The Death of the Toreador

[torquill]

Anne Rice finds Jesus, vows to "write only for the Lord" now. No, this is not a joke.

I find it hilariously funny. Maybe that's only because I was in high school when "Interview With the Vampire" came out -- and while Goth had only just started as a mainstream movement, the lines of descent for Goth came from the outcasts and people who liked odd, depressed music, both of which had significant overlap with my social circles. Believe me, "Interview" was very, very big with my friends. I found it pretentious and unreadable, and refused to join in the Rice-worship, considering it a stupidity akin to the way that my best friend fell in love with Les Mis for a year and made me entirely thoroughly sick of the songs (she sang them constantly, mused dreamily about them, and found profound connections between the songs/plot/characters and her life in only the way that a teenager can).

Anne Rice was one of the idols of Goth, and one of the biggest sources of the idea of a romanticized vampire that many of my friends still love. To have her now "turn toward the light" and become a Christian novelist... I have no words for that sort of irony. If there were a way to tell my friends back then that this is what would happen, I'd do it just to see the conniption fits, the grieving, the rending of garments. I mean, wow.

If you're around me and I just randomly start chuckling, odds are that's what I'm thinking about during this week before Halloween.

Comments

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Proof positive that weird has no content requirement. You're weird - you're still weird if you change your mind about what you're weird about.

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read "The End Of The Affair"? This is what that reminds me of.

Hallelujah!

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

I don't care what it took or why it happened. I'm just happy she won't be writing any more of those things. But I'm pragmatic and goal-driven. It's a minor flaw.

Christ is "the ultimate supernatural hero," she writes in the new book's afterword. "The ultimate immortal of them all."

So if the Romans had cut off his head, we wouldn't have all of this to deal with for the past couple of thousand years? Sheesh. If you want a job done right...

[drangnon.livejournal.com]

the new york daily news is a joke. I am off in search of other sources.

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

Don't spoil my enjoyment. This is the most enjoyment she's provided to my life in years...Actually, come to think of it, the most ever.

[drangnon.livejournal.com]

I am confused. is it that important that Anne Rice entertain you? she isn't entertaining, you know; her stuff is too ponderous for light reading and too self-absorbed to take seriously, and I am sure the latest subject matter will be no different.

I am sad that she has given in to the fears of her age and medical condition; like Madonna, whose music I do not like, I have always respected her for being herself despite pressure. but I am no more likely to read her latest book than I am to read anything else of hers published after queen of the damned, which crossed the line of tolerably annoying. are you?

*sad* let's just hope she doesn't also become a voice for Intelligent Design...

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

It pleases my sense of balance that she has at last provided me with a spot of entertainment to match against the large piles of personal annoyance she has enabled over the years. While I do not hold her directly responsible, I do harbor a grudge for all of the times I had to deal with slavish adherents preaching the perfection of her work. IMHO, she set both the goth movement and horror gaming back at least a decade.

Like you, I did not find her work to be entertaining. That's a matter of taste and, as such, entirely subjective. I was annoyed by her writing, so I stopped reading it, at which point it stopped bothering me.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

That's why I checked before posting.

The book itself (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412018/103-9682933-9901440?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance)

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Ironically, even though I have no religious leanings, looking at the publisher's description of that book it sounds like it has a much more interesting premise to me than any of her other books have.

If it weren't for the fact that it's being written by Anne Rice, I might almost be inclined to try reading it..

[packy.livejournal.com]

Hey, it was the subject of a Something Positive strip. That was verification enough for me.

[amanda-nye.livejournal.com]

I was damn amused by this.