Myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives or stories that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. The main characters in myths are gods, demigods or supernatural humans. Stories of everyday human beings, although of leaders of some type, are contained in legends, as opposed to myths. Myths are endorsed by rulers and priests or priestesses, are linked to religion or spirituality. In fact, many societies group their myths and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past. In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its form. Other myths explain how a society's customs and taboos were established and sanctified. There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and enactment of rituals; the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists and revived by Renaissance mythographers.
Today, the study of myth continues in a wide variety of academic fields, including folklore studies and psychology. The term mythology may either refer to the study of myths in general, or a body of myths regarding a particular subject; the academic comparisons of bodies of myth is known as comparative mythology. Since the term myth is used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be political: many adherents of religions view their religion's stories as true and therefore object to the stories being characterised as myths. Scholars now speak of Christian mythology, Jewish mythology, Islamic mythology, Hindu mythology, so forth. Traditionally, Western scholarship, with its Judaeo-Christian heritage, has viewed narratives in the Abrahamic religions as being the province of theology rather than mythology. Labelling all religious narratives as myths can be thought of as treating different traditions with parity. Definitions of myth to some extent vary by scholar.
Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a cited definition: Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains. A myth expresses and confirms society's religious values and norms, it provides a pattern of behavior to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult. Scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, popular misconception or imaginary entity. However, while myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth is thought to differ from genres such as legend and folktale in that neither are considered to be sacred narratives; some kinds of folktales, such as fairy stories, are not considered true by anyone, may be seen as distinct from myths for this reason.
Main characters in myths are gods, demigods or supernatural humans, while legends feature humans as their main characters. However, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Moreover, as stories spread between cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales, their divine characters recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants and faeries. Conversely and literary material may acquire mythological qualities over time. For example, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France, seem distantly to originate in historical events of the fifth and eighth-centuries and became mythologised over the following centuries. In colloquial use, the word myth can be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story; this usage, pejorative, arose from labeling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well. However, as used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology, the term myth has no implication whether the narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.
In present use, mythology refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures. Folklorist Alan Dundes defines myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Dundes classified a sacred narrative as "a story that serves to define the fundamental worldview of a culture by explaining aspects of the natural world and delineating the psychological and social practices and ideals of a society". Anthropologist Bruce Lincoln defines myth as "ideology in narrative form." The compilation or description of myths is sometimes known as mythography, a term which can be used of a scholarly anthology of myths. Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include Ovid, whose tellings of myths have been profoundingly influential.
The Vampire Armand
The Vampire Armand is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the sixth in her The Vampire Chronicles series. With Lestat still in slumber after his adventures in Memnoch the Devil, the vampire coven is united around the "brat prince", the vampire David Talbot takes the opportunity to request that Armand tell David his life story. Armand, who first appeared in Interview with the Vampire, agrees to tell his tale. Born somewhere in the Russian state of Kiev in the late 15th century, Armand becomes an icon painter in a monastery, he is forcefully taken out of this life of prayer and devotion by slave traders, who take him to Constantinople and to Venice, where he is destined to work in a brothel. Soon after his arrival in Venice he is purchased by the vampire Marius de Romanus, who names him Amadeo. In Venice, Marius lives the extravagant life of a respected Renaissance painter, mentors many boys who serve as his apprentices. Marius provides his apprentices with education, food, he assists them in finding respectable positions once they are grown.
Life in Marius' villa is a stark contrast to the poverty and disease described elsewhere in the city. Over time, Amadeo's relationship to Marius develops and they become much closer than Marius is with any of the other boys. In addition to developing a sexual relationship, Amadeo sleeps in Marius' bed, is privy to special privileges, becomes something of a'head boy' in the household. Still, Marius maintains strict control over Amadeo, expects industriousness from him in all things; when Amadeo comes of age, Marius begins Amadeo's education in coupling. He takes Amadeo to a brothel. Amadeo visits a male brothel for several days, while there makes several observations about the difference in sexual activities with the different genders. There is a distinct bisexuality to Amadeo's nature, he has a brief affair with an Englishman called Lord Harlech. Harlech becomes obsessed with Amadeo. During this period, Amadeo befriends Bianca Solderini, a wealthy debutante and courtesan whose primary role in life seems to be to throw nightly parties.
Amadeo seduces the willing Bianca. Marius divulges his vampire nature to Amadeo, who immediately begins asking to be made a vampire. Marius shows Amadeo some of what it means to be immortal, allows him to join him in the hunt on several occasions, he tells Amadeo. They assist Bianca by murdering her kinsmen who force her to poison those from whom they have borrowed money. On a night when Marius is out of the country, Lord Harlech breaks into Marius's palazzo and attacks Amadeo, murdering two apprentices in the process. Amadeo kills Harlech, but not before the Englishman wounds him with a poisoned sword. Amadeo falls critically ill, over several days falls into fever and delusions. Upon returning and finding Amadeo on his deathbed, Marius heals Amadeo's external wounds and grooms him gives him the Dark Gift, turning him into a vampire, it is revealed in Queen of the Damned. Marius sets out to train Amadeo, sets up a coffin in a secret basement with his own. Marius retains high expectations of Amadeo, forces him to continue his education in the arts.
Amadeo's transition to vampire is easy for him, although the Dark Gift brings about nightmares of his childhood. Marius and Amadeo return to Russia, where Amadeo visits his home, he finds his elderly mother and father there, reveals that he is alive, says farewell to them, leaving them with all the money and jewels he has with him. This is a happy reunion, as Amadeo is able to let go of his mortal background and his parents are able to see that their beloved son is alive and thriving. Though this reunion allows Amadeo to let go of his mortal background, discovering that his father is alive and a drunkard hurts him deeply. Shortly after returning to Venice, the vampire Santino and his coven attack Marius' home, kidnap Amadeo and the apprentices, burn the villa. Marius is thought to be destroyed. Santino educates him in the laws of the Coven. Amadeo goes to Paris, changes his name to Armand, creates his own coven under the Cimetière des Innocents, which Lestat would years drastically impact thus resulting in the creation of the Théâtre des Vampires.
Armand shares with David his version of some of the events recounted by Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview with the Vampire: the end of the Théâtre des Vampires and the time that Armand and Louis shared together. The book chronicles Armand's feelings about several of the major vampire characters from the previous books, it is revealed that Armand thinks he saw Bianca in Paris in the 19th century, has wondered since if Marius made her a vampire. In the final segment of the book, Armand explains what occurred to him after the final chapters of Memnoch the Devil. At the end of Memnoch the Devil, Armand rushes into the open daylight and appears to be destroyed in a conflagration. Armand explains to David that by some means beyond his understanding he survived, ended up on a rooftop in a stairwell protected from further exposure to the sun. However, he is badly burned and una
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place, now the country Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes; the history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course of its history Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, the Macedonians under the command of Alexander the Great; the Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled Egypt until 30 BC, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, administrators under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs; the many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids and obelisks.
Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were copied, its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world, its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy; the Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa became hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the river region.
In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was much less arid. Large regions of Egypt were traversed by herds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, this is the period when many animals were first domesticated. By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs and beads; the largest of these early cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which originated in the Western Desert. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements; as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East Canaan and the Byblos coast.
Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Nekhen, at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile, they traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east, initiating a period of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations. The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, jewelry made of gold and ivory, they developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, used well into the Roman Per
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden called Paradise, is the biblical "garden of God" described in the Book of Genesis and the Book of Ezekiel. Genesis 13:10 refers to the "garden of God", the "trees of the garden" are mentioned in Ezekiel 31; the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Psalms refer to trees and water without explicitly mentioning Eden. The name derives from the Akkadian edinnu, from a Sumerian word edin meaning "plain" or "steppe" related to an Aramaic root word meaning "fruitful, well-watered". Another interpretation associates the name with a Hebrew word for "pleasure"; the Hebrew term is translated "pleasure" in Sarah's secret saying in Genesis 18:12. Like the Genesis flood narrative, the Genesis creation narrative and the account of the Tower of Babel, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king, as a primordial man, placed in a divine garden to guard the Tree of Life; the Hebrew Bible depicts Adam and Eve as walking around the Garden of Eden naked due to their innocence. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries.
The Garden of Eden is considered to be mythological by most scholars. Among those that consider it to have been real, there have been various suggestions for its location: at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; the second part of the Genesis creation narrative, Genesis 2:4-3:24, opens with YHWH-Elohim creating the first man, whom he placed in a garden that he planted "eastward in Eden". "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree, pleasant to the sight, good for food. Last of all, the God made a woman from a rib of the man to be a companion for the man. In chapter three, the man and the woman were seduced by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit, they were expelled from the garden to prevent them from eating of the tree of life, thus living forever. Cherubim were placed east of the garden, "and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life". Genesis 2:10–14 lists four rivers in association with the garden of Eden: Pishon, Gihon and Phirat.
It refers to the land of Cush—translated/interpreted as Ethiopia, but thought by some to equate to Cossaea, a Greek name for the land of the Kassites. These lands lie north of Elam to the east of ancient Babylon, unlike Ethiopia, does lie within the region being described. In Antiquities of the Jews, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges" and the Geon as the Nile. According to Lars-Ivar Ringbom the paradisus terrestris is located in Shiz in northeastern Iran. In Ezekiel 28:12–19 the prophet Ezekiel the "son of man" sets down God's word against the king of Tyre: the king was the "seal of perfection", adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, placed by God in the garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub, but the king sinned through wickedness and violence, so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All those who knew you in the nations are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.".
According to Terje Stordalen, the Eden in Ezekiel appears to be located in Lebanon. "t appears that the Lebanon is an alternative placement in Phoenician myth of the Garden of Eden", there are connections between paradise, the garden of Eden and the forests of Lebanon within prophetic writings. Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the Garden of the gods, the oldest Sumerian version of the Garden of Eden, relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges; the Garden of Eden is considered to be mythological by most scholars. However, there have been suggestions for its location: at its source of the rivers, while others have looked at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea. British archaeologist David Rohl locates it in Iran, in the vicinity of Tabriz, but this suggestion has not caught on with scholarly sources; the location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis, chapter 2, verses 10–14: And a river departed from Eden to water the garden, from there it divided and became four tributaries.
The name of the first is Pishon, the circumnavigator of the land of Havilah where there is gold. And the gold of this land is good, and the name of the second river is Gihon, the circumnavigator of the land of Cush. And the name of the third is Chidekel, that which goes to the east of Ashur. Dilmun in the Sumerian story of Enki and Ninhursag is a paradisaical abode of the immortals, where sickness and death were unknown; the garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology was somewhat similar to the Christian concept of the Garden of Eden, by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting. In this painting, only the action that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the
The Tale of the Body Thief
The Tale of the Body Thief is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the fourth in her The Vampire Chronicles series, following The Queen of the Damned. Published in 1992, it continues the adventures of Lestat his efforts to regain his lost humanity during the late 20th century. Chapters from the book appeared in the October 1992 issue of Playboy. At the beginning of the story, Lestat grows depressed and becomes remorseful because of his vampiric nature. Although he tries to limit his victims to murderers, serial killers and other criminals, he nonetheless caves into temptation once in a while and kills an "innocent" or someone who he feels does not deserve to live. Lestat suffers from constant nightmares concerning his late "daughter", for whose death he blames himself; the "coven" of vampires formed at the end of The Queen of the Damned has long since broken up, Lestat has become lonely. Among his only remaining friends is the mortal head of the Talamasca Caste, David Talbot, seventy-four years old.
Although Lestat has offered David the Dark Gift, David has always refused to become a vampire and keep Lestat company through eternity. Lonely and depressed, Lestat goes to the Gobi desert at dawn in a half-hearted suicide attempt; when he does not die, he goes to David's home in England to heal. A mysterious figure, Raglan James—the eponymous "Body Thief" of the story—approaches Lestat with what seems to be a cure for his ennui and depression. James sends Lestat several messages hinting, he proposes to Lestat that the two of them trade bodies for a day. Against the advice of other vampires and David Talbot, Lestat jumps at the opportunity. James has no intention of switching back, Lestat is forced to scheme to regain his body. Lestat nearly dies after becoming human again—his new body is wracked by pneumonia, which he ignores during a tour of Washington D. C. in the middle of winter. He is saved by the care of a nun named Gretchen, he enjoys a short love affair with Gretchen before she returns to South America, where she works in a convent, Lestat sets out in search of his body.
Lestat seeks help from other vampires but is ostracized by them. Marius is angry at him for leaving such a powerful body to a thief and refuses to help him. Louis turns him away when he asks Louis to make his new body into a vampire, arguing that Lestat ought to be happy to be human again and calls him out on his previous writings, accusing him of altering his actual past in favor of one that portrays him heroically. Lestat's only ally is David Talbot. Drawing from the Talamasca's resources on the supernatural, Talbot reveals that James was a gifted psychic who once joined the order, but was kicked out for constant theft, he is a kleptomaniac who enjoys stealing for the thrill of it—it is revealed that every single thing he owns, from his house to his body, was stolen or schemed for. However, he has major psychological problems, his life is a series of cycles—he gets rich by theft often ends up in prison. Dying of cancer several years before, James tricked the inmate of a mental institution into switching bodies with him, allowing him a type of immortality.
It is petty thievery that allow Talbot and Lestat to track him down. Despite his newfound wealth and powerful new body, James continues to steal jewelry from people, he makes a conspicuous show of his wealth, boarding the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, draining victims of their blood along the ship's path. The pattern allows his pursuers to find him. On the cruise ship, Lestat manages to regain his body with David's help, but the sun is rising as he performs the switch and he must flee to a safe place in which to spend the day; when he awakes in the evening he finds that both Talbot have disappeared. Lestat finds David in Florida and is surprised to find that his friend, despite his earlier protestations, now wants to become a vampire. However, while taking his blood, Lestat discovers a final trick—when forced out of Lestat's body, James took over Talbot's body instead of returning to his own. Lestat angrily attacks James; the blow proves fatal—the injury damages James' brain and prevents him from leaving the dying body or trying to switch bodies before his current one dies.
At this point, Tale of the Body Thief reaches a false ending. Raglan James is dead. David has begun to enjoy life in his young body. Lestat returns to New Orleans, reunites with Louis, begins to renovate his old house in the French Quarter. Above all, Lestat claims that he has come to accept his vampiric nature. However, Lestat warns readers not to continue if they are happy with this ending. Lestat resumes the narrative, claiming that he has regained his "evil" nature. A few weeks after reuniting with Louis, Lestat decides to make Talbot into a vampire against his wishes, despite the role Talbot played in saving his life when everyone else abandoned him. After which he visits David. Before engaging in the transformation, Lestat asks David if he feels healthy and secure in his new body and if he's had any luck with having any physical affairs. David admits that he's one hundred percent healthy and secure in the body and that he's had a few affairs, but not with much luck. Lestat tells David what he's about to do to him and tells him that he's going to bring him over to him.
Thus, indicating that Lestat is not playing around this time and that he is going to do it. Lestat tells David that he won't let him die and that he's the only real friend that David has in this world. During the first part of David's transformation, he at first he resists
The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire. The story is told from the point of view of Lestat as narrator, several events in the two books appear to contradict each other, allowing the reader to decide which version of events they believe to be accurate. Set in the late 18th century to the late 1980s, the story follows the 200-year-long life of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, his rise from humble beginnings as impoverished nobility in the countryside of the Auvergne in France, to the cosmopolitan city of Paris, to become transformed by the Dark Gift into a vampire. After escaping his family and running off to Paris with his lover and confidante Nicolas de Lenfent, Lestat is kidnapped and bitten by the reclusive elder vampire Magnus, who orphans him on the night he is made but leaves him with a tower fortress and a vast fortune. Lestat abandons Nicki for fear of causing him harm and shuns contact with his loved ones.
Instead, he decides to shower them with gifts and riches from his new found wealth, as a means to compensate his departure from their lives. His mother, arrives to say goodbye to him, herself dying of consumption. In order to save her, Lestat transforms her into his first immortal companion, he turns Nicki into a vampire after Armand kidnaps him and they begin to grow apart because of Nicki's sullenness. Armand "shows" Lestat the history of. Compelled by the idea of Marius, Lestat leaves markings carved into rock in numerous places while traveling with Gabrielle, hoping that one day, Marius will see them and find Lestat. Whilst in Egypt, abandoned by Gabrielle, Lestat sleeps in the ground after being burned by the sun, is recovered by Marius who takes him to his secret Mediterranean island. There, Marius shares his past with him, shows him Those Who Must Be Kept and Enkil, who are the progenitors of all vampires. Once Marius has given his warning to Lestat not to go see them again, leaves on a short outing, Lestat takes Nicolas's old violin and plays for the King and Queen, awakening them.
Akasha feeds from Lestat. Enkil, furious at the intrusion and nearly kills Lestat, saved by Marius, sent away; the book ends on a cliffhanger after Lestat's debut concert in San Francisco, leads directly into the third volume, The Queen of the Damned. The Vampire Lestat was adapted into a comic and released as a 12-part miniseries by Innovation Comics in 1990 and 1991; the comic, formally titled Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat and featured Daerick Gross and Mike Okamoto as lead artists, had a script adapted from the novel by Rice and Faye Perozich. In 1991 the entire series was published as a graphic novel by Ballantine. Portions of The Vampire Lestat were used and loosely interpreted, in the 2002 film adaptation of The Queen of the Damned; the Film "Queen of the Damned" was seen to be a critical failure, disappointed some viewers. Rice herself has dismissed the film. On her Facebook page, any time the subject is brought up, she comments that The Queen of the Damned film is not something she can understand or embrace, that she encouraged them not to do the film and that it hurt her to see her work "mutilated" the way it was.
The novel formed the basis for the short-lived 2006 Broadway show Lestat. The musical, composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and written by Linda Woolverton, had a pre-Broadway tryout in California in late 2005 and ran for a total of 33 previews and 39 official performances at the Palace Theater in New York; the Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned were loosely adapted into the 2002 film, Queen of the Damned. As of August 2009, talks have been underway in the continuation of The Vampire Chronicles film series, with The Vampire Lestat being the next film to be focused on in the series. Robert Downey Jr. was reported to be in talks to take the role of Lestat, but he has dismissed the rumors. Film producers want to revive the film series in the wake of a string of successful vampire films including Twilight and the HBO series True Blood—and Downey Jr. was in contention to take the lead. On May 13, 2011 Rice posted on her Facebook page saying that she had "good news, good for me, good for my beloved Lestat.
I hope soon I can say something more coherent and informative, but for now, I'm celebrating." Many of her fans believe. Ron Howard's production company, Imagine Entertainment, had optioned the motion picture rights to Anne's fourth novel in her Vampire Chronicles series, The Tale of the Body Thief in early 2012, their proposal for the film was to treat Lestat as if "audiences have not met him before." In April 2013, Rice herself announced during an interview on her son's radio show that the project had been dismissed due to an indifference between those involved. However, Rice did state that the issue could be worked out someday. In August 2014, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment acquired the motion picture rights to the entire Vampire Chronicles series, with producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci signed to helm the potential film franchise; the deal included a screenplay for The Tale of the Body Thief adapted by Christopher Rice. In May 2016, writer-director Josh Boone posted a photo on Instagram of the cover a script written by him and Jill Killington.
Titled Interview with the Vampire, it is based on the novel of the same name and its sequel, The Vampire Lestat. However, in November 2016 Universal did not renew the contract, the film and television rights reverted to R
Louis de Pointe du Lac
Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. He begins his life as a mortal man and becomes a vampire, he is the protagonist. He features in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, The Vampire Armand, Prince Lestat and Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. Louis de Pointe du Lac is born in France on October 4, 1766, to a Roman Catholic family who emigrated to North America when he was young, his mother and brother, live just outside New Orleans on one of their two indigo plantations, named Pointe du Lac after the family. Louis's brother, who insists that he has religious visions, dies after a terrible quarrel with Louis. Louis blames himself for his brother's death, becoming self-destructive and desperate, he lacks the courage to commit suicide. He takes to frequenting taverns and other places of ill repute, instigating fights and duels in order that someone might kill him. During an incident in a tavern, Louis catches the eye of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt.
Lestat appears to Louis as an angel and offers him an alternative to his desperate, meaningless life. Lestat, upon seeing for the first time Louis's "fine black hair" and deep green eyes, sensing his passion, is seduced not only by Louis's beauty, but by his tragedy and human heart. Lestat makes Louis into a vampire at the age of 25, his immortal companion in 1791, lives with Louis for nearly 70 years. However, Lestat is damaged from his experiences in the Old World, he is not as gentle a tutor or as much of a friend as Louis would like, one of the central themes in Interview with the Vampire. An example of this is an anguished comment recalled by Louis in his memoir, where he muses: "I was thinking how sublime friendship between Lestat and me might have been. While Louis and Lestat are at odds with one another, they form an uneasy truce, with Lestat coming to regard Louis as a kind of soulmate, albeit one who resists his "teachings" on killing and living life as a vampire. There is an element of sexual attraction implicit in their relationship.
Interview with the Vampire details an ersatz familial relationship between Louis, Lestat and a third vampire, Claudia. Louis, in a moment of weakness, feeds from a five-year-old orphan he finds in an abandoned house within the plague-ridden section of New Orleans. Lestat contrives to make her into a vampire to, in his own words, "bind Louis to." In giving Louis Claudia to love and look after, he curses Claudia by condemning her to the form of a little girl. Louis accepts his "family", taking the "maternal" role with Claudia and finding contentment in their townhouse at Rue Royale. Claudia however, matures psychologically but remains in her child form. After decades of being trapped in the form of a small child, she comes to hate both of her "parents" for giving her immortality, she rebels against Lestat, poisoning him and setting their home ablaze with Lestat inside in 1860. She escapes with Louis to eastern Europe to look for other vampires. After years of searching and becoming disillusioned, they travel to Paris.
In Paris, they find fifteen vampires who have disguised themselves as human actors pretending to be vampires at the Théâtre des Vampires. However, in the eyes of this coven of vampires and Claudia are criminals; the coven finds out that both attempted to kill their maker Lestat, believe they ought to pay for their crime with their lives since killing fellow vampires is against the rules of the vampiric lifestyle. Louis escapes death after Lestat pleads for his life. Claudia is destroyed. Louis burns down the Théâtre, killing the vampires there as revenge for Claudia's death and drifts through the world with the Theatre's former leader, whom he had fallen in love with, they separate in the 1920s in New Orleans. In the early 1920s, Louis claims to have discovered Lestat in New Orleans, lost in a catatonic state. Louis turns his back on him in disgust. Louis and Lestat are reunited at the end of the novel The Vampire Lestat in 1985 when Lestat is a rock superstar. In the events of The Queen Of The Damned and other vampires come together at Maharet's house in the Sonoma Compound to fight against Akasha.
Louis is one of the only vampires to refuse the powerful blood offered by Maharet and Lestat, preferring to gain strength with age. However at the end of Merrick, one of the Vampire Chronicles, Louis puts himself into the sun after making Merrick a vampire. Lestat, David Talbot, Merrick give Louis some of their blood to save Louis's life, it is noted by David Talbot that with this transfusion of blood Louis may have lost some of his humanity and become more vampiric in nature and has become equal to Lestat in power. In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, Louis leaves Armand and his home at Trinity Gate to reunite with Le
