I don’t think AR has said anything about casting Claudia specifically.* It’s another tough role to cast age-wise, bc she’s supposed to be just barely 5 years old, and 5 year olds definitely age.
^X@claudia-lilvampire found this pic of Christopher Mason and his daughter Basie (she looks closer to 4 here?), very Lestat and Claudia ❤
Casting Claudia will probably not be an issue if they start with TVL, bc Claudia’s only in IWTV, and just mentioned in later books. But… let’s cast an actress as Lestat’s little sister for TVL, the 8th de Lioncourt child, and then have her play Claudia, too! The resemblance would be so heartbreaking! ;A; Mireille de Lioncourt, so named by@viaticumforthemarquise.
For funsies tho, I must inform you… awhile back, @hyperbeeb suggested Mia Talerico [X], who just turned 9 on 9/17/16, and I have to agree!
Mia’s had a long career already (IMDB says she was eleven months old when she started filming Good Luck Charlie, so that’s 7 yrs of acting, being directed, being comfortable in front of the cameras, etc.). I did a whole post about her here. She’s pretty much my headcanon when I write Claudia.
Anne said age wouldn’t be as much as an issue for Claudia since they won’t be spending as much time with her as they are with Armand. She basically said any talented little girl will do.
But I want Miaaaaa.… *w*
Thanks @firelight-fading, I don’t follow AR’s FB or the OVCFB religously enough to have answered as definitively as you did, I’m glad that she is still planning on telling that story, as well.
She has said (2013-14?) on her FB page that she basically doesn’t care one way or another, she chooses to ignore it—she hasn’t given her blessing but no, not “illegal”.
@vampchronfic is correct, AR currently ignores fanfic:
(^I don’t know the year of that one, I screencapped it before FB had the year listed in the comment, I think it’s 2014.)
Much argument and analysis has been made of the war on fanfic that Anne Rice waged against her fans in the 1990′s and early 2000′s, and yes, those being copyrighted characters, she was within her rights to wage that war.
However, many of us, in many fandoms, have written fanfiction for pleasure and not for profit, for many years. And times have changed.Anne Rice said, in 2012:
“I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought [fanfiction] would block me,” she said. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live.”
There are authors who currently recognize fanfiction as just one of many ways that fans engage with their published and copyrighted works, Anne Rice being one of them.
AR now “ignores fanfiction.” That’s her current stance. We don’t have her approval, we have her tolerance.
*~And AO3 has pledged itself as a safe haven* for fanfic writers to post their works!~*
Some of AR’s fans also disapprove of VC fanfic, and that’s fine. But if she ignores it, I would ask others to ignore it as well. This fan explains his reasons for ignoring VC fanfic:
Speaking for myself, and other fanfic writers, we feel that we can realize her characters, storylines, and detailed worlds. For us to translate our imagination into words for the fandom’s enjoyment is a gift for us, too. There are many types of fanfic, many things left unaddressed in canon, and then there’s the AU fanfic, etc…. we just want to play with her toys, we are not taking them away from her, or trying to sell them as our own. And she is tolerating it.
Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.
I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):
Anne Herself
Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
She
loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
beauty”
She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
“It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
She
says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
She feels this is the age of the nerd where
readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
power and what we have done for the series.
The Books and The Characters
*spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
(And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
When
asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
She
writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
Lestat’s
name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
french names.
The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
There were several questions
about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
She does not see Gabrielle as
autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me )
She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
writing those sort of side books.
Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
Anne
has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
She
appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
worse soooo 😏)
In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.
The Television Show
(Casting)
Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
will be too difficult to use (um, hello Anne, CGI??)
She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
Says
the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
(lol)
She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming
(Chronology and Production)
She
thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
Hulu or Netflix.
She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
I’m guessing she feels around M?)
Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
She appreciated
the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
It
will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
events happen (I was hoping it would be the former…)
No Mayfair witches in the show
Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
the show
The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
history of her vampires and those entities.
She
wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
is when it would come out
Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
Christopher
and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes
Clarifying a few notes for everyone since they were brought to my attention:
Casting Armand: Anne said she wanted to do this chronologically as the events happened in the books, not as the order the books come in. When we are first introduced to Armand, yes, he is 17, but his story in The Vampire Armand begins when he is 14/15 (when he is kidnapped and before he meets Marius). She mentioned something about the later half of the first season or the second season being dedicated to Marius telling his tale to Lestat and the history of the vampires, so, based off her suggestions, it was implied TVA would also be a part of this (maybe expanding a viewer perspective to outside of what he tells Lestat)…
Or maybe she totally forgot his age, but she said “14” in the stream, so that is what I wrote down.
The lengths of the seasons going along with the books: Anne said it would depend on how many episodes there would be per season. I guess she’s thinking of shorter lengths of episodes and seasons to focus solely on certain plot points? It’s a bit odd. I think one book = one season could definitely be do-able, however…
I think with the production quality she wants in the amount of time she wants it, I think her goals are unrealistic. I have other thoughts about what she said, but I will keep them to myself unless asked. That being said, if anyone has questions or concerns, feel free to send me an ask and let me know
If there is anything I missed in my highlights post in regards to these two videos that you would like to bring up / discuss, feel free to mention it in a reblog or in the comments section.
Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.
I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):
Anne Herself
Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
She
loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
beauty”
She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
“It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
She
says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
She feels this is the age of the nerd where
readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
power and what we have done for the series.
The Books and The Characters
*spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
(And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
When
asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
She
writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
Lestat’s
name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
french names.
The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
There were several questions
about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
She does not see Gabrielle as
autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me )
She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
writing those sort of side books.
Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
Anne
has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
She
appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
worse soooo 😏)
In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.
The Television Show
(Casting)
Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
will be too difficult to use (um, hello Anne, CGI??)
She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
Says
the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
(lol)
She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming
(Chronology and Production)
She
thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
Hulu or Netflix.
She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
I’m guessing she feels around M?)
Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
She appreciated
the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
It
will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
events happen (I was hoping it would be the former…)
No Mayfair witches in the show
Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
the show
The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
history of her vampires and those entities.
She
wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
is when it would come out
Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
Christopher
and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes
(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
Re: the above, it’s a #Long post, so extra huge thanks to @firelight-fading for taking one for the team and not only watching the OVCFB livestream but gathering up all this info into such clean formatting for us! We salute you.
Welcome to the *~front burner~*, fam. When??? we’re actually getting that TV series is always a question – and those of us who have waited for years between adaptations have the patience of saints – but hell, why not be excited about it? Or at least cautiously optimistic 😉 Let it out. You can cry, bruh.
AR is planning on starting with TVL and she’s asking for fan input*, so…. let’s give it to her!
♛I know! I know, I know… I adore Bowie. I visited him many times, in the eighties up to more recently. We got along very well. We did a few of his songs and a few of mine together, privately. No recording.
Not that I definitely would have given it to him, but we discussed it. He knew what I was. He didn’t want it.
I told him before any of the doctors did, I could sense… that his time was limited. I wasn’t ready to lose him, we both thought he had more time to consider it.
… Or maybe I did turn him, and he’s living somewhere outside the public eye… you may never know… until he finds you alone at night and you can see his fangs for yourself… *blows a kiss*
Hello! This was a really tough ask, and very intellectually stimulating, and opening it further, I ended up considering the larger topic of What is an author’s obligation to their readers? What is an artist’s obligation to their viewers/audience? I don’t know.
In that line of consideration, I don’t recall AR ever bringing up these specific issues in (or out) of canon, or whether she’s been asked about it. I don’t think she’s ever said anything about avoiding depicting wlw relationships… these seem like questions you could ask her directly on FB, but my prediction is that she would be unwilling to address them. My impression of her is that she enjoys praise but does not feel obligated to write anything for anyone but herself, for better or worse.
To use the word “avoiding” implies she’s aware of it as a failure on her part, and I don’t think she is aware of it.
[^Fanart by @garama, mommy!Louis w/ his parenting guide,
this looks, like a good mom, he’s forcing the other two into some kind of parent-child bonding exercise!]
Re: Coding characters as male or female, that discussion is kind of confusing to me. I’ve seen fandom discourse refer to Louis as the “mommy” in the Lestat, Louis, and Claudia family in IWTV (a little more on that under the cut). Louis is only one example of a male character who may have been intentionally written as being more of the stereotypically female role than a male; he is more protective and nurturing to Claudia like a mother would be, and Lestat seems to “wear the pants” in that household. IDK if that is sufficient as “coding a male character as female.”
why her female characters are more peripheral to the story than her male characters,
why she seems to avoid depicting wlw relationships.
I don’t want to jump to labeling her as misogynistic, but it seems like her female characters are coded as female, while the males are just characters, if that makes sense.
It seems like the men are bi and the women straight.
^This is a lot to consider, any one of which could be a whole essay of response. Anyone who has opinions on this is welcome to reblog/comment, as this is not an area of expertise for me. And, IMO, it’s not an area of expertise for Anne Rice, either.
TL;DR: I don’t think AR intended to “avoid” the topics you bring up, I believe she was more focused on her own topics (I list some under the cut). AR had posted “On My Method of Writing:” as part of a message on her page, 8/20/2003, which I found informative. A few excerpts are under the cut.
[^May 10, 2016- X] AR has said many times that she writes the books she wants to see in the world, no other intentions.
What is an author’s obligation to their readers? What is an artist’s obligation to their viewers/audience? I don’t know. We are all entitled to our own answers to that question.
Hit the jump for more, cut for length and QOTD spoiler.
negative opinions/critical analysis, it is hard, if not impossible, to please everyone, even if that’s a blogger/author’s goal. I try to compromise when I can, but that’s my own prerogative. AR seems to provide a little fanservice now and then and will write more of X, Y, Z when the POTP ask her to write more of X, Y, Z, but that’s her own prerogative.
Perhaps the misogyny some people perceive in her books is real, perhaps it’s internalized for her. She might deserve that label. I don’t know how I feel about that.
From all that I’ve absorbed over the years, she wrote about what intrigued her. This is just the first few things that come to mind of things I’ve seen in canon, in different variations, things she may have discussed outside the novels, things she has always seemed to want to explore:
Her own retail and geographical interests/fetishes (classical painting, jewelry (cameos!!), high fashion (VELVET!), low fashion, literature, Shakespeare, music and culture of the 80′s (BLADE RUNNER & BON JOVI), SCIENCE and technology (iPHONES!), interior decorating, New Orleans, Miami, Ancient Rome, Paris, etc.);
Sexuality & power;
Religion and its role in terms of meting out punishment to those who deserve it and misapplied to innocent people, punishments as fitting a crime and punishments for no crime, varying forms of punishment;
Revenge and whether it is justified;
World peace and how to achieve it;
Whether there is a God who will embrace us when we die, whether we will meet our loved ones who died before/after us, whether there is an eternal heaven and hell, etc. Whether we will get the answers to all of life’s questions;
Religion and its setup as a social group and whether it requires genuine belief in order to be part of that group;
Very hot guys and what they do w/ their dicks;
Childlike, adorable women;
Precocious young adults/teens who are interested in sex before coming of legal age;
Consent, dubious consent, and lack of consent across many different categories;
etc.
^I feel like all of her writing can be summed up as speculation on these topics (and others), exploring them to find out “what would happen if…” and presenting results which she does NOT promote, results which she DOES promote, and results she offers up to the reader’s interpretations. Misogyny can be easily woven into many of those topics w/ or w/o intention on the author’s part.
As an example of a speculative situation, involving a possible misandrist character: in QOTD, radical feminist Akasha believed she could guarantee world peace by killing off 90% of the men. She starts doing it but is thwarted before making much progress. If she could have continued, would it have been a successful plan? I believe AR is suggesting that it would not, that as enticing as the idea was, radical feminism is too extreme and would have failed. And further, that the misandrist proponent of radical feminism may have been missing a few marbles even as a mortal, in addition to being out of touch with reality as a nearly omnipotent immortal.
So my answer is that I don’t think AR intended to “avoid” the topics you bring up, I believe she was more focused on her own topics.
Re: Coding characters as male or female, that discussion is kind of confusing to me. I’ve seen fandom discourse refer to Louis as the “mommy” in the Lestat, Louis, and Claudia family in IWTV. AR has said Louis was basically written as herself (she famously said, and I can’t find the source rn but I remember it distinctly: “I’m the only woman ever played by Brad Pitt in film!”), evidence that she did see that character as female? Possibly.
“I have been writing most of my adult life, of course, but very steadily since about 1970.”
^Idk if coding gender into characters was a thing then.
“My method of writing is to develop the novel sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph and page by page with heavy rewriting and reshaping and editing as I go along,… until I had the perfected page in order to proceed to the next page.”
^I seem to recall her saying that some of her novels are planned out w/ plot points first, others just flow in the order she writes them, w/o pre-planning.
“After the publication of the The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore comments. I resolved to hand in the manuscripts when they were finished. And asked that she accept them as they were. She was very reluctant, feeling that her input had value, but she agreed to my wishes. I asked this due to my highly critical relationship with my work and my intense evolutionary work on every sentence in the work, my feeling for the rhythm of the phrase and the unfolding of the plot and the character development. I felt that I could not bring to perfection what I saw unless I did it alone. In othe words, what I had to offer had to be offered in isolation. So all novels published after The Queen of the Damned were written by me in this pure fashion, my editor thereafter functioning as my mentor and guardian.”
^Her editor was demoted to copyeditor
mentor and guardian
.
“…
the writing you are reading is quite deliberate, that it is informed and it is conscious, as well as being the result of intuition. It is the result of all that I am – my education, my mystic sensibilities, and the student in me. It is poured out fearlessly, and then edited, and re-edited, and subjected to merciless scrutiny. It represents, and always has, my finest efforts.”
^Her writing is all intentional and her focus is intentional.
[part 3] I really like this blog, and I really like you as a spokesperson of sorts for the Tumblr side of her fanbase, but it’d be great if you could take a step back and consider how much you criticize the opinions of others. You put a lot of stuff below the cut, and maybe your’e just stressing a lot as of late because I’ve noticed it more now than before, but you often shut down people very quickly who have different ideas or thoughts on the series than you do.
(Was there a part 2? If there was, then Tumblr ate it.)
I deeply considered this message, it’s been over one whole day, so I’m not replying too quickly.
“…maybe your’e just stressing a lot as of late…”? Thank you for the concern, but no… in the past 2 weeks, we have a new VC book to read and there is turbulence in the fandom about the VC rights reverting back to Anne Rice… my reactions have been the normal amount of mixed emotions for this kind of information. Sometimes there’s exaggeration, which is normal for social media; to replace the emotions we don’t express vocally, w/ gestures, or w/ facial expressions.
I have to respectfully disagree with you. I’m going to reply to this as thoughtfully as I can, without a cut, but basically: make Tumblr a good place for you, and unfollow me if you need to do so.
1. As stated before, I do not hold myself out as “a really big voice,” any kind of official authority of, or spokesperson for, this fandom. I have accepted titles in a humorous way only, I do not consider my headcanons/opinions above anyone else’s.
In “As stated before,” linking to a post from 1 week ago, someone else told me that “as a monolith of the fandom,” I have an obligation to be MORE critical, share more critical opinions of VC than I do already, so you can see that I can’t please that person AND you at the same time. Since I consider meta-analysis and reviews to be a form of fanwork, and I encourage fanworks, I am going to continue to share them.
2. #Your Headcanon May Vary – I don’t always include this fandom law, as this is a fandom blog so it applies by default, but I’ve included it anyway, enough times that I thought it was understood implicitly by now. I am not going to add it as a disclaimer to every response, because I feel like it does not need to be stated. I don’t know if you are new to fandom, but here are a few more Fandom Laws, following them is about “beingcourteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.”
This is a social platform, and we all have our own opinions about these fictional characters, film/TV adaptations of canon, and the canon in general. We do not need to agree. We do not need to soften our opinions for anyone. Part of what is so great about a social platform like this is the exchange of ideas, it’s intellectually stimulating to consider other people’s interpretations and headcanons, even if they are stated in a harsh and/or strong manner. I consider every single one that is suggested to me, and I can decide if I want to accept it or not. It doesn’t matter where the ideas come from, even someone suggesting something who has only seen movie!QOTD might have a great idea I might accept!
My headcanon is a collection of my own and other people’s ideas from discussions, fanfics, fanart, meta-analysis posts, etc. which I have absorbed over the last 20+ years I’ve been in fandom. Most of my headcanon would not exist if I did not discuss ideas with other people, or engage in fandom through fanworks. I am grateful for all of the rich discussions and even heated arguments I’ve had about VC over the years!
There are many opinions out there that I disagree with, but I go by the Real Life rule of “Live and Let Live.” Here’s two examples:
A) People bash Antonio Banderas as Armand in IWTV, he is one of the fandom’s punching bags. I have stated my opinions about him in my #Defending Antonio tag, but I don’t mind that other people still don’t like him. If I am the only one who liked him as Armand in that movie, that’s totally fine by me!
B) Just as I do poke fun at movie!QOTD, I don’t mind if other people adore it. I know that some people find it nostalgic. Some people love the soundtrack. Some people love Aaliyah or Stuart Townsend, any number of reasons, or just, “I don’t know why, I just like it” are all fine!
^I am actually friendly with both (A) the people who despise Antonio!Armand, and (B) the people who love movie!QOTD, because we can Live and Let Live. Friendship is not dependent on agreement.
Being in the same fandom with people does not mean that they have to agree with you. I used to think that it did, and that it guaranteed friendship. It does neither of those things. If we all agreed on everything, would there even be anything left to discuss?
#IWANTMYIWTV RP
One of the examples you mentioned of my being harsh re: my headcanons was an Ask directed to Lestat, and I answered as Lestat, in character. Yes, he often responds harshly. I headcanon him as a friendly character but guarded, especially against anonymous strangers, even those that very respectfully suggest that he has a mental illness. Anyone can ask other Lestat RPers the same thing and see what they might say.
In that response, he begins with taking offense, but then winds down to pointing out that it’s unfortunate that medication/therapy carries an unfair stigma, that he does go to therapy, and considers that medical intervention may have helped Nicolas. So to write all that off as being harsh makes me feel like you didn’t read the answer fully. I put some of the response under the cut because cutting long posts is part of Tumblr etiquette.
I do not headcanon him as bipolar. Whether or not he is bipolar is up to every reader’s interpretation. Which brings me to my next point:
The real VC authority
It’s worth mentioning that on FB in another thread, in another topic, Anne Rice herself was asked about “But as a long time fan, I’ve ( and many other fans, I´m sure..) never understood the whole“Lestat and Louis- thing” and I think in a psychologically way it is also very interesting. Please, can you POFOUNDLY explain this whole relationship?”
^Is Anne Rice abdicating authority here? I’m not sure. It looks like she wants the asker to draw their own conclusions. But I have seen her questioned on FB, at booksignings, and spoken of on tumblr and elsewhere, in ways that lead me to believe that she is not considered the authority on VC to 100% of the fandom, and that she doesn’t mind that.
I love what she has given us, but she isn’t my authority. I don’t need her validation on my headcanons. If the creator of the series is not the authority, who is? Not me, I’m just one person.
You don’t need my validation. You don’t need anyone’s validation. You are your own VC authority, anon.
You can form your own headcanons and share them, convince people of them, or not. Make your fandom experience good for you, Live and Let Live, and unfollow me if you need to. I totally understand and wish you well.
)
I-want-my-IWTV 