Memnoch the Spec

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Fanfiction
Title: Memnoch the Spec
Author(s): Mick C. and Susie K.
Date(s): 1995 -
Length: unfinished
Genre(s):
Fandom(s): Interview with a Vampire
Relationship(s):
External Links: Formerly at the Black Rose, the archive for alt.books.anne-rice
Currently Memnoch the Devil: A Speculative Story is hosted at the Forbidden Archive

Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Memnoch the Spec (full title "Memnoch: the Devil (A Speculation Story)") by Mick C. and Susie K. was the very first fanfic posted on the alt.books.anne-rice archive. Within The Vampire Chronicles fandom, it is sometimes just called "Memnoch", "the Memnoch Spec" or "MtS." It is notable for popularizing the term spec (speculative fiction) to refer to fanfiction in VC fandom.

Memnoch the Spec starts off where many post-Tale of the Body Thief specs start; with Lestat having joined Louis and David in Rio de Janeiro. Louis is attacked by another vampire, and taken to the temple of Memnoch the Devil. Meanwhile Lestat and his vampire allies, including Marius and Armand, search for Louis. In this story Memnoch is actually a vampire who has taken the name of the Devil and leads a cult. This is very different to the biblical direction Rice's novel eventually took.

This spec also illustrates the fannish norms of early Vampire Chronicles spec writers. In an early post of this story, possibly at the Black Rose archive, the full names and email addresses of both authors were included, and the authors note contained a very informal disclaimer. It simply stated that, "this is a work of speculative fiction and is not in any way related to the Anne Rice novel "Memnoch the Devil" due to be released later this year. It is purely hypothetical and not intended for publication or release outside of the alt.books.anne-rice newsgroup."

Three parts of this story were written, but to the distress of many fans, the story is unfinished. However Memnoch the Spec inspired an active fandom, with many other authors creating associated works set in the MtS universe:

Memnoch the Spec was the first of its kind ever written or posted on ABAR, back in 1995 when rumor and speculation was running rampant on what Anne's new book would be about. While the original spec was never completed, ending abruptly with volume three and left unfinished, this did not stop a sequal [sic] from being written - Sins of the Past - nor a whole mass of smaller specs - Tweeners and Afters - all spun from the idea of the original.[1]

Lost Parts?

The spec that inspired Memnoch the Spec, which some view as the first part of the story, may itself be lost:

I know there is a spec out there and I think it was part of the Memnoch spec. I know Lisa or Heather could help me with this probably. There is this one scene that I keep remembering where Lestat is out in the streets in Rio and Louis is off hunting but Lestat comes up on him just after he's killed some one in an alley. I think it was the very beginning of Memnoch the spec but you all didn't want it in the spec for some reason and left it out. :( I'm so obsessed with this. Some one has to send it to me, 'cause for the life of me I can't find it in the archive.[2]

Sounds like you're referring to Ye Olde Longe Loste beginning to Memnoch the spec. Specifically the couple of chapters that Susie posted which got the whole spec schebang started. When MtS later went on to be written by Mick and Susie, this beginning didn't get tacked on to it, which is probably why it's not in the archive.
I forget the specific reasons why they didn't include it, although my memory is telling me that it was something along the lines of both wanting to take time later to go back and improve it, as well as taking the establishment of Louis, Lestat and David in Rio as a given from it, so that they could move on to the other plot points of the story.[2]

Many of the related works, written by authors other than Susie and Mick, contributed to the sense that some parts of the story were missing. The Afterspecs and Tweeners referenced events which did not happen in Memnoch vol. 1-3. The authors of these related works were members of the same fannish community as Mick and Susie. They were aware of how this unfinished story was supposed to end, and referenced that unpublished ending in their own specs.[3]

Fan Comments

The term "spec" is from speculation. It's fanfiction, pure and simple. Here's a little history lesson for you. =) Way back when, before Memnoch was published, there was a great deal of chatter on this NG about what it would be about. Two gals, Suzie and Mick, decided to write a story, a speculation among friends. It was called Memnoch the Spec, and you can STILL read this little beauty in the ABAR spec archive. That's the story that started it all. And now you know where specs come from.
Actually, specs go back aaawwwaaayyy before Memnoch. I don't know how old they are, but they've been around for a long time.[4]

What's Memnoch the Spec? MtS was the very first spec ever written on abar. It was an attempt by Mick and Susie to answer what was at the time the biggest topic of speculation on abar: What was going to happen in Memnoch the Devil?" **What happened to MtS? MtS ran into a nasty snafu when one of the authors (Susie) basically disappeared. This has left Mick in a difficult position as far as finishing the story, but she's trying as best as she can to get back to it and finish it for the loyal MtS fans." [5]

For some fans, the spec was preferable than the direction Rice's actual books were going, an attitude that was somewhat prevalent, and probably bothered Rice. A fan in 1997 wrote:

I doubt she decides to explain Memnoch in some acceptable way, so it would probably be best if her new book were about the time before MTD as so many specs. I am a little afraid of what her next addition to the vampire universe will be like, because she seems to have become awfully religious and might continue in the disgusting course from MtD. In that case I would think it best for every fan not to buy the book at all and keep reading specs whose authors know better. Of course, I still try to hope Anne recovered from whatever happened after TOBT and will write beautiful stories again. [6]

A fan in 1997 wrote:

I have a simple question about this obviously well-known spec - how many parts does it really have? I read the 3 that are in Black Rose archive, but the story doesn't seem finished in them and all the "Afterspecs" mention various events not contained in Memnoch 1-3. The story is a great therapy after the Memnoch by Anne, so I would like to find the remaining pieces and learn how it ended. Besides, I'm curious what happened to the other parts, why are they not on the archive? [3]

From an interview with Melinda, as part of Women and Vampire Fiction: Texts, Fandom and the Construction of Identity:

And there's one major work called Memnoch the spec, and the spec is short for speculative, and that's unfinished, but afterwards, there was a whole slew of short stories, which took where the novel left off, and kept going and then concluded all the little loose ends they left inside the novel. And so I asked to write the very final story of it all, of all of the short stories, and it was one of the very first things I ever posted to the internet, as a work of written fiction. And I still think it's one of the best things I ever did, and I wrote it in tandem with (her friend), you know, became my cyber sister, because we were completing each other's sentences at this point. It's an amazing piece of work. The body of work is, I would say, three to four novels long, of which I only wrote the last chapter. But that inspired me to write my own novels.

From a new reader in 2022:

i just read memnoch the spec and have spent the last ten minutes screaming into my pillow because the fanfic got discontinued before lestat could save louis[7]

Related Works

  • Tweener 1- Preface by Brat Queen
  • Tweener 2- The Beginning by Susie K. and Brat Queen
  • Tweener 3- No Words At All by Susie K.
  • Tweener 4- A Small Space of Time by Brat Queen
  • Tweener 5- Living with the Unfamiliar by Brat Queen
  • Tweener 6- Arcane Practices by Mick C.
  • Tweener 7- As You Wish by Mick C.
  • Tweener 8- To Ride the Dark Wave by Brat Queen
  • Tweener 9- Shadows by Mick C.
  • Tweener 10- Jerome by Brat Queen
  • Tweener 11- And on They Danced by Brat Queen
  • Sins of the Past by Brat Queen (1995). This was a sequel to MtS and the first ever fanfic written by The Brat Queen
  • After 1- Aftermath by Brat Queen
  • After 2- Closure by Brat Queen
  • After 3- The Love of the One by Brat Queen
  • After 4- Le Printemps by Brat Queen
  • After 5-With or Without You by S.A. Buday
  • After 6- Strong Enough by Brat Queen
  • After 7- Demons in the Dark by Brat Queen and Lady BD

Further Reading/Discourse/Meta

References

  1. ^ Memnoch the Devil: A Speculative Story at the Forbidden Archive
  2. ^ a b Memnoch SPEC HELP!!!!, 1997
  3. ^ a b comment and discussion, Question - Memnoch the spec, March 8, 1997
  4. ^ What does spec mean (November 11, 1999)
  5. ^ from FAQ (1996)
  6. ^ from FAQ (1996)
  7. ^ Anon ask by Annoymous, posted by tumblr user leztat, April 2 2022
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