LOL that was one of our favourite parts too! Truly amazing!!!
Anyone who hasn’t seen the movie with the commentary should definitely go dig up the DVD! It provides many excellent insights and just good banter 🙂
Tag Archives: ask
Abuse history is not social capital; it doesn’t prove you wrong or right
This is extremely true. Everyone that goes through abuse is different and has their mental health impacted differently, and your feelings on x are not necessarily correct for everyone despite being valid.
Different people can handle different things, and if you can’t handle/enjoy something, that does not mean that those who can and do have to cater to you beyond tagging things properly. This is especially important now that Tumblr has finally added the blacklisting feature. It is imperative that YOU take the initiative to make yourself feel comfortable and safe, because this is a SHARED SPACE.
–Mod Disgrace
Can you please enlighten me, or better yet, can your anon enlighten me, what is a “eurotrash fop”? :)
I mean, you can google these terms yourself, too, why are you coming to me (or that anon)?
I can only guess. Maybe it’s bc (A) you’re genuinely curious and you enjoy the way I answer things (whether you agree with me or not isn’t relevant), or (B) you’re looking to stir some shit bc that’s what this site does best, exacerbate disagreement bc ACTIVISM.
I didn’t invent these words and have no need to defend them, you’re forcing me to make a post that could easily offend Europeans or people who identify as fops, and/or both. I’m not interested in making potential Offense Fodder.
There was a time in fandom that I could just take this at face value and assume that you’re genuinely curious and you enjoy the way I answer things, so that’s how I’m responding, since I’m not interested in making potential Offense Fodder.
A Eurotrash Fop might look like this:
[X] OP @alternativepurple tagged it as: #fashion #rococo #artistic #gentleman #retro #make-up #makeup #make up #aristocrat #elegant aristocrat
^These are positive tags, I’d say, and I’d agree. There are more positive tags in reblogs of that post, like “#inspiration”. But there is also definitely a poking-fun-at about this, this model is so heavily slathered in makeup that the powder has fallen on their clothing and hair ribbon too, the blush is unnaturally red on their cheekbone and it’s even purposefully on their chin, they have so much lace on that it might get in the way of using their gloved hand in some way. It’s intentionally overdone, and I think it’s gorgeous in it’s overdoneness.
In context, I think the Anon you refer to meant “Eurotrash fop” in gentle mockery: “and we need diversity in an ocean of white Eurotrash fops!” There’s a sense of humor there in the image of a literal ocean of heavily made-up people, all jostling together in their fancy clothes.
^This is a crowd pic from the Shining which I brightened up to make it more of an ocean of fancy-dressed white people, which is what Anon was basically talking about. I think in the Shining it was mocking the crowd as an ocean of faces, too, that Jack Torrance had been swallowed by the Overlook and blends in
so seamlessly
with other victims of the hotel.
Urban Dictionary defines “Eurotrash” like this:
A human sub-phylum characterized by its apparent affluence, worldliness, social affectation and addiction to fashion. Males are characterized by a semi-slovenly appearance (including half-shaven faces), greasy hair, rib-hugging shirts, tight jeans and loafers worn without socks. Women are easily distinguished by anorexia, over-bleached hair, gaudy jewelry, plastic surgery (particularly breast-enlargement) and their attachment to the male species. Both sexes greet each other with “air kisses,” immediately speak of their last trip (often Paris, Rome, Majorca), spend hours at “see-and-be-seen” restaurants and exhibit a world-weariness and pained sense of irony.
^Sounds about right as far as I know the word, although harsher in judgement than actual living people I’ve known who shamelessly self-identified as Eurotrash.
Wiki defines “fop” as follows:
Fop became a pejorative term for a foolish man excessively concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th-century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are coxcomb,[1] fribble, popinjay (meaning ‘parrot’), fashion-monger, and ninny. Macaroni was another term, of the 18th century, more specifically concerned with fashion.
A modern-day fop may also be a reference to a foolish person who is excessively concerned about his clothing, luxuries, minor details, refined language and leisurely hobbies. He is generally incapable of engaging in conversations, activities or thoughts without the idealism of aesthetics or pleasures.
^Both of those words sound like they could apply to many of the VC characters.
I’ll repeat myself: When we joke about characters, that’s not to say that that’s always a negative act. Look, we’re currently dragging Lestat bc he said IN CANON that he loved being called a “slut,” which is really more of a layered commentary on shaming people for enjoying sex/intimacy, and he refuses to be shamed for it, he’ll turn around and take it as a compliment instead 😉 Same goes for calling him a “Eurotrash fop.” It’s teasing. It’s intended to amuse. It falls under Dark Humor or Black Comedy. If that’s not your thing, that’s fine, but it is a thing, and I like that thing.
A form of humor involving a twist or joke making the joke seen as offensive, harsh, horrid. Yet the joke is still funny. You need to have pension for dark humor in order to find it truly funny. In a way, it could be seen as the jokes are so horrible in their twist that it makes it funny.
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy or gallows humor, is a comic style that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss such as death. Some comedians use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues, thus provoking discomfort and serious thought as well as amusement in their audience. Popular themes of the genre include violence (murder, abuse, domestic violence, rape, torture, war, genocide, terrorism, corruption), discrimination (chauvinism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia), disease (anxiety, depression, suicide, nightmares, drug abuse, mutilation, disability, terminal illness, insanity), sexuality (sodomy, homosexuality, incest, infidelity, fornication), religion and barbarism.
Lestat absolutely purposefully smudges his eyeliner because he thinks it makes him look cool.
Definitely! It DOES make him look cool! also sometimes it gets smudged bc he cries and takes a swipe at it.
[X]
Speaking to the connotations of race, it’s interesting that people in the fandom want to make Daniel the black character when for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only attributive Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes. It seems awfully suspicious to me that the “best’ character” to be cast as a POC is the one so many have considered the throw-away one. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.
Race. *sigh* I keep revisiting this ask, and each time I do I feel more and more like I don’t want to engage as there are so many landmines.
I didn’t get into fandom for landmines, and so I maneuver around them, and the reason I’m answering this at all is for those who are thinking about topics like these but are too afraid to respond for fear of the landmines.
I’m responding bc I feel like if sharing my perspective could make just one person feel better about this, then it’s worth the risk and worth my time and effort.
THAT SAID, I’m not sure which post you’re referring to, Anon, but there was one a few weeks ago in which another Anon asked/said:
I’m up for Daniel being Black in the adaptation. His race isn’t mentioned specifically in the books, and we need diversity in an ocean of white Eurotrash fops! I don’t see any reason why not and Bryan cast the lead in American Gods as black so I’m hopeful to see some good changes in Anne’s work. What do you think?
^Here’s one person who wants to cast Daniel as POC/Black, and they seemed to be accentuating the positive. They want diversity. They compared him to the lead from American Gods being cast as black. I don’t watch that show so I don’t know if that character is the “butt of crazy jokes” or only has value being attached to another character, but it seems to me, at face value, that this Anon thinks that Daniel being cast as POC/Black is parallel with the lead of another series being cast as POC/Black, this Anon states that as being a good change.
I answered that Anon more in depth with some historical context, so you can look at that response, but basically, Anne is open to casting POC for VC characters. I’m open to it! I trust in whoever is running the adaptation to produce it in a tasteful and respectful way, and updating it to be inspiring and satisfying to a wider audience would be great, however that happens.
TL:DR; I think people do care about Daniel, and would love to see a character that they care about, like Daniel, be cast as a POC as a good thing. Daniel is not perfect (none of them are! Except Mojo) but he has many positive traits: he’s clever, resourceful, sassy, charismatic, capable of loving and being loved in return. I think people would love for the adaptation to show that those traits can absolutely be found in POC, too. We do need more positive representation like that.
Reminder that this is a fandom blog for entertainment and I am not here to make/agree/disagree with political statements that are potentially inflammatory. Not my focus. But I will address your points to some extent.
Speaking to the connotations of race, it’s interesting that people in the fandom want to make Daniel the black character
I haven’t seen an enormous amount of people in the fandom wanting this change, I think one blog is dedicated to it? I’ve mostly seen interest and support for casting a POC as Akasha, since that casting in movie!QOTD was pretty widely praised. I see people talking about considering casting other characters as POC, but I don’t see anyone other than Akasha as being the main character of interest for that.
One could criticize that choice as being bad, as it could imply that POC/Black women are villains, bc she was a villain in that movie. That’s not the message I took from that casting choice, but one could easily argue that that was a message being sent (and therefore, Bad representation, even though she was cast as a character in a position of power).
when for so many years, a goodly bulk of this fandom has only attributive Daniel as having any value to the story when he’s attached to Armand, or made him the butt of crazy jokes.
“for so many years” covers decades of time, these books have been around since 1976. Reflecting back to when I started in this in 1993 (which was already almost 20 yrs late), I can’t say that any character has escaped being the butt of crazy jokes in all this time, and with the nature of shipping, many of the characters seem to only have value when attached to other characters.
Re: shipping: it seems like ships are more prevalent in fanworks than fanworks portraying the characters on their own, and so it may give the impression that fandom “prefers the characters as part of a ship,” but personally, I think of shipping as the collision of 2 (or more) characters, to see how they’ll interact: in happiness, sadness, anger, all the different ways! Writing about a ship can allow a fanartist/writer/etc. to explore how each member of the ship will react in
actions/words/etc.
to the other’s actions/words/etc. So I can see how you might get the impression that “Daniel only has value as being attached to Armand,” but I think it’s more about how Daniel presents himself when he is with Armand, that’s what the fanworks are exploring.
Along those lines, however you interpret that ship, the bulk of Daniel’s post-IWTV “screentime” was in QOTD, with Armand, and after that, Daniel doesn’t get much action in canon until the more recent books (but even then, not as much as in QOTD). As the fandom does tend to ship Daniel with Armand, and plenty of it that I’ve seen (especially in fanart) is somewhat fluffy, again, I can see why you might get the impression that “he’s only valued when attached to Armand,” but really, I think Daniel/Armand shippers are fascinated with the dynamic of that ship. It’s rarely fluffy in canon. So some of them make fanworks for wish fulfillment, and that’s valid.
Personally, I don’t think Daniel’s only value to the story is when he’s attached to Armand, but again, he spends most of his time in canon with Armand, maybe that’s why the fandom doesn’t tend to write him on his own time separately.
Re: being the “butt of crazy jokes”: As a side note, when we joke about characters, that’s not to say that that’s always a negative act. Look, we’re currently dragging Lestat bc he said IN CANON that he loved being called a “slut,” which is really more of a layered commentary on shaming people for enjoying sex/intimacy, and he refuses to be shamed for it, he’ll turn around and take it as a compliment instead 😉
I’ve been in this fandom for over 20 years and I don’t think Daniel has gotten the worst treatment in those terms, it seems to me that there have been waves of love/interest/disdain/mockery of most of the main (and side) characters at different points in time, and from different groups of fans. So that may be your experience, and that’s absolutely valid, but I haven’t seen it that way. Of all the characters, I think Lestat probably gets the worst of being the butt of crazy jokes and he likes it bc bad attention is better than no attention.
It seems awfully suspicious to me that the “best’ character” to be cast as a POC is the one so many have considered the throw-away one. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree here, too. I wouldn’t say he’s a throw-away character for the whole fandom. There are Daniel RPers. As I’ve mentioned, it happens that he doesn’t have a lot of action in canon other than in books 1 (as just the interviewer, but it counts!) and 3, so the fandom does not have as much canon to work with as they do for other characters.
And again, re: the fandom choosing him as “the best character” to be cast as a POC, that seems to be Akasha, from what I’ve seen.
Relevant to this discussion: there was a wave of love for Nicolas a few years back, for the same reasons, I think, that @mendedpixie7 felt about Adam in Only Lovers Left Alive:
The reason I love Only Lovers Left Alive is it shows that a character (Adam) can be severely mentally ill, in this case depressed and suicidal, and still be seen as lovable and capable of being loved and loving in return without being “cured” of their mental illness, and that a mentally ill character can have other attributes aside from being mentally ill while still showing the impact being mentally ill has on his personality.
Adam from OLLA is an extremely important character to me you guys.
Similarly, I think people would love to see a character that they care about, like Daniel, be cast as a POC as being POC is often portrayed negatively in media. Fans of a POC being cast as Daniel would want (I’m paraphrasing from above):
to see
Daniel
showing that a character can be POC, in this case black, and still be seen as lovable and capable of being loved and loving in return, and that a POC character can have other attributes aside from being POC while still showing the impact being POC has on his personality.
Daniel Molloy from VC is an extremely important character to me you guys.
Thank you for helping me name my Apple TV! I chose Akashew!
Nice! I’m glad to be of service!
I’m not great with names, but I want to name my Apple TV something VC related. Can you please help?
I don’t know what’s unique about Apple TVs I just have a regular TV, but maybe a pun about TV or apples? Also depends on how much canon you’ve read, and which books, bc there are characters who don’t exist in all the books. Here’s a list of the characters, looks fairly up-to-date, but if you haven’t read all the books beware, spoilers.
There’s the recent and increasingly popular “Le Slut”…
[^X by @sheepskeleton]
I actually named my computer Flavius ages ago (maybe high school?) when Pandora was new and it was appropriate bc Flavius was my faithful servant… Who do you want faithfully serving/entertaining you? Altho sometimes Flavius crashed, of course. He did his best!
Other food-related names… there was also The Vampire Almond, from ages ago… there was even an RPer for it @thevampirealmond, “Akashew” was mentioned there.
Anyone is welcome to add ideas!
What are your thoughts about Timothee Chalamet as a fancast for Armand?
I haven’t seen Call Me By Your Name, or anything else he’s been in, and while I admit my first impression from still images was that I kinda prefer one of @sheepskeleton‘s inspirations for fanart of Armand, Matthew Clavane, seeing Timothee in motion in these gifs… I can see some Armand there…
All of his attributes are better in motion than in still images. The tousled hair, the serenity in his brows and eyes,
^there’s a softness in the way he moves…
^ “I was at a loss suddenly; but conscious all the while of how Armand listened: that he listened in the way that we dream of others listening, his face seeming to reflect on every thing said. He did not start forward to seize on my slightest pause, to assert an understanding of something before the thought was finished, or to argue with a swift, irresistible impulse-the things which often make dialogue impossible.” – Louis re: Armand in IWTV
^IDK I JUST LIKE HIM AND I WOULD SCREENTEST HIM.
I need some atmospheric vampire romances really badly! Canon or AU as long as neither character turns into passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality. Can you recommend some fic please? Thank you!
Hello! I’m sorry I’ve held your ask for 2 days, I was thinking about this and trying to come up with a good answer, but you’re probably better off with an answer from @gothiccharmschool, @annabellioncourt, @fyeahgothicromance, @forthegothicheroine, @sanguinivora… if anyone wants to answer @radiatorfromspace about this, please do!
Re: canon or AU, I’m not sure if you’re looking for fanfic or published fic. As far as published fic, tbh I don’t really read other vampire series than VC 😛 I used to read Christopher Pike and Poppy Z. Brite but I barely remember them now. I never actually read Dracula (the h0Rr0r! I am a terrible vampire fan) but from what I understand, it would have the atmosphere you want but may have characters that turn into passive, thoughtless pawns devoid of personality. I think that may be why I’ve struggled to get myself to read it, that’s not my thing, either.
As far as fanfic I mostly read VC fanfic, and I can’t say that any of the fics I’ve read do that to our characters… in canon we do have some vampires who go into a kind of sleep/vegetative states for periods of time (called “going to ground,” and sometimes involves them actually burying themselves and staying underground for years), and one might say that fledgling!Nicolas was a passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality when he was first turned, but he snapped out of it when given the right stimulation. So I think sometimes that state is temporary if it’s incorporated into fic.
I also struggle to pick out authors of fanfic bc I can’t think of one that has both the atmosphere and the vampire romance… I feel like most of my fave authors spend SOME time on atmosphere but more time on the characters’ interaction, dialogue, the plot, etc. Our series is pretty heavy with purple prose so we tend to use it sparingly in fanfic.
IF YOU REALLY WANT THAT ATMOSPHERE YOU’LL HAVE TO GO OUR SOURCE. I’d suggest that you read Interview with the Vampire or The Vampire Lestat and JOoooooOOoooooOIN US! ❤ [Me: attempts to steal a very talented fic writer from their fandom into ours]
^It’s a movie but worth mentioning bc I think you’d like it: Only Lovers Left Alive is, in my opinion, an example of an atmospheric vampire romance without shoving the romance down your throat; it’s subtle, but it’s there. Also:
- Although the characters are pretty sedate most of the time, neither character in the central ship turns into a passive, thoughtless pawn devoid of personality.
- I think this would appeal to you bc there’s a lot of tenderness, with a good dose of silliness, too.
- It’s got a good mix of spooky + pretty aesthetic, being set in crumbling Detroit, it shows the beauty of things that might look run-down and of little value at first glance.
- BONUS: It stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as the main ship and they are A++++
^Similarly, there are two adaptations of novel Let the Right One In. I didn’t read the novel, but have heard great things about it, although it is darker and scarier in nature than the adaptations. The first of the 2 adaptaions has the same title as the novel and I think it’s the better of the two. The second one, the American version, is called Let Me In.
While it’s not a romance between ADULTS, it’s got atmospheric vampire action and I would say that it might fall under a YA kind of romance feeling. I’ve read some of your fic and I really think you’d like this bc it has a lot to say about giving/receiving care, being vulnerable, and those first feelings we get about “I love my friend so much and I am afraid of scaring them off by letting them know, I want to be closer to them but not at the cost of hurting them.”
I hope that helps, again, anyone is welcome to comment/reblog with reccs for @radiatorfromspace!
did you see that there’s a pre sale of a new VC book on amazon (Blood Communion)?
I DID NOT KNOW THANK U FOR INFORMING ME (HAPPY CAPS OR TERRIFIED CAPS?? IDK BOTH)
^LOOK AT THIS EXTREMELY RED COVER. LET IT BURN YOUR EYES OUT WITH ITS GLORY (can I just mention that the blurred pixelation around the letters makes it look like it’s a meme but it is very much NOT).
OH GAWDS WE HAVE A RELEASE DATE AND A SUMMARY FEAST YOUR EYES MORTALS:
“The Vampire Chronicles continue with a riveting, rich saga–part adventure, part fairy-tale–of Prince Lestat and the story of the Blood Communion as he tells the tale of his coming to rule the vampire world and the eternal struggle to find belonging, a place in the universe for the undead, and how, against his will, he must battle the menacing, seemingly unstoppable force determined to thwart his vision and destroy the entire vampire netherworld.
In this spellbinding novel, Lestat, rebel outlaw, addresses the tribe of vampires, directly, intimately, passionately, and tells the riveting story of the formation of the Blood Communion and how he became Prince of the vampire world, the true ruler of this vast force, and how his vision for all the Children of the Universe to thrive as one, came to be.
The tale spills from Lestat’s heart, as he speaks first of his new existence as reigning monarch–and then of his fierce battle of wits and words with the mysterious Rhoshamandes, proud Child of the Millennia, reviled outcast for his senseless slaughter of the legendary ancient vampire Maharet, forever wise and loving and twin to Mekare the Keeper of the Sacred Core; Rhoshamandes, a force who refuses to live in harmony at the Court of Prince Lestat and threatens all that Lestat has dreamt of.
As the tale unfolds, Lestat takes us from the towers and battlements of his ancestral castle in the snow-covered mountains of France to the verdant wilds of lush Louisiana with its lingering fragrances of magnolias and night jasmine; from the far reaches of the Pacific’s untouched islands to the 18th-century city of St. Petersburg and the court of the Empress Catherine …”
I think we may be spared the birb aliems tho so there’s that!!!
I-want-my-IWTV 