a-sporking-rat

OKAY GUYS last one!

BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTERS 51 & 52

In Chapter 51, Lestat and Quinn go to Stirling at the Talamasca to report what happened and how Merrick died, so that it can be recorded in her files. Lestat says she was a "gentle soul" who only preyed on the Evil-Doer and never innocents. Quinn says she chose this moment to kill herself because she wasn't alone. He also says that he had loved Merrick, which is ridiculous given he barely interacted with her in the brief time he knew her, and only on the matter of Goblin, and never showed any sign of affection to her, but I've ranted on Rice's penchant for instant but "authentic" affection before.

Quinn says he doesn't know what he'll do or where he'll go now, since there are people who need him and he is "enmeshed in human life", a phrasing with Lestat compliments him on. Quinn also thinks that he loathes himself for killing Patsy and wants to confess it, but hates himself too much.

Lestat says he's in love with Quinn and that Stirling can put THAT in his file if he likes. Given that he seemed to love Merrick too, I'm betting that Rice bumped off Merrick to make room for Quinn.

Quinn asks Stirling about Mona, saying that Rowan and Michael only give him vague answers and won't let him see her and that she's undergoing some kind of "special therapy" and could die from any kind of infection and is in intensive care.

Stirling says that Mona is dying. Lestat asks Stirling why Stirling is telling Quinn this. Stirling says because Quinn wants to know.

Obviously.

I guess Lestat is jealous, because instead of saying anything to Quinn about Mona, he tells "Little Brother" that he knows of two Evil-Doers in a magnificent waterfront mansion in Boca Raton. Oh, are they finally going to kill people who aren't poor? Who knows, we're not told any details about it in the following chapter (which is just as well since things are wrapping up) besides that Lestat once more shared his blood with Quinn.

Quinn is thinking about how he will manage to see Mona, but this is instantl resolved for him. Mona has come to his house, who Jasmine describes as a "crazy woman" and "living skeleton" who drove here in a limousine filled with flowers. Good for Mona, she actually does shit, and she goes all out. She damn well should, knowing she dying.

Quinn goes up to his bedroom, which is filled with loads of flowers and with Mona, who indeed looks as Jasmine described, with only her hair having been spared from the withering that has befallen the rest of her. She tells her "Noble Abelard" that she's come to die here in his bed instead of full of tubes and needles. Quinn asks if her "witch's eyes" can't see that he isn't human anymore. THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU, QUINN, STOW IT! Oh wait, but he has a point! He asks her if she wants to be what he is, and that she can be immortal if she lives off the blood of others forever.

Lestat comes in, and tells Quinn to let him be the one to do the "Dark Trick" because that way "you'll be much closer to your princess." because when one vampire changes another in Ricean world, those vampires cannot communicate through their thoughts. He tells Mona "Make your choice, pretty girl. You can always choose the Light some other night, cherie. Ask Quinn if you doubt it. He's seen the Light of Heaven with his own eyes."

Yeah, I mean why have the conflict of choosing between a predatory existence or facing the unknown that is the death, and the fear of what does (or doesn't) come after, right?

Lestat explains the rules and limitations of vampirism, and how he breaks them, while "Ophelia Immortal" clutches Quinn in her "nest of flowers" with her whole body trembling.

The last words of the chapter, and the book, is Mona saying: "Yes, I want it."

And that's the end!

I have no doubt that Mona will be restored to full beauty from the Dark Trick. Or perhaps once she gets a taste of blood.

In any case, it's done with. I think I'll do another Rice book next, either Servant of the Bones or The Mummy.

I read this one for Petronia, and...I like her a lot, but didn't really care for anyone else save Aunt Queen, whom I found far more interesting than Quinn. To be honest, almost EVERYONE was more interesting than Quinn, especially the characters Rice wanted me to dislike (Patsy, Rebecca) though that might just be the contrarian in me. Alas, what will probably stick MOST with me about this book is the bizarre shitty racist fantasy setup of a black family just happily working for a bunch of white Southerners for free because no reason.

Til next time, folks!

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!

I just stepped on a rather full dustpan in such a way that the contents were fucking catapulted RIGHT INTO BLAZE’S CAGE

This poor rat is just taking a snooze and suddenly there is GARBAGE RAINING ON HIM

…which admittedly, by rat standards, might be a good thing.

Alas, it's not the yummy kind of trash though!

BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 46

It's Aunt Queen's funeral. Nothing really happened. But I had to sit through this, so I'm gonna make you endure my condensed version.

Quinn had a "wild dream" in his heart that Mona would be at the Mass but she is not. Rowan, Michael, and Winn are, and they all have "that eerie glow which so unsettled me" and Stirling Oliver is with them. Polite nods are exchanged.

Tons and tons and tons of people have come.

Quinn is sad the coffin has been shut so he didn't get to see AQ one last time.

Lestat and Merrick Mayfair appear. Shockingly, Merrick is not given loads of description, or any at all, on sight. We're just told Merrick is there with Lestat, and then get to hear about what Lestat is wearing and how he has cut his hair tonight. Then we're told about what Merrick is wearing, though we still haven't been told what SHE looks like. Unusual.

Quinn overhears Stirling and Merrick greet each other, she tells Stirling she has a lot of things on her mind but will try to do what he wants, then kisses Stirling on both cheeks. Somehow, Quinn knows that this is "a moment of incredible magnitude" for Stirling, and I don't know if this is vampire telepathy or more just Rice Characters Just Know Things. It feels like the latter though.

Father Kevin Mayfair commences the Mass with two altar boys. God forbid we not know how many altar boys there are. Quinn hasn't seen him since he became a vampire and is thus unprepared for how much he reminds Quinn of Mona, so it makes him ache just looking at him. The Blood reveals to Quinn (which means, vampire telepathy) that Father Kevin truly believes the words he speaks during Mass. What happened to Quinn not poking into people's heads unless they're his victims or Patsy?

Merrick and Lestat kneel and pray and everything. So does Quinn. Nash and Jasmine go up and speak about Aunt Queen, Quinn thinks about how he didn't speak at any of the other funerals, and though "it seemed unthinkable" that he should speak at Mass while being a vampire, he does so anyway and reads from the Book of Wisdom. He himself is "scarcely believing" that he said this in "the sanctuary of a church" to a "human crowd" and to be honest this feels kind of forced to me. Crosses and other religious stuff clearly don't affect vampires, but we also know canonically that Jesus is real because Lestat drank from him, and Quinn knows this because he's read the VC books, so like...he should know that God's real and also doesn't care if you're a vampire. He presumably knows Lestat received the Veil of St. Veronica from Jesus along with his blood in Memnoch the Devil, for fuck's sake, VAMPIRES CAN RECEIVE RELICS OF SAINTS FROM JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, IT'S NOT GODDAMN SHOCKING YOU'RE ABLE TO BE A VAMPIRE IN A CHURCH and like, if the books did not exist in-universe, of course he wouldn't know this, but THEY DO AND HE'S READ THEM!

It might just be like, meant to be more Quinn's personal feelings on it than shock he's not bursting into flames, but that still seems dumb to me, given that he's lived as a vampire for a year at this point, and read the books in that time (probably very quickly since he's supposed to be ~so smart~ and Rice only ascribes to a specific sort of smart that would include quick reading) so like...he's had time to work it out. I might buy it more if it didn't seem so...artificial, the way it's written? It just does. Like I'm not even convinced he's all that surprised or thoughtful about it.

Tommy gives his own speech about Aunt Queen and all the places she took him and how he hopes to love other people the way she taught him to but he'll never love anyone like he loved her. I'm sure this would be touching if we'd actually experienced any of the relationship between him and AQ but instead it's just kinda superfluous boring and I wish Quinn had glossed over it like I am here. Quinn is very proud of him, by the way, and "he took my mind off my own sins". He holds Tommy's hand with one hand and Lestat's with the other.

We are told how Tommy and Jasmine are getting Communion and Quinn automatically gets up to get it too and "to my utter shock, so did Merrick and so did Lestat"

Yeah, that is kind of odd I guess, given that Lestat already has received the LITERAL BLOOD OF CHRIST DIRECT FROM THE SOURCE like jeez bro what do you need more for?

We are even specifically told how Quinn always takes the Host in his hand first before putting it in his mouth, and how he doesn't know if Lestat and Merrick put it in their hands first or take it directly on the tongue. If you're not Catholic, towards the end of Mass we get Communion, which is the wine and the Host, these tasteless little wafers that are meant to represent the flesh of Christ. Well, no, they actually are supposed to be literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ, but that's complicated/weird to explain even as a Catholic, so like...let's just say represents. And you can take it in your hand first or the priest can put it right on your tongue. I think the more hardcore/traditional types only let you have it on the tongue. So that's why this distinction would be important to Rice, and I suppose it's meant to be important to Quinn, but Quinn hasn't really been religious for shit in this book besides the occasional thought about God so I don't think that this whole specific thing was at all fucking necessary and I resent slogging through it.

He tells us he prayed to be forgiven for his sins and how Christ is inside him but also that he is guilty of sacrilege (idk how, he doesn't explain) and 'what is a murderer to do' (yeah, like Quinn is so repentant about that *eyeroll*) and how for the moment he is pure. He thinks about how God became Man (with a capital M) and how "it seemed such a remarkable gesture!" and how "It was as if I'd never heard the story before!" and he ponders how it seems God did this to greater understand the creation that had so offended Him as humans had done, how angels hadn't done that but humans did.

His thoughts on this aren't at all deep or lengthy, he just more or less thinks the exact same sentences that I transcribed, and while I am glad I don't need to get through long deep reflections when my patience is out for this book, it does make Quinn's sudden spiritual concerns seem that much more shallow. Like Rice is TRYING to put this in here suddenly, but it's too little too late and she herself doesn't actually seem that interested or have much to say. I wish I could remember more of Interview, because I swear I *think* it was much deeper and more well-down than this (especially since the questions Louis had then would be genuine questions, as the mythos had not been at all expanded yet) but I think I might just also be remembering people SAYING that versus my own opinions.

Also calling the incarnation of God as Christ a "remarkable gesture" is like...I'm not sure I'd call it offensive, but it's a ridiculous understatement, especially from such a Catholic person? He makes it sound like God just brought over a really nice icebox cake to a dinner party He was invited to. It really, truly, on top of everything else, does not sell me on Quinn's sincerity in this. It's hollow, it's shallow, it doesn't make sense, and it's just bogging everything down that much more, much like this painfully blow-by-blow funeral. Actually, wait, I think I just described the bulk of this book.

They go to the cemetery. Candles provided by the funeral company are lit. Father Kevin finishes with "dash and charm" which are not words I'd really want a priest to do my great aunt's funeral with, and "wept for Aunt Queen" because...I guess...he knew her personally and we were just never told about it? Terry Sue is crying too, and then Patsy bursts out in tears and yells at Quinn for "How could you bring us out here at night? I hate this place, and you have to bring us here at night. You, always you, Tarquin."

It's hard for me not to like Patsy when she is suddenly the voice of my frustration at everything Being All About Quinn. Quinn, however, tells us he felt sorry for her because everyone is staring at her and they don't know how sick she is or how insane she is.

...so Patsy's insane now too?

Patsy yells at him more, says damn him to hell and stuff like that. Grady, the family lawyer, "tried to pet and quiet her" which I find pretty demeaning language, then he and Big Ramona force her into the limo as she continues to curse him. Quinn feels "humiliated for her" and her "strange theatrics" and wonders why she had come, when she didn't come to the funerals of her own parents.

...Quinn, I think it's more than a bit obvious why she didn't come to the funerals of her parents.

Merrick says they should meet tonight. She says "your spirit friend" is dangerous and she can sense his presence, though "he is eager not to be seen by me or by Lestat". They say they'll meet at the house, Merrick says "your mother" (it took me way too long to remember she meant Patsy, guess she figured that out via vampire telepathy) is heading there as well so "try to keep her" because "we have to talk to her". She uses a very repetitive way of speaking to say this, and I'm wondering if that's Rice fucking up or just her way of talking.

Quinn gets in the limo and lists for us every other person who is in it. Because I guess otherwise I'd just be wondering how Big Ramona, Patsy, Nash, Jasmine, and Clem all got home. Then Quinn gets out again to take two red roses from the crypt, and Goblin is there by the mausoleum, dressed exactly like Quinn and his hair is "full but trimmed" just like Quinn's, but despite him looking solid Quinn can see an "intricate web of blood" all throughout him, which is admittedly a pretty damn cool mental image. Goblin's visible form is only around for a second or two, then "winked out as though it had been a flame"

He takes the two roses, gets back in the limo, and Patsy cries all the way home about how she hasn't been to that "damn tomb" in all these years and now had to go in the middle of the night "on account of little Quinn, little Quinn, how fitting, little Quinn!"

So it starts get obvious here that her reasons for not coming to the other funerals might not just be about Sweetheart and Pops themselves, but the family tomb/cemetery. We will learn why this is in the next chapter, as why she says it is "fitting" that she is here because of Quinn.

Big Ramona tells Patsy that she didn't have to come and to shush because she's "making herself sick" which is a remark that Patsy understandably doesn't take well ("Oh damn you, you all, what do you know about sick?") "and so it went on for the long ride home" so that by the time they home, Quinn has crushed the roses in his hands.

Next chapter, we finally get some answers about Goblin!

So, my theory that the vampire's heightened senses making them obsessed with stuff like patterns being a shout-out to the "count all the rice!" type vampire legends? Totally wrong. According to Wikipedia "Rice took a previously written short story and turned it into her first novel, the bestselling Interview with the Vampire. She based her vampires on Gloria Holden's character in Dracula's Daughter: "It established to me what vampires were—these elegant, tragic, sensitive people. I was really just going with that feeling when writing Interview With the Vampire. I didn't do a lot of research."

You know, I want to make fun of that---the "elegant, tragic, sensitive" bit---but ultimately, it is not justified at all for me to do that. Just because it's a cliche in itself at this point doesn't mean it wasn't innovative once, and even when it's been done a million times, it can still be done WELL. It's not a bad idea just because it doesn't appeal to me, and it definitely is a kind of vampire that holds appeal for a lot of other people. It's EXECUTION that's the issue here. I don't think Quinn, for instance, fits any of those descriptors. He's only really "sensitive" in regards to himself, he's not "elegant" so much as just ostentatiously wealthy (remember how he fucking LISTS the brand names of his clothes?) which is really the OPPOSITE of elegant, and while some of the things that happened to him have been sad, that's not the same thing as tragedy. And while I could very much enjoy reading about a tacky callous manchild vampire who gets kicked in the ass by fate, the fact is, that's not what Rice was aiming for, so it ends up unsatisfying both for people who want that AND for people who wanted someone ACTUALLY "tragic, elegant, and sensitive"

I know I've said some variant of this over and over, of course, but I just feels it bears repeating, having found this quote, and recognizing that my own first reaction---to scoff at it, to say "well THERE'S your problem", to be one of the people who thinks "THAT'S not what vampires SHOULD be" just because it doesn't fit their own preferences---is WRONG. I would very much like to avoid being that person. I think it is important, for sporkers especially, to keep that in mind. Of course, our own preferences, beliefs, and biases, ranging from "how we best like our vampires" to our political views to our opinion of how people work, etc. will influence our sporks in one way or another (or at least, it does my own, and those of other sporkers I have read) because sporks are ultimately opinion, but like...you get what I mean? There's a difference between "this idea is bad because it's not what I would want to read" vs "this execution is bad and here is my argument for why", basically.

...and honestly, I don't even know why I'm typing all this out since I feel like all my followers here are of this mind already, but eh.

Anyway, speaking of sporking, I've been having some thoughts on what to do next. I was thinking either Servant of the Bones or The Mummy. Both of them are by Rice as well, but not tied to her vampires/witches verse. They're not well-known, but they are very...Rice.

Fun fact there's a total of three female characters in Servant of the Bones. One is dead before the story begins but we're told consistently how tragic that is because of how good and sweet she was. The other is her mother, who has sex with the MC. And the third is the rando evil witch who made him a sort of genie. I guess you could count the random girl with big boobs who like, goes gaga for him in passing on the street, as a the fourth. When I told a friend this, they noted that these are "exactly the three female characters allowed in stories"

This same friend also suggested I spork a comic, like maybe some of Chuck Austen's X-Men stuff. That's an interesting idea.

So...any of y'all got any thoughts/ideas/preferences?

( BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 44 )

BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 42

They go back to the palazzo and are told by the very frightened servant girl that Petronia wants to see Quinn in her dressing room. The "young Adonis" is plaiting her hair, and Petronia looks GREAT. She's wearing a "buff-colored velvet coat and pants, with a ruffled white shirt that would have looked good in the eighteenth century" and "huge rectangular cameo" at her throat that is "surrounded by diamonds" and she also has "two threads of diamonds running over her head" which are being plaited into her hair.

Quinn says she is "clad as a man" but nothing about this sounds like "male attire" to me, just a woman in a suit, and not looking very "masculine" in it at that. Like wearing a ruffled blouse and diamond hair decorations with long hair does not read to me as "clad as a man" (not that men can't do that!)

We're told a bit about the sea and the sky, as the room is open to it, and how taken aback Quinn is by Petronia's beauty in her "sharp male clothing". When the "young Adonis" is finished plaiting her hair, she gives him some money and tells him to go enjoy himself as he's done well. He bows and backs out of the room "as though he'd been dismissed by the Queen of England"

Petronia asks if Quinn finds the boy beautiful, Quinn says he doesn't know because "Everything charms me. As a human being, I was an enthusiast. Now I think I'm losing my mind."

This is a part of Ricean vampires, that their senses are so enhanced that beauty can much more easily overwhelm them and even hypnotize them, and I think that actually works well both in that gives her a good reason for the elaborate lovely descriptions she's so good at without it seeming bizarre that the character is focusing on these things, and, this may be just me, but it seems like a subtle reference to stories of vampires being hypnotized by counting grains of rice or the like.

Petronia takes him in her arms and asks if the wounds she inflicted have healed, he says yes "Except the wound no one can heal, the one I inflicted on myself, that I killed the innocent young woman, that I murdered her at her own wedding" and that time will not heal it either. Petronia just laughs and says to come join the others, and how his grandfather plays chess but was a poker player when she met him, and beat her too.

She leads him back to the room with the big golden cage and wonders if he had looked like Caravaggio's "Victorious Cupid" inside it. Yes, he seriously ponders this. Because I know if I saw something like that that I'd been thrown inside before undergoing trauma, my thoughts would be, what classical work of art did I most resemble inside it? Also, Rice, pick a different artist than Arion referenced, try to hide it at least a TINY bit that your characters tastes aren't all just your own.

Petronia then tells Quinn about her night thus far. See, it turns out that the bride's husband and father were "first-rate killers" because apparently those really are just all over the place in the Naples, and "of course the little minx knew it, so salve your conscience with that"

So basically the one thing Quinn did that was even close to textually recognized as wrong has now been retroactively justified so it wasn't THAT bad, isn't that convenient. I mean, Quinn will still angst over it, but I feel like this was thrown in so the READER wouldn't feel that much sympathy for the bride is actually justified, and therefore that Quinn didn't REALLY do anything wrong. And if that was the intent, I say, I disagree---the bride did not "deserve" to get killed by Quinn, and it certainly does not justify it that he finds out she was "bad" after the fact. What exonerates Quinn, if anything, is that it was his first time and utterly accidental. That's fair. I agree with Arion, he shouldn't have been left alone. But the bride's morality shouldn't fucking factor in AFTER IT WAS DONE, BECAUSE HE DID NOT KNOW IT AT THE TIME. And like, I get Petronia is an unkind monster, I'm down with that, it just very much feels like, as I said, that it's not simply Petronia's attitude that it's fine the "little minx" died, but Rice's as well. Especially since she pretty clearly thinks that these nameless, faceless "first-rate killers" are justified fodder for the conversely very humanized vampires. It's just another part of how she's determined to give her characters the easy out and not actually have to face any tough moral choices in which they may not, or perhaps even can not, come out justified.

Anyway, Petronia the groom and father sent four armed men here. It is not explained how they knew whodunnit and where to find them. If Petronia & Co are that easy to find so quickly by anyone seeking vengeance, I'm amazed they didn't get fucking staked long ago, especially if they only prey on killers, who seem to be in a very strange abundance in Rice's mind.

Petronia talks about what a terrific time she had fighting them, how thrilling it was, how she should do it more often. but also says she killed them before they could fire their weapons. Okay, in order to kill four men in succession fast enough that none of them could, according to her, even draw their guns, let alone shoot at her, she'd had to have been using some seriously exceptional super speed. that doesn't sound like it was a fight at all, let alone a thrilling one, it just sounds like the usual swift vamp killing. Unless they just...politely stood and waited for her to fight one of them to death before moving on to the next?

Also she says they were all dumped into the sea, their car too. That seems to be where the bodies are disposed of in general. rice may think this is clever, but she does know about this thing called the tide, right? Stuff washes up.

This is seriously just all so flimsy it's downright inexcusable. I can suspend my disbelief to a certain degree with vampire novels, it's basically required, but give me SOMETHING to work with here!

Anyway, Arion says Petronia needs to explain some rules to Quinn, Petronia says don't tell mortals who you are, don't kill another vampire, cover up your kills, respect your Maker, and striking said Maker will mean his destruction. Manfred says that's good, now give Quinn warnings, he needs those. Petronia gets offended and gives "warnings" that are just insults at Manfred, like "don't act old when you're immortal!"

Manfred (still referred to as the Old Man in the narrative by Quinn) says to tell Quinn about the Talamasca, then warns Quinn of them himself, saying they know about "us" and not to fall for their blandishments and flattery, that they're psychics and magicians who want to lock vampires up in their castles and study them in their labs. Shocked, Quinn tries not to think about Stirling, but Manfed detects in Quinn's thoughts that he's already met them and says to never risk going near them again. Quinn says "it was all broken off long ago" and explains how he sees spirits. Arion shakes his head, saying that "Ghosts don't come to our kind, Quinn"

I guess that kinda makes sense? Since ghosts are typically drawn to the living, I think? But then again, Rice established that seeing ghosts in her canon is due to having certain receptors in the brain, so do those just...turn off when you become a vampire?

Petronia agrees with Arion's assertion, and adds that Quinn will probably find that his "familiar" is gone if he ever goes back to Blackwood Farm to spy on his loved ones.

Quinn says nothing, watches the chessboard (Arion and Manfred are playing), then asks if there are any other rules. Arion says not to make other vampires without permission. Quinn is surprised that he can make other vampires. Um, fucking duh, Quinn? Arion confirms yes he can but cautions him against doing so, reiterating he will need the permission of him and Petronia. Arion says it will be tempting, but "Don't be a fool in this. Don't spend eternity with someone you may come to despise or even hate."

Petronia is noted to go silent after Arion says this.

Also I'm gonna spoil things for you guys, as sensible as this advice really is, Quinn has Lestat make Mona a vampire (to give Mona more power, I think, since Lestat is so powerful) by the end, and I don't think there's any consequences to that (though she does die in the most recent book, I believe, Prince Lestat)

After a long silence, Petronia says that if Quinn does go back to look in on his family, don't hunt New Orleans because Lestat is there, that is a "ruthless, iconoclastic, and self-centered" vampire who rules New Orleans, kills young Blood Hunters, and has written vampire books that pass as fiction for mortals but are actually true (remember, the Vampire Chronicles exist within themselves, just written by Lestat instead of Anne Rice, except Interview which was, of course, written by the guy who did the Interview, I forget his name, I think it was Daniel)

We know, of course, that Lestat will not kill Quinn because he's special!

Quinn's quiet a long time, the chess game ends, Quinn says he's going to leave "you gentlemen" and thanks them for their "gifts". Petronia and Arion are like what the fuck, you don't know how to fly that far, you don't know how to pretend to be human, Quinn says he'll just take a plane like a mortal and that he knows how to be human because he's watched how they pretend to be human.

...did he forget how to be human that fast that he even needed to re-learn? He just changed last night so I'd think he hadn't "lost it" and would still be subconsciously breathing and blinking and stuff, but I might just be projecting Masquerade canon on to Ricean canon here.

Petronia says that if he lets these mortals in on his secret, he'll destroy them, while Quinn counters he'll protect them from it and "you won't make me lose my nerve."

I've read ahead and while some people are gonna die, it's NOT due to Quinn letting them know he's a vampire, so yeah Quinn turns out right in this because hey it's not like he can make mistakes, UNLESS it's to be conveniently really dumb for the plot like when he just walked up to Petronia at night uninvited hence how he got here.

Petronia says she doesn't give a damn what he does "just as I knew she would" which is a funny prediction because I would have thought she'd just beat the shit out of him. He says he's going back to the Hermitage and she tells him "venomously" it's a present from her.

Quinn takes a twenty minute walk from the palazzo to, surprise, the Hotel Excelsior where he had previously been a guest! He claims to have been robbed and needs to phone his aunt, which they let him do. He tells a sobbing Aunt Queen that he can't explain but he's in Naples, that he needs his passport and funds. Nash is then put on the line with the hotel staff so that Quinn is set up with 'every convenience" and will have airline tickets delivered to him. Quinn plans a series of evening flights, then goes to his new suite and enters "a state of shock". He reflects how his life has just been a series of escalating fear, and how he just wants to be with his family again, and he won't let being a vampire take that from him. He just uses more purple wording that I'm going to spare you. He also thinks he he can't see Mona again--- "never would my pain be mixed with her pain"

He stands for an hour without moving, trying to breathe deeply, thinks about what he wants to do, lays down on the bed, has tremors, then sinks into mortal sleep. It is mostly dreamless, but he thinks he hears Rebecca laughing. The morning light awakens him "like scalding water" so he has to close the curtains and crawl under the bed to sleep more.

He gets home through his series of flights, and assures us that he makes no kills nor blunders as he practices the Little Drink in airports. And I'm NOT going to spare you THIS:

"Oh, it was an agony of fear and pleasure, drifting through a humanity I could penetrate only as a monster. And the swarming airports became hellish, like vast sets for some existential drama."

He arrives in New Orleans, there's Aunt Queen and Jasmine and Nash and Tommy and Jerome all awaiting him with hugs. He asks about Patsy, her HIV is now full-blown AIDS and Seymour is suing her for giving it to him. When Quinn gets home, he tells Big Ramona he's too old to sleep with her anymore. IT TAKES BECOMING A VAMPIRE FOR HIM TO DO THIS.

He goes to his room, and when he's alone, he cries. He finds out vampires cry blood. Goblin is there, sitting in the computer chair, and when Quinn cries blood, so does he. Quinn wipes at his own face, and when the blood on Goblin's face doesn't disappear as well, he becomes upset and shouts at him. Goblin runs at him, then merges with him, and Quinn is pushed backwards, unable to fight him.


"He was in me, he was merged with me, and it felt like a pure fatal electric shock, and when he withdrew I saw him huge and filled with tiny droplets of blood, and I collapsed."

I'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.

Literally nothing happened in this chapter either. I would say at least Petronia was in it, but that's ruined by the fact she's now fawning over Quinn like everyone else. Because even the bad guy has to be in love with him and think he's great.

CHAPTER 37
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I've been keeping rats some 15 years or so, and never had this amount of incredible bad luck. Rocket has now gotten sick too, and it doesn't seem to be the same respiratory illness that took Darcy, Topaz, and Dodger. For whatever reason, he's not eating, and as a result has lost weight and is lethargic/weak. I've taken him to the vet, and they don't know what it is but they gave me some meds, and I'm taking him back in regularly for fluids. Meanwhile at home, he's getting a lot of tempting treats like roast beef, yogurt, avocado, and eggs in order to encourage him to eat. I hope he recovers, I really don't want to lose another rat so soon, especially what was just recently a strong young healthy buck like Rocket.

In the meantime, enjoy...

BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 35

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It has been quite a roller coaster with the rats! Amethyst had a UTI, Rocket had mites, it looked like Pearl might be getting an ear infection...and worst of all, Blaze's foot was horribly swollen and red. We think he got it caught in the cage bars and twisted it around trying to get loose. The vet said that he might lose it, but gave me two oral medications and some wound spray. Looks like it did the trick, because he's made a full recovery! Amethyst's UTI cleared up with some Baytril, some Kitten Revolution took care of Rocket's mites, and Pearl's ear infection has just ended up being chunky ear boogers, nothing serious.

Whew!

The ride never ends with these guys.

Also, Blaze is a sweet calm chill baby, whereas Rocket thinks he's a big tough wild rat. Blaze was perfect when the vet examined his foot, whereas Rocket threw a big squirming pooping peeing tantrum just at having his fur/skin looked at DX

Related to the current spork, a friend noted that what they get from Quinn's bisexuality being instantly accepted by himself and everyone, whereas Petronia's intersexuality and gender-fluidity is treated as freakish, shows that this is a narrative where what the writer approves of his approved of by everyone, whereas what she DOESN'T it treated as aberrant, and I'm inclined to agree.

They also said they have a crush on Petronia and feel bad for it since she's treated in such a fetishized manner and I AM IN THE SAME BOAT, I TOO AM ATTRACTED TO HER and that's even knowing that she's going to rape Quinn DX

BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER 33
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I'm gonna do a more straightforward summary of this chapter than usual, without blow-by-blow and direct quotes, I just wanna...skip over all the unnecessary description and dialogue altogether. But suffice to say there is a LOT of words spent on the interior of the Mayfair home. I also tried to put things in a pretty sensible order, because some of the conversations just jumped around everywhere, as well as to remove a lot of things that just didn't matter. Rice is really the queen of irrelevant details.

BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 31

Rowan and Michael talk with Quinn. He tells them what Julien told him. They then inform him that the reason they don't want a relationship between him and Mona is that, due to giving birth to her mutant child, Mona now miscarries when she becomes pregnant, and each miscarriage weakens her much more so than it would a normal woman. She basically puts her life on the line with each pregnancy. She's in fact sick right now due to this, which is why she was at the hospital and why she hasn't come down to see him herself yet.

This is why they want her to "stop seducing her cousins" and having sex in general. Have they asked WHY she's doing that? I mean, the question of "why is a 15 year old trying to have this much sex, and why is ANYONE obsessed with incest" is pretty valid on its own (then again, I guess "she's a Mayfair and this shit is normalized to her and she's been sexually abused by at least one adult who is NOW HER GUARDIAN" really answers that) but now that Mona *knows* that her life is literally at risk from sex...why is she not stopping? She used protection with Quinn, sure, but as Rowan points out, that's a 100% guarantee. They also say they want her to cooperate with the blood tests and nutritional supplements and other things they're trying to do to help her.

I really, really think Mona has a problem. Teenagers don't have the best sense of consequences, but I feel like if she's been pregnant/miscarried enough times for them to have figured this out, she's been "weakened" enough times by these miscarriages to realize, THIS SHIT IS FOR REAL. But she continues to have sex, and to refuse medical help like the blood tests, supplements, etc. Why?

And why hasn't she had a hysterectomy to just prevent pregnancy altogether? If her life is at risk, and they don't want anymore mutant babies anyway, and she still wants to keep having sex, why wouldn't she sign up for that? Her family OWNS a fucking local hospital and has more money than God, yet it's not even suggested by anyone in this chapter. Maybe we'll get an answer later that she's a hemophiliac or something?

Michael and Rowan explain that this is why they acted like they did, because Mona puts herself in danger and it scares them. I have...very mixed feelings on this. I get where they're coming from. When I was a teenager, I too did things that put me in danger (albeit in a different way than Mona) due to my mental issues. My parents frequently didn't know how to react to my behavior, and I know it scared them greatly. Often, especially with my dad, this would manifest in being angry with me. Now, that's not the RIGHT reaction to a self-harming depressed teenager who runs away from school. But it wasn't abusive either, it was just normal parent/child conflict in an abnormal (well...not THAT abnormal, I guess, the teen goth who cuts herself is virtually a cliche at this point) situation.

Rowan and Michael, on the other hand, were acting like textbook abusers when they came to collect Mona, so much so it's chilling. So even though I get their motive and I believe it to be sincere (at least for Rowan, I don't trust MICHAEL has Mona's best interests at heart) I can't see them as benign as Quinn now does (he thinks they're TERRIFIC of course)

Here's what my theory is: Rice genuinely means them to be concerned for Mona, and to be good people. So she wrote how SHE thinks that good, concerned people would act. Unfortunately, like LKH, Rice's perspective of that is so warped that it came out like...that.

Oh, and Quinn doesn't even THINK of having a vasectomy, let alone bring up that he could have one (which from my POV would be ridiculous because I don't think he's as in love with her as he thinks, but *he* thinks he is) But what he *does* say to Michael and Rowan is that he's not a "pauper" or a "beggar" and isn't going to make Mona live in a "small cottage". Besides the fact that NO ONE ASKED, Quinn talking like this (especially the use of the term "small cottage" which frankly is NOT where poor people live these days) just makes me subscribe that much more to my friend's theory that this book was written originally to take place a century or two ago, and Rice changed that midway but forgot to adjust a lot of dialogue.

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