BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 39
Jan. 19th, 2018 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratI'm sorry this took so long. I was just so bored with this book that I forgot sporking it altogether. Here are some humorous Rice-related links to make up for that:
http://goth-mabel.tumblr.com/post/143143881418/compare
http://sarahtaylorgibson.tumblr.com/post/115080489896/how-to-tell-if-youre-in-an-anne-rice-novel
Also, I have some new rodents! A lady at work was breeding mice for her son's snake, and because she didn't know how to sex mice or when to separate the boy babies from their sisters, it got terribly out of control. I sent her some links on how to do these things, and she gave me four females. They're utterly identical albinos, so I can't tell them apart, thus they don't have names. But they're nice mice! Phoebe meanwhile passed just after Christmas, but I'm not sad about that so no condolences needed. She was a very old mouse who lived a full life despite her respiratory issues and she got to go comfortably, so this wasn't devastating like the premature rodent deaths I had earlier this year.
So as it is now, I've got one rat left (Blaze) and four new mice.
And I've also got fresh rage for...
BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 39
"All my life I'd believed in Heaven and Hell. Did Heaven look down upon this metamorphosis?"
Keep this line in mind, this professed concern for what God thinks, when reading the things Quinn is going to do in this very chapter.
Quinn is lays in the bath as "dark fluids" pour out of him until "the human death was over". He is then dressed by "the Adonis and the two sharp-featured young girls" whose blood Quinn now hungers for. He thinks about what Arion said regarding preying on the Evil Doer, looks at the "roughest" of the girls, and sees that hey, she's bitter and angry and had expected Quinn to be killed! The other girl thought the same and Quinn can tell she also feels "cheated and angry" and that "hatred emanated from both women" towards Quinn, and in returned Quinn "detested them" that they would have thought nothing of dumping his body after Petronia killed him. The man, however, is "sympathetic" towards Quinn and "seemed to think it marvelous" that Quinn did not die.
Quinn asks the man how many others Petronia has brought here, but Petronia enters and tells Quinn to pick one of these three for his first kill. The girls scream and back away, the boy only seems to feel a "profound disappointment". Quinn says he can't do it, Petronia says if he doesn't she'll pick one for him, and reminds him that they'd have dumped his body happily for her.
I'd like to note that these people are captives of Petronia, her servants whom she abuses. They don't kill anyone (though the girls talked of doing it to Quinn, but seemed too scared to anger Petronia) they just dispose of Petronia's kills. And she clearly would think nothing of killing them too. So I'm not getting how they're tremendously evil. The worst crime, I suppose, is the claim that they would feel no guilt, but according to the girls they've been here since they were children, so like...I feel like it's a natural response to get inured in that situation. If you did look at every victim as human, did feel guilt about your part in covering their murder even though you had no choice, I think it would destroy you. It seems to me natural that they would become callous.
But I don't expect Quinn to have that kind of empathy, or for Rice to want the reader to. It's odd, because Rice I've seen Rice be praised for debating morality and shades of gray and all that in her works, but the thing is, that only exists for her privileged protagonists. These women---it's usually a woman, at least to my memory---pop up a lot in her books, women who are Just Bad, women who get no sympathy for their circumstances whereas men do, women who deserve to be killed, as one of these women will be and as the two coded-Latina women were at the beginning of this book. Also, like the two women at the beginning of this book, notice that this pair don't have names either, even in passing.
Petronia advises Quinn to use the "Spell Gift" to read the minds of the girls and "charm" them. I think this is some sort of telepathy/hypnosis deal. He looks at the "hard-speaking" girl and does this: "I saw her evil, her casual and vicious disconnect since the human herd, her brittle cheap egocentricity."
...did I just read a description of Quinn himself? That is literally Quinn. Ok, "evil" and "vicious" are perhaps too strong terms for a character as passive and wishy-washy as he is, but cheap egocentricity and seeing himself as inherently special and separate from other people? That's him all over.
But, with her, it's a death sentence. The girl is passive and unprotesting due to his Spell Gift, so he drinks her blood, killing her in the process. As he does, he learns her life, and though we are not told her story, we are told it was "putrid, common, indecent"
Common. That's apparently on-par with "putrid" and "indecent" from Anne Rice and Quinn, and that doesn't surprise me at all. I also originally wrote about how I feel like "indecent" is probably code for sex and the double standard there with how she allows her men to have this wild (and often predatory) sex lives but still be good people for it (like fucking JULIEN good god) but women are generally bad if they're sexual...the obvious exception being Mona, but she's "cured" of that through Quinn. But then I was like "how would this girl be having sex, she's Petronia's captive and has been for years according to her, since she was a child" so probably the "indecent" part is the body-dumping. But still, that's facedesking, because Quinn considers this to be evil and worthy of death, then puts it on the same level as being "common" and having had a "common" life (however one can even do that while being a vampire's captive)
Quinn is just...so fucking unlikeable. And I truly resent being expected to agree with his perceptions. Because there is, as always, zero indication we're not meant to.
Petronia shows him how to clean up the spilled blood, as well as heal the puncture wounds in the girl's neck, then takes him back to Manfred and Arion after he thanks "the Adonis" for his kindness. I have a hunch he'll forget him and never try to help him out of this hellhole, though.
Quinn says the utterly bizarre and pretentious line "And so we have this charged vision. We see all things as though they were quietly on fire in all their parts."
The proper response to this should be "are you high" but Petronia praises him, saying he understands, and urges him not to be afraid to speak up to her, that she watched him for years before she chose him and that "It was language that drew me as truly as beauty."
I have such a hard time believing that Petronia watched Quinn for years and this encouraged her to choose him rather than having the reverse effect. Heck, I would have a hard time believing that anyone could watch him for FIVE MINUTES and choose him for anything more than a slap in the face. I guess if she wanted to make a serial killer, he's a good pick---Quinn very overtly thinks he's better than others and that rules don't apply to him, because that's been the case all his life, now he's got not only the power to easily kill but the physical NEED to---but I feel like even then, there had to be candidates out there who still weren't as ANNOYING as he is.
Honestly, the idea she picked him for negative qualities because they'd make a good monster actually is a cool one to me, but very much not what Rice was going for, I don't think.
Quinn finds a "gentle majesty" about Petronia now, and he tells that he loves her, to which she gives a "mild, helpless laugh". He asks if that isn't what she wanted.
Before Petronia answers, I'd like to point out...Quinn just decided a woman was evil, evil enough to deserve death at his hands, for being egocentric, apart from the human herd, and getting rid of dead bodies for a vampire (but it's okay if the hot boy does it!). Petronia is apart from the human herd, seems pretty vain to me, and is the one who actually killed those people and is *making* the girls dispose of them. So, Petronia is everything that girl was and WORSE.
Yet Quinn loves her now. Totally and at random. Despite hating her before. And now having more reasons to hate her.
What is happening? This isn't VtM where there's a Blood Bond or some shit. And it can't be because he saw her life so he understands her now, because like...wouldn't that also apply to the girl he just killed, whose life he also saw?
For all that I ragged on Quinn for his gross attitudes towards Petronia earlier, this sudden and random and all-to-typical-for-Rice sudden turnaround to "I love you now for no reason" is even more annoying, especially when not only is there no reason for it, there are good reasons AGAINST it, and the contrast between this and the girl, it's like...on a meta level, Petronia is more important than that girl. Petronia is a far more important character. But in-universe, everyone is a real person with an equally real and important life. Yet Rice's characters behave as if they know who is actually important to the narrative and who is not, know what I mean? Hence these totally different standards for Petronia vs random slave girl.
...though gender influences that too, because look at Petronia vs random slave boy or random slave boy vs random slave girls.
I'm not saying women must always be angels or it's misogynistic but this is such a fucking pattern with Rice. It happens with the women at the beginning of the book, it happens here, and spoiler, it's gonna happen AGAIN in the next chapter. Women who are not important to the main character are moral free-game to kill if they are sexual and don't have super-nice personalities (regardless of their circumstances) Boys, however, just have to be pretty to be deemed good people, which they demonstrate by automatically being kind to the hero (regardless of circumstance) Seriously, between Dr. Mayfair, Stirling, Father Kevin, Michael, Arion, Lestat, have you noticed how Quinn always has like this ~instant rapport~ with guys and just knows how wonderful and trustworthy they are? Admittedly, he also falls instantly in love with Mona too. As I've said, Rice characters in general form instant deep emotional connections with no build or development at all, and also instantly know who is a good person or not.
Anyway, Petronia says maybe she wanted him to love her, maybe she still does, but oh she never knows what she wants and that's why she's never content, and more irritating rambling of that nature. I'm even fed up with Petronia at this point, egad.
They talk a little more about Petronia having been a gladiator, and I note she specifically says a "woman gladiator". She talks about how falling in love with Arion changed her, how she would work all day in the cameo shop dressed as a boy but then "became the woman for him" at night, how she "became something soft, something decent, something fine" for Arion.
So, the bit about her being dressed as a boy and then having a male lover is interesting to me because crossdressing women is something that's come up three times in Rice's vampires now that I'm aware of? First is Gabrielle, Lestat's mother, who began dressing and moving through the world as a man after she became a vampire, but seems to have stopped doing that during modern times. Another is Eudoxia, a vampire that Marius met in Blood & Gold, who when she was first turned during the time of Greek Alexandria, would likewise use a male disguise so she could go out at night to hunt. While in disguise as a boy, she gained a male lover, who believed her to be male, and when she revealed herself to him, he was so upset that she was insulted and changed him into a vampire for it. And now we've got Petronia, who is genderfluid but seems primarily female but like, dresses as a male for work and then a woman for sex. With Gabrielle and Eudoxia, their reasons for crossdressing are explicitly matters of practicality, not gender identity or gender expression (I think I remember Gabrielle have some issues with femininity but like in a more internal misogyny way?) whereas with Petronia, her gender identity is definitely part of why her gender expression is sometimes one or the other, but idk something about this reminded me of Eudoxia, and then I remember Gabrielle, and I...don't have a point to make or a conclusion to draw, I'm just noting it.
I will also note that none of these women are ever leading ladies in Rice's works, nor ever a love interest for the lead (which is usually the only way a woman can be good, as with Mona or Pandora, though I guess there is some undeniable Oedipal stuff with Lestat and Gabrielle) I'd also like to mention that Eudoxia had a female vampire lover named Zenobia and that after Marius and his buddies kill Eudoxia (ok, technically Akasha kills her) she comes simpering to them for protection and falls instantly in love with one of them and now they're married in Rice's most recent book. Just in case you were wondering how Rice treats lesbians on this sole occasion they show up.
Quinn asks Petronia what is decent, she says he knows and has always known, Quinn says he knew before but does not know now because "I killed that wretched girl, that murderous girl. That wasn't decent."
So even when Quinn is meant to be regretting her death or finding wrongdoing on his part for it, we still have to be reminded she was totally a shit person who had it coming. Yeah, Quinn, you sure sound convincing here.
There are lots of instances where a person could find someone "wretched" and evil and all and still regret killing them, but like...I'm not buying it from Quinn that he finds it indecent that he killed her. I'm just not. Namely because aside from this one line he never mentions in again, so I doubt he regrets it all that much. And that doesn't surprise me. As I said, if Petronia wanted to get a heartless serial killer, giving Quinn vampire abilities and vampire needs was a pretty good way to go. He'd never be a killer as a human, I don't think, being a spoiled and isolated rich kid doesn't make him actively evil, but adding on the NEED for blood that vampires have, the PLEASURE and NECESSITY of it, as well as the "well these are evil commoners so no big deal" attitude that fits with his mindset so well already, and yeah, he's going to kill and not give a fuck.
But this is not, apparently, Petronia's goal. She does tell him it's much too early for such questions, that they have hunting to do and that she'll have no "mewling fledglings" and that he will be "very strong when I'm finished with you." But when Quinn asks if he will be decent and honorable as well, she tells him in a sad tone "See that you are. Use your intellect for that. Don't imitate me. Imitate those who are better than me. Imitate Arion."
So Petronia doesn't want a callous killer, she wants a decent and honorable one. Quinn's done some nice things, I grant, but he is still a poor choice for this. I just find it utterly unbelievable she picked him with all her possible other choices she could have found given her range from Louisiana to Naples. I think it's just more that Quinn is just special and the best and everyone loves him so there. He never earns anything, nor does he ever had to demonstrate these qualities to any notable degree, we're just told he has them and that's that, so therefore he deserves all this love and becoming a vampire as a reward and all of that.
In total fairness, he was kind to give Terry Sue that house and help. He really was. But it's also not apparently any sort of actual financial sacrifice to him either with how wildly rich he is, so it's not as grand a gesture from him as it might otherwise be, and it doesn't balance out all his other flaws. If kindness and decency and honor is what Petronia is after, there are people who show it far more consistently. And since Petronia knows about Mona, she knows how fast he fell in love with her and wanted to wed her, and for a vampire, that kind of sudden passion and wanting to be with someone forever is actually, logically, a bad idea. Someone like that will very irresponsibly make fledglings out of love for them. But then again, that's the norm in Rice's world, so whatever I guess.
They return to where Manfred and Arion is, and Quinn is embraced by the "loving arms" of Arion, who we are informed is "lean and caring" and whose "fine black face utterly charmed me." If that sounds awkward, just wait. Petronia tells Arion to "drain" Quinn, which Arion does, and Quinn feels "the images of my life passing with the blood. I felt the sorrow I knew, the untold sorrow of being lost forever from Mona, fro my son Jerome, from Aunt Queen, from Nash, from Jasmine, my beloved milk chocolate Jasmine"
BELOVED
MILK
CHOCOLATE
JASMINE
god almighty
Quinn swoons---the word "swoon" is literally used---and wakes up in a chair. He is in terrible pain, then consumed by hunger. He wants the blood of Arion, Petronia, and Manfred, which is interesting to me because while Ricean vampires can gain power from drinking the blood of older/stronger vampires, I don't think they can get any kind of nourishment from them like they do from humans.
Arion says now it's time for the lesson, and tells Quinn to come drink from him but to take only the "Little Drink". He says this is how one feeds from innocents, to just take a little blood so they're left dazed and not dead.
In other words, Ricean vampires do not need to kill to survive. But they feel it's ok if they deem the person an Evil-Doer.
Now, I could get behind that idea, of vampires feeling they can be the arbitrators of morality and of death, if we weren't supposed to necessarily agree with them that they have this right. I LARP as a Lasombra vampire in a Vampire the Masquerade LARP, and many Lasombra feel that they are here by the will of God to frighten and punish the wicked. Lasombra are also known for being superior, haughty, and egomaniacal fucks who look down at everyone else, especially mortals, as subhuman. So it makes utter sense they see themselves as both having the natural right to kill to feed even though they don't need to, but the MORAL right as well. I could also see genuinely good, well-intentioned people thinking that they should use their vampire abilities Punisher-style, because I can see the argument that there are some people out there who damn well *should* die. There are a LOT of ways this could work, basically. But the problem with Rice's system is it's never really questioned by the narrative. I think maybe it was with Louis in Interview, I can't remember but I do recall Louis eating rats because he refused to kill, and I also recall Interview as the best I think, but at least within the context of THIS book it's not questioned by the narrative. I certainly saw zero indication we were supposed to question the right of Quinn and Lestat to kill those two women at the beginning of the book because they committed drug-related murders.
Which, by the way, maybe it is justified. Maybe it is! They did kill people too! But I feel like that kind of thing should just be more ambiguous, or at least treated with more nuance than Rice does. I mean, it's a complex ethical question, and should be treated as such. Instead, it just sort of seems a way for her vampires to be able to kill people without being "bad" themselves. The fact that the bad people in question are generally just nameless faceless people whose crimes we are simply informed of via vampire telepathy, rather than shown, and who are thus far always the same specific sort of "pretty but mean young woman" doesn't help.
Quinn sees "sunny Athens" through the blood of Arion, and they smooch with tongue. Quinn asks if his life is to be ecstasy like this from now on, Arion says ecstasy and control.
He is then invited to drink from Manfred, who urges him to take "the image of the only pure thing I ever loved" and mentions Blackwood Manor was built with Petronia's "wretched gold". Quinn drinking for Manfred is thankfully far less eroticly described---simply "I sank my teeth into his bull neck" ---but instead of seeing Virginia Lee as he is supposed to, Quinn sees poor Rebecca hanging on that hook again, and she laughs at him horribly. Quinn comes to, and Manfred, aware of what he saw, asks Quinn why he "reached for" Rebecca, whom he calls "that shrew" then concludes that though he wanted for Quinn to see Virginia Lee, he could not hide the guilt in his soul. That's kind of interesting.
Quinn then tells the "luckless ghost" to leave him alone and that she now has a life for her life, so leave him be. Somehow, I don't think Quinn getting to live forever in wealth is the trade that Rebecca had in mind.
Quinn says the lesson on the Little Drink goes on for hours and that whenever Petronia is mean "Arion shamed her with his kindness". Arion says it's now time for the four of them to go hunt, that Quinn shall find the Evil-Doer using mind-reading while they watch over him. Manfred says it's a wedding part, that a rich American has come to Naples for his daughter's nuptials, and the Evil-Doer will be there at every turn, to lure him and take in such a way that no one is the wiser and to seal up the wound after. Arion says the guests will have been drinking for hours and for Quinn to leave Little Drink victims as though drunk.
Ok, I know it has been quite awhile, so let me remind y'all that earlier in the book, present Quinn lamented over a memory that seems to suggest he killed a bride. So that's probably where we're going next. Okay, not probably, it is, I've read ahead.
Anyway, Quinn is "thirsty" and "inflamed" and wants with all his "wretched soul to be one of them. I was one of them!"
And then Petronia picks him up, throws him out the terrace doors, and he falls down on to the beach below where he lies quietly on the rocks by the sea, just gazing around.
I find this hilarious and want more of it.
She calls him to come back up as if she DIDN'T just randomly throw him off what I think was a balcony, and Quinn wills himself to rise, and, I think, flies back up to her. Oh, so that's what this was for. I prefer the idea she just felt like hucking him out of the house, myself.
She slips an arm around him, tells him "we move by speed, not magic", and not to spill a drop when he drinks because "we expect perfection of you"
Yeah, magic in a book with ghosts and vampires and psychics and telepathy and pyrokinesis and spirits and witches would just be SILLY, right?
Quinn asks "But do we kill?"
UM
YOU WERE LITERALLY JUST INSTRUCTED HOW TO KILL, USING A LIVE HUMAN BEING AS PRACTICE
YOU WERE SHOWN HOW *NOT* TO KILL, YES, BUT ALSO HOW TO KILL
AND TOLD TO KILL THE EVIL-DOER
WHICH YOU WERE TOLD THERE WOULD BE PLENTY OF AT THIS WEDDING PARTY
YOU CLEARLY FUCKING KILL YOU INCREDIBLE DUMB SHIT
Arion replies with a shrug: "If you wish. If the evil is ripe for it and you are graceful and sly."
...sly is not a word I would associate with Quinn.
http://goth-mabel.tumblr.com/post/143143881418/compare
http://sarahtaylorgibson.tumblr.com/post/115080489896/how-to-tell-if-youre-in-an-anne-rice-novel
Also, I have some new rodents! A lady at work was breeding mice for her son's snake, and because she didn't know how to sex mice or when to separate the boy babies from their sisters, it got terribly out of control. I sent her some links on how to do these things, and she gave me four females. They're utterly identical albinos, so I can't tell them apart, thus they don't have names. But they're nice mice! Phoebe meanwhile passed just after Christmas, but I'm not sad about that so no condolences needed. She was a very old mouse who lived a full life despite her respiratory issues and she got to go comfortably, so this wasn't devastating like the premature rodent deaths I had earlier this year.
So as it is now, I've got one rat left (Blaze) and four new mice.
And I've also got fresh rage for...
BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 39
"All my life I'd believed in Heaven and Hell. Did Heaven look down upon this metamorphosis?"
Keep this line in mind, this professed concern for what God thinks, when reading the things Quinn is going to do in this very chapter.
Quinn is lays in the bath as "dark fluids" pour out of him until "the human death was over". He is then dressed by "the Adonis and the two sharp-featured young girls" whose blood Quinn now hungers for. He thinks about what Arion said regarding preying on the Evil Doer, looks at the "roughest" of the girls, and sees that hey, she's bitter and angry and had expected Quinn to be killed! The other girl thought the same and Quinn can tell she also feels "cheated and angry" and that "hatred emanated from both women" towards Quinn, and in returned Quinn "detested them" that they would have thought nothing of dumping his body after Petronia killed him. The man, however, is "sympathetic" towards Quinn and "seemed to think it marvelous" that Quinn did not die.
Quinn asks the man how many others Petronia has brought here, but Petronia enters and tells Quinn to pick one of these three for his first kill. The girls scream and back away, the boy only seems to feel a "profound disappointment". Quinn says he can't do it, Petronia says if he doesn't she'll pick one for him, and reminds him that they'd have dumped his body happily for her.
I'd like to note that these people are captives of Petronia, her servants whom she abuses. They don't kill anyone (though the girls talked of doing it to Quinn, but seemed too scared to anger Petronia) they just dispose of Petronia's kills. And she clearly would think nothing of killing them too. So I'm not getting how they're tremendously evil. The worst crime, I suppose, is the claim that they would feel no guilt, but according to the girls they've been here since they were children, so like...I feel like it's a natural response to get inured in that situation. If you did look at every victim as human, did feel guilt about your part in covering their murder even though you had no choice, I think it would destroy you. It seems to me natural that they would become callous.
But I don't expect Quinn to have that kind of empathy, or for Rice to want the reader to. It's odd, because Rice I've seen Rice be praised for debating morality and shades of gray and all that in her works, but the thing is, that only exists for her privileged protagonists. These women---it's usually a woman, at least to my memory---pop up a lot in her books, women who are Just Bad, women who get no sympathy for their circumstances whereas men do, women who deserve to be killed, as one of these women will be and as the two coded-Latina women were at the beginning of this book. Also, like the two women at the beginning of this book, notice that this pair don't have names either, even in passing.
Petronia advises Quinn to use the "Spell Gift" to read the minds of the girls and "charm" them. I think this is some sort of telepathy/hypnosis deal. He looks at the "hard-speaking" girl and does this: "I saw her evil, her casual and vicious disconnect since the human herd, her brittle cheap egocentricity."
...did I just read a description of Quinn himself? That is literally Quinn. Ok, "evil" and "vicious" are perhaps too strong terms for a character as passive and wishy-washy as he is, but cheap egocentricity and seeing himself as inherently special and separate from other people? That's him all over.
But, with her, it's a death sentence. The girl is passive and unprotesting due to his Spell Gift, so he drinks her blood, killing her in the process. As he does, he learns her life, and though we are not told her story, we are told it was "putrid, common, indecent"
Common. That's apparently on-par with "putrid" and "indecent" from Anne Rice and Quinn, and that doesn't surprise me at all. I also originally wrote about how I feel like "indecent" is probably code for sex and the double standard there with how she allows her men to have this wild (and often predatory) sex lives but still be good people for it (like fucking JULIEN good god) but women are generally bad if they're sexual...the obvious exception being Mona, but she's "cured" of that through Quinn. But then I was like "how would this girl be having sex, she's Petronia's captive and has been for years according to her, since she was a child" so probably the "indecent" part is the body-dumping. But still, that's facedesking, because Quinn considers this to be evil and worthy of death, then puts it on the same level as being "common" and having had a "common" life (however one can even do that while being a vampire's captive)
Quinn is just...so fucking unlikeable. And I truly resent being expected to agree with his perceptions. Because there is, as always, zero indication we're not meant to.
Petronia shows him how to clean up the spilled blood, as well as heal the puncture wounds in the girl's neck, then takes him back to Manfred and Arion after he thanks "the Adonis" for his kindness. I have a hunch he'll forget him and never try to help him out of this hellhole, though.
Quinn says the utterly bizarre and pretentious line "And so we have this charged vision. We see all things as though they were quietly on fire in all their parts."
The proper response to this should be "are you high" but Petronia praises him, saying he understands, and urges him not to be afraid to speak up to her, that she watched him for years before she chose him and that "It was language that drew me as truly as beauty."
I have such a hard time believing that Petronia watched Quinn for years and this encouraged her to choose him rather than having the reverse effect. Heck, I would have a hard time believing that anyone could watch him for FIVE MINUTES and choose him for anything more than a slap in the face. I guess if she wanted to make a serial killer, he's a good pick---Quinn very overtly thinks he's better than others and that rules don't apply to him, because that's been the case all his life, now he's got not only the power to easily kill but the physical NEED to---but I feel like even then, there had to be candidates out there who still weren't as ANNOYING as he is.
Honestly, the idea she picked him for negative qualities because they'd make a good monster actually is a cool one to me, but very much not what Rice was going for, I don't think.
Quinn finds a "gentle majesty" about Petronia now, and he tells that he loves her, to which she gives a "mild, helpless laugh". He asks if that isn't what she wanted.
Before Petronia answers, I'd like to point out...Quinn just decided a woman was evil, evil enough to deserve death at his hands, for being egocentric, apart from the human herd, and getting rid of dead bodies for a vampire (but it's okay if the hot boy does it!). Petronia is apart from the human herd, seems pretty vain to me, and is the one who actually killed those people and is *making* the girls dispose of them. So, Petronia is everything that girl was and WORSE.
Yet Quinn loves her now. Totally and at random. Despite hating her before. And now having more reasons to hate her.
What is happening? This isn't VtM where there's a Blood Bond or some shit. And it can't be because he saw her life so he understands her now, because like...wouldn't that also apply to the girl he just killed, whose life he also saw?
For all that I ragged on Quinn for his gross attitudes towards Petronia earlier, this sudden and random and all-to-typical-for-Rice sudden turnaround to "I love you now for no reason" is even more annoying, especially when not only is there no reason for it, there are good reasons AGAINST it, and the contrast between this and the girl, it's like...on a meta level, Petronia is more important than that girl. Petronia is a far more important character. But in-universe, everyone is a real person with an equally real and important life. Yet Rice's characters behave as if they know who is actually important to the narrative and who is not, know what I mean? Hence these totally different standards for Petronia vs random slave girl.
...though gender influences that too, because look at Petronia vs random slave boy or random slave boy vs random slave girls.
I'm not saying women must always be angels or it's misogynistic but this is such a fucking pattern with Rice. It happens with the women at the beginning of the book, it happens here, and spoiler, it's gonna happen AGAIN in the next chapter. Women who are not important to the main character are moral free-game to kill if they are sexual and don't have super-nice personalities (regardless of their circumstances) Boys, however, just have to be pretty to be deemed good people, which they demonstrate by automatically being kind to the hero (regardless of circumstance) Seriously, between Dr. Mayfair, Stirling, Father Kevin, Michael, Arion, Lestat, have you noticed how Quinn always has like this ~instant rapport~ with guys and just knows how wonderful and trustworthy they are? Admittedly, he also falls instantly in love with Mona too. As I've said, Rice characters in general form instant deep emotional connections with no build or development at all, and also instantly know who is a good person or not.
Anyway, Petronia says maybe she wanted him to love her, maybe she still does, but oh she never knows what she wants and that's why she's never content, and more irritating rambling of that nature. I'm even fed up with Petronia at this point, egad.
They talk a little more about Petronia having been a gladiator, and I note she specifically says a "woman gladiator". She talks about how falling in love with Arion changed her, how she would work all day in the cameo shop dressed as a boy but then "became the woman for him" at night, how she "became something soft, something decent, something fine" for Arion.
So, the bit about her being dressed as a boy and then having a male lover is interesting to me because crossdressing women is something that's come up three times in Rice's vampires now that I'm aware of? First is Gabrielle, Lestat's mother, who began dressing and moving through the world as a man after she became a vampire, but seems to have stopped doing that during modern times. Another is Eudoxia, a vampire that Marius met in Blood & Gold, who when she was first turned during the time of Greek Alexandria, would likewise use a male disguise so she could go out at night to hunt. While in disguise as a boy, she gained a male lover, who believed her to be male, and when she revealed herself to him, he was so upset that she was insulted and changed him into a vampire for it. And now we've got Petronia, who is genderfluid but seems primarily female but like, dresses as a male for work and then a woman for sex. With Gabrielle and Eudoxia, their reasons for crossdressing are explicitly matters of practicality, not gender identity or gender expression (I think I remember Gabrielle have some issues with femininity but like in a more internal misogyny way?) whereas with Petronia, her gender identity is definitely part of why her gender expression is sometimes one or the other, but idk something about this reminded me of Eudoxia, and then I remember Gabrielle, and I...don't have a point to make or a conclusion to draw, I'm just noting it.
I will also note that none of these women are ever leading ladies in Rice's works, nor ever a love interest for the lead (which is usually the only way a woman can be good, as with Mona or Pandora, though I guess there is some undeniable Oedipal stuff with Lestat and Gabrielle) I'd also like to mention that Eudoxia had a female vampire lover named Zenobia and that after Marius and his buddies kill Eudoxia (ok, technically Akasha kills her) she comes simpering to them for protection and falls instantly in love with one of them and now they're married in Rice's most recent book. Just in case you were wondering how Rice treats lesbians on this sole occasion they show up.
Quinn asks Petronia what is decent, she says he knows and has always known, Quinn says he knew before but does not know now because "I killed that wretched girl, that murderous girl. That wasn't decent."
So even when Quinn is meant to be regretting her death or finding wrongdoing on his part for it, we still have to be reminded she was totally a shit person who had it coming. Yeah, Quinn, you sure sound convincing here.
There are lots of instances where a person could find someone "wretched" and evil and all and still regret killing them, but like...I'm not buying it from Quinn that he finds it indecent that he killed her. I'm just not. Namely because aside from this one line he never mentions in again, so I doubt he regrets it all that much. And that doesn't surprise me. As I said, if Petronia wanted to get a heartless serial killer, giving Quinn vampire abilities and vampire needs was a pretty good way to go. He'd never be a killer as a human, I don't think, being a spoiled and isolated rich kid doesn't make him actively evil, but adding on the NEED for blood that vampires have, the PLEASURE and NECESSITY of it, as well as the "well these are evil commoners so no big deal" attitude that fits with his mindset so well already, and yeah, he's going to kill and not give a fuck.
But this is not, apparently, Petronia's goal. She does tell him it's much too early for such questions, that they have hunting to do and that she'll have no "mewling fledglings" and that he will be "very strong when I'm finished with you." But when Quinn asks if he will be decent and honorable as well, she tells him in a sad tone "See that you are. Use your intellect for that. Don't imitate me. Imitate those who are better than me. Imitate Arion."
So Petronia doesn't want a callous killer, she wants a decent and honorable one. Quinn's done some nice things, I grant, but he is still a poor choice for this. I just find it utterly unbelievable she picked him with all her possible other choices she could have found given her range from Louisiana to Naples. I think it's just more that Quinn is just special and the best and everyone loves him so there. He never earns anything, nor does he ever had to demonstrate these qualities to any notable degree, we're just told he has them and that's that, so therefore he deserves all this love and becoming a vampire as a reward and all of that.
In total fairness, he was kind to give Terry Sue that house and help. He really was. But it's also not apparently any sort of actual financial sacrifice to him either with how wildly rich he is, so it's not as grand a gesture from him as it might otherwise be, and it doesn't balance out all his other flaws. If kindness and decency and honor is what Petronia is after, there are people who show it far more consistently. And since Petronia knows about Mona, she knows how fast he fell in love with her and wanted to wed her, and for a vampire, that kind of sudden passion and wanting to be with someone forever is actually, logically, a bad idea. Someone like that will very irresponsibly make fledglings out of love for them. But then again, that's the norm in Rice's world, so whatever I guess.
They return to where Manfred and Arion is, and Quinn is embraced by the "loving arms" of Arion, who we are informed is "lean and caring" and whose "fine black face utterly charmed me." If that sounds awkward, just wait. Petronia tells Arion to "drain" Quinn, which Arion does, and Quinn feels "the images of my life passing with the blood. I felt the sorrow I knew, the untold sorrow of being lost forever from Mona, fro my son Jerome, from Aunt Queen, from Nash, from Jasmine, my beloved milk chocolate Jasmine"
BELOVED
MILK
CHOCOLATE
JASMINE
god almighty
Quinn swoons---the word "swoon" is literally used---and wakes up in a chair. He is in terrible pain, then consumed by hunger. He wants the blood of Arion, Petronia, and Manfred, which is interesting to me because while Ricean vampires can gain power from drinking the blood of older/stronger vampires, I don't think they can get any kind of nourishment from them like they do from humans.
Arion says now it's time for the lesson, and tells Quinn to come drink from him but to take only the "Little Drink". He says this is how one feeds from innocents, to just take a little blood so they're left dazed and not dead.
In other words, Ricean vampires do not need to kill to survive. But they feel it's ok if they deem the person an Evil-Doer.
Now, I could get behind that idea, of vampires feeling they can be the arbitrators of morality and of death, if we weren't supposed to necessarily agree with them that they have this right. I LARP as a Lasombra vampire in a Vampire the Masquerade LARP, and many Lasombra feel that they are here by the will of God to frighten and punish the wicked. Lasombra are also known for being superior, haughty, and egomaniacal fucks who look down at everyone else, especially mortals, as subhuman. So it makes utter sense they see themselves as both having the natural right to kill to feed even though they don't need to, but the MORAL right as well. I could also see genuinely good, well-intentioned people thinking that they should use their vampire abilities Punisher-style, because I can see the argument that there are some people out there who damn well *should* die. There are a LOT of ways this could work, basically. But the problem with Rice's system is it's never really questioned by the narrative. I think maybe it was with Louis in Interview, I can't remember but I do recall Louis eating rats because he refused to kill, and I also recall Interview as the best I think, but at least within the context of THIS book it's not questioned by the narrative. I certainly saw zero indication we were supposed to question the right of Quinn and Lestat to kill those two women at the beginning of the book because they committed drug-related murders.
Which, by the way, maybe it is justified. Maybe it is! They did kill people too! But I feel like that kind of thing should just be more ambiguous, or at least treated with more nuance than Rice does. I mean, it's a complex ethical question, and should be treated as such. Instead, it just sort of seems a way for her vampires to be able to kill people without being "bad" themselves. The fact that the bad people in question are generally just nameless faceless people whose crimes we are simply informed of via vampire telepathy, rather than shown, and who are thus far always the same specific sort of "pretty but mean young woman" doesn't help.
Quinn sees "sunny Athens" through the blood of Arion, and they smooch with tongue. Quinn asks if his life is to be ecstasy like this from now on, Arion says ecstasy and control.
He is then invited to drink from Manfred, who urges him to take "the image of the only pure thing I ever loved" and mentions Blackwood Manor was built with Petronia's "wretched gold". Quinn drinking for Manfred is thankfully far less eroticly described---simply "I sank my teeth into his bull neck" ---but instead of seeing Virginia Lee as he is supposed to, Quinn sees poor Rebecca hanging on that hook again, and she laughs at him horribly. Quinn comes to, and Manfred, aware of what he saw, asks Quinn why he "reached for" Rebecca, whom he calls "that shrew" then concludes that though he wanted for Quinn to see Virginia Lee, he could not hide the guilt in his soul. That's kind of interesting.
Quinn then tells the "luckless ghost" to leave him alone and that she now has a life for her life, so leave him be. Somehow, I don't think Quinn getting to live forever in wealth is the trade that Rebecca had in mind.
Quinn says the lesson on the Little Drink goes on for hours and that whenever Petronia is mean "Arion shamed her with his kindness". Arion says it's now time for the four of them to go hunt, that Quinn shall find the Evil-Doer using mind-reading while they watch over him. Manfred says it's a wedding part, that a rich American has come to Naples for his daughter's nuptials, and the Evil-Doer will be there at every turn, to lure him and take in such a way that no one is the wiser and to seal up the wound after. Arion says the guests will have been drinking for hours and for Quinn to leave Little Drink victims as though drunk.
Ok, I know it has been quite awhile, so let me remind y'all that earlier in the book, present Quinn lamented over a memory that seems to suggest he killed a bride. So that's probably where we're going next. Okay, not probably, it is, I've read ahead.
Anyway, Quinn is "thirsty" and "inflamed" and wants with all his "wretched soul to be one of them. I was one of them!"
And then Petronia picks him up, throws him out the terrace doors, and he falls down on to the beach below where he lies quietly on the rocks by the sea, just gazing around.
I find this hilarious and want more of it.
She calls him to come back up as if she DIDN'T just randomly throw him off what I think was a balcony, and Quinn wills himself to rise, and, I think, flies back up to her. Oh, so that's what this was for. I prefer the idea she just felt like hucking him out of the house, myself.
She slips an arm around him, tells him "we move by speed, not magic", and not to spill a drop when he drinks because "we expect perfection of you"
Yeah, magic in a book with ghosts and vampires and psychics and telepathy and pyrokinesis and spirits and witches would just be SILLY, right?
Quinn asks "But do we kill?"
UM
YOU WERE LITERALLY JUST INSTRUCTED HOW TO KILL, USING A LIVE HUMAN BEING AS PRACTICE
YOU WERE SHOWN HOW *NOT* TO KILL, YES, BUT ALSO HOW TO KILL
AND TOLD TO KILL THE EVIL-DOER
WHICH YOU WERE TOLD THERE WOULD BE PLENTY OF AT THIS WEDDING PARTY
YOU CLEARLY FUCKING KILL YOU INCREDIBLE DUMB SHIT
Arion replies with a shrug: "If you wish. If the evil is ripe for it and you are graceful and sly."
...sly is not a word I would associate with Quinn.
