How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?

i-want-my-iwtv:

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(I struggle to describe it to ppl, I usually cater the length and depth of my description based on my audience, for example, to describe it to my 7 yr old cousin (who loves vampires and was a vampire princess fairy for Halloween): “It’s mostly about a happy vampire family with 2 dads, and they don’t always get along with eachother or the world.”)

As Tom Cruise put it so eloquently, “The movie is not for everyone.” No value judgement there; it’s just not everyone’s cup of tea, so I don’t try to sell it. 

I will try to describe the story in the language of tumblrland:

“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book…?”

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“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”

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“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”

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“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”

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“How would you describe IWTV to someone who has not read the book or seen the movie?”

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You can also try my vc synopsis tag, but there be spoilers there!

….That last gif is also tribute to antoineandthepiano who loves that gif! And it’s appropriate here, bc if I think the person might actually like it, I do tell them to #READ THE BOOK in the hopes that I can make them one of us

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goddessofidiocy:

interview with the vampire + break your own news

How do I introduce The Vampire Chronicles to someone? (And how to I do that to someone whose not reading vampire literature because of Twilight. I’m trying to have more than one fledgling.)

That’s great that you want to bring someone(s) into this with you! We can always use fresh blood ;D

TBH, tho, it’s not for everyone. Ppl who deliberately don’t read vampire lit bc of Twilight are not totally wrong. They might have valid personal reasons, maybe they don’t like blood/gore, maybe they don’t like the idea of biting or being bitten as erotic IRL, there are plenty of reasons before we even get anywhere NEAR the Problematic things that generally come up with vampire lit. 

Don’t be disappoint if they won’t turn, the Dark Trick is not an exact science, and don’t look at it as a failure on your part.

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I’ve been where you are many times, Anon, and in fact I lent the IWTV DVD to a mortal VERY recently, and he keeps RESISTING WATCHING IT but apparently he will TONIGHT “It’s gonna be an Interview with the Vampire night!” he said, without a trace of trepidation, but WE’LL SEE, WON’T WE, MR. EXCESSIVELY TALL PERSON!?

I think the best you can do to try to make new VC fledglings is to ask them to watch IWTV bc as far as adaptations go, yes it changes some things but it was intended to appeal to a wider audience than just the existing fans, and I think it was successful in that regard. 

If you want your friend to read the books instead, give them the capsule reviews, which set this series so far from the other vampire lit. @high-fructose-lesbianism‘s capsule VC reviews are pretty gr9 [X]:

  1. Lestat’s Adventures with a Progressive Family
  2. Lestat’s Bisexual Adventures in 18th Century France
  3. Lestat’s Adventures with the Queen of the Vampires
  4. Lestat’s Adventures as a Human
  5. Lestat’s Adventures with Satan
  6. Lestat’s Adventures in a Coma
  7. Lestat’s Adventures with Polyamory
  8. Lestat’s Adventures in the Deep South
  9. Lestat’s Adventures with Not Being There At All
  10. Lestat’s Adventures with Witches and Other Weird Shit
  11. Lestat’s adventures with Being the Vampire Head of State
  12. Lestat’s Adventures with Literal Fucking Aliens

(Note, Pandora and Vittorio are technically stand-alone “New Tales of the Vampires” books, but Pandora would be No. 6 of the 13 book series).

You can check my #VC Synopsis tag, which has more capsule humorous summaries.

The billy situation is a tricky one bc I’ve seen people who have suffered Abuse say they like him and say that they see his actions as a product of what Neil have done and how they may do the same thing without realising it’s wrong bc of the abuse they’ve gone through, so that reflects onto him too (I can’t remember the exact wording but) and some people say they hate Billy bc he is like their abuser.

andarthas-web:

antibillyhargrove:

yeah it’s really tough bc y’know, i do want to be there for abuse survivors but then there’s other survivors who will split my ass in two if i dare say “this blog is a safe zone for abuse survivors” where they’ll be like “you’re throwing the survivors who like billy under the bus” even though i said i’m willing to listen

To some extent, fictional characters are always a bit like getting a basic shape that is the same for everybody, but with lots of blank spaces in between to fill in. A bit like this here:

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Thing is, every person is different.

We come from different cultures. We’re american, brazilian, german, polish….we’re from all over the world.

We’re at different stages of our lives. We are students, housewives, doctors, accountants, secretaries, cashiers…we live at home with our parents, we are parents, we’re single, married, we have kids, we don’t have kids, we’re straight or queer. Some of us are traumatized, some of us are not.

Some of us like pineapple on pizza. Some don’t.

And we bring ALL of that to the table: who we are, what we’ve experienced, what we know and what we don’t, what need to grow and learn. And it’s DIFFERENT for each and every one of us.

So once we start filling in those blanks? Even thought the base is the SAME for everybody, we still end up with completely DIFFERENT pictures:

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And each and every one of these versions is true and valid….FOR THE PERSON WHO CREATED IT. Because it relates to THEIR experience, which is personal and subjective.

Sometimes we find common ground. Sometimes someone elses’ painting will echo our own experience, and we’ll be able to connect with them through that.

And sometimes we’ll just look at a picture and go “meh” or “ugh!”, AND THAT IS OK TOO.

So what this boils down to is this:

Some people are in a place where they draw strength from being angry at their abuser. And allowing yourself to be angry is something that some people absolutely need to do in order to process and heal from their abuse.

Other people are in a place where they need to move on to a more positive way of doing things and explore the concept of redemption and the idea of either receiving or granting forgivenness, which can be a healing experience too.

So yeah….fandom needs BOTH versions of Billy presented here.

The one that focuses on him as an abuser, the evil dragon that needs to be slain, as well as the one that focuses on him as the victim of abuse, the cursed princess who needs to be rescued.

Both have their purpose, both are needed.

Now…..all we need to learn is to respect each other and acknowledge that both versions of Billy are valid and that they can co-exist peacefully. They fill different niches, side by side.

This is not an either/or situation.

This is a BOTH kind of situation.

neil-gaiman:

neil-gaiman:

nothingbutthedreams:

I just rediscovered how glorious this image is so excuse me while I laugh uncontrollably every time I look at it again.

It was taken in Kensal Green Cemetery in February.

Terry borrowed the white jacket from our editor, Malcolm Edwards, and grumbled that it did nothing to keep him warm on a very cold day.

“Sometimes you have to be cold to look cool,” I told him.

“It’s all right for you,” he said. “You’re wearing a leather jacket.”

“You could wear a leather jacket too.”

“I’m wearing white,” said Terry, pointedly. “That way, when they come after us for writing a blasphemous book, they’ll know I’m the nice one.”

(After the photo was taken we noticed the bat-winged hourglass, which we hadn’t seen during the photo session, and requested bat-winged hourglasses as a design motif in the book.)

I should add that we already had winged hourglasses all the way through the book. We just has them change the wings from bird to bat.

Lestat’s paradox is that he knows he’s evil, but he can fool people into believing he’s not. And he’s very aware of that. And even when he tries to show people how bad he is they generally love it.

Anne Rice about Lestat. (via jardinsalvaje)