#doomwatching the election coverage

[dont-lick-my-foot]

I’m a queer PoliSci student planning on doom-watching election coverage Tuesday night & I might live blog about which states actually get called the night of/tight race updates (I doom-watched the 2020 election coverage on NBC and thought it seemed alright so I’ll probably do that again — I might check other channels periodically tho, idk yet). Might also include any Congressional races that are highlighted because tbh elections are what I’m interested in academically anyway lol

I plan to use the tag ‘#dlmf election updates’ if any of my followers/mutuals want to block/filter this tag out beforehand!

[pynkhues]

You mentioned nickis cruelty, taking them away to Paris to die together and it mighhhht be a stretch but it sort of reminds me of Gabriells cruelty. Of keeping Lestat by her side. What I mean but that is, she could’ve given him those jewels a long time ago but she only does it when she’s about to die. It wasn’t out of being malicious and intentionally trapping him like his father and brothers but Lestat became a lifeline for her, without him she would’ve gone back to being lonely and rotting away. Lestat is a part of her, one that she wanted to keep near even if that meant he would struggle even though she had the means to free him and I think that in itself is a little cruel. Thoughts?

I don't think it's a stretch at all, anon, in fact, I think you're spot on.

I love Gabrielle as a character, but both Lestat's parents are abusive, albeit in different ways (although not entirely). Her emotional withholding when Lestat's a small child is fundamentally neglect, she denies him an education despite being well-educated herself, her enmeshment of identity with him denies him his personhood, and while she never goes out and drags him home like the Marquis does, she holds him as much hostage in that house for many years, like you said, as she has the resources to get him out.

In a lot of ways, it's actually pretty reflective of this throughline with Lestat where people do want to possess him entirely, even those who love him. Nicki wants him dead beside him in Paris, Gabrielle can't let him go until she knows she's dying, the Marquis keeps him under his thumb, Magnus steals him and keeps him in a tower for a week before turning him, Armand wants him under his control and keeps him prisoner in the theatre, Louis wants him dead, he wants him all to himself, and gets both in Dreamstat, and Akasha abducts him to have him too.

It's a really significant part of Lestat's arc, and it's unique in some ways for a male character, but also a lot of it goes back to the fact that Anne is ultimately an author of the Female Gothic. As a subgenre, that is inherently about female anxieties, even if they are depicted by male characters, and entrapment, autonomy and agency are pretty big staples of that. Lestat never really getting to live for himself and being desired to the point where others seek total possession of him - and that being depicted both as something deeply sensual and deeply sinister, depending on the character doing the desiring - is really I think pretty central to the overarching story.

But yes, I do think there's an element of shared cruelty there with Nicki and Gabrielle, which is kind of why it's so interesting too that Gabrielle is so gentle with Nicki. I've mentioned it on here before I think, but I'm forever fascinated that Gabrielle's the one who teaches Nicki how to hunt, given she never teaches Lestat anything at all.