BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER ELEVEN

[a_sporking_rat]

I'm reading a spork of The Black Jewels series and I noticed it has something in common with both the Vampire Chronicles and Anita Blake: Only powerful characters matter, and all the good characters are also the most powerful

Comments

[ext_1626743]

It's like Anne Rice has done research but not let it effect her prejudices, especially her adoration of rich people. It also feels like there are at least three separate books here. Why is Quinn a vampire at all and why does Lestat have any part of this?

Also, Manfred brought a random new prostitute into his home where they met his children like... bi-monthly? Okay, I take it back about Anne Rice doing her research. I guess it's possible someone could do this, but it would be considered infinitely strange. He might visit brothels himself, and he'd probably set up a nice home for his mistress, and he might rotate mistresses a few times in his life. But if he brought a woman into his home and she met his children, it would be because he considered the relationship extremely serious and likely permanent. Men did marry prostitutes on occasion, but whether he planned to marry Rebecca or not, doing this with her would mean she would take the place of a wife in his home.

a girl who was afraid of her own vicious Irish father and German-

[a_sporking_rat]

Manfred is noted a lot as being considered insane but all his actions just point to him being mean and doing whatever he wants, which sounds like a basic entitled rich dude. He's compared directly to Lord Byron so I feel like it may be "romantic rogue" mad and less "actually mad"...so in other words, if he wants his girls in his house, fuck any ideas they might get about it, he does what he likes and how dare they expect more! I don't think we're meant to like him, though, so I'm fine with that.

Yeah, it's emphasized more than once she's Irish and it was all Irish girls Manfred was bringing home...it's from AQ's mouth so maybe it's meant to be prejudice on her part? Especially since she's sure to point out that wow Irish people sure are racist towards our nice black servants!

[a_sporking_rat]

oh and as for what Lestat/vampirism has to do with it, the mysterious squatter is a vampire and turns Quinn

[alondra_del_sol]

Ugh. I feel like you can really see Anne Rice jumping shark with this book and it definitely is a progression towards Prince Lestat. I am like ninety-nine percent sure the 'so called pop culture' books are a stab at her detractors because she writes 'dep gothec words' if you know what I mean, haha. The Vampire Chronicles were a lot cooler when I was new to high school and her purple prose pandering seemed so deep and wordly. Thank all the deities out there for growing up and leaving the past behind you. I feel like this crappy behavior started more prevalently in Marius' book and then she just went with it and once she was queen of all teh goffs she could do no wrong. Now she is the very specialist of snowflakes just like LKH. Peas in a pod.

[a_sporking_rat]

What I mostly remember from Blood and Gold is Marius being way too pedo-y cuz, you know, Ancient Roman, and it felt less like a judgement from Rice and more like an excuse for him to ogle boys and IT'S OK CUZ IT WAS HIS CULTURE

[ext_1626743]

Wait, ancient ROMAN and she claimed this was okay because it was his culture? Ahahah hell no. He'd have been killed in some horrific way. The Romans were really big on what we call "family values" today: that is, a man being faithful to his wife and devoted to the welfare of his children. They were okay with sex outside marriage... to a point, and only between men and women. (Though of course, as with all societies, what the self-proclaimed moral guardians championed and what people actually did did not exactly line up.) They were not okay with man-love, and they were completely and utterly against pedophilia. Only certain people in the very highest echelons could get away with that stuff, and that was by the skin of their teeth and keeping it private. (Until emperors got way too much power and the Empire started circling the drain.)

If she'd made him Athenian or Spartan, yeah, she could make that excuse. Not Roman. Roman is nearly the worst thing she could have made him for it, in fact. May as well have made him 19th century English