“The Odyssey of Recollection; or, What a Vampire Can Teach Us about the Craft of Memoir”
You wouldn’t expect a show centered on undead, blood-drinking, immortal creatures of the night to be the perfect model for how to write personal narrative, but you’d certainly be pleasantly surprised to discover so when watching it with your roommate. When I saw AMC’s television adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, I was already familiar with the story of Louis, Lestat, and Claudia from the original novel and the 90s film adaptation. As a vampire-loving tween who grew into a vampire-loving adult, I adored the first iteration of The Vampire Chronicles, though I hadn’t continued with the book series, intimidated by its volume of titles. But when my roommate urged me to watch two seasons’ worth of vampiric melancholy with them, what surprised me the most wasn’t how the original queer subtext of Louis and Lestat’s relationship was now an unambiguous life partnership, or how deftly handled the racial reimaging of Louis and Claudia as Black was, but how accurately the show captured what it means to craft a story from memory and reckon with one’s past. Every episode, I’d quip something like, “I literally had this conversation in my MFA,” or “This is totally what it’s like to write nonfiction,” or “Yup, as a writer, can confirm.” I’m sure my roommate was thrilled to hear my unsolicited professional opinion.
