Peter Ratter
I will shamefacedly admit that I haven't read all the comments, so please forgive me if this question has already been posed...
I loved Katherine Ramsland's book, 'The Vampire Companion', indeed, I used it as a back-up source when I wrote my final highschool essay on The Vampire Chronicles...but one thing she wrote back in the '90s still bugs me a little now...She made much of the idea that you were influenced by Rider Haggard's 'She' for the sake of Maharet and the Great Family, particularly the cherished records dating back into antiquity, but nowhere did she seem to make the connection that the Ayesha of 'She' might've been an influence on Akasha.
Even as I type, I feel a sense of deja vu - if I have posted this question on your page before, forgive my reptition. If not, I know that the query has been a bugbear and highhorse of mine ever since I read Ramsland's book first. I haven't the knowledge to question anything else in what was quite the encyclopedic exploration of the 'Chronicles, but what seemed like a glaring oversight still niggles at me. Compare and contrast: both ageless. Both immortal. Both beautiful (in fact I'm reminded of the words Tolkein gave to Galadriel, "I shall be as beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night." Bearing in mind that Galadriel was yet another ageless beauty with power beyond mortal ken, albeit mostly held in reserve in the published works...but I digress...) Both in love with a man of 'this' time. Both able to kill with a thought. Both brought down by an archaic over-reaching ambition that could not deal with the realities of 'this' world.
Please, tell me I'm not the only one that sees parallels between Akasha and Ayesha?
That little angst aside, 'The Queen of the Damned' was the first of the Chronicles read. Yes, it was out of synch, but my stars, it made an impression. With that one book you gave to 'vampire fiction' what Tolkein gave to 'fantasy'. Like Tolkein, you haven't so much followed a genre as *created* it. For that and everything else, thank you, Ms Rice.
Px
Author
Anne Rice
Say, H.Rider Haggard's "She" was definitely an influence on Queen of the Damned. I'd seen the movie with Ursula Andress before I wrote the Chronicles. When I wrote the Mummy right around the same time, I dedicated it to H. Rider Haggard on account of the influence of "She" in that book.
Author
Anne Rice
I don't recall consciously thinking of Haggard's "She" as I wrote Queen of the Damned, but no doubt the influence was there. Without question. I never forgot that film and was curious about his writing. I now own several copies of "She" and love to reread the material.
Peter Ratter
But, Ms Rice, if you'll forgive me, my final niggle (and this is NOT a criticism but a query): "Akasha" - "Ayesha" With everything else that Ms Ramsland picked up on in her examination of the text, didn't she notice the syllable's difference in the name? I love both characters - in a phantastic villainess sort of way - but feel that there is a resonant chord strung between them that hasn't been recognised. I *get* the passage of time, I *get* the Great Family, but why have no scholars looked at the ways in which the Queen of the Damned is like She Who Must Be Obeyed?
Renee A Pigeon
What a beautiful comment this was! Now I want to read, 'She'll!!!
