# Anne Rice, get over yourself
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 24, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810 "2004-09-24T02:37:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/41 "2004-09-25T15:38:05Z")
I’d like to hear how a vampire becomes a saint… (not enough to actually read the books, though)
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/42 "2004-09-25T15:43:40Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> I’d like to hear how a vampire becomes a saint… (not enough to actually read the books, though)
From what I recall it had something to do with finally waking up after the Memnoch Incident (which he did in two previous books, IIRC) and whining about St. Juan Diego. I can’t be more specific because I blocked _Blood Canticle_ from my conscious working memory.
Incidentally, _BC_ is the only book I left a warning in. I checked it out from the library because I was determined that I would finish the entire Vampire Chronicles, no matter what deep hurting pain it would bring me. I turned it back in with a piece of paper tucked in the pages of Chapter One warning the next person who checked it out how wretched it was and that should be returned immediately.
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### Author:  [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/43 "2004-09-25T15:46:57Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> (He’s based on her husband, but also on her, I believe)
Oh, absolutely. She’d never admit it, the same way she’ll never admit that Claudia was based on Mouse, but yeah. I totally agree.
**RevTim** , I’d fill you in, but I haven’t read Blood Canticle yet. I haven’t read a couple of the Vampire books, to be honest… they were never my favorite Rice works.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/44 "2004-09-25T15:53:30Z")
I don’t care who you are or what you’ve written. **Everybody** needs an editor. Authors bring their books into my bookstore all the time, asking if I’ll stock them. I’ve gotten to the point where the first question I ask is whether they had a professional editor and a proofreader (and preferably a copyeditor, too). I’m amazed how many of the large, reputable publishers no longer provide proofreaders and copyeditors. I’m lucky enough to have two publishers for my books (one for my nonfiction and one for my children’s books) that take those responsibilities seriously.
I just reviewed a fly-fishing book that recommended getting polaroid sunglasses (they meant polarized, of course), and read part of a self-published book where the author didn’t know the difference between its and it’s.
The point, though, is that we all make mistakes, whether they’re factual, typographical, grammatical, or spelling errors, and it’s darned difficult to spot all of the errors in your own work. You need another set of eyes to look for problems.
That’s why computer programmers should never test their own code, too.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/45 "2004-09-25T22:03:30Z")
> [@thursday next](#):
>
> **Miller** , do you mind if I ask about when you bought your copies? I had a hard time getting mine and it was a while ago, but when my friend got tired of borrowing them, she was able to go out and buy a nice easy to find boxed set. Yes, I was rather envious. Maybe its because I worked at a used book store and it was one of those things that people didn’t like to get rid of … or couldn’t get rid of. 😛
Erm… maybe ten years ago?
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### Author:  [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/46 "2004-09-26T08:15:14Z")
I want to see the Amazon rant. I looked at all the reviews and didn’t see it. Does anyone have a link?
Max.
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### Author:  [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/47 "2004-09-26T12:36:00Z")
> [@Maxxxie](#):
>
> I want to see the Amazon rant. I looked at all the reviews and didn’t see it. Does anyone have a link?
>
> Max.
This goes against my better judgment, seeing as how I love her and am supposed to be defending her, but… it’s so goddamn \*\*funny \*\* I can’t not share.
[Pow. Click it and behold Anne’s ego. Be very afraid.](http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/515245.html)
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### Author:  [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/48 "2004-09-26T13:02:01Z")
Oh, I should give teleute12 credit for that link. It was posted earlier in the thread. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/49 "2004-09-26T14:17:45Z")
Oh wow. That is without a doubt the funniest Amazon review I have ever read.
\*You are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. \*
I get a mental image of Joe Friday knocking on _Blood Canticle’s_ door and demanding “just the facts.”
- And you have strained my Dickensean principles to the max.\*
:dubious:
_Allow me to point out: nowhere in this text are you told that this is the last of the chronicles, nowhere are you promised curtain calls or a finale, nowhere are you told there will be a wrap-up of all the earlier material_
It’s called **wishful thinking** and **take a hint, Annie**.
\*If and when I can’t write a book on my own, you’ll know about it. \*
I think we already know. Do you?
\*And no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. 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. \*
Therein lies the problem.
_You don’t enjoy it? Read somebody else._
Done and done!
_But your stupid arrogant assumptions about me and what I am doing are slander._
I’m only going to say this once: SLANDER IS SPOKEN, LIBEL IS WRITTEN.
_Lestat’s wanting to be a saint is a vision **larded** through and through with his characteristic vanity_
That word you used. I do not think it means what you think it means.
_And yes, the Chronicles are no more! Thank God!_
Hang on a sec…look up six quotes. 😕
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### Author:  [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/50 "2004-09-26T14:52:27Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> _And yes, the Chronicles are no more! Thank God!_
> Hang on a sec…look up six quotes. 😕
Hey! She doesn’t have to make sense! She’s got a Proletarian And Democratic Soul™, you know.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/51 "2004-09-26T15:24:00Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> _Lestat’s wanting to be a saint is a vision **larded** through and through with his characteristic vanity_
> That word you used. I do not think it means what you think it means.
She actually did use the word correctly. I took it to mean something akin to “marbled”, like when you’re talking about pieces of beef. Sure enough, when I looked up “larded” in Webster’s just now I found that the second listed defintion is “to decorate or intersperse with something”.
It’s still a stupid sentiment and a less-than-brilliant turn of phrase, but it’s not technically _wrong_.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/52 "2004-09-26T15:33:44Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> [
> _Lestat’s wanting to be a saint is a vision **larded** through and through with his characteristic vanity_
> That word you used. I do not think it means what you think it means.
She is using it correctly, to lard in cooking means to take a strip of lard and a special needle and insert the lardoon [strip of lard] through a cut of meat with inadequate fat content to improve its moistness and overall texture after cooking.
[http://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/hospitality/procooking/text\_image/ch11.htm](http://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/hospitality/procooking/text_image/ch11.htm)
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### Author:  [@presidebt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/presidebt)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/53 "2004-09-26T15:43:06Z")
Please pardon my ignorance, and thank you in advance for correcting it, but what does “jumped the shark” mean? Does it mean that the person in question has knowingly tackled a beast that will most likely slay them? I am unfamiliar with this idiom. Is it standard US or regional–global perhaps?
Also, if the link provided is what Rice actually typed, then she sorely needs an editor. She has no idea how to use an em dash and sometimes misses when she hits the space bar. Spell check would’ve caught that. Of course, it’s a moot point if it was typed from a hard copy by one of the staff of that particular website.
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### Author:  [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/54 "2004-09-26T15:54:16Z")
When something “jumps the shark”, it means that it has lost its former greatness and now sucks. It’s a reference to the shark-jumping _Happy Days_ episode that was the death knell of the series.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/55 "2004-09-26T16:09:36Z")
Oh, and in other news, her offer to refund if people sent her the books?
Anyone who took her up on it ended up having their packages sent back with “Return to Sender.” And apparently, she no longer lives at the address listed on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com)
I’d say she needs a PR director in addition to an editor.
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### Author:  [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/56 "2004-09-26T16:15:37Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> Doubtful. I found my copies at B. Dalton.
I found mine in Walden Books, and when I bought them there were more copies in Borders and Barnes & Noble. I think this was in the mid to early 90s. Maybe availability depends on where you live?
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### Author:  [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/57 "2004-09-26T16:20:13Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> Now, some authors can do self-insertion. Mercedes Lackey, for example, has a minor character named “Misty”, which is Lackey’s nickname. Misty is a Herald-chronicler, hopelessly near-sited (wears glasses), plain, sort of nerdy, bookish, with an odd sense of humor. However, the Misty character works because she’s not constantly in the lime-light, she isn’t perfect, and she seems to be a way for the author to poke fun at herself.
Misty is based on herself? I didn’t know that. That’s so cool. Do you know if Alberich is based on anyone (considering Misty likes Alberich and vice versa)?
About Anne Rice though, other than watching Interview and Queen, I haven’t bothered with her. I tried reading Interview and always drop it about 3 chapters in. I prefer her sister’s werewolves (Alice Borchardt).
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### Author:  [@presidebt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/presidebt)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/58 "2004-09-26T16:21:19Z")
> [@kung fu lola](#):
>
> When something “jumps the shark”, it means that it has lost its former greatness and now sucks. It’s a reference to the shark-jumping _Happy Days_ episode that was the death knell of the series.
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/59 "2004-09-26T16:25:50Z")
> [@thursday next](#):
>
> **Miller** , do you mind if I ask about when you bought your copies? I had a hard time getting mine and it was a while ago, but when my friend got tired of borrowing them, she was able to go out and buy a nice easy to find boxed set. Yes, I was rather envious. Maybe its because I worked at a used book store and it was one of those things that people didn’t like to get rid of … or couldn’t get rid of. 😛
I remember I was after the series awhile ago, and found loads of new copies on eBay. You can get them in a range of designs - in a boxed set, with a bonus explanatory Beauty book, with discreet covers, etc.
Personally I don’t understand the hype. The Beauty series earned a big fat “meh” from me.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-rice-get-over-yourself/265810/60 "2004-09-26T22:16:23Z")
> [@chatelaine](#):
>
> This goes against my better judgment, seeing as how I love her and am supposed to be defending her, but… it’s so goddamn \*\*funny \*\* I can’t not share.
>
> [Pow. Click it and behold Anne’s ego. Be very afraid.](http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/515245.html)
Anne, you really need to tone down the ego. It’s so big now, it’s started effecting the tides. Seriously: settle down. Florida can’t take much more.
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