On Queering the Monster
I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog with any of my mad ramblings/musings, I have (unfortunately and blessedly) gotten a job so that has taken up much of my time and energy. However, I have been writing, reading, thinking, musing, and obsessing over erotic monsters still, especially monsters who are either implicitly or explicitly queer. More specifically, I have been reading the books (for anyone who is interested in the topic) Queering the Gothic edited by William Hughes and Andrew Smith as well as Monsters in the Closet by Harry M. Benshoff.
Much of monstrosity, especially in relation to sexuality and desire, can be and is often interpreted as queer, both within the sexual sense of queerness and the ontological identity of someone or something that confronts the over-arching power structures, contorts it, threatens it, questions it. It’s in this liminal and murky space that monsters, good monsters, preside, oftentimes present in gothic literature, though not limited to it. Or, in the case of Twilight, bastardized into a faux version of itself, but I will touch on that later.
As such, because I am tired of not updating my beautiful website, I wanted to share at least this wonderful video of the late and great OG monster-fucker herself, Anne Rice. Vampires, as Anne so perfectly states in the below interview, are the “international stars of the monster pantheon” and the “greatest metaphor for the outsider in all of us”. It is just one of the reasons that vampires, including Anne’s, are so beloved amongst the queer community. (Also, whomst amongst us doesn’t love the gay drama of the new Interview with the Vampire on AMC?)
So, I’ll leave you with one monster fun fact: when Interview with the Vampire was released in 1994 (starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, for those who have not seen it), Oprah Winfrey stormed out of the building, unable to finish it because she was so appalled by how “dark and oppressive” it felt to her. So spooked by the movie, she almost reconsidered interviewing Cruise later on!