The Works of Anne Rice

[sumire]

I enjoyed the first three Vampire Chronicles as a young teen with latent goth tendencies, and in college, my roommate and I spent a happy evening reading aloud from The Mummy and providing accompanying sound effects:

"The door! Break down the virgin door!"
::knocking, in the rhythm of "Shave and a Haircut"::

...and almost everything else she does provides ample fodder at various snarky forums, so it's all good.

One thing I never quite got, though, was the way the vampires were described as having fingernails that looked like glass. Big deal, Wet'n'Wild clear nail polish will run you a dollar, tops. Also, is Lestat an actual existing name, or did she just make it up out of whole cloth?

[Deleted]

I liked the second vampire novel, The Vampire Lestate. After that, I started getting the feeling that Rice was overly in love with her characters. You know the phrase "mental masturbation?" Well, I started getting the uneasy feeling that she was getting herself off in some strange way with these vampires.

Oh, and did anyone read those "Beauty" books? Out of morbid curiousity, I read two of them. Now that was clearly an excercise in mental masturbation. I have to give her credit though -- I saw her in an interview where the interviewer said, tactfully, "This is basically soft porn," and Rice answered, "No, it's hard porn." So at least she came right out with it.

But I pretty much lost respect for her when she acted like the casting of Lestat for Interview with the Vampire was going to affect civilization as we know it. For god's sake -- they're books! They are made up characters! Get a grip!

[Ripley]

The Beauty books were definitely her wish to get her desires down in book form so that other people would know they were not alone. She admitted it in an interview.

[jynni]

bonsai said:

But I pretty much lost respect for her when she acted like the casting of Lestat for Interview with the Vampire was going to affect civilization as we know it. For god's sake -- they're books! They are made up characters! Get a grip!

But you gotta admit - they really did f^ck up the casting for that movie. Kirsten Dunst/Claudia was the only part they got remotely right.

[chiqui]

One thing I never quite got, though, was the way the vampires were described as having fingernails that looked like glass. Big deal, Wet'n'Wild clear nail polish will run you a dollar, tops. Also, is Lestat an actual existing name, or did she just make it up out of whole cloth?

Hee hee, I often thought the same thing. Not only that, but she says over and over in each book. Again. And again. And again.

I read somewhere (I believe on her website) that she made up the name Lestat, something to sound vaguely French. To make the character unique I think. She also made up the names Mekare and Maharet in faux-Egyptian style, I guess.

I liked the second vampire novel, The Vampire Lestate. After that, I started getting the feeling that Rice was overly in love with her characters. You know the phrase "mental masturbation?" Well, I started getting the uneasy feeling that she was getting herself off in some strange way with these vampires.

She writes like a fanfic writer. She knows she has fans who like her work and her world, and she writes to please (and make money, it's her livelihood)... also because she likes living in that world as much as they do.

[Deleted]

And yet she goes after fan fic writers with a vigor that suggests she dial it back a notch. I know some authors aren't keen on fanfic and don't allow it, and some have been badly burned by it. But in Rice's case, it's because it offends her that people play around with HER characters.

Oh, anyone remember her hissyfit on Amazon a few years back? I forget which book it was (Blackwood Farm?), but she threw a fit over poor reviews, and dared people to continue, adding that if they truly hated the book, to send it to her address (which she openly posted) and that she would return their money, no questions asked. She insisted she was sincere and people took her up on it.

Only it turns out the address was to the house in the Garden District which she had recently sold...and all of the books were sent back marked, "Return to Sender."

[Deleted]

Brad Pitt made a great Louis in the Interview movie. However, Tom Cruise was not a convincing Lestat.

[Ripley]

But in Rice's case, it's because it offends her that people play around with HER characters.

It pains me to agree with Anne Rice over anything, but she is right. They are HER characters. She is the one who created them, and she should be the only one who gets to decide what happens to them. If she objects to fanfic, then she has every right to protect her creation and her copyright.

[Deleted]

Oh, I agree. It's just that she gets hysterical, NOT because of copyrights. But because her characters are SACRED.

She's also nasty, viscious and hateful.

[Ripley]

And self-important. Don't forget that!

Reading her novels is like walking into one of those old Victorian parlors. There's too much stuff around, and the furniture is all oversized or overstuffed. It's impossible to breathe because one doesn't dare open a window to let in fresh air, so you end up feeling faint due to the overpowering scent of perfume.