Okay, we all know that I am a huge book geek...speaking materially, books are my favorite thing on earth. There are some books I love so very much that I have read them over and over and over again--The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice are in this category. I have a (possibly) unnatural attachment to lestat, and i have read his adventures ad infinitum. In fact, the quote Ihave tattooed on my arm is from something I wrote that grew out of a quote from Tale of the Body Thief. The Chronicles are books I will always have copies of...
Naturally, I also became a huge fan of their creator. Anne Rrice has been among my favorite authors since I first read Interview with the Vampire. I stuck with her after she announced that Blood Canticle would be Lestat's final adventure. I bought the first Jesus book hesitantly, but since I'm a religion geek, I went with it. It actually isn't bad. I had no intentions of reading her new christian endeavor, Angel Time, but still, whatever, Anne.
So, wtf is this blog about, you ask...about 20 minutes ago, I found out that Anne, the mother of my beloved Lestat, granted an interview with The 700 Club, home to one of the most ridiculously evil men on the planet--Pat Robertson. Over the years, this man has blamed 9/11, hurricane Katrina, and now the Haiti disaster on the gay community and assorted nonbelievers. He was once quoted, on the very show that conducted Anne's interview, as saying that AIDS is his god's way of controlling the gay population.
Now, first let me say that it is not Anne's reversion to Christianity that is the problem. As long as you are harming none, I say, whatever gets you through the day. What is the problem is her total disregard for quite a large portion of her loyal fans--the gay community. The Vampire Chronicles, whether intentionally or not, have a way of making people of minority social groups feel not so alone or bad. I don't have the energy to analyze that right now, but suffice it to say that this is true. Not only that, but her son is gay. Further, she called New Orleans home (for herself and multiple characters) for many years, and it's incredibly insensitive to Nola to appear on this show.
I can't say that I will stop rereading the Chronicles, because I think that there's too much beauty and awesomeness in them to do that. But though I'm sure she could care less about one little fan, I am no longer one of hers. Lestat will always be one of my favorite characters of all time, but his creator has abandoned us to the dark side. She speaks now of her older work as the "darkness" she was "called out of", but I think that maybe she has it backwards. The darkness has called her out of the accepting and beautiful world she once inhabited. I am mourning for this betrayal and hope that she sees what terrible things this seemingly insignificant interview means to some of us...
