BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 48

Blaze passed away. I'm sad and ratless again. I don't plan to get any more for the time being. It's just gonna be me and the mice.

BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 48

Merrick, Lestat, and Quinn confirm Patsy's story with the staff. Big Ramona is upset that Patsy told him, but she and Jasmine confirm the tale is indeed true. They also admit that they did indeed think that Goblin might be Garwain, though Jasmine says they didn't think it mattered. I think it probably mattered a heckuva a lot to QUINN.

Speaking of that, it turns out the reason that nobody told Quinn was that Pops forbid it. He said that it was morbid and grotesque and there was no reason for Quinn to know about it. Big Ramona says he also just never found a good time to tell Quinn about it.

You know, under normal situations, I can see how "hey did you know you had a dead twin you sucked the life out of in the womb" is something it would be hard to find a good or relevant time to tell someone. But I feel like in Quinn's situation, it was super hella relevant and any time would have been a good time. I can understand leaving out the graphic aspects, but I think a fairly young child could understand "you had a twin brother, but he passed away as a baby, so that might be what Goblin is"

And Pops has been dead awhile, so really SOMEBODY should have said something at this point. Again, under normal circumstances I can see why you might figure there's really no reason somebody needs to know something gruesome like that, but these circumstances are far from normal. The only reason I can think as to why they held back this long is either that Aunt Queen continued Pops' orders, which would make sense given that's what she paid Patsy to keep quiet about...or that Pops' hold on the staff goes beyond the grave. Pops was a right tyrannical asshole to Patsy, so I wouldn't be surprised by the latter being the case along with the former.

Speaking of Patsy, Quinn asks if anyone felt sorry for her. Everyone goes quiet, then Big Ramona talks about how Patsy is a "liar" and how sure she cried over the little twin, but just because she wanted people to feel sorry for her, and how she knew it was going to die and it's easy to feel sorry for something that's not going to live a week, but a lot harder to be a real mother.

I genuinely can't decide if Rice is siding with Big Ramona or not. Given that it's golden boy Quinn who raises the question of "hey didn't anyone feel bad AT ALL for the SIXTEEN YEAR OLD whose BABY DIED?" I'm inclined to say that we're meant to feel that people should indeed have had sympathy for Patsy, but I think Big Ramona is meant to be stating something wise and true as well that we're also supposed to agree with. I think maybe it's both---we're meant to agree that Patsy deserved more sympathy than she got, but also that Big Ramona is right about it being easy to pity a dying baby and harder to raise a real one.

I think Rice is trying to go middle-of-the-road with Patsy, and it's a good attempt. I just think it happens too late, and her love for her main character means she just can't muster QUITE enough convincing compassion for Patsy or bring herself to portray anything about her that isn't mean and cruel, even in mourning. But it's a good attempt, and much, MUCH better than Rice usually does with Patsy's sort of character, and I do appreciate that. And I don't wholly disagree with Big Ramona either, that does make sense, I just don't wholly agree with it as a valid condemnation either. Which may also be Rice's intent, I'm really not sure.

And not being sure might be a good thing. You all know very well by now my hatred for when I can tell an author is trying to tell me which way to feel about something. So the fact I can't decide which way she wants me to lean here, if either, may be a point in her favor, not against. And I like that----because this is such a complicated situation that different people are going to have different reactions to and judgements of, based on their own experiences and if it hits personal notes for them. So I think leaving it more open ---at least more than she usually does---was a wise decision on Rice's part.

Sorry, I know this blog is meant for sporking, but I believe in admitting the good where I find it. I feel it makes the sporks something more than just "pouncing on every bad thing I can find or extrapolate" and lends more credence to my criticism when I do find something wrong.

Anyway, it's reiterated YET AGAIN that Goblin must be got rid of (yes, we know, that's been stated SINCE THE START OF THE BOOK, it's WHY Quinn went to Lestat at the beginning!) and some stuff shakes and smashes, so I guess Goblin knows now. Merrick, Lestat, and Quinn all go to Quinn's room, and Merrick commands Goblin to show himself. Goblin responds by shattering the windows, which Merrick calls a "cowardly, foolish trick" and says she could have done that herself. Uh, okay?

She asks Goblin "Don't you want me to say your true name? Are you afraid to hear it?"

Goblin types on the computer for Quinn to make Merrick and Lestat leave or else he will cut up all of Blackwood Farm, also that he hates Quinn. Then a huge amorphous cloud made of filaments of blood, shaped like a screaming human face, spreads itself out beneath the ceiling. It contracts around Merrick, surrounding her and whipping her with its tentacles, causing her to fall backwards. She throws up her arms and cries,

"Let it be! Yes, come into my arms, let me know you, come into me, be with me, yes, drink my blood, know me, yes, I know you, yes..." and her eyes roll up in her head and she lays there as if unconscious (can Ricean vampires be unconscious?)

.....there is no way this wasn't sexual.

Goblin rises up "a wind full of blood" then gusts out through the window, leaving it stained with bits of blood and gore, as are Merrick's limbs and face. Lestat helps her up and kisses her and says he wanted to burn Goblin. Merrick says it is too early for that, and besides "our meeting had to come. I had to be sure of everything." And she says that Goblin is indeed Garwain, and that's why he's strongest near the cemetery, because that's where he's buried, which explains why Goblin can't go outside Louisiana with Quinn. However, Goblin himself doesn't know this, he doesn't know what/who he really is. Merrick says he can be made to know, however, and this is their most powerful weapon. She says that ghosts are connected to their remains, and he's connected to Quinn by blood, and that's why he feels he always has a right to share what Quinn has. Quinn is like AH OF COURSE, BECAUSE WE WERE IN THE WOMB TOGETHER! Merrick explains that twins feel the loss of each other terribly, and Garwain felt this separation in the incubator, which is why he did not go into the Light.

Quinn says for the first time in months, he feels pity for Goblin. Merrick continues, saying that Goblin latched on to Quinn when baby Quinn was brought to his funeral, and thus became something more than a "mere doppelganger. He became a companion and lover, a true twin who felt he had a right to your patrimony."

1) So Merrick knows they fucking
2) His patrimony? His inherited estate? Also I think Merrick, like Mona, even though she's a vampire now, is meant to be a character who was born in present times. I don't think most modern people say "patrimony"

Lestat is like okay so now that Quinn has the "Dark Blood" then Goblin wants it too. Merrick says something more is happening besides that and asks Quinn to describe what it's like when Goblin attacks him to take his blood. Quinn describes it as a fusion, saying he never felt anything like that when alive but that Mona says Goblin was inside him at times, and that she felt him when they made love. Merrick asks about Mona, this derails into talking about her and how Quinn met Julien Mayfair's ghost and learned he has Mayfair blood through him, and Merrick says it was Julien who came to her Great Nannanne when she was eleven and told her to send Merrick to the Talamasca. Mention of the Talamasca makes Quinn bring up OH WHAT I ALMOST DID TO STIRLING OLIVER and then Lestat, bless him, says "Forget that!" then makes the sign of the Cross and says he absolves Quinn of all sin because he's Coven Master here. Merrick says Lestat becomes Coven Master wherever he goes.

Merrick and Quinn discuss the particulars of the fusing for another page, and Merrick says Goblin's become more destructive because having "foolishly increased the material makeup of his being" has made him more solid and he can't do stuff like passing through walls. I guess that would make him more destructive since now he has to bash through things, I don't know, she doesn't explain the connection. They talk some more about it. Quinn says the fusing feels like an orgasm. I wonder if that's how it was for Merrick?

Quinn suggests that maybe if he dies with Goblin, but the others say there's no need for that and no guarantee that doing so would drag Goblin to the grave with him. Personally I think that would be a good ending though. Lestat adds that "I don't want you to die, Little Brother" BLARGH

Merrick then explains that when Goblin fuses with Quinn, he's also fusing with the spirit of vampirism within Quinn. Merrick doesn't call it by name, but those who have read Queen of the Damned will recall that the first vampire, Akasha, was made when a blood-craving spirit called Amel entered into her flesh through an open wound. Each time a new vampire is made, a portion of Amel enters them as well, so he is spread out in pieces amidst the vampire population. So what Merrick is saying is that Goblin is fusing not just with Quinn but also this piece of Amel, and for some reason that gives him a greater pleasure than he's ever known, like a sweet drug, and so the reason he drinks vampire blood is to experience the supernatural for a longer period. I feel like this is just superfluous explanation at this point, but go off I guess.

Merrick says she'll need lots of candles, big thick candles, lots of fuel, candles on every grave, and wood and coal for a big fire on a tomb in the family cemetery by the swamp. She also wants everyone else in Blackwood Farm to be gone when they do the exorcism. Quinn says he doesn't think Patsy will agree to leave (why not?) and Lestat says that "Patsy herself has given you the keys to her character" and takes a gold money clip "bulging with thousand dollar bills" from his pocket. Quinn says he'll take care of it, and asks Merrick how she's going to do the exorcism, to which she replies,

"The best way I know how. My loving friends, the Troop of Beloveds, don't call me a witch for nothing."

Thanks, Merrick, that answers nothing. And ends the chapter!