Day Nine on IWTV: the Frenieres

Louis has elevated Lestat-bashing into an art! Louis depicted Lestat as a truly despicable villain full of greed and vengeance. He said Lestat liked to snatch the lives of those at the prime of their youth to maximize their loss. The best example of this was in the mattr of the Frenieres.

I think this is where when they say Show don't tell, or that God is in the details, here, Anne Rice details in actual guttural, physical example what kind of monster Lestat is as Louis describes. (Understand that the Lestat of Prince Lestat, the latest novel, has grown and learned lot since the 17th century.)

The Freniere subplot was not included
in the 1994 movie adapatation

This episode only highlighted the constant difference between Louis's reverence for mortal life and Lestat's seeming disdain of it. It showed Lestat as being a true heartless monster. Louis's fascination for and reverence of mortal life sometimes seem to exceed that of the mortal's living that life. There is a lesson for us here, fellow mortals! Do we take things for granted? Are we able to cherish what is only truly momentarily ours? Or is it only with vampiric detachment that this is possible?

I wonder what human activity can approximate vampiric detachment--that close observation of human lives, appreciating them, but not letting one's ego be involved. I suspect reading good novels, or movies, or meditation in the midst of one own's life.

I also must not forget. Lestat and Louis were outcasts to the human world. Both responded differently: Louis by detachment coupled with respect, and Lestat by embracing his vampire nature. He didn't care about his supposed place in society or the cosmos. He cared about what he wanted and how to get it. Not one way is wrong or right. Just a way of living.

In the end, did it matter really how Monsieur Freniere died? Maybe what matters is how he lived -- in complete devotion to his family. That scene when he sat down to write his will and testament just before setting out to face the duel, I think, is one of the most tenderest and heartfelt in this novel.