What happened to Anne Rice?

[Aliénor]

Never read her vampy stories. I

All her erotica, yes. Nit great lit, but, well...


I liked the way she revisited Sleeping Beauty.

 

[Diana Levin]

Since Rice was trying very hard to evoke a feeling of menace and deathless wickedness, it seems like a very natural reaction to me. Anyone who imagines the books are supposed to be fun and sexy, for instance, would be missing the point.

Which is why I don't understand people's surprise. Yeah its supposed to evoke those feelings. Thats whats interesting about the books.

Anyway, she didn't just suddenly convert. She was born and raised in an Irish-Catholic family, spent most of her adult life as an atheist, and then returned to the Catholic Church in 1998.

I guess I'll just never understand that.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Which is why I don't understand people's surprise.

I think I must have walked into the middle of a discussion that carries over from another thread (it wouldn't be the first time). I don't remember anyone saying they were surprised, only that they experienced a certain reaction.

 

[Marvolo]

The problem isn't that the book contained homosexuality. It is that she cannot go one hundred pages without reverting to it like a crutch to make up for a shabby plot and a bad writing style. She uses gratuitous sex and violence to disguise the fact that her books really don't concern much, except gratuitous sex and violence.

 

[The Ace]

That's what I said, Marvolo.

 

[murphy]

Yeah her vampires kill people, because that what they do. How can you have vampire that doesn't. By definition isn't that what vampires are.

Read Tanya Huff's Blood books or some of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count St. Germain to get another take on vampires. Not all of them kill in fiction.

 

[Mithridelle]

I have only read: The Vampire Lestat, Interveiw with a Vampire and Queen of the Damned and I thought that they were all enjoyable. THey had some moments where I had to tell myself to get over with reading it already, but in all, I found them to be a good read.

 

[jneni]

I've read her Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, I think both are enjoyable reads. I am not very sure if it was really violent because I read them very long time ago. But hey, she is not too bad. At least I think Interview with the Vampire was quite good. I liked the plot.

As for why she converted, I've heard from a church friend (I'm not 100% sure so please don't give me a hard time if it's not right) that she embraced her faith again because of her husband's death. During that period, it was said that she found God's light again. I know she's been writing Christian literature since then, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

 

[Circus Cranium]

In my opinion, Anne Rice suffers from the 'too popular' curse, where a writer gets over exposed very quickly, and then it becomes somehow out of literary fashion to like their work. I think that aside from a few duds (Pandora, Violin, Servan of the Bones--yikes) she's one of the best literary authors of this era.

 

[Marvolo]

In my opinion, Anne Rice suffers from the 'too popular' curse, where a writer gets over exposed very quickly, and then it becomes somehow out of literary fashion to like their work. I think that aside from a few duds (Pandora, Violin, Servan of the Bones--yikes) she's one of the best literary authors of this era.

I think it had sort of the opposite affect. She became incredibly popular after Interview with the Vampire, which was a very decent book. But then you have an author who isn't that great, has stumbled on some fame and fortune, and now has to recreate it when the talent just isn't there. So she makes up for the lack of ability by infusing the remaining books in the series with far too much violence and, for shock value I assure you, rampant homosexuality.

 

[Nesacat]

I reasonably liked her Vampire novels. They had an interesting premise and I liked that she traced their history all the way back. I preferred the first few books to the ones that came at the end though. They were dark and menacing but they were good reads.

However the books I like best are not the vampire or witches ones. I like Cry To Heaven, Violin and The Mummy.

I recently read Christ The Lord and it is a well written book of one period in Christ's life. I enjoyed reading it.

It does not bother me that she has chosen to write these books now. There is certainly no rule compelling an author to write only within a certain genre and if this is what she has inside her now then so be it. I don't think it pushes her over the edge to insanity or anything like that.

I am glad she's written the books she did including the Sleeping Beauty ones but I also like what she is doing now. The book is worth the read.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I liked Anne Rice's early vampire books - they were new and refreshing back in the mid 80s, before Jos Whedon brought Buffy to our screens and "good" vampires became de rigueur. Her later ones (eg "Tale of the Body Thief") were rather turgid, IMHO.

Because I stopped reading her books long ago, I wasn't aware she'd gone Christian. But Catholics often return to the fold in later life - see Oscar Wilde - perhaps as a comfort against impending death. No surprise there...

 

[Ursa major]

It seems ironic that someone who made her name with tales of vampires should be getting it in the neck for writing about something else.

 

[Jason_Taverner]

It seems ironic that someone who made her name with tales of vampires should be getting it in the neck for writing about something else.

hang your head in shame after that

 

[Diana Levin]

As for why she converted, I've heard from a church friend (I'm not 100% sure so please don't give me a hard time if it's not right) that she embraced her faith again because of her husband's death. During that period, it was said that she found God's light again. I know she's been writing Christian literature since then, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Wow, I didn't know her husband died. It puts everything in a new perspective.

 

[Diana Levin]

I think it had sort of the opposite affect. She became incredibly popular after Interview with the Vampire, which was a very decent book. But then you have an author who isn't that great, has stumbled on some fame and fortune, and now has to recreate it when the talent just isn't there. So she makes up for the lack of ability by infusing the remaining books in the series with far too much violence and, for shock value I assure you, rampant homosexuality.

I still don't understand what is so incredibly violent about her books.
I would say they are no more violent than most horror or fantasy fiction.

 

[Marvolo]

I still don't understand what is so incredibly violent about her books.
I would say they are no more violent than most horror or fantasy fiction.

The nature of vampires is inherently violent. They exist on others suffering. Now, they aren't any more violent than say, Cell by Stephen King, but I think she built those books around shock value. The turning of the little girl in Interview along side the numerous slayings by Louis in the vampire lair. The later books follow suit.

I used to think that she put the homosexuality (honestly, isn't it more necrophilia since they're all technically dead?) in the books to further demonize the vampires, make them even stranger and monstrous to the reader. But after reading her other books (such as the Mayfair Witches series or Cry To Heaven), she simply realies on numerous sex scenes and populates her books with characters who are very base. In the first Mayfair Witches novel I remember it opening with a 14 year old seducing her uncle, and it continues to describe the sex scene in very vivid detail. She just relies on that to shock the reader and make her books sort of scandalous. A lot of authors do that though. I don't want anyone to get the impression that I think she should be taken out of her house and stoned to death. I just think that she has bad habits as a writer that hold her back from writing horror fiction I can truly enjoy.

One thing I do want to give her credit for is the numerous historical settings she employs. I loved that aspect of her books. From the flashbacks with the vampires to the memories of Ramses the damned or Memnoch. Old New Orleans and San Francisco along with ancient Egypt, her locales are top notch. She does an excellent job of creating awesome settings for these novels to take place in. I would just like less scenes with castrati singers performing felatio on a man old enough to be his father in an alleyway, or little girls convinces their uncle to have sex with her.

Even if she wanted to that in the plot, I can see no point in describing all those events in such detail.