Vampires on my mind
A college friend sent me two Anne Rice novels 10 years ago while I was recovering from an auto accident. Being on morphine and in traction, I guess she thought vampires would be good company for me. She loved those books so I didn't have the heart to tell her I couldn't read them or anything else with a feeling of morbidity. I had looked over the abyss and was lucky to be alive.
Last September I was packing for a 4 month residency in Paris and needed to take some paperbacks with me that could be left behind. Euros are wasted on overpriced American paperbacks to the point that in 1994 I was so desperate for reading material I read a Star Trek novel found in the lobby. (that was before the internet, of course. Now the NYT alone could get me through my time there...) anyway, I threw in some Annie Dillard, Hemingway, Faulkner, and those Anne Rice books my friend had sent me.
When Halloween rolled around last year I thought, oh, I suppose this would be the perfect time to read "Interview with a Vampire." I had no idea it took place in Paris AND New Orleans. I started it the evening of the 30th and could not put it down. I went to Pere LaChaise cemetary the next day around dusk and kept feeling like the person in the next row might be a vampire... it also made me very homesick for New Orleans. I experienced Paris in a way I hadn't before and was shocked and suprised that Anne Rice could do that. I immediately began The Vampire Lestat upon my return to la Cite that evening and was up most of the night. I yearned to hear the voice of my native New Orleanian friends... and to photograph the cemetaries there and in Paris. This was something new, just something I felt re-inspired to do.
I'd never taken Anne Rice seriously... she writes about Vampires, right? Like Dark Shadows.
I changed my tune after that...though not enough to read her other books. Her writing had entered my psyche in a way that I couldn't control...I dreamt about her characters, recreated scenarios from her books on the streets in Paris... and not because I wanted to...it just happened. I confessed this to my almost beloved, the WRITER. He shook his head. Of course he hasn't read any Anne Rice. It would probably give him anxiety attacks like he had when he was in college and smoked grass. That's not why he hasn't read any, of course. She's just not someone you'd find in his library. If he ever had the chance to interview her he WOULD read one of her books.
Whatever. She does what she does suprising well, I'll say that. The interview with her in the NYT over the weekend offended me, as I am sure it did anyone else who has read her books.
The interviewer hadn't. My husband always reads the books of anyone he interviews, whether it is Tom Robbins or Ella Hilton or even Anne Rice. He expects the same kind of professionalism when he is being interviewed. The NYT must have its own standards.
I read the NYT daily, I just don't consider it to be the paper of record anymore. I don't know that there is one.
Last September I was packing for a 4 month residency in Paris and needed to take some paperbacks with me that could be left behind. Euros are wasted on overpriced American paperbacks to the point that in 1994 I was so desperate for reading material I read a Star Trek novel found in the lobby. (that was before the internet, of course. Now the NYT alone could get me through my time there...) anyway, I threw in some Annie Dillard, Hemingway, Faulkner, and those Anne Rice books my friend had sent me.
When Halloween rolled around last year I thought, oh, I suppose this would be the perfect time to read "Interview with a Vampire." I had no idea it took place in Paris AND New Orleans. I started it the evening of the 30th and could not put it down. I went to Pere LaChaise cemetary the next day around dusk and kept feeling like the person in the next row might be a vampire... it also made me very homesick for New Orleans. I experienced Paris in a way I hadn't before and was shocked and suprised that Anne Rice could do that. I immediately began The Vampire Lestat upon my return to la Cite that evening and was up most of the night. I yearned to hear the voice of my native New Orleanian friends... and to photograph the cemetaries there and in Paris. This was something new, just something I felt re-inspired to do.
I'd never taken Anne Rice seriously... she writes about Vampires, right? Like Dark Shadows.
I changed my tune after that...though not enough to read her other books. Her writing had entered my psyche in a way that I couldn't control...I dreamt about her characters, recreated scenarios from her books on the streets in Paris... and not because I wanted to...it just happened. I confessed this to my almost beloved, the WRITER. He shook his head. Of course he hasn't read any Anne Rice. It would probably give him anxiety attacks like he had when he was in college and smoked grass. That's not why he hasn't read any, of course. She's just not someone you'd find in his library. If he ever had the chance to interview her he WOULD read one of her books.
Whatever. She does what she does suprising well, I'll say that. The interview with her in the NYT over the weekend offended me, as I am sure it did anyone else who has read her books.
The interviewer hadn't. My husband always reads the books of anyone he interviews, whether it is Tom Robbins or Ella Hilton or even Anne Rice. He expects the same kind of professionalism when he is being interviewed. The NYT must have its own standards.
I read the NYT daily, I just don't consider it to be the paper of record anymore. I don't know that there is one.
posted by "" at 10/31/2005 09:06:00 AM
4 Comments:
I loved those Anne Rice novels so much that the year my father-in-law went into the hospital with a staph infection I recommended "Interview with a Vampire". I promised him it would take his mind off any aches and pains. It had been several years since I read the book, so when word got back that he was incredulous that I would recommend that book I checked it out at the library again and reread portions of it. Oops, I had forgotten how explicit her sex scenes could be. I don't think Big-J minded at all, just not the type of book he expected his daughter-in-law to recommend to him.
Ms. O:
Regret I too have missed the Anne Rice hay wagon. I read the Times article from the standpoint of Home and Garden and must have missed the Dis. Your Paris experience makes me want to jump on a plane this afternoon.
Paper of record? Maybe the Christian Science Monitor or the Wall Street Journal (if you ignore the religious pages or editorial pages)? Financial Times? I don't know.
Late October is a great time to be in Paris. There are trees everywhere, gardens are in a state of transition, all of the locals are breaking out their smart boots and winter coats. It was a pleasant surprise. The long nights were a challenge for me, especially with my recently forgiven beloved absent from my bed. Email just doesn't cut it though I am grateful to have it since waiting at the mail box would be sheer torture.
At one point in time I loved the International Herald Tribune. I considered it to be the international paper of record but that has gone the way of the NYT and the Trib part is in name only. Sigh.
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