ppl love to be like ‘louis is a business major in a world full of theatre kids’ and its like well. most vampires in this world end up making art (i think bc anne rice likely had a sort of universalizing view that any being that lives long enough will eventually become an artist) and louis has clearly always been passionate about the arts!! He’s been deeply moved by it since he was a human (see: Iolanthe incident) He has opinions about it (he’s literally a prolific art collector, he gets degraded in a racialized way by Santiago for being ‘pretentious’ about art, he reads or sleeps through TdV’s work not bc he hates all theatre but bc he thinks their work is tawdry and bizarre.)
it makes sense that louis tries his hand at being an artist, and that attempt a symbol of profound hope! but he also happened to pick the artform most prohibitive to him as a vampire (photography requires light and patience, whereas he’s always outrunning the sun.) and he takes photos of humans that he cannot get emotionally close to (the photo he takes of armand is notably the only one an art dealer gets a lil frisson off of.) he completely stacks the deck against himself, putting himself in a position to reaffirm his prior belief that vampirism is a curse and a limitation.
when he realizes his art isn’t great he quits. but if he had waited for cameras to improve, or taken photos of fellow vampires, (and fwiw i think there was a post floating around about how if louis just ate more, things might be easier lolol) or just been content to suck at it for a while, there’s no reason why he couldn’t have continued (lord knows other vampires are out there being bad and weird at whatever they’re making, in part bc they’re v much out of step with the culture they’re attempting to contribute to. and louis actually seems a great deal more clued in to the zeitgeist based on what he says to claudia about the parisian modern art scene, and even up to 2022 where he knows what essencefest is like my girl still knows whats what more or less.)
i think louis stops not only bc its painful and frustrating to not be able to practice this artform the way he wants to, but bc he cannot deal with the idea that he isn’t Creating Value or contributing, he would just be enjoying himself.
And and and the most chilling thing to me has always been the stein-photo-replacement moment and subsequent crashout. (obv that story beat is abt armand being manipulative and undermining louis’ account of events, but) the way louis is so upset and so vehement abt insisting that he was merely adequate as a photographer, how important it is for louis that the readers know that is like Thee character detail of the whole season for me. louis is so ruled by self loathing that it feels central to his personal integrity and the integrity of the story he’s telling that he not say anything too nice about himself or his creative output. and its so fucking racialized bc truly louis still lives in fear of being called arrogant and haughty and uppity and pretentious by white people who do not want him to like himself !! like lets all kill ourselves fr
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