Vampires

I've never been a HUGE fan of Anne Rice. Until now, I assumed I hadn't been missing out on anything in particular (after all, the hype associated with her work is comparable to a certain other contemporary vampire fiction writer whose infame precedes her, and whose name isn't worth actually writing out). But boy-oh-boy, I was wrong. I can understand why people get so caught up in her works. Religious spectacles aside, Rice is a phenomenal writer who develops genuinely interesting characters with genuinely interesting stories. Even the outline for the rather lengthy first book in this series, 'a vampire is being interviewed,' is a wonderfully unique approach to a piece of fiction (and that theme is expanded upon rather uniquely, itself). I love that she plays up the dynamic between the Loius and Lestat, giving them an almost uncomfortably developing relationship that saws back and fourth, and the involvement of what I picture as a surrogate child (who is burned alive! in a wonderfully edgy and probably controversial move on her part).

I wonder, reading this, what sorts of deviations were made from original vampiric myths (a quick Google search yields many results about origins and myths, so I really couldn't say without more research), but I would love to know. My proposing this stems from the earlier Frankenstein reading, and having seen before hand how that had grown and mutated. At what point did vampires go from being ugly and sort of bat-like, unable to enter doors without permission, to being sexually confused (clearly, in this book) beautiful objects of desire, to glittery unicorn wannabes with psychic/unique powers? (Don't get me started.) I'm thankful she didn't decide to include were-wolves in this. But I digress. Rice resigns the writing with a cliffhanger, which entices me to go on to her next piece of work, but I shan't. Not until I've got a bit more free time, I don't think. All the same, I do see I have been missing out on a fantastic body of work that has earned its' keep in the world of fictional vampire writings (as opposed, as I'm sure you're very familiar with, to non-fictional vampire writings). Haha.

The vampire pictured is neither of the protagonists. I felt like drawing someone cooler than Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Someone like Count Orlok. So yeah.