Lestat has become thoroughly disillusioned with his life
as a vampire. Isolated, bored and generally dissatisfied he tries to end it all
– which doesn’t work out as planned given his incredible power level
When someone makes him an offer he can’t refuse, though
he really really really should as multiple people tell him. But since when has
the Brat Prince listened to the advice of others?
He agrees to the Body Thief’s proposal – he will swap his incredible vampiric body for that of the Body Thief’s human one – letting Lestat experience humanity while the Body Thief, Raglan, a deeply unsavoury character, plays around with Lestat’s amazing powers
It does not go well.
I love that Lestat becomes human and hates it! Especially
since this follows both Louis and Lestat playing the “woe, I wanna be human!”
game – and since Louis is probably responsible for an entire genre worth of
vampires moodily staring into the night and cursing their immortal super
powers. I love how perfectly Lestat sums up just how much better it is to be a
vampire, how awesome being a vampire is, how incredible his powers are – and no,
getting to see the pretty sunshine does not make up for having to do all the
nasty organic things that he hasn’t had to deal with for the best part of two
centuries. I love how gross he finds the daily life of being a human. I love
how hard he finds it, how painful, how difficult.
Yes, he looks hellaciously whiny when he complains to
Louis about it, but it is a powerful moment – Lestat (and Louis) have reached
such a power level that being human is beyond their conception. The struggles
of humanity are insurmountable tortures to Lestat because he is so separated from
them.
The real world parallels for this are many and deep (for
example, the number of extremely privileged, wealthy people putting marginalised
cultures, experiences et al on shiny pedestals without even beginning to
understand what it actually means to be those people) and it’s an extremely
well maintained theme throughout.
Are there things about being human Lestat likes? Yes. Is
being a vampire an inherently lonely experience? That’s extremely clear as the
human Lestat makes his connections (which fall apart when he becomes a vampire)
but it has become clear over and over (and is overtly stated in this book) that
the few remaining vampires in the world simply cannot get along for any great
length of time. Of course there are attractions, but those can only be realised
by ignoring a huge wealth of pain and hardship and difficulty that being a
human brings compared to the vast abilities of vampiredome.
