Anne Rice - Interview With a Vampire

It's interesting how the vampire has changed in literature. Anne Rice's "Interview With a Vampire" really seemed to have sparked the change in vampires going from evil, reclusive monsters, to... well... sex idols? I dunno if that's the right term, but reading the "Interview With a Vampire" had a lot of sexual overtones. For example, the character described being turned into a vampire comparable to falling in love, sleeping on top of another man in a coffin, how every sound like the wind blowing is pretty much described sensuously. I know I'm probably reading far too much on the surface, but I just can not get into something like this. The vampires just feel too much like normal whiny people with immortality and a really bad allergy to sun. From what we talked about in class, vampires seem to be a way to wrestle a bit with ideas of gay relationships and even having multiple relationships and why we care. The book itself dealt with people and identifying which character was in a submissive or dominant role as well as handling what would it be like if you really did live forever. Apparently, living forever is just as bad, if not worse than just dying. I thought the idea of the fanatics, the people wanting to be turned immortal despite the consequences was a funny addition. The novel in general though, I just couldn't get myself in it. Intellectually, I knew the author used the interview as a way to immerse the reader, similar to how Mary Shelley opened her novel "Frankenstein" with notes. I just wasn't buying it though, I had seen this trick before and maybe I just didn't want to give myself over to the book, despite the fact that it is not badly written. Maybe I was just uncomfortable with how sensual all the imagery was, and that I don't like the idea of a vampire (who I consider a very badass form of clever, mysterious, assassin, monster) turned into a homoerotic, woe-is-me, pretty boy. I guess it's cool that vampires can be used to explore such topics but, I dunno, I just don't like how perfect they have become. Now they don't even burn in sunlight, they just sparkle or some stupid shit. Bleh :F