder for their folly, in short a victim to their never ending hunger.
And certainly ‘twas the hunger for company, knowledge, and good conversation that has brought this group together as we feasted on ensaymada and empanada as our discussion, albeit short, flourished and detoured from issues of Machiavellian and Nihilistic concepts that Anne has woven into her works to outrage over the movie version of the Chronicles.
We knew then as we know now that we are all still in for a further treat as we plan for our next gathering next month where, the 3rd book of the chronicle, Queen of the Damned will be the book in focus.
Till then my fellow Immortals. Let’s keep the fire burning and alive by properly taking stock of our own light. And may it shine for ourselves to remind us who we are and who we can be but also a beacon for others to take the same lead and affect others as positively as we know how; the very same way how Anne was able to do that and more.
Till next month’s Gathering.
Blood & Blessings,
CAZ
3-27-06
