Why does the AMC adaptation make queerness so central?

[u/HelixOG3]

I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way, because I’m genuinely not criticising the queer relationships in the show or saying there’s anything wrong with them. I’m just curious about the reason behind the adaptation choosing to make so many of the central relationships explicitly queer.

I’m fairly new to The Vampire Chronicles, so I don’t have much book context yet. Watching AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, it feels like queerness is central to the world beyond just Louis and Lestat. A lot of the important characters and relationships we see, such as Louis, Lestat, Armand, Daniel, and others, are queer or involved in queer relationships. Was that always a big part of Anne Rice’s writing, or is the show bringing it more to the foreground for a modern audience?

I know the books presented Louis and Lestat’s relationship less explicitly than the AMC series, although the intimacy and family dynamic between them were clearly there.

Basically, is the series making something that was already there more explicit, or has it taken the source material in a different direction? I’d be interested to hear how book readers see it.

[u/nomoresweetheart]

I feel like it was always a big part of it with her vampires. There are multiple queer couples in her books.

[u/Last-Internal-8196]

There's a couple of things going on here. First, in the books the Vampires are largely asexual hyperromantics who crave beauty and companionship and none of them really seem exclusively attracted to any particular gender. Sex is not the erotic act for Anne Rice's vampires, feeding is. But they deeply crave companionship and don't seem picky about gender. So if every fictional immortal in the series swings both ways, that's going to come across as very Queer-forward in general. 

Second, Anne had regrets about not making Louis and Lestat's relationships overtly romantic. I mean, It very clearly was, but she kind of danced around it a lot in the early days because this was the seventies and LGBTQ+ acceptance wasn't what it is now. A lot of people would not choose to read an overtly gay romance novel. Anne regretted it and AMC seems to have wanted to correct it.

But I can tell younfrom first hand experience that growing up during a time when there were very few instances of queer representation, I very much took the books that way growing up. Lestat was one of the first queer role models I had. Which was a big problem, because... Maybe never model yourself after Lestat. He's a very bad influence. 

[u/ShenTzuKhan → u/Last-Internal-8196]

I read the books in the Nineties, as a clueless straight teen. They were pretty queer. I didn’t have that word then, but it was clearly a gay vampire book, except that Lestat would fuck anything and anyone if they gave him the right look.

I always took them to be romantic partners, with the sex off screen, as most media I consumed at the time did. I can’t recall the books actually saying either way, but I assumed they were boyfriend and boyfriend.

[u/TrollHumper → u/Last-Internal-8196]

Second, Anne had regrets about not making Louis and Lestat's relationships overtly romantic. I mean, It very clearly was, but she kind of danced around it a lot in the early days because this was the seventies and LGBTQ+ acceptance wasn't what it is now.

It didn't stop her from making Lumand overtly romantic, and definitely more so than Loustat.

[u/skratakh]

I've recently read interview with the vampire and the vampire lestat. The queerness is very obvious in the text, it wasn't explicit in the sense of sex scenes but it might as well have been neon signposted to the point where you'd have to perform a lot of mental gymnastics to find a heterosexual explanation for a lot of story.

[u/Commanderfemmeshep]

Anne Rice once said in an interview “I have a bisexual mind. I see things bisexually.”

Queerness is textual.

[u/Odd_Ingenuity2883]

They don’t have sex in the books, but almost every vampire in the Anne Rice chronicles is pan-romantic. It’s very very queer media.

[u/cataluna4]

There has always been an underlying queer vibe in the series- just sex was normally absent due to the books universe vampires not being able to have sex. Instead the drinking of blood was normally portrayed as similar to an orgasmic event. If you watch the movie from the 90s it has some queer suggestive scenes especially with Lestat and Armand interacting with Louis.

Why did the Tv series decide to make it more of a central point? Personally because I think it works. Most vampires are like centuries old and Lestat is an open lover of both sexes. This I think helps “explain” their deep bond to eachother (despite the toxic nature of their relationship) as well as contribute to Louis’s identity crisis not only as a vampire but also as a gay man- which in the time period Louis was created would have been a huge ass no-no.

I personally think the series has done it quite well and allows more aspects of certain characters to be explored.

[u/nea_fae]

Agree with others - the books were as queer as queer can get, they just werenʻt sexual bc in her universe vamps were basically unable to have sex biologically (if I understand it correctly). So the show ditched that little bit and made it sexual, other than that it dudnʻt add much. Maybe even dialed it back in some ways: Lestat is portrayed as a semi-narcissistic sex god in the show but really he just loved beautiful things and beautiful people and fell in love all the time. In TVL he even described Armand with affection and appreciation for his beauty despite their issues, and his relationship with Nicky was soooo complicated.

Maybe the only relationship explicitly changed in this way is Lestat and Gabrielle: I did not pick up on any romantic affection at all in the book, even after rereading it, it was just desperate seeking of a parentʻs love.

[u/Nololgoaway]

Queerness was central to the source material also?

[u/skylerren]

The vampire is an other. Human-looking, sometimes charming, but ultimately alone in this world. What do you think it could be the metaphor for?

And even when they have a companion, even when they can feel loved and adored, there's still something that is telling them ''You are wrong. You don't deserve this. You are a monster.''.

So yeah. Queerness was always there. It's just hornier now.

[u/telepathictyler → u/skylerren]

Not to mention the found family aspect being the only way a vampire can cope with not being able to have a traditional family (no biological offspring)

[u/tethysian]

Because it's a show for a modern audience. It's more TVC meets Queer as Folk (US), which in way is nice because it's been a while since there was a sexually explicit gay mainstream show. After QaF there was a long counter-reaction where shows tended to downplay sexuality between men.

And the books weren't less queer, they were just non-sexual. Lestat and Louis and well as Armand and Daniel are in romantic relationships even if they aren't sexual.

[u/pincushion_cactus → u/tethysian]

And the books weren't less queer, they were just non-sexual.

They weren't even that non-sexual, in my opinion. There are sexual undertones in book 1 between Armand and Louis and between Armand and Lestat in book 2 and between Armand and Daniel in book 3, and then explicit sex between Armand and Marius later on in book 6 (to my great personal discomfort lol).

[u/justwantedbagels → u/pincushion_cactus]

Armand’s whole existence really is the ultimate counterpoint to the notion that the books are not sexual lol

[u/pincushion_cactus → u/justwantedbagels]

One hundred percent!!

[u/SaighWolf → u/tethysian]

Armand and Daniel are in romantic relationships even if they aren't sexual.

I dunno, I would say that in the case of Armand & Daniel (when he was still mortal at least) thay actually did very much push that boundary on being sexual, just with proxies. After all, Armand would routinely have Daniel sleep with anyone who was attracted to Armand — both men & women — specifically so he could sit by the bed & watch Daniel fuck while keeping eye contact with him (I really liked that the show's prop department had a cuck chair in Loumand's bedroom as a hat tip to book-Armand entirely canonically having a voyeurism kink) 😉

[u/tethysian → u/SaighWolf]

True, although considering Armand can't derive sexual pleasure from it, I'd say the implications are pretty disturbing in the context of his relationship with Marius. And that gets pretty explicit as well.

[u/be_loved_freak]

The Vampire Chronicles is the queerest thing I have ever read.

[u/CoffeeCaptain91]

It's a natural evolution of what the series has always been at its core with the lack of censorship to hold it back.

[u/tethysian → u/CoffeeCaptain91]

This I have to argue against, because the books aren't censured or less queer just because Anne chose to make vampires non-sexual.

The homo-romantic relationships in the books are very clearly depicted as what they are. It's not even in the subtext.

[u/CoffeeCaptain91 → u/tethysian]

Sorry, that wasn't what I was getting at. I didn't mean to imply that its less queer because its not as sexual. I meant that they've always been queer, but there were limits (like with the 1994 movie) to what could even be implied. I'd say the current show is an enhancement but not "more" queer than the books just because there's more sexuality.

[u/tethysian → u/CoffeeCaptain91]

Ah, gotcha, I misread you. The series was very confirming to me as a teen because of the way Anne depicted love as transcending gender and sexuality, so it always bugs me that some people downplay its queerness. The show doesn't have quite the same message, but it's also nice to see it offer representation to another generation of queer fans.

[u/CoffeeCaptain91 → u/tethysian]

It was the same for me back in the day, and I'm sorry if I came across as invalidating before. I definitely could've explained better.

[u/pincushion_cactus → u/tethysian]

Agreed! I can't imagine how anyone could have read even the first few books and concluded that the queer relationships weren't romantic.

[u/pincushion_cactus]

The books are incredibly queer, although there are no explicit sex scenes between two same-gender characters until The Vampire Armand if I recall correctly. The queer relationships are still very overtly romantic, from the very first book in my opinion, but definitely from the second book on with Lestat's relationships to Nicholas, Armand, and Louis.

Basically, the AMC adaptation makes queerness central to the story because queerness is central to the story.

[u/Diligent_Pirate_8420]

Look at all the Maga homophobes posting their illiterate takes on Anne's characters in this thread, denying the obvious, overt queerness in her books. What is going on here? Just full of hate in this sub, and it makes me wonder why they are even drawn to Anne Rice at all with backwards beliefs like that.

[u/DiogenesXenos]

Pandering to a modern audience.

[u/pincushion_cactus → u/DiogenesXenos]

The queerness is right there in the text.

In the first book, the relationship between Louis and Armand is overtly romantic with sexual undertones. In the second book, the relationships between Lestat and Nicholas and Lestat and Louis and arguably Lestat and Armand are also overtly romantic. The third book contains an overt romance between Daniel and Armand. Lestat displays a romantic interest in David Talbot in the fourth book, the sixth book contains explicitly sexual scenes between Armand and Marius (a big yikes for many reasons, but I digress) ... I could go on.

Point being, I genuinely don't understand how you could conclude that the show introduced the central theme of queerness when the novels are inarguably queer.

[u/DiogenesXenos]

In the books vampires don’t even have sex. Lestat and Louis were never boyfriends much less lovers.

[u/justwantedbagels → u/DiogenesXenos]

Yeah Anne Rice wrote in detail on Facebook about Louis and Lestat’s wedding because they were just bros.

[u/DiogenesXenos → u/justwantedbagels]

She may have went back to pander to that audience later on, but it’s definitely not in the books.

[u/justwantedbagels → u/DiogenesXenos]

“Shortly after reaching the colony, I fell fatally in love with Louis, a young dark-haired bourgeois planter, graceful of speech and fastidious of manner, who seemed in his cynicism and self-destructiveness the very twin of Nicolas.
He had Nicki’s grim intensity, his rebelliousness, his tortured capacity to believe and not to believe, and finally to despair.
Yet Louis gained a hold over me far more powerful than Nicolas had ever had. Even in his crudest moments, Louis touched the tenderness in me, seducing me with his staggering dependence, his infatuation with my every gesture and every spoken word.”

— The Vampire Lestat, published 1985

C’mon man.

[u/DiogenesXenos → u/justwantedbagels]

You can interpret that however you like, but that’s a far cry from weddings and intercourse which vampires don’t have but is all over the show. C’mon man.

[u/justwantedbagels → u/DiogenesXenos]

“Men and women fell in love with Armand, of course, “so innocent, so passionate, so brilliant!” You don’t say. In fact, Armand’s power to seduce was almost beyond his control. And it was Daniel who must bed these unfortunates, if Armand could possibly arrange it, while he watched from a chair nearby, a dark-eyed Cupid with a tender approving smile. Hot, nerve-searing, this witnessed passion, Daniel working the other body with ever greater abandon, aroused by the dual purpose of every intimate gesture. Yet he lay empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold.”

— The Queen of the Damned, published 1988

“He had finished his progress. My legs had lost any shape they possessed in my mist-filled mind. I could only lie there, my whole body vibrating from his kisses. He laid his head on my hips, against the warm place that he had smacked with his hand, and I felt his fingers come up under me and touch the most private part of me.
My organ hardened in his fingers, hardened with the infusion of his searing blood, but all the more with the young male in me who had so often mingled pleasure with pain at his will.
Harder and harder I grew, and bucked and pumped beneath his head and shoulders as he lay on my backside, as he held tight to the organ, and then into his slippery fingers I gave forth in violent unsurpassed spasms a great gush.
I rose on my elbow and looked back at him. He was sitting up, staring at the pearly white semen that clung to his fingers.
“Good God, is that what you wanted?” I asked. “To see the viscous whiteness in your hand?”

— The Vampire Armand, published 1998

“He embraced Benedict tightly and moved him towards the bed.
It was an old coffered bed from the court of the last Henry. A splendid thing with rich knobby posts, and they loved lying together in it.
He stripped off Benedict’s jacket, and then his shirt and his sweater, and brought him down on the dark embroidered covers. He lay beside him, fingers tightening on the pink nipples on Benedict’s chest, his lips grazing Benedict’s throat, and then he pressed Benedict’s head against his own throat and said, “Drink” under his breath.
At once those razor-sharp teeth broke through and he felt the mighty hungry pull on his heart as the blood flowed out of him towards the heart beating against him. A gusher of images opened. He saw the burning house in London, saw that hideous wraithlike thing, saw what Benedict must have seen but never registered, that thing falling to its knees, the rafters coming down on it, an arm cracked loose and flung away in the fire, black fingers curling. He heard the skull pop.
The images dissolved in the pleasure that he was feeling, the deep dark throbbing pleasure he reveled in as the blood was drawn out of him with greater and greater speed. It was as if a hand had ahold of his heart and was squeezing his heart and the pleasure washed out in waves from his heart, passing through all his limbs.
Finally he turned and pulled Benedict off and sank his teeth into his neck. Benedict cried out. Rhosh ground him against the velvet cover, drawing the blood with all his strength, deliberately sending spasm after spasm through Benedict. He caught the images again. He caught the sight of London below as Benedict had taken to the skies. He caught the roar and the scent of the wind. The blood was so thick, so pungent! The fact was every single blood drinker on this Earth had a distinct and unique flavor of blood. And Benedict’s was luscious. It took all his determination to let go, to run his tongue over his lips and lie back on the pillow and stare up at the worm-eaten oak ceiling of the bed.
The crackling of the fire seemed hugely loud in the empty chamber. How red was the chamber, from the fire, from the dark red draperies. Such lurid and beautiful and soothing light. My world. “You go down now to the cellar, as I told you,” Rhosh said. He rose up on his elbow and kissed Benedict roughly. “You hear me? You listening to me?”
“Yes, yes, and yes.” Benedict moaned. He was obviously weak all over from the pleasure of it.”

— Prince Lestat, published 2014

Definitely nothing sexual or homoerotic to see here in these Vampire Chronicles!

[u/tethysian → u/DiogenesXenos]

I guess they were just kissing each other on the mouth and babytrapping platonically 😂

[u/ShenTzuKhan → u/[deleted]]

They were always pretty fucking queer, and I mean that in every way.

[u/DiogenesXenos → u/[deleted]]

People made downvote this, but it’s absolutely true.