Trigger warning: forced Christian conversion (kind of. I’m not sure the best wording for this topic.)
- Ashler, chapter 28, Taltos
I like the horror of this scene. Ashler realizes he’s been conned, and the philosophy and religion he originally wanted to embrace freely is now his only option if he’s going to actually save anybody. That it preached one thing, but brought about the exact opposite. And now he knows the truth, but can only lie. He probably feels like he invited a curse into his home, and ironically is “selling his soul” to keep it from consuming everyone.
There were some people who had already converted in the area, but now it was advocated by the leader. It was no longer quiet and personal. It was loud and open … and still considered personal.
I like it because of how it didn’t take much for things to get this ugly. Just a new and growing concept being introduced and the pressure for everyone to accept it. Like, it’s very sneaky, how something that sounded nice on the surface to one person with clout brought about its exact opposite. It really does sound like a curse.
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Kinda reminds me of Peter Pan. He’d forget unpleasant, death-related things too. Captain Hook, possibly Tinkerbell …
And this one reminds me of the book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve had to leave Eden and learn to fend for themselves in a neutral world. Also tied into the metaphor of growing up.
Táltos (Taltoș) este un personaj șamanic supranatural din mitologia maghiară, crezut a se fi născut cu puteri magice, cu dinți sau degete în plus față de o ființă omenească, îngăduindu-i să vindece, să comunice cu spiritele și facă bine. Era considerat a fi binevoitor, luptând adeseori pe Calea Lactee și călătorind cu viteza gândului.
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Fanmade Lives of the Mayfair Witches Book Covers: Inspired by The Vampire Armand
At the beginning of the year I researched and put together a set of custom book covers for The Vampire Chronicles based on the cover of The Vampire Armand. I've been wanting to make a matching set for the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, but kept hitting dead ends. I finally got them finished, so, yay! Same disclaimer as last time, I am not a graphic designer, I am a nerd for book quotes with a hobby!
See below for what each painting is, and a few notes about why I chose it:
The Witching Hour
Painting: The Anatomy Lesson by Rembrant
Quote: "Applause rose all around her, and looking up she was amazed to see that they were all Dutchmen here, gathered at Leiden; even she wore the big black hat and the gorgeous thick sleeves, and this was a painting by Rembrandt, of course, The Anatomy Lesson, and that is why the body looked so perfectly neat, though it hardly explained why she could see through it."
Lasher
Painting: Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro (San Bernardino Altarpiece) by Piero della Francesca
Quote:
Representations of healing, something like that beautiful painting by Rembrandt of the Anatomy Lesson. She opened her eyes with a start. No, they wouldn’t want to see that, nothing that terrible. Think of other things, the passive and beautiful faces of Piero Delia Francesca, the soft sweet eyes of Botticelli’s women, soothing fancies. Things that were better than real.
She was so sleepy. She was trying to remember all the people in that big Medici painting in Florence, the one with Lorenzo looking out of the corner of his eye. She’d been five when Gifford took her to Europe the first time.
“Mothers and babies!” she’d said as they went through the Palazzo Vecchio. She’d so loved to skip and twirl on the stone floors. She had never seen so many pictures of that one grand theme. Gifford had whispered sternly, “Madonna with Child.”
Note: In Lasher, Anne Rice references Salvador Mundi by Durer (which is my TVC set's Blackwood Farm cover), Botticelli, and the same Rembrandt again. I didn't want to repeat artists in these three covers, and I didn't want to use the same painting as I already used, so I was left with the above reference to Piero Delia Francesca, and found a Madonna with Child painting by him that is exhibited in Italy (not in Florence, but there's only so much I can do.) There is also a reference to an abstract painting by a Haitian artist, which I'd love to track down, but I wasn't able to find a real painting similar to the one she described.
Taltos
Painting: Primavera by Botticelli
Quote:
Rowan turned, staring back down the hall.
The Three Graces, they were, against the dining room door, and Mona's face seemed to occupy two different places. This wasn't resemblance, it was duplication, and why did they stand so still, all of them in their cotton dresses, merely staring as if from a painting?
Note: …so I said I didn't want to use any paintings twice, but it's a different section of Primavera, and this is the only painting reference of any kind in Taltos I could identify. I can't be too mad about it- I really like this as a design for the book Taltos.
I'll start with the ship. After thinking about it, Nicolas and Lestat. The first book I read was The Vampire Lestat, I knew nothing, just that it was the sequel for IWTV and that the vampire became a rockstar. I am not big on romance in general as a genre, but Nicolas and Lestat's story gets me a lot. With my awful skills I made this - which shows what made the dynamic so interesting to me. How Lestat's understanding of Nicolas deepens with the Vampire eyes, and then with the blood intimacy. It hit me brutally when Armand said this:
"I don't want him to be harmed, " I said in a tense whisper. "No. You want him destroyed, " he whispered back. "So that you need never fear or grieve for him anymore." - The Vampire Lestat
Another scary scene, and I am back to the Witches. The ending of Lasher's story in Lasher is creepy and horrifying. Again playing with the body horror that in my opinion she does so well.
Out of her body it slithered, growing taller and taller, its eyes brilliant, its mouth open, its flawless skin gleaming as perfect as that of any human babe. And it fell upon its mother as I had once done, and began to drink from her, first draining one breast and then the other. And then it stood up, and all around the people cheered and roared. - Lasher
