BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 29
Jul. 26th, 2017 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratBLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 29
No one has ever been more in love than Quinn is with Mona, he'll have you know. No one. So he's glad that the street is empty so that “I did not have to be subjected to ordinary individuals who weren't in love.”
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? HE LITERALLY EVEN MAKES BEING IN LOVE INTO A SNOBBY EXCLUSIVE ACTIVITY ONLY FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE LIKE HIM? I JUST CAN'T EVEN WITH THIS. IT'S NOT JUST ELITISM, IT'S RIDICULOUS BIZARRE ELITISM LIKE WTF look I get teens thinking “no one understands” their super intense feelings and all, but this is just obnoxious at another level.
When he gets to Mona's door, Goblin appears and Quinn tells him that he has to “complete this mission alone” because he continues to be cringey with this ~manly mission~ shit, and that if Goblin makes trouble he'll never speak to him again. To Quinn's “astonishment” Goblin answers this with “loving kisses” to Quinn's cheek, whispers “Au revoir” and disappears with a lingering “aftertaste” of goodwill.
Quinn hopes Mona will be waiting and ready with her suitcase and passport, but instead a man opens the door. Description:
- Compassionate expression
- Vibrant face
- “Svelte, if not downright swanky” not sure how these are connected but ok
- Prematurely white curly hair
- Quick inquisitive eyes
- “Positively dashing” clothing in an “old-fashioned cut” like “something from a drama about the nineteenth century”
He says “Come in Tarquinn” with a French accent, that he has been waiting for him and wants to talk with him. Quinn asks where Mona is, the man says “Oh, no doubt combing her long red hair so that she can throw it over yonder balcony and lure you like Rapunzel did her forbidden prince.”
Great. Because we need ANOTHER person who talks like this.
Quinn asks if this means he's indeed forbidden, and the man with a “brilliant” smile and “world-weary” sigh says “Oh, who knows?” and introduces himself as Oncle Julien, because he says he is indeed his Oncle Julien “as surely as Aunt Queen gave her embrace to Mona last night” and adds that Mona shall always treasure the stunning gift of the cameo.
I'm in a VtM LARP right now, and the term for turning someone into a vampire in VTM is the Embrace, so this confused me for a second XD It's called The Dark Gift in Anne Rice though, if I recall right.
They walk in the garden, with Quinn observing Grecian statues of mythological figures and beautiful flowers and fruit trees. One tree has a single monstrous lemon on it, and Oncle Julien talks about how the tree puts everything into that single fruit and that if it had many lemons, they would be of regular size, and how the Mayfair clan “does something similiar” which I think refers to their cultivation of a single witch every generation.
Quinn thinks so too, just more in terms of money instead of magic I think, and says so, “You mean with regard to the Legacy. They put everything into one designee, and she has to be guarded from intrigues with those who aren't marriageable, and I've somehow been found wanting?”
Julien says it's simply that he's been found too young, and that Mona is only fifteen herself, that there's nothing unworthy about Quinn “and I must confess a little mystery surrounds you which I will explain.”
I remember Julien from The Witching Hour. I'm pretty sure he talked about “whore babies” aren't the same as regular children, since they were born and raised in a brothel it's all they know, so it's okay to sleep with them. He's also been sleeping with his female relatives for generations, including his own daughter, who he had with his own sister.
So that's just a little something to keep in mind. Oh yeah and he's the only Mayfair male who has ever been a witch, and a powerful one at that. I guess because he's the grossest one. Seems like Rice logic to me.
They walk by a swimming pool, Quinn thinks how AQ said Michael nearly drowned in that. Julien talks about how the octagonal shape of the pool is the same as that of the lawn and that the shape repeats other places in the garden, like each balustrade pillar. He says that “patterns upon patterns upon patterns” attract spirits which is why grand big old houses like this have a lot of them, because spirits who are lost can still see patterns. Makes as much sense as anything, I guess.
They go to the rear garden, Quinn names what kinds of trees are there, and I would like to remind you he's telling this all to Lestat and how ridiculous that is. Like it's a lovely description, it really is, but it does not work for this framing device. I'm sorry I keep harping on about this but it's all I can think about this when Quinn lists details like this. An important detail, though---there's a tree with “Lasher” carved on it, and a sweet smell in the air around it that doesn't come from flowers. Witching Hour fans understand this, but I'm not actually sure that Quinn, as of the time he's telling Lestat, knows the significance, if he knows about Lasher by that time.
They sit at a black iron table that is set with hot chocolate, which frankly sounds DREADFUL to me to have outside in the daytime in the South, unless it's winter. Quinn though, thinks it's “marvelous”. There's animal crackers and Quinn thinks about the first two lyrics of the “animal crackers and cocoa to drink” song, and Julien then sings the next two lyrics aloud. Quinn finds nothing odd about this I guess, they just laugh together. Quinn feels sure that this man understands love and won't seperate him from Mona.
Quinn asks if he knows of Blackwood Manor, Julien says he does and that “my coming there was a macabre and romantic experience” which sounds exactly like what I was HOPING for when I picked up this book.
As for this experience, Julien says “I won't divulge to you in any detail, except that I must.” Oh. Okay then. “It bears heavily upon your love for Mona. And so the light must shine in the dark.”
I feel like I'd find this way of speaking from him MUCH more tolerable if Quinn and everyone else didn't speak the same damn way.
Julien explains that he belonged to the same “secretive and fashionable” gambling club as Quinn's great-great-great grandfather Manfred, and that “it was Manfred who won the hand and Julien Mayfair whom he asked for the task to be done.”
So, what is the task?
For Julien to put on a Mardi Gras mask and a red velvet cloak and “deflower” Manfred's daughter-in-law, because Manfred's son William was unable to do it. Manfred and William had gotten the idea from an opera they had seen recently. Julien asked if hasn't the wife seen the same opera, William says she has which is why she'll go along with it.
So Julien didn't have any opposition to the idea of raping a woman by deception, he's just concerned she might see through it.
Also, just in case you, like me, got hopeful at the “she'll go along with it” bit that perhaps this is a kink on the wife's part too, that she WANTS to do it because she saw it in the opera as well and this is an arrangement she had an equal part in....no. After Julien does it, he suggests William starts using the mask and cape to get it done as well, which he succesfully does, and so he starts using that in order to be able to have sex with his poor wife himself and “never was your great-great-grandmother ever the wiser as to the nature of the first encounter.”
So she thought it was William dressing up the first time to act out the opera. Her husband and father-in-law conspired with a stranger to rape her. “And so went on their conjugal bliss.”
I can't even rant on this. I think the awfulness is just plain in and of itself. So all I'm waiting for is if this is going to be properly textually condemned or not. Because I like the Gothic, guys, I like fucked-up shit. And a big theme in the Gothic was the abuse of women by the men in their families who had power over them. Much of the original Gothic canon was written by and for women who were afraid of what could happen to them, or what actually had happen. And this was NOT a time when such abuses were talked about or acknowledged in society, so this was really quite a radical act, hidden inside a genre dismissed as silly novels for silly women.
So to be clear, I'm not opposed to this having happened in a work of fiction. In fact, for this type of fiction, it's downright fitting, especially the aspects of secrecy and disguise and double-identities and horrible things in the family tree. I'm just waiting to see if Rice will play it properly for the genre, if she gets the point of what it's a Gothic trope in the first place. Using a trope isn't enough, you need to know WHY it is used.
Back to the story...the first wife dies, and then Julien and William pull the same thing with the second wife, and thus Julien became the father of Aunt Queen. Meaning, Quinn is related to Julien and the Mayfairs by blood.
So he and Mona are related, albeit pretty distantly. It's hard to say with the Mayfair family tree and its lack of forks, but I'm not sure I'd even call it incest for him and Mona to have sex. But what bugs me is...the same thing happened with Rowan and Michael, with Michael having turned out to be the descendent of Julien Mayfair via a secret affair as well. Now, the ritualized incest being deliberately practiced by the Mayfairs in order to breed witches, that makes sense, and I wouldn't draw any conclusions about Rice herself because of it, especially since it's such a perfectly Gothic horror trope. But Mayfair women ending up in ACCIDENTAL COINCIDENTAL INCEST not ONCE but TWICE? That's so unbelievable that I refuse to believe Anne Rice doesn't have a fetish for this.
And, hey, to each their own, but goddamn I really hate when writers put their fetishes into their work pretending it's not a fetish. Just put it in fetish porn where it belongs. About the only time I tolerate it is with Chris Claremont and William Marston, who are comic book writers that shoved it into, respectfully, X-Men and Wonder Woman at every turn to the point it's just HILARIOUS to me. But in general, I hate when I can see that something is just there repeatedly because it's the writer's kink in a novel that's not meant to be about sex/kink. I didn't sign up for that, okay?
Quinn is shocked, but decides it does make sense since he and Mona both have the "receptors" necessary to see ghosts. He also decides to smash the desk at home that William's ghost likes to hover around. Good for you, Quinn, I actually was not expecting any outrage on his part. Though he's yet to direct any at Julien.
Julien says he tells Quinn this not to wound him, that his sincerity appeals to him, and that it touches him that Quinn is so "desperately" in love with Mona, which he deduces from the fact Quinn brought her a bouquet.
I mean, I guess giving a woman even that much thought is the height of romance to Julien. Oh hey, speaking of that, wanna read a great quote from when he was telling Quinn about how he raped those two women? "Never one to turn my back upon a virgin and having only respect and compassion for a young woman so far cheated of a gentle and loving wedding night, I donned the mask and cloak and went about the enterprise"
Only respect and compassion
A gentle and loving wedding night
This is not a dude who I want praising my romantic endeavors *shudders*
Quinn says "I do love her" to which Julien warns him "we are a dangerously inbred family" I was about to complain that this conversation doesn't need to happen, that we know they're incestuous as hell, but Julien points out something I hadn't considered: That even if Mona and Quinn were older, them both being related to him "rules it out" so I guess that is adding something to the incest issue, since Quinn with Mona would be compounding the problem rather than bringing in some nice new genes.
That said, if her family is fine with her marrying Pierce, why not Quinn? They're both her family. Maybe Quinn is closer related, but when it comes to the Mayfairs I think that's actually a plus in their perspective? The entire reason they practice this is to ensure witches will keep being born, and Julien is a strong witch, so breeding two witches together who are related to him seems like a guarantee of more witchspawn.
Julien explains that over time he's seen that his genes dominate and cause grief, and that he used to not care about this, but that he cares very much now. "You could say I exist in a Purgatorial state of concern"
Quinn says that he "respects" Julien even though he "deceived" and "seduced" his ancestor (may I ask what exactly garners any respect for Julien? The cocoa, perhaps?) but that "I have to hear rejection from Mona's own lips."
...how about all those times she literally told you she would not marry you and told you to stop bringing it up?
Julien asks if Quinn picks up on the sweet smell in the garden.Quinn says he does. Julien repeats he must not be with Mona, and that "you will forgive me that I brought you to this spot"
Quinn is all why, what do you mean, who's to say we won't be faithful to each other until we're grown (what does this have to do with the issue?), can't she make up her mind when she's 18, he'll hold her in his heart and wear her hair in a locket and walk her down the aisle.
...literally absolutely none of which addresses the incest issue. He would have done better to say they'd use birth control. Or just not argue it at all and do what he's gonna do anyway, because as much as I don't like Quinn, he doesn't owe Julien an explanation or need his blessing, and neither does Mona, who should not be being discussed like she's property to be given access to anyway. Admittedly, I don't expect either of these characters to give a shit about her rights and her voice; Quinn certainly hasn't yet. Now, this *could* be done as part of the aforementioned trope, but...just flipping ahead at random here and there, I really don't think we're due for any revelation to Quinn or the reader that "hey Quinn is a shitbag and this is wrong" I may be wrong, I would like to be wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.
Also, I do not find Mona interesting, and I hate her "Ophelia" bullshit, but I truly feel for her that someone like Quinn is her apparent only way away from people like Julien.
Julien says he understands how much Quinn loves Mona but that since he can see spirits and "catch the scent of the dead" he must know that buried here in this spot are countless "mutations who never should have been born" and that if he marries Mona, their children may yet be mutations too.
Okay, so basically the constant inbreeding has finally caught up with this family. That's a fair enough concern. I can understand the discouragement based on that. But like, birth control is a thing. Not that I want Mona and Quinn together, I don't, and I frankly see a lot of OTHER issues, namely Mona's lack of a say in this conversation, just, I don't think "your kids are gonna be messed up" is the best argument against their union. Of course, from Julien's perspective, perhaps it is, and he may well not realize the extent of birth control possible in this day and age (especially when you have money like Mona and Quinn and thus could easily afford things like a vasectomy or tube-tie)
Oh, and apparently the sweet smell comes from these mutations. That's...not a scent I would associate with dead babies, tbh.
Quinn thinks that Julien means that he killed and buried Mona's baby here, Julien assures him that Mona's baby is alive but that "there must be no more of such creatures" from the Mayfair name, and that "Mona will never have any other name."
ARE YOU IMPLYING SHE'S STILL GONNA MARRY HER COUSIN?
YOU'RE FUCKING DEADSET AGAINST HER AND QUINN
BUT OKAY WITH HER AND PIERCE?
I mean, he could mean Mona will just never marry at all period, but what about marrying someone who isn't related to her? Is that being ruled out too?
I doubt he means Mona is just gonna keep her name.
Quinn is all "You're wrong!" and Julien begs him not to despise him, saying he thought he would understand if things were explained and that "maybe things will be easier in the course of time."
At that moment, someone yells "Tarquinn!" and Quinn turns to see Rowan and Michael have come out. They're looking at him "as if I'd done something wrong" and Quinn stands up. They come over and "Michael had a build on him in his blue work shirt that made my mouth water."
Because that's totally what you notice when you've been informed about dead babies and incest and meeting the man who raped your great-great grandmother.
Rowan is "kindly" and asks Quinn (using his full name again) what he's doing here. Quinn says he was talking to Julien, and gestures to the table. But Julien is gone, as is the hot cocoa and animal crackers. Quinn says "My God" and makes the Sign of the Cross.
"Nobody knew better than me what had happened" and he wonders why Goblin didn't warn him.
Rowan puts her arm around him and he "felt soothed immediately by the way she massaged me" and she kisses his cheek. "Rampant, comforting chills ran through me. Oh, the pure sweetness of it." QUINN DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO WEIRD?!
Michael takes Quinn's hand in his and Quinn thinks how "he was like the uncle I never knew. God, how I loved them. How I wanted to be connected to them. How I wanted to love Mona with their blessing. Desperately I needed their comfort now."
So basically Rowan and Michael act like textbook abusers to Mona, the girl Quinn loves, right in front of Quinn, but since they're suddenly super nice and comforting to Quinn, they're good people and he loves it. I feel like Quinn could actually be a really well-written example of an extremely isolated and spoiled lifestyle making him bizarre like this, but I just...don't think it is. Especially since Rowan and Michael are protagonists from previous books, and while Rice does sometimes make villains into heroes (Lestat being the most prominent example, and I think Amel too in the Prince Lestat book) I'm not aware of her doing the reverse and making any good guys move towards being villains. Plus there's nothing I've seen online about that being the case with Rowan and Michael.
I would have been equally happy with either them having become more twisted as a result of their involvement with the Mayfar family, or of Quinn simply having had a bad first impression (though how to make things so that their coming to get Mona wasn't as godawful as it seemed, I don't know) but then getting over his mistrust with time (or not getting over it, that's fine too!) but it taking time. But nah, he just instantly knows they're good guys really. Because god forbid a Rice protagonist ever be wrong, or worse, be in conflict with another Rice protagonist!
Also, Quinn is being such a drama queen? What does he mean he desperately needs their comfort? All that happened was he saw a ghost. Oh yeah, Julien is a ghost, if you didn't guess, and somehow this just blows Quinn's mind
Quinn: "I'm going to be locked up. Julien Mayfair, was he ever a real man?"
Rowan: "He was real alright. He's a legend in the Mayfair clan. He died in 1914."
So Quinn, who has been seeing ghosts his entire life, has his own personal ghost attached to him, has had sex with a ghost, and has had "yeah ghosts are real" confirmed to him by another person who sees them and informed of an entire organization that studies ghosts as well as having had it confirmed he's not insane, is this shocked and unsettled by having had some cocoa and crackers and conversation with a ghost and thinks he's gonna be locked up and needs all this petting and to make the sign of the cross and so on.
Like...I don't know what is supposed to be unnerving about this for Quinn? Is it because he didn't realize Julien was a ghost? Julien isn't a Blackwood ghost? I don't know, it just seems bizarre he would be shaken up over a ghost when ghosts are an almost mundane fact of his life and always have been.
Meanwhile, he's not paying any attention to what's ACTUALLY horrific, which is Julien himself regardless of spirit status and the things he told Quinn.
I don't like anyone in this book right now.
Also, I skipped a lot of description. It wasn't bad, Rice is very good at lovely descriptions of home and gardens, but it wasn't necessary to the spork or the summary. I just want you to know it was there and there was a lot of it and it would have been nice except, like the word-for-word conversations, it's just unbelievable to me he's supposed to be SAYING all this to Lestat, it's just ridiculous.
...there's a lot of ridiculous here Also, I for sure think Quinn does have a foot fetish, I'm flipping ahead and he's thinking how positively sinful this woman's toes look with their gold polish and a single gold ring around one.
So there's that to look forward to later.
No one has ever been more in love than Quinn is with Mona, he'll have you know. No one. So he's glad that the street is empty so that “I did not have to be subjected to ordinary individuals who weren't in love.”
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? HE LITERALLY EVEN MAKES BEING IN LOVE INTO A SNOBBY EXCLUSIVE ACTIVITY ONLY FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE LIKE HIM? I JUST CAN'T EVEN WITH THIS. IT'S NOT JUST ELITISM, IT'S RIDICULOUS BIZARRE ELITISM LIKE WTF look I get teens thinking “no one understands” their super intense feelings and all, but this is just obnoxious at another level.
When he gets to Mona's door, Goblin appears and Quinn tells him that he has to “complete this mission alone” because he continues to be cringey with this ~manly mission~ shit, and that if Goblin makes trouble he'll never speak to him again. To Quinn's “astonishment” Goblin answers this with “loving kisses” to Quinn's cheek, whispers “Au revoir” and disappears with a lingering “aftertaste” of goodwill.
Quinn hopes Mona will be waiting and ready with her suitcase and passport, but instead a man opens the door. Description:
- Compassionate expression
- Vibrant face
- “Svelte, if not downright swanky” not sure how these are connected but ok
- Prematurely white curly hair
- Quick inquisitive eyes
- “Positively dashing” clothing in an “old-fashioned cut” like “something from a drama about the nineteenth century”
He says “Come in Tarquinn” with a French accent, that he has been waiting for him and wants to talk with him. Quinn asks where Mona is, the man says “Oh, no doubt combing her long red hair so that she can throw it over yonder balcony and lure you like Rapunzel did her forbidden prince.”
Great. Because we need ANOTHER person who talks like this.
Quinn asks if this means he's indeed forbidden, and the man with a “brilliant” smile and “world-weary” sigh says “Oh, who knows?” and introduces himself as Oncle Julien, because he says he is indeed his Oncle Julien “as surely as Aunt Queen gave her embrace to Mona last night” and adds that Mona shall always treasure the stunning gift of the cameo.
I'm in a VtM LARP right now, and the term for turning someone into a vampire in VTM is the Embrace, so this confused me for a second XD It's called The Dark Gift in Anne Rice though, if I recall right.
They walk in the garden, with Quinn observing Grecian statues of mythological figures and beautiful flowers and fruit trees. One tree has a single monstrous lemon on it, and Oncle Julien talks about how the tree puts everything into that single fruit and that if it had many lemons, they would be of regular size, and how the Mayfair clan “does something similiar” which I think refers to their cultivation of a single witch every generation.
Quinn thinks so too, just more in terms of money instead of magic I think, and says so, “You mean with regard to the Legacy. They put everything into one designee, and she has to be guarded from intrigues with those who aren't marriageable, and I've somehow been found wanting?”
Julien says it's simply that he's been found too young, and that Mona is only fifteen herself, that there's nothing unworthy about Quinn “and I must confess a little mystery surrounds you which I will explain.”
I remember Julien from The Witching Hour. I'm pretty sure he talked about “whore babies” aren't the same as regular children, since they were born and raised in a brothel it's all they know, so it's okay to sleep with them. He's also been sleeping with his female relatives for generations, including his own daughter, who he had with his own sister.
So that's just a little something to keep in mind. Oh yeah and he's the only Mayfair male who has ever been a witch, and a powerful one at that. I guess because he's the grossest one. Seems like Rice logic to me.
They walk by a swimming pool, Quinn thinks how AQ said Michael nearly drowned in that. Julien talks about how the octagonal shape of the pool is the same as that of the lawn and that the shape repeats other places in the garden, like each balustrade pillar. He says that “patterns upon patterns upon patterns” attract spirits which is why grand big old houses like this have a lot of them, because spirits who are lost can still see patterns. Makes as much sense as anything, I guess.
They go to the rear garden, Quinn names what kinds of trees are there, and I would like to remind you he's telling this all to Lestat and how ridiculous that is. Like it's a lovely description, it really is, but it does not work for this framing device. I'm sorry I keep harping on about this but it's all I can think about this when Quinn lists details like this. An important detail, though---there's a tree with “Lasher” carved on it, and a sweet smell in the air around it that doesn't come from flowers. Witching Hour fans understand this, but I'm not actually sure that Quinn, as of the time he's telling Lestat, knows the significance, if he knows about Lasher by that time.
They sit at a black iron table that is set with hot chocolate, which frankly sounds DREADFUL to me to have outside in the daytime in the South, unless it's winter. Quinn though, thinks it's “marvelous”. There's animal crackers and Quinn thinks about the first two lyrics of the “animal crackers and cocoa to drink” song, and Julien then sings the next two lyrics aloud. Quinn finds nothing odd about this I guess, they just laugh together. Quinn feels sure that this man understands love and won't seperate him from Mona.
Quinn asks if he knows of Blackwood Manor, Julien says he does and that “my coming there was a macabre and romantic experience” which sounds exactly like what I was HOPING for when I picked up this book.
As for this experience, Julien says “I won't divulge to you in any detail, except that I must.” Oh. Okay then. “It bears heavily upon your love for Mona. And so the light must shine in the dark.”
I feel like I'd find this way of speaking from him MUCH more tolerable if Quinn and everyone else didn't speak the same damn way.
Julien explains that he belonged to the same “secretive and fashionable” gambling club as Quinn's great-great-great grandfather Manfred, and that “it was Manfred who won the hand and Julien Mayfair whom he asked for the task to be done.”
So, what is the task?
For Julien to put on a Mardi Gras mask and a red velvet cloak and “deflower” Manfred's daughter-in-law, because Manfred's son William was unable to do it. Manfred and William had gotten the idea from an opera they had seen recently. Julien asked if hasn't the wife seen the same opera, William says she has which is why she'll go along with it.
So Julien didn't have any opposition to the idea of raping a woman by deception, he's just concerned she might see through it.
Also, just in case you, like me, got hopeful at the “she'll go along with it” bit that perhaps this is a kink on the wife's part too, that she WANTS to do it because she saw it in the opera as well and this is an arrangement she had an equal part in....no. After Julien does it, he suggests William starts using the mask and cape to get it done as well, which he succesfully does, and so he starts using that in order to be able to have sex with his poor wife himself and “never was your great-great-grandmother ever the wiser as to the nature of the first encounter.”
So she thought it was William dressing up the first time to act out the opera. Her husband and father-in-law conspired with a stranger to rape her. “And so went on their conjugal bliss.”
I can't even rant on this. I think the awfulness is just plain in and of itself. So all I'm waiting for is if this is going to be properly textually condemned or not. Because I like the Gothic, guys, I like fucked-up shit. And a big theme in the Gothic was the abuse of women by the men in their families who had power over them. Much of the original Gothic canon was written by and for women who were afraid of what could happen to them, or what actually had happen. And this was NOT a time when such abuses were talked about or acknowledged in society, so this was really quite a radical act, hidden inside a genre dismissed as silly novels for silly women.
So to be clear, I'm not opposed to this having happened in a work of fiction. In fact, for this type of fiction, it's downright fitting, especially the aspects of secrecy and disguise and double-identities and horrible things in the family tree. I'm just waiting to see if Rice will play it properly for the genre, if she gets the point of what it's a Gothic trope in the first place. Using a trope isn't enough, you need to know WHY it is used.
Back to the story...the first wife dies, and then Julien and William pull the same thing with the second wife, and thus Julien became the father of Aunt Queen. Meaning, Quinn is related to Julien and the Mayfairs by blood.
So he and Mona are related, albeit pretty distantly. It's hard to say with the Mayfair family tree and its lack of forks, but I'm not sure I'd even call it incest for him and Mona to have sex. But what bugs me is...the same thing happened with Rowan and Michael, with Michael having turned out to be the descendent of Julien Mayfair via a secret affair as well. Now, the ritualized incest being deliberately practiced by the Mayfairs in order to breed witches, that makes sense, and I wouldn't draw any conclusions about Rice herself because of it, especially since it's such a perfectly Gothic horror trope. But Mayfair women ending up in ACCIDENTAL COINCIDENTAL INCEST not ONCE but TWICE? That's so unbelievable that I refuse to believe Anne Rice doesn't have a fetish for this.
And, hey, to each their own, but goddamn I really hate when writers put their fetishes into their work pretending it's not a fetish. Just put it in fetish porn where it belongs. About the only time I tolerate it is with Chris Claremont and William Marston, who are comic book writers that shoved it into, respectfully, X-Men and Wonder Woman at every turn to the point it's just HILARIOUS to me. But in general, I hate when I can see that something is just there repeatedly because it's the writer's kink in a novel that's not meant to be about sex/kink. I didn't sign up for that, okay?
Quinn is shocked, but decides it does make sense since he and Mona both have the "receptors" necessary to see ghosts. He also decides to smash the desk at home that William's ghost likes to hover around. Good for you, Quinn, I actually was not expecting any outrage on his part. Though he's yet to direct any at Julien.
Julien says he tells Quinn this not to wound him, that his sincerity appeals to him, and that it touches him that Quinn is so "desperately" in love with Mona, which he deduces from the fact Quinn brought her a bouquet.
I mean, I guess giving a woman even that much thought is the height of romance to Julien. Oh hey, speaking of that, wanna read a great quote from when he was telling Quinn about how he raped those two women? "Never one to turn my back upon a virgin and having only respect and compassion for a young woman so far cheated of a gentle and loving wedding night, I donned the mask and cloak and went about the enterprise"
Only respect and compassion
A gentle and loving wedding night
This is not a dude who I want praising my romantic endeavors *shudders*
Quinn says "I do love her" to which Julien warns him "we are a dangerously inbred family" I was about to complain that this conversation doesn't need to happen, that we know they're incestuous as hell, but Julien points out something I hadn't considered: That even if Mona and Quinn were older, them both being related to him "rules it out" so I guess that is adding something to the incest issue, since Quinn with Mona would be compounding the problem rather than bringing in some nice new genes.
That said, if her family is fine with her marrying Pierce, why not Quinn? They're both her family. Maybe Quinn is closer related, but when it comes to the Mayfairs I think that's actually a plus in their perspective? The entire reason they practice this is to ensure witches will keep being born, and Julien is a strong witch, so breeding two witches together who are related to him seems like a guarantee of more witchspawn.
Julien explains that over time he's seen that his genes dominate and cause grief, and that he used to not care about this, but that he cares very much now. "You could say I exist in a Purgatorial state of concern"
Quinn says that he "respects" Julien even though he "deceived" and "seduced" his ancestor (may I ask what exactly garners any respect for Julien? The cocoa, perhaps?) but that "I have to hear rejection from Mona's own lips."
...how about all those times she literally told you she would not marry you and told you to stop bringing it up?
Julien asks if Quinn picks up on the sweet smell in the garden.Quinn says he does. Julien repeats he must not be with Mona, and that "you will forgive me that I brought you to this spot"
Quinn is all why, what do you mean, who's to say we won't be faithful to each other until we're grown (what does this have to do with the issue?), can't she make up her mind when she's 18, he'll hold her in his heart and wear her hair in a locket and walk her down the aisle.
...literally absolutely none of which addresses the incest issue. He would have done better to say they'd use birth control. Or just not argue it at all and do what he's gonna do anyway, because as much as I don't like Quinn, he doesn't owe Julien an explanation or need his blessing, and neither does Mona, who should not be being discussed like she's property to be given access to anyway. Admittedly, I don't expect either of these characters to give a shit about her rights and her voice; Quinn certainly hasn't yet. Now, this *could* be done as part of the aforementioned trope, but...just flipping ahead at random here and there, I really don't think we're due for any revelation to Quinn or the reader that "hey Quinn is a shitbag and this is wrong" I may be wrong, I would like to be wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.
Also, I do not find Mona interesting, and I hate her "Ophelia" bullshit, but I truly feel for her that someone like Quinn is her apparent only way away from people like Julien.
Julien says he understands how much Quinn loves Mona but that since he can see spirits and "catch the scent of the dead" he must know that buried here in this spot are countless "mutations who never should have been born" and that if he marries Mona, their children may yet be mutations too.
Okay, so basically the constant inbreeding has finally caught up with this family. That's a fair enough concern. I can understand the discouragement based on that. But like, birth control is a thing. Not that I want Mona and Quinn together, I don't, and I frankly see a lot of OTHER issues, namely Mona's lack of a say in this conversation, just, I don't think "your kids are gonna be messed up" is the best argument against their union. Of course, from Julien's perspective, perhaps it is, and he may well not realize the extent of birth control possible in this day and age (especially when you have money like Mona and Quinn and thus could easily afford things like a vasectomy or tube-tie)
Oh, and apparently the sweet smell comes from these mutations. That's...not a scent I would associate with dead babies, tbh.
Quinn thinks that Julien means that he killed and buried Mona's baby here, Julien assures him that Mona's baby is alive but that "there must be no more of such creatures" from the Mayfair name, and that "Mona will never have any other name."
ARE YOU IMPLYING SHE'S STILL GONNA MARRY HER COUSIN?
YOU'RE FUCKING DEADSET AGAINST HER AND QUINN
BUT OKAY WITH HER AND PIERCE?
I mean, he could mean Mona will just never marry at all period, but what about marrying someone who isn't related to her? Is that being ruled out too?
I doubt he means Mona is just gonna keep her name.
Quinn is all "You're wrong!" and Julien begs him not to despise him, saying he thought he would understand if things were explained and that "maybe things will be easier in the course of time."
At that moment, someone yells "Tarquinn!" and Quinn turns to see Rowan and Michael have come out. They're looking at him "as if I'd done something wrong" and Quinn stands up. They come over and "Michael had a build on him in his blue work shirt that made my mouth water."
Because that's totally what you notice when you've been informed about dead babies and incest and meeting the man who raped your great-great grandmother.
Rowan is "kindly" and asks Quinn (using his full name again) what he's doing here. Quinn says he was talking to Julien, and gestures to the table. But Julien is gone, as is the hot cocoa and animal crackers. Quinn says "My God" and makes the Sign of the Cross.
"Nobody knew better than me what had happened" and he wonders why Goblin didn't warn him.
Rowan puts her arm around him and he "felt soothed immediately by the way she massaged me" and she kisses his cheek. "Rampant, comforting chills ran through me. Oh, the pure sweetness of it." QUINN DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO WEIRD?!
Michael takes Quinn's hand in his and Quinn thinks how "he was like the uncle I never knew. God, how I loved them. How I wanted to be connected to them. How I wanted to love Mona with their blessing. Desperately I needed their comfort now."
So basically Rowan and Michael act like textbook abusers to Mona, the girl Quinn loves, right in front of Quinn, but since they're suddenly super nice and comforting to Quinn, they're good people and he loves it. I feel like Quinn could actually be a really well-written example of an extremely isolated and spoiled lifestyle making him bizarre like this, but I just...don't think it is. Especially since Rowan and Michael are protagonists from previous books, and while Rice does sometimes make villains into heroes (Lestat being the most prominent example, and I think Amel too in the Prince Lestat book) I'm not aware of her doing the reverse and making any good guys move towards being villains. Plus there's nothing I've seen online about that being the case with Rowan and Michael.
I would have been equally happy with either them having become more twisted as a result of their involvement with the Mayfar family, or of Quinn simply having had a bad first impression (though how to make things so that their coming to get Mona wasn't as godawful as it seemed, I don't know) but then getting over his mistrust with time (or not getting over it, that's fine too!) but it taking time. But nah, he just instantly knows they're good guys really. Because god forbid a Rice protagonist ever be wrong, or worse, be in conflict with another Rice protagonist!
Also, Quinn is being such a drama queen? What does he mean he desperately needs their comfort? All that happened was he saw a ghost. Oh yeah, Julien is a ghost, if you didn't guess, and somehow this just blows Quinn's mind
Quinn: "I'm going to be locked up. Julien Mayfair, was he ever a real man?"
Rowan: "He was real alright. He's a legend in the Mayfair clan. He died in 1914."
So Quinn, who has been seeing ghosts his entire life, has his own personal ghost attached to him, has had sex with a ghost, and has had "yeah ghosts are real" confirmed to him by another person who sees them and informed of an entire organization that studies ghosts as well as having had it confirmed he's not insane, is this shocked and unsettled by having had some cocoa and crackers and conversation with a ghost and thinks he's gonna be locked up and needs all this petting and to make the sign of the cross and so on.
Like...I don't know what is supposed to be unnerving about this for Quinn? Is it because he didn't realize Julien was a ghost? Julien isn't a Blackwood ghost? I don't know, it just seems bizarre he would be shaken up over a ghost when ghosts are an almost mundane fact of his life and always have been.
Meanwhile, he's not paying any attention to what's ACTUALLY horrific, which is Julien himself regardless of spirit status and the things he told Quinn.
I don't like anyone in this book right now.
Also, I skipped a lot of description. It wasn't bad, Rice is very good at lovely descriptions of home and gardens, but it wasn't necessary to the spork or the summary. I just want you to know it was there and there was a lot of it and it would have been nice except, like the word-for-word conversations, it's just unbelievable to me he's supposed to be SAYING all this to Lestat, it's just ridiculous.
...there's a lot of ridiculous here Also, I for sure think Quinn does have a foot fetish, I'm flipping ahead and he's thinking how positively sinful this woman's toes look with their gold polish and a single gold ring around one.
So there's that to look forward to later.
