I cannot think of a better way to close Library Month than as the sanguinous fleshy stuffing in an Anne Rice and Clive Barker sandwich. Please tuck in
This February The Grande Dame of Grand Guignol and The Master of The Macabre (via official administrator, Alex) were kind enough to recommend and share features from www.lilywight.com with their huge online communities.
Just click the links below for these unmissable posts ~
“The Wolf Gift” scored this generous review by Lily Wight and I’m grateful. Also note the cool use of Ran Valerhon’s art in this review. Love it.
Lily Wight ~ The Arcade Of Arts & Arcana is one year old today!!!
That’s 315 posts, over 37,000 visitors, 4,240 followers across 8 social networks, recommendations and shares from Anne Rice and Clive Barker and a personal record of 1,835 visits in one glorious day.
I never envisaged such an encouraging response when I launched my first hesitant blog post.
It is nearly forty years since Anne Rice refined and defined our contemporary Romantic Vampire archetype with her seminal and controversial novel Interview With The Vampire.
Rice may have returned to The Universal Studio Monster Vault (vampires, mummies and now wolfmen) but her latest foray into the supernatural is distinctly light on familiar Gothic tropes and offers something entirely current via the imagination of an author steeped in history and mythology.
The Wolf Gift is a superhero origin story with the werewolf or “Morphenkind”, Reuben Golding, glorified and elevated into a shape-shifting biological missing-link: a creature designed to track and destroy the very essence of evil.
The bright, breezy world of modern San Francisco offers architectural and natural majesty a world away from the grim, historical Grand Guignol of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. There is surprisingly little Fantasy here as Rice comes closer than ever to explaining her story’s wonders with real science. Religion and Catholicism, once Rice’s most prevalent concerns, are here reduced to the passive, infrequent presence of an agnostic family priest.
Rice loves to pepper her work with pop-culture references resulting in an astute self-referentialism which makes The Wolf Gift the most playful of all her novels. Reuben himself is aware of the looks and career which define him as a “Superman”.
Those who have found Rice’s previous novels unwieldy will discover a brisker pace and a manageable cast of characters, each of whom – in typical Rice style – is more admirable, brilliant and beautiful than the next. Rice is an unashamed aesthete who favours all that is sublime in nature, art, craft and engineering. Her prose is lush, richly detailed and decorous although her critics may find this cloying.
Rice loves to flaunt her extensive research and a suggested species mythology promises a new series that will unfold, much like The Vampire Chronicles to take in history, travel and esoteric enlightenment.
The Wolf Gift is the book that fans of vintage Anne Rice have been waiting for.
Count Dracula (alongside fellow Victorian gentleman, Sherlock Holmes) holds the dubious honour of being the Movie World’s hardest working (and most abused) literary character.
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 adaptation is a gloriously bombastic mountain of soft-focus eroto-nonsense but a highly recommended guilty pleasure.
Coppola claimed that his version would be the closest ever interpretation of Stoker’s classic novel but his attempts to include every character whilst frequently switching narrative perspective makes for a cluttered and unfocused movie. Dracula is depicted in his numerous evolving guises but the inclusion of a psuedo-historical prologue forces a new reincarnation theme on the tale.
Dracula was released just prior to Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Interview With The Vampire and has too much in common with Anne Rice’s genre-changing interpretation of vampire archetypes as immortal dreamboats. Coppola’s film oozes lush Freudian imagery; sinking suns, blood cells, eyes, nipples and fragrant blooms are everywhere.
Oldman himself admitted to essaying Dracula as “a Fallen Angel” and the beloved actor deserves much credit for creating a tour-de-force (and cohesive) performance with a role that required him to play a medieval relic, a romantic Victorian Prince, a wolfman, a bat and just about every stage in between.
His Eastern European accent is sublime or ridiculous but unforgettable either way. Many have forgotten that he was nominated for an Oscar for this role. As a Fantasy character he was never likely to win (even The Lord Of The Rings failed to gain plaudits for its cast) but his creation is every bit as unique as Depp’s Jack Sparrow.
Rumour has it that Winona Ryder petitioned hard to have her then boyfriend Johnny Depp cast as Jonathan Harker. Depp fans would no doubt love to have seen this but it is hard to imagine how he could have improved or altered the end result. Some films are actually enhanced by unintentional comedy moments. Keanu Reeves is one long comedy moment. It is enough that Reeves is simply awful and memorable (with a grey streak that turns into a continuity nightmare and helpfully distracts from his lack of performance).
Perhaps it is time to watch Coppola’s Dracula again. The set and costume designs are lavish, Lucy’s beheading has genuine chills, Antony Hopkins goes all out to match Oldman’s Method mania and the orchestral score is magnificent.
I have always harbored an interest in canonical vampire stories, and yet I'd never read any of the Rice Vampire Chronicles. Interview with the Vampire is the first of the Chronicles, and it's the first of the three that I plan to read (having heard that they decline in quality after Queen of the Damned.) But that's a discussion for another day.
I admire your hardcore reading ethos so I would love to present you with THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD. For information on what to do next click the link in my homepage sidebar. Congratulations!
Breaking Dawn Part One is released on DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow! The “squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees” are deafening!
Carrying on with this week’s Twilight theme here is a reconsidered review for Book Two, New Moon.
The Twilight Saga becomes increasingly derivative with its second volume reading more like a cynical publishing exercise than ever.
Things begin promisingly enough with Meyer delivering another retelling of the classic and reliable “Beauty and The Beast meets Romeo and Juliet” yarn.
Replacing static lust-object Edward with the earthier and charismatic Jacob makes for a more mature and complex romance, whilst the Native American Shapeshifter lore feels original and fresh.
There is also some vastly improved prose. The stormy build-up to Bella’s cliff jump crosses the line between pulp to literature with description which feels poetic instead of merely perfunctory.
Unfortunately, the Italian episode feels transferred wholesale from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to a degree that borders on shocking. The Volturi are audaciously similar to Armand’s Grand Guignol performers or Santino’s Rome-based coven and Edward’s decision to provoke the elders by revealing his true nature at a public event is pure Lestat. Anne Rice fans will also recall Armand’s attempt to immolate himself.
Despite the Euro-based mis-step Meyer shows increased promise when handling the nuances of small-town teen-romance and she should be commended for a sensitive and realistic depiction of depression.
Breaking Dawn Part One is released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday and as this much loved yet contentious saga draws to a close perhaps it is time for a reassessment.
As a long-term fan of Anne Rice’s lush and esoteric Vampire Chronicles I felt vaguely violated by the dilution of Vampire Mythology for the youth market, but Bella Swan has clung to me like a Spider Monkey
So, here is my slightly revised review of Stephenie Meyer’s debut novel…
Twilight’s magnificent PR campaign will forever be superior to it’s subject: a melodramatic teen diary destined to alienate literary-minded adults. It also commits the unfortunate crime of being a mere introduction to (hopefully) better things to come.
Heroine Bella, detailing chores one minute and sniping about her perfectly nice and ordinary classmates the next, may be an empty vessel for imaginative readers but teens do not need to be naive and two-dimensional. Buffy and her Scooby Gang are smart, silly,complex, endearing and inspirational whilst coping with universal issues as allegory.
Twilight is poorly paced with minimal plot. With hindsight, the entire saga could have been easily condensed into one superior event-driven novel.
Edward has obvious “boyband” appeal but the supposedly enigmatic Cullen clan loiter insipidly in the background.
Twilight is absolute bobbins, but I am hooked regardless!
“The Wolf Gift” scored this generous review by Lily Wight and I’m grateful. Also note the cool use of Ran Valerhon’s art in this review. Love it.
Here’s a new blog post on Nightbreed by Lily Wight.
