so, I revamped (pun very much intended) one of my most popular drawings of our beloved prince šĀ
Itās now available both on myĀ Redbubble and Society6 (which I just launched!). If you are after some fancy items like beach towels, shower curtains and giant comforters, Society6 is a place for you! šĀ
fareed should make some long-lasting blood flavored gum like i bet lestat would love to pop it in the face of the trick asf bitch who tried telling him what to do
it would be like, silent in the court hall, and you just hear two ppl having a gum-smacking competition and itās Armand and Lestat metaphorically having a dick waving contestāitās just the most obnoxious thing ever
and Louis would take Lestatās pack bc the noise bothers him when heās trynna chill with a book or just think, but then he gets curious and tries one and realizes it staves off hunger pretty well (not that that bothers him much anymore, but still, it can be a long walk from the chĆ¢teau to human-populated areas) and he takes up the habit too, except he doesnāt pop his gum bc heās a gentleman
and Fareed, having contributed so much to these blood suckers, ends up financially balling and manages to overthrow Lestatās monarchy bc Capitalismā¢.
I just truly believe this to be the universal experience of all Anne Rice fans, and some of us been up and down the lollercoaster a few times so far, and some of us havenāt had to deal with it yet. AND I PROMSE ALL THE LITTLE SUMMER CHILDREN, ITāS COMING.
Sheās a divisive and controversial writer for sure, on a lot of layered meta levels that arenāt just like mainstream casual normies thinking the books are scandalous or something. Tumblr is obviously a place where injustices arenāt ignored and it takes about five minutes of browsing to start finding the deeper readings of her work, the bad topics and sketchy opinions, etc etc. Itās so easy to just enjoy her work on the surface and itās just such a fucking mess when you look closer.Ā
AND I MEAN THATāS THE THING? I know people get suuuuuuper salty about Anne Rice and itās always kind of crushing when people learn about the fandom history but like YALL I WAS THERE, IāM OVER IT LOL. I had the salty Anne Rice phase already and it took me like 4 years to bring myself to read Blood Canticle cause I was like So Done With Her Shit at that point.Ā
Are these books good and interesting enough to keep me this occupied on their own? Probably not. But they were really special to me growing up and I found cool fandom people and made genuinely awesome friends here so itās become a weird hobby to have. IāM STUCK HERE NOW.Ā
I get the AR hate, I really do. I really, really do. I get the wholeĀ āomg I waited for the new book and it was about bird aliensā devastation. I REALLY DO. But we all go through this if you stick around for too long. I went through it already, itās out of my system. Iām done being pissy about it. (tbh I went through this when I read MerrickĀ the first time and I was like wtf I thought this was gonna be an epic crossover with Rowan getting into some shit and instead weāre reading about David fucking some chick in a cave what IS THIS. And that was like 15 years ago LMAO.)
Some people interact with media by criticizing and dissecting and thatās super awesome, other people want to be brainless and just dick around and make memes. I have a stressful life and I deal with heavy shit pretty often so Iām not here to like sling negativity in any form, thatās just not how I like to use my energy and free time. It doesnāt make it less valuable, itās just not my thing. I put the time in with salty AR years, Iām done, Iām just here to laugh now. AND LAUGH I DO.Ā
AND LIKE IF THEREāS ONE THING I CAN SAY? A PIECE OF ADVICE TO THE NEWBS WHO HAVENāT GONE THROUGH IT? Stop having expectations. Read enough AR to see that sheās fucking whacky af. Read Taltos. Read the werewolf book. When the new VC comes out, go in expecting that writer. Donāt go in expecting QOTD 2. If shredding books is fun for you, by all means! Knock yourself out! There will be plenty to shred! But if youāre here for fun just go in for fun. Itās lulzy as fuck if you donāt take it too seriously.Ā
did i write this post in my sleep!
#PREACH (Um I think I co-wrote this w/ nightislandofficial and monstersinthecosmos in my sleep, too)
Anne Rice is completely bonkers. And problematic. These are some of the reasons I love her. Lurid, overwrought prose! Preternaturally beautiful, sexually ambiguous vampires! Velvet for miles!
ā¦ yes, Iām baffled and (somewhat) amused by SPACE BIRBS, but at least sheās always entertaining.
Some thoughts re:Ā this post, because Iām always so confused as to why these heated discussions always center on Daniel. Anon said:
āfor so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only [attributed?] Daniel as having any value to the story when heās attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes.ā
Again, Iāve been in this fandom online for a decade now and spent a lot of time on websites from the 90ā²s (@i-want-my-iwtvās been here since the late 90ā²s I believe), and honestly? Yeah, people make train jokes. Itās in the nature of fandom to take one trait in a character that people find funny and make jokes about it that are parodic or caricaturish in nature. Is it kinda dumb? Yes. Is it reductive? Yes. Is it not-really-that-funny-the-fifteenth-time? YES.
But I genuinely, hand on my heart, cannot say that Iāve ever felt like people made train jokes any more often than they made pyro jokes, or, jesus christ, blender jokes. Or Nickiās hands jokes.
Is there a difference between the seriousness of the things being joked about here? Yes. See above – this is in the nature of fandom, and itās one of the downsides. Characters frequently get reduced to one trait, sometimes in ways that are insensitive, and always in ways that disregard their inner depth. But this isnāt something that is particular to Daniel or reflects how fandom feels about Daniel in particular. The entirety of my experience in the VC fandom indicates that Daniel has consistently been one of the best loved characters, despite the lack of screentime that Anne has given him (a lack which Iāve seen lamented a lot), and has generally been considered one of theĀ āmain fourā orĀ āmain fiveā, alongside Louis, Lestat, Armand, and sometimes Marius.
As for fandom only being interested in Daniel when heās with Armand – the only screentime Daniel has is with Armand. Unless you count the framing narrative in IwtV, and he doesnāt even have a name there. Daniel becomes a fully-fledged character in QotD, in which heās with Armand. Thatās the reason he becomes a vampire. And again – I donāt think this is a Daniel thing. Itās a fanfic thing.Ā
I could probably count on one hand the number of Louis fics Iāve read that donāt ship him with Lestat or with anyone, or the number of Pandora fics that arenāt about her relationship with Marius, or the number of Gabrielle fics that focus on her solitary travels. Or even Armand fics that arenāt about him and Daniel or him and Marius (which is a whole other topic). A lot of fanfic is focused on romance, itās one of the main reasons why people write fic. I really donāt think it has anything to do with a lack of fandom interest in Daniel or any of these characters as people.
wait holdup where are all these people who think daniel is a throwaway? WE NEED A WORD.
IKR? Can we get some Daniel love and support on this post, plz? He puts up with SO MUCH.
Honestly Iāve never seen that be a commonly expressed sentiment in this fandom, and Iāve been here on LJ and tumblr since 2008. But tbh fandom drama/wank usually does involve someone going āeverybody / you all are always doing or saying X reprehensible thingā, whether or not thatās actually accurate. If OP could provide examples that would have been more helpful.
//Did someone say give Daniel Molloy love and support!! Mission accepted!! ššš
Abandoned by their writer this is canon, surname misspelt, continuity of narrative ignored or glossed over – sadly yes. But seen as a throwaway character, I havenāt gotten that impression no. As with most problematic favs (read all of vc characters tbh) heās not always the most popular but that doesnāt mean he has no fans or merits therein, I think as a character heād rather be limited edition than popular anyway! As a product of the āmodern eraā heās a rarity for the readers to identify with, a modernist human – just as easily he could be us – thrust into the vampiric world. Chased no less. A life or death love story. Even as a vampire heās not old and crusty like some of the ancients and latterly under Mariusā tender loving care *ahem* has blossomed into a dynamic free thinking member of the coven. Anyone who says āHey Marius, all due respect but No! Youāre wrongā has my vote! But Iām biased I guess being a Daniel mun and all.
He was a key figure in Louis, Lestats and Armands lives. Without him blowing the whistle and publishing Iwtv would L&L have reunited, maybe not. Armand would have survived as a ghost of himself in New Orleans without a striking reporter to stalk no doubt – But he wouldnāt have grown, unfurled in himself in the new age. Or rather gone back to a self he may have been if allowed to grow, mature and live as a mortal in Venice – mischevious, generous with a hint of brass impulse with a leaning for cruelty. The dynamic was off, unbalanced as Armand had the supernatural advantage over his eventual mortal beau, but Daniel wasnāt as much of an innocent as some like to paint him. Not that he deserved what happened to him, of course not but he possibly pre Armand had a unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and letās face it he went back to the guys place who told him he was a vampire? For a story!! This is not a man that had survival instincts primed.
Marius would have gone to ground, buried under a ton of earth and centuries of guilt and self denial without a broken person to heal. His mondus operandi this caretaker urge. He had tenacity in life and Iām glad to see it survives on on death, well from what little has been mentioned of him in PL and Plroa. More of him in the new book as long as that doesnāt make him Canon fodder, literally of course. Right more than enough cheerleading for Mr Molloy.
On the whole pronunciation of Lestat (LestAHt vs Lesaught) my theory is that itās both. If we accept Lestatās story from Blackwood Farm that his parents made up his name from the first letters of his brothersā names, then maybe they never came up with an exact way to pronounce it. Maybe Gabrielle always called him by one, while his father would use the other. This has led to Lestat changing up they way he introduces himself for 250 years.
//or maybe they just called him āyouā since their relationship wasnāt tooā¦ affective
^Ya, I like all this. I donāt LOVE Blackwood Farm but that explanation is as good as any. Iām sure his family called him all kinds of bad stuff including purposely
making
his name sound bad, and yes, maybe they never came up with a specific way to pronounce it. I think part of his self-deprecation comes from getting so little affection in his formative years, and not even having a consistently pronounced name is pretty mean ;A;
Anyone can pronounce his name however they want, I think he would be pretty chill about that. Especially considering that people have native accents that affect their pronunciation of words anyway, given how much international travel/business/etc. he does, I donāt think heād be making an issue with every single person he encounters about the pronunciation of his name.
AR had intended to write his name as āLestanā after her husbandĀ āStanā + the French word forĀ ātheā which isĀ āLeā when preceding masculine words. Sheās said thatĀ āLestatā was a typo that she ended up liking.Ā
ANYWAY, sinceĀ āStanā is pronounced likeĀ āstandā and notĀ ātonā my preference is to go with the āaā of Lestat as likeĀ āstandā orĀ ācat.ā I kinda feel like ARās whole obsession with pronouncing it like āLes-TOTā is another way she divides theĀ āreal fansā from the rest of the fans; if you donāt pronounce it her preferred way then youāre not really talking about HER character. But thatās just a theory.
I headcanon that Lestat likes nicknames based on his name, especiallyĀ āāStat,ā a medical term:Ā āStat, used as a directive to medical personnel during in an emergency situation, is from the Latin word statim, which means āinstantlyā or āimmediately.āā [X]
I always figured when Anne says ālesTOTā sheās just trying to write/say it in a way that – based on American English vowel pronunciations – approximates European [a], which is much closer to what English has in e.g. āfatherā, and kinda close to what American English has in ātotā, since thatās the sound it would have been in French. A French person would not say [lestƦt] like ācatā.
Personally I like the more French/European pronunciation over the American [lestƦt], because Iām not an English speaker, so Iām used to European pronunciation. And Iām not sure he would have Anglified his first name that much. But in the end it just comes down to how much you think heās āgone nativeā tbh. But ya after 200 years in the US I doubt he minds people pronouncing his name the English way.
Ivory dildo, possibly French, c 18th century. Ā Science Museum,
Science SocietyĀ An ivory dildo in the form of an erect
penis, complete with a contrivance for simulating ejaculation
āI donāt start the film with him like immediately gone to the dark side. I think itās good to see that Loki is genuinely Thorās brother and there is a complicated relationship there. So that it isnāt just likeā¦he isnāt just an out and out villain. He isnāt all black. (ā¦) I think itās really interesting to see Lokiās actions from his perspective and heās just someone who becomes more and more damaged by, I think, a sense of isolation from his family and a sense ofā¦itās kind of a deep loneliness. I think when the world makes you feel rejected, you bite back. And I think over the course of the film thatās what you see in Loki. He feels continually cast out by different sets of people and his brother particularly and at a certain point heās pushed too far and he comes back with a vengeance. – TH
I-want-my-IWTV 