one thing i’m really appreciating about iwtv is that it doesn’t shy away from how complicated and thorny your feelings can be toward someone who abused you. it’s evident from the way louis talks about lestat in the present that he feels genuine love for lestat, feels sympathy for him, even grieves for him and their relationship. but those feelings are never framed by the narrative as a way to minimize or romanticize the abuse. for that matter, it’s also clear that lestat deeply loved louis in his own twisted way. that doesn’t detract from the abuse, and is in fact part of the abuse.
there’s also something that feels very true to me as a survivor about the difference between louis’s interviews: the (incredibly justified) bitterness and anger of his first interview versus what louis calls the more nuanced portrait of the second. granted there could be circumstances we don’t yet know about that contributed to that change, but honestly i think time and distance could be enough of an explanation. i don’t think either interview is more or less true. rather, they’re snapshots of louis’s emotional truth at different points in his life. when the trauma is fresh, anger is a natural and even healthy response. some survivors stay angry and that’s okay. but it’s also okay if, as time goes by, the anger steps back and leaves space for the love, the sympathy, the grief. that doesn’t mean that you weren’t really abused or that you’re forgiving them for abusing you; it means that you’re seeing them as a full complicated person who is capable of horrible things.
