An ode to Anne Rice

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2021 ended on a sombre note for many, and it hit none as hard as the literature world with the passing of Anne Rice. To say that she was just an author whose literary back catalogue hosted a variety of vampire, witches, werewolf, erotica, and Christian novels would not be doing her justice. In one novel, she changed the face of the literary landscape, the world, and what we know of the mythical, mysterious creature - the vampire. 

Decades before Stephenie Meyer tried her hand with the Cullens in Twilight, Anne Rice introduced her vampire clan in the Vampire Chronicles. Fifteen books that changed the way readers saw the mysterious children of the night. Not since Bram Stoker beguiled us with his creation Dracula, where vampires were seen as life-stealing monsters, easily dispatched with the help of a wooden stake, holy water and decapitation, that we had such a drastic change. 

In 1973, while mourning the loss of her daughter, Michele, Anne Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire. It was a story about a 200-year-old vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac, who shares the story of his encounter and subsequent turning by the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt and their adoption of a young girl, Claudia (based on Anne's daughter). The novel is filled with various themes, such as religion, loss of innocence, the nature between good and evil, immortality, and much more. 

But, there is one thing Interview, and its follow-up novels showed; they all tell their story from the point of view of the vampire. Through these books, we see the fears, worries and torment of what we saw previously as just monsters. Rice turned vampires from creatures into people. They were just like us. They loved, mourned, became fearful, and vengeful.

Bram Stoker's Dracula, while undoubtedly a classic piece of literature, has been known in the modern era to be a warning about the other. Dracula was a representation of the evil outsider coming in and corrupting good Christian, English morals. Anne Rice's vampires accepted that they were the outsiders, but it didn't stop them from showing their humanity. Because of this, Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Chronicles novels have become a representation of those who consider themselves as outsiders in our society. 

Louis and Lestat's relationship and later Louis' relationship with Armand resonated with members of the LGBT+ community. Claudia, seen as Louis and Lestat's daughter, represents the loss of innocence and a life that would never grow old. And Louis' questions of whether he is evil because he's a vampire could easily represent so many feelings that many of us have found ourselves dealing with.

It's safe to say that Anne Rice's story has staying power nearly 50 years after it was originally published in 1976. After Interview with the Vampire, stories that explored vulnerability and showed us empathy for those we considered monsters became more popular and continue to go on today. The Hunger by Whitley Strieber, published in 1981, followed a vampiress who did whatever she needed to have a new lover, but she did this out of loneliness because she was the only one of her kind. Angel played by David Boreanaz, plagued Buffy Summers in the 1990s hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but his love for her made him change his ways, even after leaving her. And so it continues, even spanning to other monsters, as seen in Guillermo Del Toro's film Shape of Water (2017). 

Anne Rice, and her books, continue to help and provide comfort for many of us, and they will continue to do so even now - when she's gone. So, while this might not be the literal definition of an ode, it could only end with a quote from the Queen of Gothic Literature herself, one that she shared with her fans.

"Ignore any loss of nerve, ignore any loss of self-confidence, ignore any doubt or confusion. Move on believing in love, in peace, and harmony, and in great accomplishment. Remember joy isn't a stranger to you. You are winning and you are strong. Love. Love first, love always, love forever."

― Anne Rice

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Freelance writer with a love of books, particularly those from the 70s and 80s, and in the horror genre, she also has a fondness for classical literature and isn't opposed to digging in with the odd women's fiction. She lives in Shropshire, England with her husband, several furry guinea pups, and Duke the Fish. In order to stop annoying her husband with her constant conversation about the books she reads, she created Step Into The Void, a blog named after the mental state her other half says he steps into whenever she starts talking about the latest Jay Kristoff vampire novel or decides to try to explain the entire plot to Jenn Lyon's four-book epic The Chorus of Dragons or tries to explain why the horror fiction genre is slowing coming back thanks to authors like Grady Hendrix, Augustina Bazterrica, and Catriona Ward.  

Check out her Instagram @booksinthevoid