Any Anne Rice fans about?

[Melmoth]

I'm one, at least for her earlier stuff, and wondered what everyone else thought about her.

I loved the biographical vampire books - Interview, Lestat and Armand - especially. I wasn't so keen on Queen of the Damned, Body Thief, Memnoch, or the ones that followed Armand.

I'd also like to know what people think about her conversion to Christianity and whether or not that affected the quality of her work. I'm undecided. I see a shift from more naturalistic themes to more 'magical' ones, which I wasn't so keen on, but that might only be for the alegorical elements of the story that got undermined along the way. I preferred their simply not knowing what they are. I thought that was part of what made them so interesting. They, like us, can only speculate on their origins and purpose while having to just deal with life regardless of an absence of answers. They are, like us, one of the many perplexing marvels of nature, and in using the fantastical element of vampires to change the angle of focus Rice managed to refresh some very old and basic philosophical questions: how do we find meaning in our lives? Is meaning an innate and objective quality, to be discovered in a book or asymptotally aspired towards, or do we simply construct it? What do we do if we can't find meaning, and our efforts to contrive it fail?

I found all that stuff very compelling, and I felt that she undermined the whole thing by explaining too much. I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't read these books, so I'll only state my opinion on fantasy: fantasy, in fiction, can be used to ask some very interesting questions about reality. But if you use it to answer those questions it's always going to be disappointing. Is that fair?

[februarystars]

Actually the first thing on my to-do list this summer after graduation is to read the Vampire Chronicles. I read Interview years ago in high school, but I think at the time I read it, it was... I don't want to say "too" mature, but I think maybe a lot of the deeper meaning was lost on me. I love the movie for pure entertainment value, though I know a lot was changed or left out, and the casting choices were... questionable. I've never seen the Queen of the Damned movie just because it looks terrible, but I've been looking forward to reading all of them.

In spite of the series sort of going downhill like you mentioned, would you still recommend them?

[Melmoth]

@februarystars: Oh definitely. They're still very good. They only go down hill a little, and only according to my personal taste. I may not be the kind of audience she meant them for in the first place.

Also, yes, the Queen of the Damned movie is bloody awful. Read the book first. I made the mistake of doing it the other way around and so the book was tainted.

[McQ]

I read her Mayfair Witches trilogy and really enjoyed them. They are the only Rice books I've ever read.

[YaarghMatey487]

I've read most of the Vampire Chronicles and only two of the Mayfair Witches books. Oh right and I read the first two of her "naughty" books. I'd never read sex books before and I was bored. I love Anne Rice and I love vampire books in general but I can only read so much of her stuff at one time (especially with the VC). I don't mind that she goes back in time so much to explain things... but 300 pages of background? I wish she had incorporated background information differently.

[Tank]

I have been known to pen custom stories for friends that could be considered erotic+  lol

[Melmoth]

@McQ: I've not read the Mayfair Witches trilogy, though some of the characters do crop up in the vampire books later. If you say they're good then I shall have to give 'em a gander!

@Yaargh & Tank: intriguing. I guess cannibalism is just a powerful metaphor for sex. That may sound a little weird, but I think if anyone admitted their "ravenous desire" to "eat you alive" you wouldn't have to second-guess their meaning. Vampires and erotica do make a kooky kind of sense together!

[YaarghMatey487]

@Melmoth- Rice's erotica books are actually a retelling of sleeping beauty. I'm sure vampire erotica exists. The closest thing I've read would be Laurell K. Hamilton's "Guilty Pleasures" series. Okay... I guess I have read vampire erotica then. Any series with a name like that can't be very far above smut.

[YaarghMatey487]

Oh and Februarystars... I keep forgetting to tell you how much I love your icon. I giggled for a good ten seconds the first time I saw it.

[sillyseal]

I read Interview and The Vampire Lestat this year and fell in love with both vampires.    I agree that the answers are disappointing because after all, we don't really ever get an objective answer to them. All we can do is speculate and I think for the author to try to make their characters contain any more knowledge than that will leave many unsatisfied. I don't think Rice really did that, or at least I don't remember.
I should mention that Anne Rice came out a while ago and said she denounced her Catholic faith while retaining her faith in Jesus because of all the corruption and intolerance. She was an atheist when she wrote the Vampire Chronicles, I believe.
Anne was extremely skeptical that Cruise could successfully portray Lestat but after the movie came out she praised his performance so much. Nevertheless,I personally didn't like the casting. I have never really been able to enjoy a movie after reading the book and Interview was no different. I have a pretty specific picture in my mind of what everything, especially the characters, look like and it just never matches. Then again, it could have been much worse.

[Melmoth]

@Sillyseal: Agreed. I was even more disappointed by the casting of whatshisface as Armand. Cruise can, at least, be good at villains/anti-heros/slightly slimy characters (always thought of Lestat as a bit slimy). Wouldn't have been my first choice but they could have picked someone worse, as you say.

[Sireal]

Interview with the Vampire is the best of Rice's novels IMHO. It carries subtle hints as to what true vampirism is all about-it really has Nothing to do with drinking blood and all that hype. Vlad the Impaler, Gilles deRais and more can be found to embody the nature of the Vampire more effectively. I like Rice's books more as mind fudge than anything and she spins a good yarn. If you can find it "The Vampire" by Ornella Volta is the consummate book of the Vampire.

[sillyseal]

@Sillyseal: Agreed. I was even more disappointed by the casting of whatshisface as Armand. Cruise can, at least, be good at villains/anti-heros/slightly slimy characters (always thought of Lestat as a bit slimy). Wouldn't have been my first choice but they could have picked someone worse, as you say.

How could I have forgotten about Armand? That was probably one of my least favorite castings in the movie because I imagined someone completely different. Much more of an innocent and young appearance was needed for the role. On the other hand, I can't think of someone who would have played Claudia better than Kirsten Dunst.

[Melmoth]

@Sillyseal: Armand must have been inspired a lot by Dorian Grey. That's my theory at least. Dorian's another character that never translated well into film, sadly. But in print, personality wise, I think he and Armand are near-identical. They've both got the same wolf-in-sheeps-clothing thing: a deceptively innocent-seeming, youthful appearance which hides a corrupt and sensual nature.

So yeah, young and innocent was a definite must for Armand. That deceptiveness seemed to me the foundation for the rest of his character - without it, he might as well have been cast as Generic Vampire 2.

Interview with the Vampire is the best of Rice's novels IMHO. It carries subtle hints as to what true vampirism is all about-it really has Nothing to do with drinking blood and all that hype. Vlad the Impaler, Gilles deRais and more can be found to embody the nature of the Vampire more effectively. I like Rice's books more as mind fudge than anything and she spins a good yarn. If you can find it "The Vampire" by Ornella Volta is the consummate book of the Vampire.

Yeah, Interview's probably my favourite too.