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The popular Twilight series, or the thing that started it all, The Vampire Lestat
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Why I Think Anne Rice Is Better Than Stephenie Meyer.
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First of all, please don't kill me for what I am about to say *cowers in the corner* .
This is a list of reason why I believe Anne Rice is far more superior to Stephenie Meyer in the art of vampiric novels. I apologise ahead of this article for the occasional sarcastic tone, and my bias opinion (I am in love with the ricean world). 1) Imagery, Anne Rice knows what it is. Haha, only joking, Anne is amazing at what she does, and what she does is create a sense of atmosphere, each scene detailed and unique, and never fails to create life-like descriptions of characters. I find it amazing that she's written countless of long detailed novels, and yet hasn't repeated any descriptions, or run out of vocabulary. Anne has some of the most beautiful descriptions of characters; 'For reddish locks such as these,' he said caressing my hair, 'for eyes of the deepest and most sympathetic brown. For skin like fresh cream of the milk in the morning; for lips indistinguishable from the petals of a rose.' -The Vampire Armand SM has a tendency to repeat descriptions "his crooked smile" and other such mediocre adjectives. A friend of mine summed it up as " She repeats descriptions as if she's proud that she made a smart metaphor, or that she's hoping her fans are too distracted by Edwards 'liquid topaz eyes', 'icy lips' and the 'smile that didn't touch his eyes' to notice ". 2) Plot. You are never able to predict Anne's plots, her stories are exciting and daring. Her character's decisions are realistic and probable. Her twists are amazing, scary and shocking. When Anne's twists are slightly predictable, she always makes up for it with her characters' delicious reactions. Anne Rice has always thought her plots through thoroughly. Every detail has a believable explanation. If you've ever read The Vampire Lestat and/or Queen of the Damned, then you know that Anne has thoroughly explained why vampires thirst for blood, how they began, why sunlight is deadly. She even explains later on in Memnoch The Devil where Amel came from. SM, I'm sorry to say but her story lines are predictable, and if not slightly cliche. There are obviously some good parts to her plots, such as needing to gnaw Renesme from Bella stomach, I found that nicely gruesome. Also, I don't think she thought her plots through thoroughly. First of all, why do her vampires sparkle in sunlight? She gives no explanation for this. While some speculate that their skin is like diamonds, diamonds are able to reflect light even in almost darkness. A fanpopper came up with a plausible explanation that it could be connected to UV radiation, which is only strong enough in sunlight, has the ability to change the colour of certain chemicals. How is it that Meyer was unable to make up a simple explanation like this? Something else I find poorly explained is how Bella got pregnant. Meyer's vampires don't have a blood flow, so how is Edward (and the other vampires) able to have sex? Edward is also dead, and there for so are his little swimmers. Someone also informed me that they have no bodily fluids, does this include sperm? I would also like to question the baby. Quite obviously a baby must develop in the womb, but as shes half vampire, she shouldn't change, or at least develop slowly, yet she develops doubly fast! 3) Characters. Anne's characters are realistic, deep and interesting. The Vampire Lestat shows clearly what character development is. Armand is an original vampiric teenager who shows clearly the internal confusion of being eternally 17, looking young and angelic, but having a mind that's constantly calculating and speculating about goodness, the devil and his surrounding environment. And Claudia, sweet, sweet Claudia, a demonic child vampire beloved by her fathers Lestat and Louis, a character that has you crying over her tragic life, the mind of a woman in a child's feeble body. Someone once said to me " I like Edward because he's not the typical vampire who loves being evil." One name for you, Louis de Point du Lac. He is the original unhappy vampire, who wallows in self-pity, he did so as a human and he's done so for a hundred years as a vampire. He, just as the Cullens, was "vegetarian" for a while, not being able to bring himself to kill a human being. But sadly the thirst got to him, that and Lestat's continuous nagging for him to embrace what he is, a vampire, and in a whirl-wind of desperation, angst and despair ended up feasting upon the young Claudia. Which, personally I believe to be a more credible course of action for a predator who'd denied himself human blood for a long time. And on the whole evil vampire subject, a fair few of Ricean vampires prefer to drink the blood of an evil-doer. Its more juicy and delicious to them. They don't go around gauging on little children, well unless they've denied themselves any satisfying blood, and are deliriously hungry. And let's face it, characters with a marbled personality of good and evil, gives for better entertainment and a deeper character. Bella Swan. A Mary-Sue protagonist made in the image of her creator, Stephenie Meyer, with a dead-pan personality. Need I say more? 4) Emotional depth and relationships. Well, first of all Anne Rice's characters have emotions, portrayed in a way which forces the reader to empathize, in a depth that most people don't have, proving her character truly have lived for centuries and even millenniums. And when it comes to relationships, it doesn't come much better that hers, the daddy issues of the Lestar/Marius relationship. The love-hate tension between Louis and Lestat. The deep understanding and love Lestat shares with David. The love between Bella and Edward is... strange. Edward has strange behavioural patterns, even for a vampire. He has this stalker-ish thing going in, which is somehow meant to be a romantic thing. I personally don't know about this, but I have heard from many fanpop members that Edward's behaviour is controlling (protective some might say) and abusive. And that Bella simply takes it, which most agree isn't a good role model. My favourite example of this is; We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket, yanking me back. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked, outraged. He was gripping a fistful of my jacket in one hand. I was confused. "I'm going home." "Didn't you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?" His voice was still indignant. "What condition? And what about my truck?" I complained. "I'll have Alice drop it off after school." He was towing me toward his car now, pulling me by my jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward. He'd probably just drag me along anyway if I did. "Let go!" I insisted. He ignored me. I staggered along sideways across the wet sidewalk until we reached the Volvo. Then he finally freed me - I stumbled against the passenger door. "You are so pushy!" I grumbled. - Twilight Pushy isn't the word, honey. 5) Lastly, Anne Doesn't say idiotic comments like the following; Romeo and Juliet were kind of idiots, they didn't know each other very well. That's right Stephenie Meyer criticized Shakespeare on his plot. I would like to remind her that in Twilight, Bella declares that she's in love with Edward while barely knowing the guy, and then goes out with the guy the next day. And pervious to this remark, she criticized the characters of Pride and Prejudice because they weren't likely to commit suicide should the other die. Hypocrisy thy name is Stephenie Meyer. Those are my reasons for preferring Anne Rice to Stephenie Meyer, and I think its quite obvious that Anne Rice is several leagues above Meyer. Well, to me it is at least. Please note that I am NOT having a go at the fans, I am not saying the story in general isn't good, and I am not saying Meyer is inferior because her vampires sparkle ( although they do give me a lot of entertainment, and we should thank SM for providing the world with a whole bunch of new jokes and gags). If you have any opposing arguments (and I'm sure there's loads), or would like to add anything to this, then please comment :D |
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Lol, sure as hell she deserves kudos for that. Really the only good thing about the sparkling vampires, who are not vampires because vampires do not sparkle, is that there's probably endless ways to make fun of it. Especially through The Vampire Chronciles.
And seriously, fans, how does it matter why Edward is doing what he's doing? It's still abuse and he doesn't even try to give Bella a chance to make her own decisions or in the least reason with her, kindly make her do what he wishes her to do but as far as I know, he tends to get physically forcful very easily. It just ain't right, and it truly is sad, Bella is extremely underminding the matter. >___<
And Claudia is the most brilliantly tragic fictional character I can think of right now.
This article is so totally 5 stars. Dynamic yet through with every point you make. I envy you and others who can do this. I always tend to get into ranting and anyways feel I just simply get too wordy. :P
Even the way you phrase the points on Anne's behalf and SM's ooze your point in question, I think. I can't really explain how, now, but they do. :D
I'd like to thank my english teacher who taught me how to Compare and Contrast, and how to analyse literature.
And I'd also like to thank all those fanpoppers I got some of my points from.
I asume she reaserched for her novels, because otherwise her mind must be a mass of infinate knowladge.
Stephenie Meyers on the other hand, said herself, that she did NO research for her books, exept that of which Bella does on google. Tut tut SM.
I realise my article is unfair as I donnot really have any criticism of Anne Rice in it. So, I got to thinking, and something (not that I neccassairily dislike) but something unexplained and fairly far-fetched about Anne's vampires is that as a vampire they have extrodinary talent. For example, Lestat, as a human didn't know how to play the violin, but as a vampire he's suddenly able to play better than any human masician around. The same principle goes to painting. I personnally love this about them, I think it proves they are demonic in some way, but if I am to ctiacise SM for unexplained and far-fetched details, then I must do the same for Anne Rice.
"vampires do not sparkle" I don't mind that Meyer's vampires sparkle, as I stat in my article - I think its quite funny. The thing I have a problem with is Meyer ignoring obvious impossibilities to make her vampires more human.
1. They don't feen off humans, they feed off animals - most humans eat animals.
2. They go to school, or go to work - extremely inneccassairy and if I might say stupid and pointless.
3. Bella MARRIES Edward. The amount of paperwork needed to be fauged for this is rediculous and impracticle. It just doesn't happen in the vampire world.
4. vampire sex.
5. Bella's demon baby.
Something else that bothers me is how her vampire family is constantly described as increadably gorgeous.
-I would like to say at this point although Anne's vampires are gorgeous too, there are reasons for this. Lestat was chosen for his blonde hair and blue eyes. Armand for his angelic, youthful looks and David because ... well read Tale of the Body Theif.
Its OK to have extremely beautiful main characters, but just try to at least do it convincingly. And give them beauty that isn't main streme or plain.
- I would like to bring Armand up again here. He is supendeously beautiful. Because he was turned as a child he has that unisex quality of children. He has slender hands, something his maker loves. And as you know from the article, he has auburn hair, brown eyes and delicate lips.
He is angelic, and because of this his Master fell in love with him and impatiently turned him.
Exept for the brown eyes, what's plain and usual about his beauty?
I makes for FAR better reading, so kutos to Anne Rice! ;)
a point about Edward's bloodflow and swimmers - his skin sparkles with no explanation, therefore i assume its magic (how original Miss Meyer =/). I can assume then, that Edward has a magic penis, purely for the purpose of creating demonic spawn.... nice :L
good job :D
"dry humping their Edward posters" - I'm snorting I'm laughing so hard.
" i assume its magic (how original Miss Meyer =/). I can assume then, that Edward has a magic penis, purely for the purpose of creating demonic spawn.... nice :L" - wetting myself laughing!!1!
I love your comments Cath. <3
*(you can sooo tell SM wants to bang Edward =p)
And I read somewhere else, that SM did no research what so ever for her books, except that of whch Bella does by typing vampire into google. And you know what, it shows '_'
Something I thought Cath would like is that SM said once in an interview that she was embaressed ar first to show Twilight to her husband, she said because it was about vampires (honey, thats not the reason you should be embarressed about it).
Here we just have proof that her mind is an infinite mine of glittery stupidness. Real (well not, REALLY real, but you know what i mean) Vampires are such cool, bad-ass works of fictional genius you should never be remotely embarassed about writing about them.
Take the hint Steph, if you've somehow managed to make Vampires embarrassing - you need to stop writing.... NOW :L x
SM seems to think that Carlisle turning dieing people into vampire is a lovely idea, making them grateful and loving and solving Carlisle's loneliness. but wouldn't this cause them to regret their life, hate themselves, they were dieing yes, but is eternity as a monster a fair cost for life? And they just take it love Carlisle for "saving their lives", with no rebelling, and having no problem refusing their desires for human blood, without a touch of remorse.
Anne Rice has realised the obvious internal battles that will occur from becoming a vampire and has put it all in, and its so amazingly interesting! Each person is different, Lestat I think handles it better than Louis(even though Louis chose to be a vampire).
The more I read different person's articles and links on Twilight, the more I realise just how little thought SM put into her books.
the vampire chronicles are so much better then twilight you can't really compare them
this is coming from someone who was at one time a twi hard
yes i know i'm embarassed but The vampire Chronicles i picked up last year and read it and feel in love with the characters they have so much more depth then twilight characters do, and it made me want to read a lot more and the more i read the more i started to dislike twilight because i swear almost ever single book i read is better then twilight
P.S. the first step to me hating twilight was breaking dawn god it was god awful
thanks for the article
I loved your analysis of Bella's personality - or lack thereof. Dead-pan personality definitely covers it for me. I liken her to an empty barrel. You can fill her with anything and she'll let you.
I can honestly say there are only a few things I like about Twilight, and Bella is NOT one of them, nor is Edward. I do like Alice and Jasper, but only to a certain point, and most of the other characters are so perfect in their flaws that you're almost desensitized to all the other good characters in the fiction world.
I think people forget that there are good literary characters out there that have come from modern fiction.
And the ending to Breaking Dawn was so deliriously ridiculous that I found myself ripping my eyes out for having read such an obvious piece of drizzle without a single qualm. There was no life to it, and it was the worst ending to a book I've ever read.
Still, I do relish in the characters of the series that did stand out to me. Esme was a good one, as was Alice. And Billy Black was also good.
Five stars all the way. Awesome article.
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