Anne Rice and The Bible

Welcome to my life. Day 5784. Greetings my Roadside Rashes. Who's totally excited about Anne Rice's new book, Angel Time? I am, that's who! Okay, so Anne's gone a little soft lately, found Jesus and everything, but I'm convinced she's still got it in her to write a killer book with some badass angels. I know, I sound like I'm trying to convince myself. Well, if anybody can make angels cool, it's Anne Rice. And angels aren't necessarily all good. I mean, they've got to do some evil shit sometimes in the name of good or whatever. I don't know, I'm still new to the whole angel genre. I'm sure Anne will fill me in, though. Anyway, look forward to a heavily biased review from yours truly.

Anyway, she's been doing interviews and this one I quite like. She's asked about using the Bible as a source and how she had less flexibility with the characters because they weren't her own. I mean, she basically had free reign with vampires. She made the genre real. That's all I can say. Before Anne Rice, you just couldn't take vampires seriously. They were just overly theatrical and the whole 'I vant to suck your blud' business just made them laughable. Anne introduced us to a world where vampires do exist. Where you just kind of take it for granted that they exist. And when you put the book down, you wouldn't be at all surprised to see a vampire sitting on your window ledge. That is what Anne Rice brought to the genre. She made it real. She concentrated on all the little nuances. She told the story from the point of view of the vampire. Vampires were no longer the monsters that appear once or twice to scare the protagonist. They were the protagonists. And all you Twatlighters need to step. Anne wasn't afraid of the nightmarish nature of her subject matter. She confronted it head on. Her characters never cared if you liked them or not. That's what made them so damned likable. Lestat is the ultimate carefree character. At times, I swear he is aware of the fact that he is only a character and can do anything and everything. He is the ultimate escapist. And I love him! I have to say I've been getting more and more excited about the prospect of Robert Downey Jr. as Lestat. I think we may be witnessing the birth of the first great vampire film. There have been good ones, sure, but none that can call themselves one of the greatest of all time, say in the top 100 of all films ever. This has every potential to be just that. And what better material to work with than perhaps the greatest vampire novel of all time - The Vampire Lestat.

Anyway, this is a two part post so more tomorrow.