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Anne Rice's Old Curiosity Shop
Come ye, all you desirous bibliophiles. Pass through the threshold of Anne Rice's Old Curiosity Shop where for the next week or so, there will be an unending reign of festivities in this temporary home. Yes, temporarily, Anne Rice's Old Curiosity Shop will be opening its doors on "A Bibliophile's Reverie." And till the end of November when "Of Love and Evil," finally releases, there will be a uninterrupted conversation about all things related to Anne Rice's opulent, richly Gothic world.
Seriously, enter intrepid readers! Smell the scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The unseen cloud of cookie scent is wafting throughout the small kitchen, located near the front door of the shop. This small, cozy kitchen resides to the left of the shop's sitting room where a fire is bursting with warming, inviting flames. Around the marble fireplace, there sits three brown leather chairs restively sitting and waiting for someone to sit down upon them.
Neither Lestat nor the other band of vampires could make it for this meeting. So, instead I'll be the master of this party and every day I'll be initiating conversation about all things related to Anne Rice's vast,literary universe. Anne Rice may pay an unpredicted visit to our lively meetings. But she's busy exploring the ruins of Atlantis at the moment or paying visit to Lestat who has not written anything new for ages. Oh well, Toby (from Angel Time) has been more than happy to enliven Anne Rice's Old Curiosity Shop for the time being.
Hopefully, his new journal entry about his angelic visitations will more than suffice till Anne Rice invites some more venerable immortals to the party.
To those who have never visited Anne Rice's Facebook page, please feel free to explore the intellectual jungles of her page. At nearly every intersection in the winding pathways of her Facebook page, there is stimulating conversation occurring about a range of topics including politics, literature, movies, current events or other pressing issues in the world. While you're there, invite some stragglers there to join this temporary meeting of literary addicts. Though the page is darkly colored and still rather lonely, more people occupying this space with their presence and ideas should keep this place alive.
4 comments:
~Sits down in a leather chair, and reflects on how "Memnoch the Devil" has remained a very important book to her~
Well, here's some thoughts for you on the Memnoch tome. Ms. Rice put a fascinating spin an an old idea in many a mythos-- that the deities and otherwise supernatural entities take some sort of interest in creating and playing complex games, using humans (and in this case, a vampire) to further their own agendas. Why do you think such tales are so prevalent? Is it anthropomorphizing, assuming these higher powers would manipulate lesser beings for their own amusement or glory? Can we, as humans, come up with no other way to explain the seemingly random vagaries of life? Also, why are so many people so prone to sympathize with the devil? Is it because we, abandoning all hope of perfection, decide to embrace the "sinner" persona? Perhaps, like Memnoch, we find God's grand plan to be lacking in all respects and question the wisdom and mercy that religion claims is inherent in God?
~Fantastyfreak exclaims,"First Visitor!~
Menmoch happens to be one of my favorite books of Anne Rice's repertoire for similar reasons. There's nothing comparable in other recent literary works in terms of the depth of Anne Rice's theological questions. Many writers shy away from the daunting task of unpacking these questions and offering some insight upon the more ambiguous elements of religion.
About your point about humans sympathizing with the devil, was that not one of the key reasons why people are beguiled by Lucifer in "Paradise Lost?" Because Satan portrays himself as the victim in the scheme of the divine interplay between God and Satan. Menmoch or Satan represents the obstinate being who will not readily succumb to God's wishes or view. He wants intellectual autonomy, the ability to answer the number of questions which God does not offer satisfactory answers. I think all humans to an extent can relate with these literary portrayals of Satan. Because one of our core spiritual struggles is the desire to have full understanding or comprehension of spiritual questions through experience.
Your point about higher beings manipulating lesser beings for amusement or glory relates back to David's vision in "Tale of the Body Thief." For a short frame of time, David is offered a fleeting vision of some incomprehensible discussion between Satan and God. Are they merely fiddling his metaphysical sensory in thinking these beings exist? Or are they offering some foreshadowing for the ending of "Tale of the Body Thief," and "Menmoch the Devil?" I think both these novels are entwined for these reasons. They adjoin the complicated theological question of whether these higher beings are friends or foes? And, do we essentially have free will when it comes to our continuous interaction with these forces?
You raise some very interesting points and I'll elaborate on some of those a bit more in a later post. Or, I might include them in the Menmoch the Devil related post sometime later this week.
Thanks again for contributing!!! Hopefully the discussion continues!
Yes, you caught me. I was also referring back to David's vision in Tale of the Body Thief. :) I'm glad to participate and disappointed that none of Ms. Rice's other fans have taken the time to join us yet. Hop in, people! :)
It's bizarre that people have noticeably scanned this blog page. Well, I know this without a doubt because Blogger Stats informed me of that. But those people who did casually browse the block seemed too bashful to reply. Its definitely hard to coax people into responding to blog posts. Especially, since most people have time constraints which keep them from responding. Hopefully, tomorrow's proposed discussion question will prompt the Anne Rice fans to respond in the same manner they respond to Anne Rice's Facebook status updates.
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