You see, while some people are very much excited for a new show about our pompous king of the assholes (and I say this as a term of endearment, having loved Lestat since I was a depressed teenager living in New York, shuffling through my mom’s fiction section) we need to pause and remember this:
Anne Rice does not support fan fiction or anything that is not glowing praise.
Read it again, slowly.
Anne Rice does not support fan fiction or anything that is not glowing praise.
This is difficult for younger fans to understand, but let’s take a walk down memory lane.
She has threatened to sue writers in the past. She is one of the most prolific writers of our generation, and she does not support people using her characters for their own work.
In fact, in 2000 she went on a binge-attack against her fans. She threatened legal action against fans who wrote or drew her characters, but especially those who wrote with them. She sent them weeks of harassing letters and doxxed them on the internet.
Let me repeat that.
She doxxed people who wrote fan fiction.
She harassed them online and threatened to contact employers.
She used her fans to outright attack other fans.
This isn’t even something she can just shake off now, with the comment of “It was so long ago” because she did this to a writer who wrote commentary on her story in 2013.
In 2013.
While it was not that she wrote fan fiction, she still shows that she has no respect for people who are in fandom.
Remember those disclaimers used in fan fics, at the beginning? “I do not own …. ”? Yeah, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Anne Rice and others like her would attack fandoms and threaten them, and was in hopes that they would just leave us alone. She didn’t.
In short: Do not trust Anne Rice. I love her writing, I have read every book she has even written, but I do not trust her.
You shouldn’t, either.
Anne Rice was and still is a bully. Don’t support her work.
She’s been like this since Geocities was the big place to have spec (that’s what fics used to be called, specs, as in speculative fiction) pages back in the mid 90s.
She use to threaten to sue anyone she found posting specs anywhere, and there was a whole underground network of people to share specs and fan art (which she also would threaten to sue over).
Anne Rice has always been kind of a twat about fan works based on her mediocre writing.
She’s harassed people quite recently. @jennytrout Wanna gossip?
What was that? “Raise your hand if you were ever personally victimized by Anne Rice?”
DISCLAIMER: this is not about fanfic, but it is about what she can do to you.
So, I totally idolized Anne Rice. Fully and adoringly so. One day, she shared one of my HuffPo articles with her “people of the page” and it was probably the greatest day of my entire career.
But she has this thing where she’s OBSESSED with bad reviews. At one point, she complained about a bad review she got for Interview from the New York Times or some such thing like forty years ago. She used it as an example of how reviews can hurt authors. I was like, seriously, lady, you have how many millions of copies of your books sold? How many movies have been made from them? *People try to find your house to take pictures of themselves in front of it.* But okay, everybody has their quirks. I just kind of rolled my eyes over it.
Not long after that, she made a post about this website that was made by a writer who apparently wasn’t getting the sales numbers or accolades they so richly deserved. The problem wasn’t like, the nature of the business or anything, nay, my friends, nay, but the fact that people–BULLIES!–left mean reviews on Amazon. So these people whom Rice so admired would make posts where they would reveal Amazon/GoodReads reviewers names and home addresses and such. One post even mentioned something like, “Between this time and that time every weekday, they go for a walk by the sea wall.” Scary, scary shit. And Rice LOVED these people.
I don’t know why I took it upon myself to argue with her. I really don’t. Maybe because I respected her so much and her support of the site was so disappointing? This was the result.
So, I’m a bully. Big whoop, right? And my feelings were a little hurt, but hey, never meet (or follow on social media) your idols, right? Lesson learned, and it wasn’t like this could destroy my fond memories of how much I loved her books, right?
So, fast forward, I think it was the next year, or at least a few months later, when I wrote a post about a dumb $0.99 Kindle book about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings in a BDSM relationship. A pathetic little troll with too much hair gel and not enough parenting ran to his goddess Anne Rice to tell her how mean, mean, mean I was being. She posted a link to a blog post made about me on the reviews-are-bullies site and said something to the effect of someone needing to teach me a lesson or someone needed to show me how it feels or something like that. To THREE. MILLION. PEOPLE.
As a fan of Anne Rice, I am confident in stating that many of her fans are not okay people. And they heeded the command of their “queen.” Yes, they referred to her as such, flooding me with emails, tweets, FB messages, anywhere they could reach me. They posted my address, screenshots of google earth images of my house, they threatened to kill me, they made graphic threats against my children, one charming gentleman on parole from his assault sentence offered to make a necklace of my teeth to present to “my queen.”
When confronted about the fact that she had unleashed all of this on me, her response was basically: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
She insisted she hadn’t done anything wrong, she couldn’t control what people were doing, and oh yes, it’s terrible that people are saying this, but she NEVER. ASKED. THEM. TO. STOP. In fact, she joined her “people of the page” in mocking my appearance, mourning the horrible lives my children must have, and continuing to insist that my “prison tats” indicated that I was a member of a gang (I have “TIME LADY” tattooed across my knuckles in the 11th Doctor era Doctor Who font). Egging them on with this coy, “Well, we shouldn’t say things like that, we’re better than that, BUT” bullshit.
This all went on for weeks. Some of these people still occasionally pop up to threaten/antagonize. So, yeah. Steer clear. She holds a grudge, she can and will mobilize her fanbase against you, if she dislikes you she will ruin you, and she doesn’t care if her readers literally kill you.
WOW THAT IS SOME GROSS FUCKERY RIGHT THERE
Also never ever ever EVER forget that Anne Rice defended Paula Deen’s racist bullshit by repeatedly claiming Deen was being “lynched” for saying something in a private conversation and LITERALLY CLAIMING IT’S NOT RACIST TO CALL YOUR STAFF THE N WORD IF YOU’RE SAYING IT TO A WHITE PERSON.
I suddenly never want to read another Anne Rice book again… And I just bought a few from Half Price Books too. well damn it. @autistic-nerdmonster did you know about this?!
Having met, spoken with on a continuous basis with Anne… I can tell you about 99% of the above is bullshit. And it pisses me off when people spread that shit around.
But like… It fucking actually happened? So? I doubt she’s your buddy, you’ve probably met her a few times and she’s been great to you, which… Cool? Except she DID the stuff above and more? So maybe don’t be an asshole.
She’s not my buddy, but I have conversed with her numerous times since I was 19 (I’m 34 now), I’ve met her, we’ve spoken and I’ve been invited to the Vampire Ball by her (I have yet to accept, cause life), I respect the hell out of her, I adore her writing and I understand her Points of view when it comes to certain things. This doesn’t make me her friend, it makes me have mad respect for her.
So if respecting someone, and having respect for someone who is an excellent writer (I could care less what she things or feels) or has done to anyone. That shit doesn’t involve me, or influence my opinion in anyway.
If that makes me an asshole, then I guess I am. Oh well.
Like, this whole thing isn’t about if she’s a good writer. It’s about if or not she has enabled harassment, which she just… Has. Your ability to use Tumblr’s gif insert doesn’t change that.
People are being harassed and it’s an easily verifiable fact, there are even more examples of it than what people said above.
Stop calling people liars when they talk about their actual HARASSMENT. THAT is what makes you an asshole, sit down and read one of her shitty books and write a poem about her because this post is about things she had objectively done you fucking weirdo.
Please understand , when a writer creates a character they don’t just simply put them down on paper. They live them, and breathe them. They come from deep inside their souls and have been inside there for a very long time. It takes courage to share those Creations, to put them down on paper for the whole world to see. Nothing is more painful than having somebody just simply take away your creation, children, in a sense and recreate them. If you are so desperate to create a fictional character then do that. Don’t be afraid. Step Up, create your character, don’t take somebody else’s. Fanfiction is a nice thing but when you start sharing it and not even asking permission of the writer to use their children, then you’re wrong. Simply put that is how it feels they are our children we create them through our thoughts and in our hearts and in our words. Anne Rice like many other writers has asked repeatedly that people do not use her characters and change them for their fanfiction needs. If you can’t honor that request then why on Earth would you be a fan of the fiction in the first place? they’re her Creations not yours. Enjoy her creations and adventures.Create your own. It isn’t easy, but you can do it. You just have to be brave and strong. Demand respect for yourself and your work.
Please stop calling fictional characters your children… This post is creepy. ACTUAL children got threatened. You know, real ones.
Anne Rice doesn’t actually have to read anything about her, or read anything people write using her characters, she is COMPLETELY capable of fucking up her own characters without fanfic writers.
I’m not a reader of fanfic, but it’s not uncreative by nature and it’s not cowardly to do? It’s not about being “brave and strong”, and creating your own character.
If you can’t handle the idea of losing control of your characters and other people interpreting them differently then don’t publish. Because there isn’t a media option out there that doesn’t then cede control to the viewer. You put it out there and they get to decide what it means.
Anne Rice has sold her “children” so that other people can make movies and tv shows out of them and can’t handle fanfic writers? And harasses people?
Come the fuck on, bad post.
Your response to my explaination of how many authors feel is interesting to say the least. You, yourself refer to these very characters as “her” characters. They come from her mind. They were not spat out. They took time to incubate and grow, developing into the living characters on the page. “Children of her imagination” created to weave a tale that will envelop the readers and lead them into a new world of adventure. I’m sorry that you have not had the joy and pleasure of reading your own creations in the binding of the first book, bound in leather and completely your own. Speaking as a published author and friend of fiction and friend of Ms. Rice, I do hope that you will one day understand. In regards to ‘selling’ her children, as you said to be seen in film and read on the page but not to be taken by a stranger. If someone were to take the Mona Lisa and then paint a mustache in it would that be OK?
I think this is a very silly point to make - and believe me I have no interest in defending the likes of geekandmisandry, as I find her and the majority of her opinions repulsive, I do however find your points here… misguided. If I took the Mona Lisa and painted a mustache on it that would, absolutely, not be okay. It would be abhorrent. However, equating fan-fiction and fan-art of another’s published work to defacing or destroying the artist’s work is, at very best, dishonest.
Fan-art/fiction is more like someone drawing their own rendition of the Mona Lisa and then drawing a mustache onto their own rendered work based on the famous painting. It doesn’t soil the painting, nor does it bear the artist’s signature or presence. This kind of fan creation doesn’t take away from the original art in the slightest, it doesn’t degrade the original work it mimics. It’s not the same thing and that should be acknowledged and taken into account here.
Fan works have a place in the world of fandom. They’re a form of expression and a way for budding artists to express their talent through the thing they enjoy most. They’re an invaluable addition to the creation and growth of new voices in the world of entertainment. Many, many, many successful artists, authors, writers, etc. started as fans and fan-artists, mimicking their favorite works of fiction and using the beautiful story and characters as canvases to find themselves on; to learn who they are and what kind of art, stories, characters they themselves wanted to put out into the world to inspire other young creators and artists.
Some fan works of Mona Lisa, or rather, Meme Lisa:
People actually defend Anne Rice?
Holy shit, she’s not an insecure teenage girl, posting her work online for the first time.
She’s an incredibly successful author, and is 75 years old.
If you can’t take a bad review, or stand people writing fanfics of your work, when you’re THAT old, then that’s just pathetic.
Honestly, it would be one thing if she just asked people to not use her IP in fanworks. That’s understandable and a right.
However, at the point that she can’t handle a bad review, actively encourages bullying, partaking in bullying someone along with her fans? Mocking and calling people she doesn’t like names?
The woman is immature. How an author acts can be separated from their works, no one was saying not to read or support her, they’re just saying not to trust her because of her past behavior.
I have two things to note:
1. Isn’t all of Anne Rice’s stuff essentially fanfics of previous authors’ stories and legends? Or does it suddenly not count because “they all dead now”?
2. The way she talks, jesus christ it’s scary because I’ve had to deal with people that talk the exact same way; lots and lots of words to say simple things and constantly repeating some silly pejorative to really nail in “these people are subhuman and bad”, lots of segways about unrelated events, and zero actual arguments and even less room for compromise; just a long series of attacks. Makes me think if there’s some common condition or whatever.
american cryptid:
seventeen terrifying demons accosted me in my woodland shed and i kilt 'em all with my scattergun
european cryptid:
legends say a terrifying beast lives in the loch... an ancient and spiritual faerie, don't go out in the woods at night or lest ye be scurried away by the mushrooms
japanese cryptid:
one time i saw a really fat snake
‘ndIIIIII WOULD WALK FIVE [wheeze] DRED [wheeze] S’AND IIIIII WOULD WALK FIVE. RED [wheeze] JUST TA [wheeze] THE [increasingly out-of-breath wheezing] wHO [wheeze] ARE[wheeze] ZEND [wheeze] TU[wheeze] DOWN[wheeze] CHU doo-oo-orrrrrr
LOL at all the people comparing this to ‘80s / ‘90s anime openings. My dad, who grew up Orthodox Jewish, flipped his shit when he heard the battle theme for Final Fantasy VI because it resembled Hasidic music. What is even going on, Japan?
Well this is kind of a revelation. This missing half of the equation.
Prog Rock + Hasidic tunes = 90s JRPG battle music.
OK but this post led me down a rabbit hole and I learned Hasidic music is really popular in Japan so I doubt any similarities to game / anime music is a coincidence. Holy shit u guys.
