The Anne Rice Rumpus

[novella]

Just read in the NY Times about Anne Rice being all atwitter over her latest Amazon reviews. hahaha. She's written a wordy angry defense there of the latest book, saying how precious her writing is, that no editor should ever touch it, etc., because it would be like messing with Hemingway. Give me a break. In my experience EVERYONE can benefit from the gentle ministrations of the right editor. She sounds like one bizarre teacake.

I mean, if the public consensus of your fan base is that your latest book sucks, maybe it's time to pay just a little attention. After all, according to the reviewers themselves, they ARE her big fans.

Anyone out there paying attention to this? I think an author defending a mediocre/bad book publicly is particularly small-brained. What possibly is there to be gained?

 

[kasuta]

Some of those amazon reviews were just brutal if you read through them. I'm no Rice fan but wow..someone said she should go mourn her dead husband and quit writing books, there were other harsh words. I think they just riled her up.

 

[dele]

I agree, those certainly are odd reviews. I don't know a lot about Anne Rice. What't the reason behind all the bitterness?

 

[Ashlea]

I think that all writers, actors, rock stars, etc., should never listen to the opinions of their most rabid fans, good or bad. Look where it got Selena.

 

[Wabbit]

This is the first I have heard of this.

I think as long as she is happy with what she has created and she has had fun and pleasure in the act of creation then she should just continue doing it and not listen.

If you are creating art it is ( or should be ) for the love of the thing. When it becomes for somebody else, no matter how well intentioned that is, then it's the wrong parth and can only lead to nowhere good.

I think as long as she is happy with what she has written, surely the most important, then she should just continue on as she has been. It's so easy to be a critic. If those people really feel so strongly then they can go write their own book

 

[novella]

I think as long as she is happy with what she has written, surely the most important, then she should just continue on as she has been. It's so easy to be a critic. If those people really feel so strongly then they can go write their own book

Hi bun, welcome back!,

I agree with this. I also think it's distinctly unprofessional to react to Amazon reviews as she has.

The book reviews in the printed media are a scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours system in which any negative comment about another author will come back to haunt the reviewer. Amazon, on the other hand, allows for public reviews by anonymous reviewers who fear no consequences. Anne Rice should realize the difference and react accordingly, which is to say ignore them if she cannot bear what they have to say. By drawing attention to herself like this, and also by defending her unedited, pedestrian writing, she is just opening herself up to worse criticism.

One should behave like Bette Davis in All About Eve--"Dahling I never read reviews. Be a dear and fetch me a dry martini."

 

[magemanda]

I would agree that, in most cases, it would be silly to respond to what the fans write. I mean, the Internet tends to represent a very small minority of the people who actually read an author's books.

However, some of the so-called 'reviews' did not even touch on the nature of the book itself - they were thinly-veiled personal attacks on Anne Rice herself. And that is unforgivable. Especially when her crime, it appears, is to have taken Lestat in a different direction than the fans wanted. Ummm, excuse me but 'her character, her rules'... No one but the author can say where a character should go.