English Discussions

PLEASE RESPOND thoughtfully and throughly to EACH post in 100 words or more. There are 4 posts. Must be complete by 5 PM PST with no plagarism. Your responses to fellow students should contain substance, should be more than just opinion, and must go beyond a simple agreement or disagreement.

RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING POSTS:

POST 1

Module 4, Discusson 1

The Vampire Lestat and Dracula differ on many levels despite both being vampires. Dracula offers a darker look at Vampires with seemingly more limitations than his Americanesque counterparts. Unlike Lestat, Dracula is bound to the earth from whence he originates. Lestat travels, much like Dracula does, but he is not hindered in this respect. As far as personality goes, Dracula seems to be driven by the simple needs of a traditional vampire. New hunting ground and the driving need to find beauty. While it is true that Lestat seems to desire a type of beauty, its less driven by the need to hunt and almost seems to be a type of soul searching (which is ironic considering Vampires are traditionally viewed as not having souls).

Dracula also seems to be very selective in who he turns into vampires. He is an older being, unlike the younger Lestat, who seems driven in his desire to move to England and hunt there. I would almost go so far as to say that Dracula selected England as his new haunt. While Lestat also seems to select America as his desired location he still travels significantly. Lestat also seems more willing to turn others into vampires, such as his mother and Nicki. This can be argued as being due to a desire not to be alone which is similar to Dracula's own motives in this respect.

Lastly comes what I would call the taste of each respective vampire. Dracula, while seeming to hold to a gothic type style, expresses no true show or appreciation for things (This is my opinion). He is obviously old, and learned, yet Lestat seems to crave more. He was 'recruited' as a vampire following theatrical performances.

POST 2

Count Dracula does not “mingle” with the living unless it is with beautiful young maidens with whom he is attracted to. His “eyes” seem to glow for no parent reason. Count Dracula was written by a man (a man’s point of you).  The description of his castle in Transylvania (name alone is scary) is “a pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of grayness”.  He is considered a monster, menus to society because all the innocent women have began to fall under a spell of some sorts and it is making the villagers very uneasy because he only takes women.

Lestat de Lioncourt mingles with the mortals in the hopes of finding a fresh new lease on his existence.  He goes out in public, learns to play the violin (because of Nicklaus), does not take innocent children (one of the many rules he follows), and tells the world that vampires are real threw his music and his band the “Satan’s Night Out” MTV and the radio was playing their music all the time.  He had a declared that he was going have un “unprecedented rebellion and a challenge to his kind all over the world” he is also doing this so he can find (without having to travel) the ones that he loves.

[1] Stoker, Bram, Dracula. London, GB: ElecBook, 2000. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 12 January 2017.

[1] Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat, USA, 1986.  Random House Publishing, 26 January 2017.

POST 3

Lestat in America

The twentieth century American landscape had a huge effect on Lestat.  He was so surprised at how little poverty there was; that everyone was living like the aristocrats of his time.  People dressed casually with bright colors and makeup and styled their hair in various lengths whether male or female.  He was impressed with the cleanliness of the city streets, void of starved immigrants and of beggars.  There were old customs entwined with new and the technology seemed like magic.  He witnessed the loss of religion as more were following the intellectuals.  He saw people being “driven by a vigorous secular morality as strong as any religious morality” (Rice, p. 8) he had ever known.  It seemed to him that people were concerned more for others than had ever been displayed in history.  Ordinary people wanted to eliminate wars, famine, and disease for the entire world.  Lestat contemplated “this sinless secular morality, this optimism…where the value of human life was greater than it had ever been before” (Rice, p. 9).  He became more inclined than before not to drink from “innocent blood,” but it was more difficult to find the “killers” of old.  He was left with new types of killers, drug dealers, pimps, and the like.

The arts were an outlet for him; he had always loved his drama.  The way the artists dressed and sang and confessed to being evil, all while being accepted by others in this modern age.  This gave him his inspiration.  He read The Interview with a Vampire, confessions from his beloved Louis that was considered fiction by mortals.  He wrote his own autobiography and with the videos and the forbidden use of other vampire names, he hoped to bring out all of the other vampires with his much publicized concert.  He was trying to draw out the other vampires who he knew had to be hiding all over the world.  He had always hated to be alone and this could have been one way to bring them all together.  But he had to know this could also incite a war between him and other vampires.  This could threaten the peace that the humans wanted.  I am curious if his intentions were to destroy himself or the put the long lost fear of evil back into humans.  He had always acted impetuously, because he lacked the fear that gave others the sense to consider the repercussion of actions.  I don’t think he ever conceived what would happen.

Reference:

Rice, A. (1985). The Vampire Lestat. Random House: New York, NY.

POST 4

We are wrapping up today, everybody, so let’s consider some final thoughts. How does Lestat compare with other vampires within the novel? How does his status amongst other vampires compare with Dracula’s status?

 Use references:

[1] Stoker, Bram, Dracula. London, GB: ElecBook, 2000. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 12 January 2017.

[1] Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat, USA, 1986.  Random House Publishing, 26 January 2017.