#silverthreads

[youngritualeclipse]

tf!Graecie commissioning tf!Melinks to make a dress for tf!Zam 😭😭😭

[vampire-scripture]

Hey! Ok so you know what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately?

You know that part in Memnoch where Lestat is talking about how Jesus didn’t actually have the human experience he came to earth to have because HE KNEW HE WAS GOD THE WHOLE TIME? Like he knew there was an afterlife, he knew there was a god, he knew he was the son of god, he never experienced the void we all feel because we DON’T KNOW what happens after death. People believe things but they don’t actually know from experience.

So Jesus in Memnoch never had a human experience, he “died” for humans when he had no real idea of what we experience. And Lestat called him out on that. This stuck with me when I first read the book.

Idk something about that feels…relevant right now. You know what I mean?

Ah…. This is a delicious question. Thank you so much!! I love Memnoch the Devil. Great book.

I don’t know what you refer to, though, when you say that it’s relevant right now. I can think of a couple of current-day events to which this may apply to, so I won’t assume. If you want to clarify I’d be thankful.

So, I think that is the most interesting part of Memnoch, the inability to comprehend a different being, especially someone who is fundamentally powerful and omniscient. But that goes both ways. We can't understand them, nor them us.

I think that discussion happens between Memnoch and God. And I just love it. So Memnoch, rightfully so, points out at different times in their discussion.

“Lord, you're not playing fair in this experiment. You've known all along you're going back, you're going back to be God!' You've known all along you were God.”

[Humans] beheld their mortality, and they seek to propitiate a god who has abandoned them to all this. Lord, they look for meaning, but they find none in this. None.

'Lord, even when I went to Sheol,' I said, 'I didn't know whether or not I'd ever come back to Heaven. Don't you see? I don't claim to have your understanding of anything. (…) So the suffering and the darkness spoke to me and taught me, because I took the risk that I might never overcome it. Don't you see?'

God started this whole thing as a way to know himself, but humans are not his kin. If we take what Memnoch assumes here:

I don't think God knows [where he comes from]. I think that's the whole purpose of the physical universe. He thinks through watching the universe evolve, He's going to find out. What He has set in motion, you see, is a giant Savage Garden, a giant experiment, to see if the end result produces beings like Himself.

What if, he thinks he’s doing the right thing, based on a strict misunderstanding of these beings, that are mortal, that do not have editorial power over reality. You can intellectually understand them, know every fact about them; but as you said “he never experienced the void we all feel because we DON’T KNOW what happens after death”. Knowing by experience, by flesh, is a whole different thing. And the flesh as the way to knowledge is a recurring theme in Rice’s work.

There is wisdom in the flesh, in the way the human body does things. – Marius, The Vampire Lestat

"In the flesh," Maharet said. "In the flesh all wisdom begins. Beware the thing that has no flesh. Beware the gods, beware the idea, beware the devil." – Maharet, The Queen of the Damned

Even fleshless beings that obtain flesh have the potential of being very dangerous in this world: Amel + Akasha, Lasher… (we have more successful cases, but… still it is a predominant theme)

For a eternal being like God, thirty years in the flesh, without knowing by experience the existential dread that flesh-beings have regarding mortality, is not enough.

This whole exchange when God reveals his plan to be crucified, it’s just brilliant (and funny), because you can see the root of the misunderstanding.

'Lord, it will have to be done in confusion and misunderstanding. That spells chaos, Lord! Darkness!' " 'Naturally,' He said. 'Who in his right mind would crucify the Son of God?' " 'Then what does it mean?'”

As the reader, you are in the same position. Like "What the fuck, God? How is this the plan?". And there lies the beauty of this book. There is no answer. Either you yield to faith, that there is this being that knows what they're doing in their great knowledge, or you admit that suffering has no meaning or purpose. Or the third (and for me most terrifying option) that there is such a being, but they just does not understand suffering and see in it something that they just want to keep in existence for a purpose that would be indifferent or even irrational for human beings.

And that's why Memnoch is existentially terrifying as a book.

[stillnessandstories]

There is a particular comfort in routines that don't ask for anything new of you. The same vendor, the same vegetables, the same walk in the morning. Not because nothing changes but because some things need to stay steady to make room for everything that doesn't.

[tadviv]

In contrast to gold which thrives during periods of recession and stagflation, silver, needs a global economic expansion in order to flourish, as it is more frequently employed in industrial production. Silver's major long-term catalyst is the progress toward green transition and growing EVs adoption, with the metal's widespread use in the photovoltaic sector as a key component in solar panels.

[vampire-scripture]

Genuinely surprised it was your first ask, your tumblr is a great source of Anne Rice lore. Thank you for obliging! If I can impose upon your time and knowledge again, can you please next share insights into Baby Jenks, and the Fang Gang? There’ll be lots of people curious about her at the moment because ~spoiler alert~ the showrunner just revealed that she’ll be appearing in season 3. Interesting since it’s earlier than expected, the new season will be based on the Vampire Lestat yet she’s from the Queen of the Damned. Always keen to encourage fans of the TV show to delve into more of Anne Rice’s books to better understand her world and her characters. <3

Thank you so much! That’s at least what I aim to be ^^. And I love talking about these books so much.

So for sure, I'll try to be introductory without spoiling too much about her.

Baby Jenks is a minor character who appears in QOTD. Her story has a deep emotional effect on Lestat though they never meet. She's a fourteen-year-old vampire, made by Killer after a failed abortion (she has a very traumatic backstory).

Killer is part of the Fang Gang, a coven who has several members, the most relevant one (besides Jenks and Killer) is a vampire named Davis, who is a dancer. In the Queen of the Damned the Fang Gang is on their way to Lestat's concert, and very wary of other covens and old vampires.

They are a very interesting kind of coven, they live roaming instead of in houses

[Baby Jenks] was real curious about that house. What did the Dead do who lived in houses? What kind of furniture did they have? Who paid the bills, for God's sakes? 

"We're free, darlin'," Davis said, reading her thoughts. "Don't you see? There's a lotta baggage goes with this big city life. Tell her, Killer. And you ain't getting me in no house like that, sleeping in a box under the floorboards"

They are also a very young (by vampire metrics), they see Killer as the wisest because he is "sixty years old". So it is really fun to see the cultural dissonance between them and the older vampires we are used to (like Louis and Lestat).

Baby Jenks, who in my opinion is a very fun POV, illustrates this really well. I think these quotes also give a little insight into her character:

How she'd laughed when Killer and Davis had told her that, that those Dead guys went around in three-piece suits and listened to classical music and called themselves vampires. Baby Jenks could have laughed herself to death.

She'd tried to read the Vampire Lestat's book-the whole history of Dead guys back to ancient times and all but there were just too many big words and konk, she was asleep.

I hope this was helpful ^^. Any other questions are more than welcome.

Notes: Killer is a character that I am aware is on the show, but it seems to be entirely unrelated to his book counterpart except for the motorcycles, being called “Killer” and a name drop reference to the “Fang Gang”.

[stillnessandstories]

The monsoon arrives in Bangalore not gradually but all at once. One afternoon the sky decides, and that is that. After months of heat the smell of the first rain on dry earth is one of those things that stops you wherever you are and makes you just stand there for a moment.

[stillnessandstories]

Slow living is sometimes described as doing less. I think it is more accurately described as doing things with more attention. The quantity does not change as much as the quality of presence brought to it. That distinction matters, because the first version sounds like laziness and the second one is genuinely hard work.

[vampire-scripture]

get to know your mutuals ✨

tagged by @hekateinhell 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 thank you!!!

Favourite colour: Blue and Green (I live on the coast so...)

Currently reading: Memnoch The Devil (again xD)

Last Song: Daisies (the times I've listened to this song are unhealthy)

Last Film: Weapons (brilliant)

Last series: Sirens (I recommend it)

sweet/savory/salty: Salty, I hate sweets xD. I do.

coffee or tea: coffee, black, no sugar. Milk and sugar ruin it (do not hate me xD)

working on: when it comes to my blog, a timeline for De Landen coven, and a parallel regarding Benedict and Armand

This was so fun!! Thanks for tagging me ^^

Tagging: anybody who feels inclined to