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
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