"I see--" said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window. For a long time he stood there against the dim light from Divisadero Street and the passing beams of traffic. The boy could see the furnishings of the room more clearly now, the round oak table, the chairs. A wash basin hung on one wall with a mirror. He set his briefcase on the table and waited.
 |
| Anne Rice wrote more than 30 books including the Vampire Chronicles, the Sleeping Beauty series and novels about angels and the life of Christ. |
BEFORE THE OFTEN-CHEESY VAMPIRES OF modern teenage literature, there were the beautifully dark and complicated vampires of Anne Rice’s novels. These vampires not only reflect a rich and complex inner life that is in constant flux, but also serve as a stand-in for the human condition. Long after we’ve forgotten about Twilight, it’s likely Prince Lestat and his world will continue to populate our imagination.
 |
| Helen Chandler and Bela Lugosi as Mina Harker and Count Dracula in Dracula by Ted Browning, 1931. |
2 January 1993 The vampire, continually being re-interpreted and renewed, can be incorporated into almost any sexual fantasy
Francis Ford Coppola has underlined the peculiar timeliness of the Dracula myth in the Aids era, but a newfound interest in vampirism was already well-established – especially among women. Why? “Well, quite a lot of women like horror, you know,” explains horror aficionado, Anne Billson, film critic and now author of Suckers, a vampire novel. “But,” she admits, “it is the romantic image of the vampire, as seen in the novels of Anne Rice, that is really responsible for lots of other women being attracted to the vampire.”
Anne Rice, a gothic novelist from New Orleans, or “Queen of the Fanged” as one horror magazine titled her, is easily the most important figure in the modern mythology of the vampire. Her first novel, Interview With The Vampire, a classic of the genre, re-invents the legend and puts the vampire’s side of the story. Louis, a 200-year-old vampire from New Orleans, is a highly moral character who cares deeply about his victims and is unhappy with his immortality.
This sympathetic approach won a huge audience. According to research done by US academic Norine Dresser in her American Vampires: Fans, Victims, Practitioners (1987), the vampire does indeed have a romantic appeal for young women. She quotes one fan, who describes how she always fell in love with the vampire type, “mature, worldly, articulate, gentlemanly, powerful, hypnotic and tragically unattainable for more than a short period of time.” This fascination is apparent among the membership of The Velvet Vampyre, a British vampire appreciation society. The genre is a hot bed of “haemosexuality” as one wit termed it. The vampire, continually being re-interpreted and renewed, can be incorporated into almost any sexual fantasy. And vampirism is a paradigm of wild sex that doesn’t actually involve “real” sex. There is no guilt, no genitals and no grim promises to call you later. As another female fan explained, “our commonest complaint about mortal man is lack of foreplay and a vampire’s lovemaking is all foreplay.”
The “vamp”, a dangerously alluring woman who drained men of their lifeblood, was a popular figure in early movies: a feminist image in the pre-feminist times and now again in the “post-feminist” age. This re-think makes perfect sense to Carole Bohanan of The Velvet Vampyre: “Men are fascinated by the thought of a woman who could also destroy them and to retain glamour and beauty while being deadly at the same time – that is something else. That is a really powerful image.”
 |
| David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger by Tony Scott, 1983. Photograph: Allstar/MGM |
A variation appeared, ironically, in the teen vampire movie, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Although primarily a light comedy/romance concerning Californian teenagers, the film does present a strong feminist message: Buffy, a blonde shopaholic cheerleader, undergoes a radical transformation to become a fearsome fighter, a slayer of vampires.
I longed for novels about female desire - women empowered by sex and their expressions of lust. So I sat down and wrote my own
T
he idea for my novel Insatiable emerged from a simple question: where were all the horny women? I knew that we were secretly legion. In fact, I suspected that I was surrounded by women, sitting on buses, standing in queues, staring out of the window and simultaneously entertaining all kinds of filthy daydreams. After all, millions of us had bought and read Fifty Shades of Grey. Even if half the sold copies were bought by people who wanted to mock it, that left millions of genuinely horny women unaccounted for – and buying the sequels.
 |
| Illustration: Monika Jurczyk Monsie |
I was not transported in the way I had hoped; I did not find Christian sexy, I did not relish the BDSM and, most of all, I struggled to connect with the beautiful, blank lead character, Anastasia. She seemed similar to every other sort-of-horny woman I had seen on screen, a sexual object before she was a sexual subject, a person who had to be perfect and prove herself desirable before she was allowed to pursue desires of her own.
 |
| 'I always wanted to be a writer.' Photograph: Glenn Koenig |
Born in New Orleans, Rice, 73, wrote The Vampire Chronicles. The series started with her 1976 book, Interview With The Vampire, which became a movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Prince Lestat, her first new Vampire Chronicles novel in more than a decade, is published on Tuesday. She is widowed with one son, and lives in California.
 |
| Anne Rice |
 |
| Dumbledore |
Wednesday 13 July 2005
It was rumored to have been a noble death, and that brought mild comfort into the hearts of the bereaved mourners that stood in huddled groups, watching through tear-veiled eyes as the gilded casket was ceremoniously interred in the mausoleum.
It was also a tragedy. That a man as beloved and respected as Albus Dumbledore, who had defeated the dark wizard, Grindenwald, could be destroyed so suddenly by but a mere handful of enemies was inconceivable. . .
How could something so horrific be allowed to happen? That was the question that people demanded of the heavens and of each other; as they nursed their guilt-ridden hearts. Any would have willingly given their own lives in place of his.
"If only I had been there." was the common phrase, amongst the self-flagellating hordes.
 |
| Dumbledore |
In the manner of wounded dogs, that bite the hand that attempts to salve the wound, they rounded, teeth bared, on the person whom they perceived as a failed hero. He who had been with Dumbledore, but had been unable to save him.
" Why didn't you save him?" They demanded, closing in on their prey.
When Albus Dumbledore had been disarmed, captured, and tortured by the villainous Deatheaters, where had his pet spy been? There to save him with brave flourishes and self-sacrifice? Not as they saw it.
How could he explain to them what those last minutes had been like? He had stood by, helpless, as Dumbledore was questioned, then when faced with the possibility of the truth serum, which would have endangered them all, Dumbledore had whispered his last request into Snape's mind.
" For the sake of Merlin, Severus, let me have your wand." even his mental voice had been pain-laced, and weary.
So careful, that it looked like an accident, he, Snape, had edged closer to the bound figure, so that Dumbledore's hand, which had somehow escaped it's bonds, could seize the implement from him.
Before any of the Deatheaters could respond, Dumbledore had turned the wand on himself, offering only a brief and inconspicuous nod of dignified gratitude to his saviour. His last words echoed still through Snape's mind;
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
" How did he die?" The people demanded of Snape, later at the trial.
And Snape answered;
" I killed him."
Jayme Goodman
