Anne Rice
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and wiser David tells Lestat: ‘“ You search for G od. . . you could never abide
ev il. . . you were sick of evil from the beginning. You’d give anything to
discover what God wants of you and to do what He wants’” (78). Significantly,
Lestat does not respond to this notion directly, suggesting that he does, indeed,
seek some kind of union with, and understanding of, God and what He wants of
him.
The fifth and, arguably, the most Christian, of The Vampire Chronicles, is
Memnoch the Devil, a work Rice notes best “reflects my longing for God” out of
all of the books in her now formidable oeuvre (Called Out o f Darkness 170). As
this novel opens, the Vampire Lestat is being systematically stalked by a figure
that seems to be nothing less than the Devil himself. For Lestat—an immortal
and a vampire, no less—who claims no real belief in either the Devil or God, his
reactions to being pursued by something he thinks could be, in fact, the literal
Devil incarnate, while authentic, are also extreme. Given his supernatural
powers and abilities, he ought to have no reason whatsoever to be afraid of the
Devil, if that is, indeed, who is chasing him. Yet, clearly, he is most disturbed by
this entity, and perhaps more so because of its potential reality than anything
else. If, in other words, the Devil does exist—which would mean that God had
to exist, too—then Lestat would be forced into the uncomfortable position of re
conceiving his commitment to atheism, in addition to facing the even more
disconcerting fact of true eternal damnation. Without having the chance to
achieve anything resembling a resolution to this dilemma, Lestat returns to his
flat in the city of New Orleans one evening only to find his pursuer already there
waiting for him. “‘Lestat’,” this being says to him, “‘I am the Devil. And I need
you. I am not here to take you by force to Hell, and you don’t know the slightest
thing about Hell anyway. Hell isn’t what you imagine. I am here to ask your
help! I’m tired and I need you. And I’m winning the battle, and it’s crucial that I
don’t lose’” (129-130). In this context, small wonder attaches itself to the fact of
Lestat’s momentary speechlessness. Anyone, vampire or not, might find
themselves at a temporary loss for words if they, too, had just been informed
that they were in the presence of the Devil and that the Devil required their
assistance in a battle of some kind, a battle that must not be lost. Though not
fully convinced that he is dealing with the literal Christian Devil, Lestat
nevertheless decides to hear the whole of Memnoch’s story as a part of his
consideration of whether to serve him as his helper or not in the battle—which
turns out to be against God.
Memnoch does not simply recount to Lestat his tale, he shows it to him as
he speaks and builds his argument about his commitment to being the adversary
of God. And it is a narrative that begins in Heaven, where Lestat looks up “and
in the midst of the flood of light” he sees God Himself, and has to be forcefully
removed from Heaven by Memnoch instead of remaining with Him (168). As he
continues, Memnoch details, as he witnessed it and understood it himself, the
whole of the Creation to Lestat. At the heart of this wondrous narrative is the
appearance of matter—a substance capable of living and reproducing