On Anne Rice, and why we write.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | On Anne Rice, and why we write. |
| Creator: | Aja |
| Date(s): | September 23, 2004 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Anne Rice |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | On Anne Rice, and why we write. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
On Anne Rice, and why we write. is a 2004 essay by Aja.
It was posted to Aja's website, notquiteroyal.
Some Topics Discussed
- Anne Rice and her comments: Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective
- fanfic and profic
- sharing ideas and fiction
- fiction as a gift
- treating fans badly
- arrogance
Excerpts
I wanted to say this or something like this during the last Anne Rice wank that happened on journalfen. Every time I see something this woman says in public I always come away feeling just--pissed off and sad for her, and sad for all the writers out there who are being taught to think and act like her. This was going to go on fandom wank as a comment, but it was too long, and I felt like it was a little too ranty anyway. Will keep this public for a little bit in case anybody from FW stops by. So. Yeah. Anne Rice.
I'm saddened that she honestly can't recognize that there's no difference between not deigning to engage in conversation with a bunch of us members of fandom_wank, and between launching into a diatribe against her readers to tell them how they should behave. Sure, one involves lowering yourself to the level of responding to your critics, which is generally a terribly unwise and ungracious thing to do--but in my mind it's far, far more ungracious to respond to your readers with hostility. That she is choosing to play the holier-than-thou card at this juncture is laughable. She ripped that card into shreds the moment she told readers they weren't correctly 'interrogating the text.'
It saddens me, too, that this woman has clearly moved so far beyond the spirit of shared creativity and interpretation from which that fount of inspiration springs, that she can no longer profit from it either by writing a good story or by being gracious to her fans. That she has come to believe her own press is obvious. She reminds me very much of the way someone on my friends list talks of working with a very famous actress in years past, a Hollywood legend who lived on some freaky distant planet where the only people who mattered were other actors like herself, and everyone else was there simply to bow and scrape and give her her dues as a legend. Anne Rice sounds just like this when she's ranting, especially when she seriously and earnestly talks about her 'status' as a writer:
I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status.
No, Ms. Rice. Your status as a writer is that of gift-giver. Your status as a writer, regardless of how many millions you make from your books, never changes. You are privileged to be able to tell your stories, sell your stories, and share them with the rest of us. Some of us are privileged to be able to make money from that endeavor, and privileged to have editors willing to help us along the way. Fine, well and good. Some of us write fanfic. Some of us write original fic. Some of us do both. But the goal, the act, the moment of story-telling, that transfer of creation from writer to reader, never changes. You are writing stories to share with us--you are beyond privileged even that we, the audience, the reader, allow you to come in our lives for the space of an hour, a day, maybe even a year or a lifetime, and make you part of our lives and our reading experience. You are giving us a gift and we give you back our respect, give your characters back our love, if they earn it.
This is tl;dr without question, but I'm glad I said it even though Neil Gaiman said it much better, and I sure as hell hope I never forget it for myself. If I ever do, then wank away, fandom_wank, wank away.