the style of a woman, the kiss of a man

“Loustat” and Anne and Stan—Why it’s so important…
I wanted to make a little segment about why this ship is so important to to TVC fans and why I believe this relationship was so important to Anne Rice herself. I understand not everyone likes this ship in fact if you have only watched the show there is a lot of reasons to not like it. But to wish that it fails, to never be endgame–that forgiveness or redemption is impossible for godlike beings that don’t think like we do and strive off violence and death–well…that’s your opinion and that’s valid. But it’s not a series for you then.
Let’s say they do get broken up for good by the show–it would be incredibly insulting to Anne Rice fans and not just because of their canon endgame but what this relationship meant for Anne.
Through creating Louis and Lestat for Interview with the Vampire, Anne started to realize she was creating a reflection of herself (Louis) and her husband Stan (Lestat). The book was a reflection of the struggles of their relationship and family dynamic during the darkest points in their life: the illness of their daughter Michele (Claudia) and her inevitable death. Not to mention alchoholism and financial struggles that also happened. So you can imagine… Their lives together were a spiral of chaos. At one point Anne almost left Stan but they came back together again. You can already see the inspirations… they even all share birthdays with their real-life inspirations!
“Lestat was Stan, I was Louis and Claudia was Michele. To me a novel can go deeper than a memoir can; it can go to the very deepest concerns of the soul. It was a book I felt compelled to write.’ “–DailyMailUK
Anne and Stan had a deep love, he was the only man she was ever married to for over 41 years, and I swear to god I am not making this up and I am struggeling so much finding this quote but I read in an interview Anne said something along the lines of, “I have only been with one man but my imagination is rated X.” but for the life of me I can’t find it.
“I think ours is a great love affair. We’ve been through many storms and are at the point where many of our friends are on their third marriage. We have had our three marriages with each other. There is still this profound fascination with my husband. He can still make me absolutely, deliriously happy. Or miserable. He still has the power to do that. So I would say I am still ‘in love’ with him.“–Anne Rice, OrlandoSentinel
It’s in my opinion that Louis and Lestat represented a deep, complicated, love that she had with her husband from a great darkness of her life that she felt she coud only express within her writing. Would I say that Anne’s relationship with her husband was “toxic”? The only person who could answer that question is Anne Rice herself. I didn’t know her personally so who am I to say what it was or wasn’t. But Stan meant the world to her. That’s all that matters.
Anne and Stan
Well then why did she sideline Louis for so many years?
The Vampire Lestat, and the actual Chronicles was written 10 years after IWTV. Anne found her own voice within Lestat after all those years, she found a version of her ideal self. Writing about or as Louis was difficult as it reminded her of the darkest point in her lifetime. But she never sidelined Louis and Lestat’s relationship. In almost every VC book it’s made clear that Lestat is still deeply in love with Louis.
“ Anne and Stan Rice have endured a tumultuous relationship, which has included a unique courtship, marriage, a partially dysfunctional family life, emotional trauma, success and finally mutual happiness.” -AngelFire
And then of course, almost all the vampires are polyamorous and have deep romantic relationships with multiple characters but there are some characters who are drawn more deeply to eachother than others. Anne was the biggest Loustat shipper out there! There were Facebook posts of her roleplaying as Lestat and one of them alking about how if he could only chose one companion in the world it would be Louis. (I couldn’t find the link for this one but I know most TVC fans know about this one so I’m sure someone can find the screenshot for the notes :) When gay marriage was legalized in the US she made a detailed discription of Louis and Lestat’s wedding. Anne loved them. She had always known that they were fated to be no matter the conflicts were that tore them apart.