NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/arts/books/23632

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 5.6 KB | 111 lines

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!tulane!ukma!lunatix!lmollett
From: [e-mail] (Laura Mollett)
Subject: Re: Anne Rice Fan
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- [phone]
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 23:42:47 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 100


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Godwin) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Laura Mollett) writes:
>
>>Did you like that aspect of it?  I mean, do you feel like she did a good job
>>of portraying a male?
>
>She did an adequate job, I thought. I believe very strongly that authors
>of one sex can capture the sensibilities of the other sex, and Rice
>did okay. I should note, however, that my belief is a fairly unfashionable
>one at present.

I agree with you (unfashionable or not) that members of the opposite sex _can_
capture the proper feel for characters of the other.  For one thing, I think
there are some traits that are just "human" (though a lot of learned responses
make this seem less so)...(interest in sex being an example of a "human"
trait - and women's sometimes expressed lesser interest being the kind of
learned response I'm thinking of).  And, though I do think some _ways_ of
thinking and looking at the world are gender-specific, I _don't_ believe even
those are so far off as to be "not understandable."  I'm afraid I dislike the
concept of "You can never understand this as you are a [man/woman] and it's
a [male/female] thang."
>
>
[My comment that I haven't read Tale of the Body Thief yet deleted]
>It was a pleasant diversion, but I see no reason not to wait for the
>paperback.
>
I had (like I mentioned) received that impression before, though I was
interested in your confirmation.  (From reading your posts here, you seem
to have good taste <grin>.)  To be honest, I have not been anywhere near as
impressed with her fantasy as I was with _Belinda_.  While I enjoyed reading
the vampire stuff (and I'm a vampire/horror genre fan anyway), I found them
all to be something along the lines of "pleasant diversion" (though I did
like one better than the others - I read them out of order, so I can't remember
if it's the first or second I was most impressed with).  Anyway, they're
light reading; the science fiction/fantasy "fluff" that I read in between more
serious (usually non-fiction) types of things.  However _Belinda_ bears
very little in common with this.  Perhaps that's why she wrote it under a
pseudonym, or perhaps she was concerned about her name being associated with
the "sexual" aspects of the story, I dunno.  Anyway, I wonder if a lot of
people aren't missing what (IMNSHO) is her best work, partly because it wasn't
written under her own name, and partly because of her association with the
horror/fantasy genre.

(I suppose I should stick in a spoiler warning here, if I'm going to talk about
the plot of the book, and I have no idea how to "control-L" or whatever, so
SPOILERS AHEAD for the book _Belinda_ by Anne Rice (writing as Anne Rampling)

That feels sorta silly, but is necessary I suppose <grin>.














The book is about an artist who makes his living doing illustrations for
children's books.  Belinda is a 15 year old girl with whom he falls in love.
(He's in his 40's or so, I think).  The basic plot concerns how these two
people can come together and stay together in the face of great obstacles
(their age, her parents, society, his reading public etc.)  This "plot" allows
Rice to explore a lot of (IMO) fascinating concepts, i.e. what it is like to
be a "child" with regard to society (legally underage) and yet "adult"
physically, and possibly emotionally (a fully functioning body and the desires
to go along with it etc.) and some of "our" strange wishy-washiness about
child/adults (old enough to drive, but not to vote; old enough to vote, but
not to drink; etc.)  Into this, Rice adds a discussion of art.  What is art,
what is truth, how much should art bow to society/to the "public" etc. etc.
Jeremy (the protaganist) photographs and paints Belinda in the nude in various
settings that emphasize both her child-like qualities and her sexual "womanly"
qualities.  What works to do, how to do them, and what to do with the completed
works forms a major portion of the book.  Then there is his self-doubt (is he
just a "dirty old man"; should he feel this way about a "child" etc.) and her
self-doubt and doubts about him.

Anyway, as I am/inspire to be an artist, I found the book inspiring; and I
also found that it made me think a lot about societies conceptions of various
ideas - maturity, art, truth etc.  A very different kind of work from the
"Lestat" series (INO, of course).  It wouldn't be a good book for anyone who
is insulted with sexual innuendo, and outright description, tho I felt like
it was fairly mild in this aspect...that is sex scenes are only described to
a point - it is _not_ really a "sex novel."  And anyone who thinks that
"children" don't have sexual feelings might be highly insulted (or anyone who
thinks 40 year old men shouldn't desire anyone so much younger than themselves),
and, if it was written by a man some very strenuous feminists might find it
insulting, I dunno.  All of that, and it was also written from the male point
of view.  I can't really comment too much on that aspect, since I'm female.
But it was probably the best book I read this year (since tomorrow is New Years
Day).  It certainly had the greatest effect on me, and I wish some other people
would read it, as I'd like to hear other opinions :)
            Laura