#The Vampire Crackicles

[i-want-my-iwtv]

"wtf is this shit Louis" lmaooooo. Thanks for answering again! I'll definitely get my hands on the first three books! I'm excited!

You're welcome! Report back on your fave bits! It's always a pleasure to hear from new fans reading this stuff for the first time 📕✨🙏😊😭

...In the old days, Louis, we called them the Vampire Crackicles... we had a sense of humor about them... can we learn from the past, and find a new way to take pleasure in these books? I think we can... "The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." - Alice Morse Earle

[thelightfluxtastic]

Unironically, I credit a lot of my current stances/opinions/feelings toward media and fandom to the fact that my very first fandom (as in, actually engaging with other fans and fan discussions and content) was the Vampire Chronicles, when I was just entering my teens. Truly, like-

Shipping?

I'm not saying it didn't happen, but in the communities I came up in (primarily the Interview with the Vampire IMDB forum) there were no shipping wars. Not because it was Pure and Idyllic and everyone was just so nice, but because every ship was canon anyway. These were vampires with centuries of time. Lestat had lifetimes in which to love Nicolas and Louis. Louis could spend decades doing the Domestic Household thing with Lestat and Claudia, then spend 50 years on museum dates with Armand. People had their own favorites based on taste and preference, but there was little to no hostility between ships. It would have been kind of pointless- multishipping was canon. What would be the purpose of shooting down a ship in your own armada?

Dark content?

If the coven of the articulate was a massive polycule, it was a messy one. These were still, fundamentally, vampires! If an evening meal was a murderous affair, why should relationships be all roses? It was a series that looked one in the eye and said "Yes, Louis set Lestat on fire once. Yes, they are soulmates. What are you going to do about it?" I think it...stretched my brain in interesting ways. To be in a fandom where it was accepted that, for example, Armand and Lestat both violently hated each other and were passionately attracted to one another. That accepting both did not mean romanticizing the time Armand pushed Lestat off a roof, nor assuming that Lestat was lying, in denial, or wrong when he claimed Armand as his loved one. Simply to hold both states as true at the same time, embracing the intensity of the emotion in all its valences. Nor was this limited to character romances and shipping! These were gothic characters with Big Emotions that often got expressed in extravagant ways. My personal favorite character is still Nicolas de Lenfent, someone whose story role is to be deeply depressed and self-destructive as terrible things happen to him constantly. Every major trigger I can think of appears in these books eventually. I almost definitely encountered things I was too young to fully process when I read these books. But you know what I did when that happened? Went to my parents, or friends, or other fandom folks and talked through it. (Ironically, due to the atypical rules I internalized, I was far more bothered by the swear words as a teen than the blood and murder). The dark content in the books didn't scar me (in some cases the opposite- it gave me words and poetic expressions for Scary Thoughts and Big Feelings), and are still dear to me years later. As I've seen others express, what harmed me as a teen was mundane bullying, not dark media.

Author and Fanon?

Anne Rice has a reputation in fandom. She is the origin of those "Do not own the characters" fanfic disclaimers for her aggressive anti-fanon policies. And that's not getting into her receiving less editing as the series continued, and what ended up being the 'Vampire Crackicles'. I honestly think it was healthy for my adolescent brain to be in a fandom where every individual had a personal line in the sand for what they considered canon (and that was ok/accepted). I think it lended a flexibility toward headcanons as well as critical lenses of the text. Additionally, it was public knowledge how much Rice's own life experiences and beliefs influenced the text. Yes, there's the grief element to Claudia in IWTV. There's also the visible rollercoaster of her religious beliefs, from Memnoch to the Jesus series. So it wasn't a surprise or shift in going from "reading the text as a pure text" to "realizing the influence of the politics and perspective of the author" as I feel often happens. The trajectory of the books only fully made sense in context of the author and external influences. One could chose to ignore those, or actively take an interpretation different than the intended one, etc. (fandom is transformative, after all!) but it was an active knowledge and choice.

[i-want-my-iwtv]

So I've been in the fandom for about...2 weeks. In the middle of the 4th book right now. I've heard that the books get worse and stuff and I wonder if I should read all of them or skip some or...?

This is really hard to answer, and I nearly answered it privately, bc I don’t want to sow dissension in the fandom, it’s something ppl love to scream into the void about. But I see you’ve already started drawing some fanart for the fandom, so I want to encourage you to stay with us!

Some fans would tell you that #4 onwards in canon have certain characters being forgotten or mistreated by the author. I would say that there are storylines that are dark to the point that, even with my very high threshold for Crazy Shit, even I’ve had to close whatever one of these later books and just say, “omgz Aaaaaanne, whyyyy… We didn’t want this, nobody wanted this…”

If you’ve come looking for perfect cinnamon rolls, we only have one, Mojo, and he’s a dog ;)

I’ve heard that the books get worse and stuff and I wonder if I should read all of them or skip some or…?

So this depends on your definition of “worse.” They are a pile of dysfunctional hipster trash vampires, and several characters, but specifically the main character in the books, do some exceedingly problematic stuff, and, arguably, he is not condemned by the author in the text. There are fans who choose to disregard all the books from #4 onwards bc of that, and that’s totally fine. 

Your headcanon is your own, and you do NOT have to accept all of canon, and you do NOT have to interpret canon the way any other fan interprets it. Don’t let another fan bully you into thinking their interpretation is the Only one.

PERSONALLY, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way: back in the old days we called the later books #the Vampire Crackicles (spoilers in that tag) and enjoyed them for the silliness, bc there is plenty of humor still in the darkfic. And there are those, like me, who want to read darkfic, too. We want to go there in fiction, and explore what the consequences of even the most atrocious actions are. Can a character who’s committed X crime ever be redeemed? Redemption might not even be about forgiveness from the victim, but the effort of that character to strive to improve. That can be so cathartic for the reader, whether the character achieves it or not, the inspiration can come from the fact that they TRY and FAIL! repeatedly.

I always recommend that ppl give each of the books a chance, even the most cracky have some good stuff in them.

For the most part I think we’re a kinder fandom than others, since we suffered through our own fandom creator waging war on our fanfic and driving us underground for years. And the fandom is pretty welcoming, but I’ve found it’s better if you know what happens in canon, and can talk about it with other fans, make fanworks about it, or whatev. Even to criticize. 

Like any social media, though, your fandom experience is what you make of it, follow the #vampire chronicles tag, find some bloggers you like, and reach out! 

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Aye so I'm thinking of picking up the books but I heard they get pretty bad and u was just wondering what's your opinion

Define “bad”? Problematic for sure. Squicky for some ppl. Cracky as heck. 

I wanted to delete this ask bc an objective “bad” is so hard to define, especially with regard to fiction in this current wave of scrutiny about it. I think we can all agree on things that are bad in Real Life, but what we’re not agreeing on these days is the role of fiction and Real Life, that consumption/depiction of problematic things =/= endorsement of those things in Real Life. 

(This is all aside from the criticism dealing with the writing itself on its own merits, which, I am pretty forgiving about. I don’t consider my palette as a reader to be all that refined, I’m more interested in the ideas, and I don’t mind as much about the skills of the writer, even one who may have been very good and then devolved over the years. So you’ll have to ask someone else if the writing style is your concern.)

Some books will be loved by some ppl and praised to high heaven, those same books despised by others and cursed for existing, and everything in between.

IDK we used to call the later books “the Vampire Crackicles,” and I for one, would love to bring that back! 

At its core, it is my belief that VC as a whole is a means of demon exorcism and of wish-fulfillment for their author. Sure they have some higher value, if they didn’t, I don’t think the fandom would be as large and as loyal. But VC also has a ton of various kinds of porn, let’s be honest. As a mix of those elements I just described, they do not have to be that deep, they are whatever each individual reader wants them to be. Personally, I really enjoyed the first few, and have found enjoyable stuff even in the crackiest of later canon. If you don’t take them too seriously, it’s worth the effort. But then, I am pretty forgiving and I can do headcanon gymnastics for fun to explain stuff I don’t like, or treat it as AU.

So they can be considered shallow escapism with problematic dysfunctional hipster vampires:

Or, you can dive in and look for deeper meaning, and make richer analysis out of it. It could be that deep, if you want it to be! 

When I got this ask ~6 months ago, it was close to Thanksgiving, I had more pressing real-life things going on like traveling and visiting with family. I also didn’t want to answer it bc I was thinking it might be from a troll. Might be someone asking this in order to trick me into some kind of response that could be a launching pad for Discourse.

Now, time has passed, and having absorbed plenty of fiction =/= reality, anti-anti-shipping, and pro-shipping blog posts, I’m not afraid. Of the two possible approaches above (and there are others, of course), you don’t need to pick a side. Sometimes it can be deep, and sometimes not. You don’t have to defend liking it one way or the other, it’s fiction. It’s whatever any individual reader wants it to be, and keep that in mind when you read. Your reading is your own. Your headcanon is your own. Don’t let ppl concern-troll you, policing what you enjoy in fiction. I’m being a little forceful here bc I want to give you the confidence to know and believe: You. Can. Read. AND. Write. Whatever. You. Want.

Anon, you might be a troll, but this is also an honest question ppl have had about this series over the years. I want to believe you’re coming to this honestly and not trying to start something. 

I feel like I’m going to get redundant… to wrap up, the most recent and I would say, the Crackiest of the Crackicles, advertised as:

“There is always room for one more vampire novel.”

Couldn’t agree more ;D

^At Powell’s book store in Portland, Oregon. 10/30/17. 

Hope that helped, Anon!

[i-want-my-iwtv]

heyyy yy i’ve been out of the fandom for a while but i heard a new book about lestat and atlantis has been published. now, i don’t think i’m going to read it since i was pretty disappointed by the previous one so, could you please give an honest opinion on the book, if you’ve read it?

Hey, welcome back! 

Indeed, we have Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (PLROA). It’s the most recent book. We’re expecting at least one more installment after this one, no date has been given yet. 

@bluestockingcouture — Ok I can’t phrase this very well, but tumblr won’t let me tag them, so I made a link to my reblog of their post in which they share that they wrote a 1,800 word review of PLROA that quotes Rousseau, so you might want to check that out on goodreads. (spoiler cut is there)

Here’s another by Kirkus Reviews 2016-10-19. (spoilers in full view)

To be honest, near the end of PLROA I had to put it down bc it was about to launch into a monologue from a new character who I don’t really feel much affection for, and so I still haven’t finished it, but I am thoroughly spoiled as to what happens bc I love being spoiled. 

There were many moments where I smiled bc it reminded me of the way the characters behaved in earlier books, there’s some development as to their current status, there’s some great little moments between them, and I think it’s worth reading for those gems.

I’ve always been able to read VC and cherry pick the things that I like (a good chunk of dialogue here or there, or something that seems to give more clarification to the established world/characters, etc.) and I have a flexible headcanon, so I can accept or not accept things based on the fanfic I’m reading, too, depending on what canon it relies on. 

Having said that, PLROA feels very much like what would happen if one novel you were working on needed life support and you added your much more popular character(s) into it as a means of rescuing it. 

“I was working on a novel called Born for Atlantis, and I just couldn’t get it to work. I thought, “What if I could somehow combine this with Lestat and the vampires?” And it was like, everything worked. Something happens to me when I write from Lestat’s point of view. There’s no question about it. By the time I was done, it felt inevitable, like it always had been…. It was a rare experience.”

^Anne Rice, Entertainment Weekly (August 5, 2016) [X] I’m glad that she shared that with us, because it explains why she brought these things together. Even if she hadn’t admitted as such, I think we would have been able to piece that together. 

Some things are good on their own, some ideas can be brought together and the result is wonderful alchemy! But I think in this case, it felt like someone had dumped a river of ketchup on an icecream sundae. PLROA might count as what the fandom used to lovingly call the Vampire Crackicles.

Back then, we could have a good time, even when canon was wild. We could make fun of Lestat being a huge baby about his foot size in Blood Canticle:

Seldom did I see my feet in black socks. I knew almost nothing personally about my feet. They looked rather small for the twenty-first century. Bad luck. But six feet was still a good height.

Or, also in Blood Canticle, Lestat fixated by ice cubes:

…the sparkle in the ice cubes, the Miracle of the Ice Cubes.

^Our old familiar canon Rice Caps! Why can’t these things be funny anymore?

Or are the wacky things in PLROA too wacky to even find endearing? We do tentatively joke about PLROA, but not as robustly as we did over those older Vampire Crackicles. Maybe in a few years we’ll be more vocal about it, bc there will be even crazier canon. Lestat goes to Mars! Lestat ages backwards like Benjamin Button! Lestat accidentally destroys Alaska! 

So IDK, I always recommend that ppl read the books before they judge them, but I think it’s easier to enjoy the wackiness if you can take it less seriously. 

[i-want-my-iwtv]

This book gives me life but at the same time I feel so done with everything.....

So I haven't had much chance to read it yet but from what little I have read... there are little glimmers of the Lestat we all know and love, lines here and there that are in character! So that helps. There may be a few good quotes we can extract from this mess!

Overall, from the spoilers I've heard/read, the general feeling I'm getting is that this book is FAR worse than anything I/we could have predicted in terms of being a true Vampire Crackicle. 

[i-want-my-iwtv]

TOO TRUE

[i-want-my-iwtv]

I just finished Blackwood Farm for the first time. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. However, I can't say I understand the purpose of Quinn fucking the people he fucked (Mona possibly, but a ghost???) Very blunt here. Apologies.

BF has its moments, for sure!

Re: the ghost sex... um, well... AR certainly attempts to give us freshly Creative Spooky Sexytimes!

tbh I don't remember that book very well, but I think there was an element of that ghost getting sensual pleasure through Quinn's sensual pleasure... I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it is worth a skim at the very least.