#Tulane

[ransomnote]

you can always channel the grief you feel from your encampment getting destroyed by SWAT with tanks and your friends arrested with AR-15s into art. there's always art.

[somevagrantchild]

Missing Loustat scene discovered in Anne Rice's diaries

I HAVE SOMETHING AMAZING TO SHARE WITH YOU!!

As I was reading Anne Rice's diaries in the special collection library at Tulane University while I was in New Orleans for the Vampire Ball, I discovered this intensely sexy scene she wrote between Louis and Lestat that never made it into her books. This is Anne Rice's original writing, never before shared anywhere online.

Anne Rice wrote this scene by hand in her diary dated November 6, 2015 (which she mentions is the day before Stan's birthday. He would have been 73😭). I have deduced that it is her very first (and very rough) draft of the scene that eventually became chapter 4 in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, aka the scene where Louis agrees to move into the chateau and be Lestat's partner/companion again. The final version of the scene in the book reads like wedding vows, serving as the beginning of their marriage in the modern era. As you'll see, the first draft was rather different. 

In Prince Lestat, Louis and Lestat's interactions are extremely brief, and they aren't able to talk beyond one stolen moment to reassure each other of their love. It would seem that in the six months between the end of Prince Lestat (when Louis thinks to himself that he will be with Lestat very soon), and the beginning of Atlantis (when that finally ends up happening), Louis and Lestat do not have any intimate conversation. They may have talked somewhat, but only briefly about superficial matters, or they may have not even spoken to each other once over those six months until Lestat asks Louis to meet him in New Orleans for chapter 4.

In an earlier diary entry, I found a note where Anne said she wanted their first reunion conversation to begin by finally addressing Louis dumping Lestat's body in the swamp after Claudia tried to kill him—something they have never once discussed. So when I came across this scene in a later diary, I could tell it was a direct follow-through on that idea. 

The scene begins with Lestat speaking to Louis, and it seems they are outside on the streets of New Orleans, but someplace private where they aren't being observed by mortals. This is different from the final book version with them sitting at a sticky table at the Café Du Monde (though it is similar to how Lestat tells us they walked around the city streets together for hours after the reunion scene was over). 

Anne headed this part of the diary entry with: Early on: L+L quarrel—

“I can forgive her for what she did. She was never a human being. She went from being an infant to a monster. But you—you stood there and watched. You carried my body into the swamps and dumped me there as if I were trash—you were the one I hated! How could you do that to me? Decades we’d been together!”

He stared at me for the longest time—not defensive, not angry.

“I could do it because I was afraid,” he said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live without you.”

“I don’t believe you. You were fine without me. You were preparing to sail to Europe. You were making plans.”

A torrent of words.

“Stop!” he said. “I’m here now. I love you! I thought you wanted me here! I thought you’d forgiven me. I thought we had a second chance, now, you and I. And miles to travel together!”

I nodded.

“A second chance!”

I nodded.

Then I took hold of him as if I was going to kill him. I threw him up against the wall and bit into his neck for the first time in two hundred years—the first time since the first time—and when the blood gushed into my mouth, I saw again—for the first time in two hundred years—his soul, his heart.

I was lost in his mind, his thoughts, his dreams, flashes…

I drew back—I’d drunk too much. He was being held there by me, his head bowed. I slapped him hard and when he opened his eyes, I pushed his open mouth against my neck. I forced his fangs into me.

And we were together, wrapped in one another’s arms…

Finally I pushed him back.

He was sitting on the paving stones, hair in his face, back to the wall. I took his hand and helped him up.

“Kiss me,” I said. “No, really kiss me.”

Finally I let him go.

“I can’t live without you! “ he said. “I swear, you wander off on me again, I…”

“I won’t. I won’t ever.”

We walked along in silence.

“He loves you too,” he said.

“Who?”

“The silent one, the one who’s never spoken to me, the one inside you.”

It was time. I could have lingered a half hour more in the old times, but the time was now.

The End 

------------------------------------

Above is the clean version, which I have corrected for missing punctuation, missing letters/words, and necessary dialogue tags.

Below is the original rough version as I have transcribed exactly from Anne Rice's handwritten diary.

------------------------------------

“I can forgive her for what she did. She was never a human being. She went from being an infant to a monster. But you—you stood there & watched. You carried my body in the swamps & dumped me there as if I were trash—you were the one I hated! How could you do that to me? Decades we’d been together!

He stared at me for the longest time—not defensive, not angry.

I could do it because I was afraid, he said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live without you.”

“I don’t believe. You were fine without me. You were preparing to sail to Europe. You were making plans.”

—A torrent of words.

“Stop! I’m here now. I love you! I thought you ’d wanted me here! I thought you’d forgive me. I thought we had a second chance, now, you & I. And miles to travel together!”

I nodded—

“A second chance!”

I nodded—

Then I took hold of him as if I was going to kill him. I threw him up against the wall & bit into his neck for the first time in 200 years—the first time since the first time—and when the blood gushed into my mouth I saw again—for the first time in 200 years—his soul, his heart—

I was lost in his mind, his thoughts, his dreams, flashes — (more)

I drew back—I’d drunk too much He was being held there by me, his head bowed. I slapped him hard & when he opened his eyes I pushed his open mouth against my neck. I forced his fangs into me.

And we were together, wrapped in one another arms — (more)

Finally I pushed him back.

He was sitting on the paving stones, hair in his face, back to the wall. I took his hand & helped him up.

Kiss me. No really kiss me.

Finally I let him go.

I can’t live without you! I swear, you wander off on me again, I … I ”

“I won’t. I won’t ever.”

We walked along in silence —

He loves you too

Who

The silent one, the one who’s never spoken to me, the one inside you.

It was time. I could have linger a half hour more in the old times, but was now —

The End 

------------------------------------

The spots where she wrote (more) are clearly areas where she intended to expound upon all Lestat was seeing and feeling in Louis's mind, soul, and blood, and then what he felt and saw as Louis was drinking from him. How I wish we could know what she would have written there! Also the lines that start or end with a — make me wonder if she intended to add more to those bits as well. Would she have actually written out Lestat's torrent of words?

Lestat's line "Kiss me. No really kiss me." isn't in quotation marks in Anne's diary. I chose to add them, because there were many other obviously spoken-aloud dialogue lines also without quotes. But it is possible that Lestat only thinks these words as he and Louis are kissing each other. It reminds me of in Queen of the Damned, when Daniel thinks, "I like kissing. And suggling with dead things, yes, hold me." The narration doesn't tell us Armand actually starts holding him, but Anne's style of using internal monologue makes it clear that's what happens in the action. So the "Kiss me." could be similar in this instance as well. And in that case it might mean Louis is the one who initiates the kiss, and this is Lestat’s internal “yes, yes!!” reaction to it. But I do suspect he is actually meant to be saying it aloud.

With the em dash at the end of it, the very last line could have been meant to continue: "but was now ______" was now...something. But considering she wrote "The End" after it, it seems like it was meant to be a final statement, so that is why I added the missing words I chose in my edited clean version.

Although this conversation is very different from the one we get in the final version of Atlantis, I do still see elements of it in the book's scene:

Louis's line "I can’t live without you! I swear, you wander off on me again, I …" became "so I'll come. And when you tire of me and want me gone, I'll hate you of course."

They still kiss, really kiss. In the book, it is moved to before their conversation, when Lestat first sees Louis in their Rue Royal flat, wearing the new clothes he ordered for him and Louis says, "This is what you wanted, isn't it?" and Lestat is so shocked, he's unable to respond.

They do still discuss Amel in the book version, in much more depth than he is mentioned here. Louis having never heard Amel's voice in his own head remains consistent. 

They do still go walking around the streets of the Garden District, though it happens after the conversation, not during it. Lestat does say they talked for hours during that walk, but about Amel and what's been happening to Lestat as Prince. Not about themselves or their past. 

MY THOUGHTS!

The confirmation here that Lestat never tasted Louis's blood before their new marriage begins in Atlantis is one of the most amazing parts to me, when combined with the offhand way that Lestat mentions what Louis's vampire blood tastes like in Blood Communion. Even though the final version of Atlantis never shows us Lestat drinking Louis's blood (either forcefully like this scene, or consensually in other ways), the mention in Blood Communion does confirm that it DOES happen off the page at some point during the years between Atlantis chapter 4 and the beginning of Blood Communion. 

We know that Louis drank much of Lestat's blood at the end of Merrick, and this was his first time doing it because we were told in previous books how much he resisted his powers being increased by drinking ANY other vampire's blood. It is nice to have it confirmed that Lestat never bit Louis or drank any of his blood in return either before or after Merrick. But now, after Lestat becomes Prince, this is now a new element to their relationship. It makes me consider more strongly that Anne perhaps meant to imply that they then for the first time began to engage in blood sharing the same romantic way Lestat did with Akasha in Queen of the Damned, and then in the even more explicit way she shows us with Rhoshamandes and Benedict in Prince Lestat. 

I don't take all Anne wrote in her diaries as canon. It is clear that much of what she wrote there were spitball ideas that she later chose to absolutely reject (as opposed to deciding they were true but she just didn't mention them in the books). But I do not see anything in this scene that the final versions of the books contradict. So even though this scene didn't actually happen in canon, we can believe that the feelings and emotions that drive this scene are still canon. And I love that for us 🥰

I have cross-posted this on ao3 to give us a good place to talk back and forth to each other about it in the comments section there. Reblog and reply to this post as much as you like, but if you want to have some conversations and share your own thoughts on what she wrote, ao3 will give us a much more organized place to do it, where other people will be able to easily find and read your meta as well.

[suikamelon6]

Lestat & King Louis XIV (complete 7ch)

Here the PDFs:

1. LESTAT & KING LOUIS XIV (7ch - 143pg) no repeated pages/notes - Sam will get this copy sent to him <3

2. Anne Rice notes plus ch6 revisions

Big thanks to @kaelio, @thecactifindahome for the photos.

OCR text file for the book is still coming.

[kaelio]

Oh... that's a change. I wonder what that means? (Anne Rice diary and notes, Tulane collection)

[gerard-lange-art-journals]

Tribute to William DePauw, with whom I attended Tulane University for graduate school. The two ceramic sculptures were ones he created during our time there. In the smaller journal (completed in 2003–2004) is an image of a larger sculpture by him from the same time period. Included in the larger journal is a copy of a 2-dimensional work by him also from our time in graduate school.

Book 25: (Re)Writing My History was a reflection on my first 25 years making art journals, but infusing them with images and references to my wife Amanda, an artist and art historian, thereby taking her into my past experiences as an artist.

Book 8: Hot Dog, Now This Is Living, spread 24 (pp. 48–49), 23.5 x 36 x 3 cm (9¼ x 14 x 1⅛ in.).

Book 25: (Re)Writing My History: 25th Anniversary Journal, spread 4 (pp. 8–9), 2021, 28 x 44 x 5.5 cm (11 x 17 x 2 ¼ in).

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Gregory E. Williams

Students at adjacent Tulane and Loyola universities formed a joint encampment for Palestine in front of the universities on busy St. Charles Ave.

In the early hours of the morning on May 1, state, city, and campus police violently attacked the encampment. Students held firm in their resistance, even as they were rounded up and forced onto the St. Charles Avenue median. Fourteen activists were arrested. 

[desertfangs]

I NEED YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ARMAND/DANIEL BREAK UP SCENE IN TVA PLS

Not gonna lie, I would’ve loved for a more polished version of this to have made it into the book, the potential is there IMO as well as all the elements that make Devil’s Minion such an explosive, intense, compelling ship. The fighting, the yearning, the weird sexual analogies (this one didn’t quite land but it kinda always goes back to sex with them, doesn’t it?), the kissing in between hurtful statements. Daniel using INSECT parts for his models, Pandora trying to make him pay attention to Armand, Armand being sad and kissing Daniel while trying to fix things, but Daniel being too far gone at the time to even register the impact of his words. I NEED MORE.

Anon, I have so many thoughts, my brain is spinning.

I'm not sure I'd want this in the book or not, it's so hard to say now. I was absolutely baffled by Daniel's lack of inclusion in TVA when it came out, and and then suddenly he's there in B&G mad and being cared for by Marius, and I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics to figure out how I thought he got from A to B. I eventually decided him thinking Armand was dead drove him mad, which made the most sense to me. That is clearly is not what Anne had pictured, but at this point I'm honestly pretty happy with that conclusion instead.

I'm trying to imagine how it would have felt if this was included in TVA. What else does that change? Is Armand still bitter and angry? Is he more regretful? Does this mean we get any of his POV of the Devil's Minion years, including their break up? (Because that is the piece I feel is most missing from that book and what I deeply wanted from it in addition to filling in Armand's background.)

The idea that Armand abandoned the island to mortal hands--a reference to him selling it, I guess--would absolutely break Daniel apart. It does feel very much like something he would be devastated by but I don't feel we're given enough on this one page to really understand what happened. Armand left the others? That doesn't gel with anything I've ever thought. Armand always struck me as the one who was holding things together and was then heartbroken when everyone else left. So I'd need a more context into Anne's idea of how things played out there.

That said, there are pieces I like!

I love the idea of Pandora and Marius looking after Daniel together and Pandora trying to get his attention.

"I have no maker!" I mean, if Daniel and Armand had a vicious fight and Armand all about renounced him and left him wandering to the point where the loneliness and devastation of it drove him mad, then this is absolutely something I can see him saying. The way he talks about how Armand doesn't make others so clearly he has no maker is so full of bitterness and resentment I would love to see a fic unpacking that (Someone should write it! Maybe several someones!)

Daniel building his worlds with found objects and weird shit is amazing. Like it's so deeply unhinged that I can't help but applaud the creativity. I honestly wish I'd known about this months ago because I can totally see this happening as Daniel sinks into madness and I would have loved to have added a scene to my fic about that where Daniel is building a little town on the floor of some seedy motel with bugs and matchbooks and rubber bands or something. It's delightfully freaking weird and I dig it.

I love Armand asking after Daniel, which is another thing I think was sorely missing from TVA. The fact that he doesn't seem to care where he is just explained by his assumption Daniel hates him, but it still feels exceptionally weird to me that Armand wouldn't even ask, particularly after he almost died, and he doesn't know if Daniel may have tried to follow suit? This whole big thing just happened and Lestat is catatonic on the floor, I'd be accounting for my loved ones, no matter how we left things.

Armand losing all his anger and bitterness (does he have that in this version? He must have some, right?) when he sees Daniel in a bad state, clearly struggling, and offering him comfort is so precious. But also can we talk about "I didn't mean to abandon you..." ????? Armand ABANDONED Daniel in this version??? I just... that's so wild, I have so many questions. And then he kisses him??? That is precious. Look, I have wanted an Armand and Daniel interaction during his madness since we learned Daniel was in Marius' basement playing with model trains in Blood and Gold. And I think I would have been okay with this if we got some satisfying resolution between them afterward - we can have this hurt, but we need some comfort to end it on, you know? And I don't think that would have happened. I think Armand would have left defeated and we'd have been stuck with that in our heads for decades until PL came out and we get one freaking line about them hunting together, so.

I think I am glad this version did not make it into TVA, but I would also love to read a dozen fics that try to make sense of all this because there are some delicious tidbits I think talented fic writers could explore and really work into something great.

[rtcpollshowdown]

SUNY PURCHASE - TULANE UNIVERSITY

[phots under cut]

[gamma-xi-delta]

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A post shared by Tulane Kappa (@tulanekkg)

[olive-pit123]

forever in love with my friends

[ransomnote]

all who were arrested have been released and we are working on getting their charges dropped! my close friend was arrested on neutral ground, public, non-university property, and never read their miranda rights. many others are saying the same.

we still need your help. i can only speak for loyola, but call 504-865-3847 and demand that president cole give amnesty to the students that were arrested and not slap them with any student conduct violations!

disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!

[uncivilcivilservice]

All those extracts from books Anne was planning to write at some point are making me sad

I feel like I'm grieving an alternative universe in which she decided to ahead and write those instead of what we got

Does that make sense?

The whole war against humanity and the Talamasca sounds so cool, and if she had kept the pool of characters smaller as apparently she originally planned maybe we could have had them actually interacting with each other and having conversations and opinions about each other which is something I always wished he could get in canon

It does make sense, and its fun but also kind of sad to think about what could have been and what got left out or forgotten about.

And I hadn't even thought about how it might have meant her keeping the main cast smaller and therefore being less likely to discard characters like Daniel, damn. Though honestly I do suspect that no matter what Marius and other characters are saying in that draft, she would have found a way to include a lot of new characters anyway. She was always coming up with new guys, she couple help it

But it's definitely bittersweet getting a peak at the different directions she might have taken the series, or even just individual storylines.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Nalyra please help me out, can you describe the deleted ending from Merrick that wasn't in the book but only in the draft? Lestat not saving Louis or something like that? Since it's almost certain that we are getting the Merrick ending, some people think that we could get the alternative version (and this is maybe the twist Sam was talking about). I really don't think they would actually kill Louis, but is there something in the deleted scene they could incorporate in the show? Thank you, I'm so nervous!

*hugs*

Well, the interesting thing about the alternative version (which is in the Tulane drafts is that instead of the titular Merrick and David there (with Lestat coming in)... it's Armand and Lestat.

And yes, Lestat argues that Louis chose this, and Louis dies.

Which will NOT be what they do in the show, I'm very certain of that^^. And I do think we've seen the show's change there already in the trailers:

This is Louis coming up from a pebble filled coffin to get at blood.

I think we're going to get a mix of the draft and final version of the ending of Merrick. If I saw that correctly Rolin confirmed they also looked at the Tulane material - so they know about the version where it's Armand and Lestat there.

Personally I think that could work very well.

Both people who love Louis so very much resurrecting him - and arguing about it.

It's going to be extremely intense to watch I bet.

[sleepie-storm]

i just watched the tulane production of rtc. live. best experience of my life tbh. (and its local for me! very cool.)

some stuff that i liked or just noticed:

-the audience was incredibly small. like the size of a small high school classroom. has nothing to do with the play but its just really interesting to me

-virgil was a hand puppet. he was very cute.

-yes he still did the guitar solo

-noel was black! very cool

-pretty much all the dialogue and songs were identical to the original

-jane doe was brunette!

-they shot confetti at the audience (i caught some 🎉)

-since it was lower budget than the original, they didn't have the mechanism to fly jane doe around the stage, so the rest of the choir just lifted her up

-the pictures of the cyclone were actually pictures of the rollercoaster at a local park!!!! ive ridden it multiple times for school field trips (haven't died yet!)

-ricky. did not have his crutches for this production. though its probably better off like that since the actor isn't disabled.

-i went with my girlfriend and her mom and there was a spotlight on her mom for a majority of the play. which was extremely funny.

-the lady who sat next to us was the mom of the actor playing jane doe!!!! we recognized her in the slideshow of jane doe's life at the end of the play

overall: amazing play. absolutely life changing experience. and also very excited that i can now flex that ive seen ride the cyclone in person

i hope someone recorded it and makes a slime tutorial for it

[oldshowbiz]

Tulane Stadium

[gerard-lange-art-journals]

A book box containing various journals, notebooks, plans, and ephemera from my time at Tulane University, where I attended graduate school.

Gerard Lange art journals, Book 6: Ad Tulanian, dimensions variable, book box 30 x 23 x 9.5 cm (11¾ x 9 x 3¾ in.), 2002–2004.