Anne Rice on Anne Rice
And no, this isn't some lurid, avatar-on-author book action. It's...well, words escape me at the moment. As a matter of fact, I'm scratching my head in trying to consider my thoughts on this. It's not every day you see a well-known author verbally eviscerate her fans in an Amazon Books review of her own book.
You'll see Anne Rice's reivew of her readers' reviews of "Blood Canticle" about halfway down the page. Look for:
From the Author to the Some of the Negative Voices Here.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/037541200X/ref=cm_rev_next/
002-5262353-1298444?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-
SubmissionDate&n=283155&customer-reviews.start=31&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER
This is reminiscent of Stephen King blasting literary critic Harold Bloom. I think King more took issue to Bloom's comments regarding King not being a real author, and how King could only write pulp crap...which does bring up the question of what a "real" author is as opposed to an "imaginary" or "unreal" one. Maybe they're talking about fanfiction authors, who are not really official authors, so they're more of an "unreal" phenomenon.
Though admittedly I myself think of Bloom as a bit of a jaded twit since the only books he ever wrote were books about other peoples' books. Or so my mostly-uninformed opinion goes. Feel free to correct and/or enlighten me if it's otherwise.
But getting back to Rice's rants, I find this as a shining example of how to be a literary megalomaniac, or why most authors should fear their own fandom rather than their book reviewers. Not "hide under the bed" fear, but hold a distinct leeriness in wondering if one day they're going to end up strapped to a bed with a rabid fan wanting to marry them, or one day discovering their entire fandom has grown up and subsequently grown disenchanted.
Maybe Neil Gaiman's right:
When you publish a book -- when you make art -- people are free to say what they want about it. You can't tell people they liked a book they didn't like, and there is, in the end, no arguing with personal taste. Different people like different things. Best to move on and make good art as best you can, instead of arguing.
I think Anne Rice going on Amazon and lambasting her critics was undoubtedly a very brave and satisfying thing for her to do, was every bit as sensible as kicking a tar baby, and, if ever I do something like that, please shoot me.
This is also why I really am not much of a sequel kind of guy. I'd rather not write a sequel if I can get away with it, if only to avoid warmed-over characters and a story that lacks the punch of the original. (Unless you're talking "Fanboys", in which case I just enjoy a story that involves the warmed-over characters getting punched and warmed-over from the latest Dragu Slave spell. A lot. In which case the story, and my latent literary sadism, calls for it!) Then again, I get to worry about how any and all new stories I write will get compared to their predecessors and be stamped as "recycled" instead of "original."
But enough of me ranting about authors ranting about fans ranting. I have to go to Connecticut now for a week or so, where Mel & I get to attend a family wedding, and I discover how silly I look in a tie.
Today's Chaos-on-Chaos Review: I'm right. You're a silly tit. If you disagree with those two statements of fact, I hope and pray that one day you'll be freed of your delusion.
(Of course, this would all get changed if it read: "I'm right, and I'm a silly tit." That happens a lot. Especially the second part. Not so much the first part, mind you.)
posted by Phillip at 5:52 AM
