News Author Anne Rice dies at 80.
- Thread starter auntiehill
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As I've posted elsewhere today:
Saddened to hear that Anne Rice has left us. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is easily one of the most influential vampire novels of all time, to the degree that it's almost impossible to overstate its importance. Rice was the one of the first (and certainly the most influential) author to write vampire stories from the POV of the vampires -- for readers who wanted to imagine what it would be like to be a vampire. She wrote vampire fiction for vampires. And she certainly popularized the idea of vampires as a CULTURE, as a shadow society existing in the murkier corners of the mundane world -- as opposed to some freakish malevolent force creeping in from Transylvania to menace our sympathetic human protagonists.
Pretty much every urban fantasy or paranormal romance that has vampires and werewolves hanging out at a local underground bar or cabaret owes her an enormous debt.
INTERVIEW is up there with DRACULA and I AM LEGEND as one of THE vampire novels that casts an enormous shadow over the entire genre.
She will be missed.
P.S. Apparently she had a third Mummy novel, co-written with her son, coming out in February.
Saddened to hear that Anne Rice has left us. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is easily one of the most influential vampire novels of all time, to the degree that it's almost impossible to overstate its importance. Rice was the one of the first (and certainly the most influential) author to write vampire stories from the POV of the vampires -- for readers who wanted to imagine what it would be like to be a vampire. She wrote vampire fiction for vampires. And she certainly popularized the idea of vampires as a CULTURE, as a shadow society existing in the murkier corners of the mundane world -- as opposed to some freakish malevolent force creeping in from Transylvania to menace our sympathetic human protagonists.
Pretty much every urban fantasy or paranormal romance that has vampires and werewolves hanging out at a local underground bar or cabaret owes her an enormous debt.
INTERVIEW is up there with DRACULA and I AM LEGEND as one of THE vampire novels that casts an enormous shadow over the entire genre.
She will be missed.
P.S. Apparently she had a third Mummy novel, co-written with her son, coming out in February.
I was in a toddler at best when Interview came out. I was probably 12 or 13 when I read it, from word of mouth. As a kid that ate books voraciously, I had been on a diet of Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg juveniles, CS Lewis, whatever I could get my hands on, and the occasional Omni mom brought home. I had not read anything like it.
She got mis-identified s a horror writer, but it was a good place to be at the time. Waldenbooks had well stocked horror shelves and the big names could compete with the lurid Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins stuff. Maybe they'd say magical realism now. I think she invented her own sub-genre and ran with it.
Two decades ago, I remember the first or second week I was working at an office in downtown NO, staying at the Clarinet. The food in the Quarter was better than the hotel stuff, so per diems being per diems, I started taking late dinners, then wandering back to the hotel. I was shuffling up St Ann that night, empty as it was. The late night crowd stuck closer to the tourist places. I didn't want to blow my cash on the expensive strip clubs on Bourbon or the nastier ones on Iberville, so I was quite a few blocks from where I'd intended to be. I got the notion I was being followed. Sometimes I was sure, sometimes I was not. Part of me knew I was probably paranoid, and another part was realistic that I might get mugged, as overweight pasty people waddling around in the dark often are. But there was that little bit of Ann Rice that infects your brain the moment you start reading. The first open shop I made it into to avoid the follower was an occult supply and bookshop, the owner of which was aware of the spate of muggings on her block lately and didn't mind me hanging around. But the air was filled with magic just the same, and I'm not sure if it would have been without Ms Rice.
It's not much to say, cause I am a nobody, but I will go so far as to say, because of the time I live in, grew up in, learned to exist in, she's been every bit as influential on me as any other writer and a lot more than most. If the great SF writers of the early years were the Gallileos of their time, pointing fresh telescopes around, and wondering "what if", and if Tolkien inspired generations to imagine the world with mapped overlays of past legends over modern concerns, she's the one holding the UV lamp over the hotel bedspread after you've already checked in, threatening to show you what the world might REALLY be made of. But the lamp isn't real, and the scary stuff is far more mundane. Except when it isn't, thanks to Ann Rice.
She got mis-identified s a horror writer, but it was a good place to be at the time. Waldenbooks had well stocked horror shelves and the big names could compete with the lurid Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins stuff. Maybe they'd say magical realism now. I think she invented her own sub-genre and ran with it.
Two decades ago, I remember the first or second week I was working at an office in downtown NO, staying at the Clarinet. The food in the Quarter was better than the hotel stuff, so per diems being per diems, I started taking late dinners, then wandering back to the hotel. I was shuffling up St Ann that night, empty as it was. The late night crowd stuck closer to the tourist places. I didn't want to blow my cash on the expensive strip clubs on Bourbon or the nastier ones on Iberville, so I was quite a few blocks from where I'd intended to be. I got the notion I was being followed. Sometimes I was sure, sometimes I was not. Part of me knew I was probably paranoid, and another part was realistic that I might get mugged, as overweight pasty people waddling around in the dark often are. But there was that little bit of Ann Rice that infects your brain the moment you start reading. The first open shop I made it into to avoid the follower was an occult supply and bookshop, the owner of which was aware of the spate of muggings on her block lately and didn't mind me hanging around. But the air was filled with magic just the same, and I'm not sure if it would have been without Ms Rice.
It's not much to say, cause I am a nobody, but I will go so far as to say, because of the time I live in, grew up in, learned to exist in, she's been every bit as influential on me as any other writer and a lot more than most. If the great SF writers of the early years were the Gallileos of their time, pointing fresh telescopes around, and wondering "what if", and if Tolkien inspired generations to imagine the world with mapped overlays of past legends over modern concerns, she's the one holding the UV lamp over the hotel bedspread after you've already checked in, threatening to show you what the world might REALLY be made of. But the lamp isn't real, and the scary stuff is far more mundane. Except when it isn't, thanks to Ann Rice.
It can be said that the original Dark Shadows popularized that first, as it was the first time in filmed media that a fully fleshed-out vampire's personal life--from evil desires, angst, loneliness and other emotions--were the driving force of the character and major plots on the soaper. It was one of the reasons the Barnabas Collins character became a pop-culture phenomenon, since audiences were seeing life his way, whether his actions were worthy of sympathy or inspired revulsion.
This one hit me. I've never read her books, only seen the film adaptation of Queen of the Damned and some parts of Interview with the Vampire, but my late mother was a huge fan of Anne Rice. My mother passed away in August, and hearing about Rice's death brought back some memories of conversations with Mom about how much she loved Rice's work.
Artists ultimately are people who help us communicate with ourselves, and with the ones we loved. Perhaps I need to give Anne Rice's books a try to see how well she helps me communicate with myself. But she helped me communicate with my mom even if I never read her, and for that I'm grateful. Rest in Peace, Ms. Rice.
Artists ultimately are people who help us communicate with ourselves, and with the ones we loved. Perhaps I need to give Anne Rice's books a try to see how well she helps me communicate with myself. But she helped me communicate with my mom even if I never read her, and for that I'm grateful. Rest in Peace, Ms. Rice.
