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| Parlor Likeness Night Cafe |
Why?
Too much stuff for one page to work properly.
I'm grudgingly going through site text as I go along, making sure the content is current and relevant. It's a chore, and one I'd better not have to repeat any time soon.
I'm not doing this merely for vanity. I'm doing this because, as I've said repeatedly, I do indeed write my own text, and I do create a lot of graphics and 3D models myself. I also did a lot of the site design on the Original Parlor myself. That stuff does belong to me, and I will protect it.
Unfortunately, I find myself having to issue a precautionary "just in case" warning. If you have an issue with my content, or you have something to say, say it to me. I'm not hard to find. I might not agree, but I do try to be fair. I also try to make sure no one else's rights are infringed upon, either.
You don't have to like my content, and you don't have to agree with me on anything. If that's the case, you can always find content you do like or create it yourself without being negative towards others. You can certainly do it without trying to hurt others. There has been way too much of this type of destructive behavior across the whole of the Internet in recent times.
It's always been around to some extent, yes. Anne Rice herself suffered a rather mystifying amount of backlash for merely trying to protect her work. Recently, though, destructive behavior has had devastating consequences for those targeted by it.
While I'm sure my site and content have experienced its share of negative backlash, it's NOTHING compared to some of the devastation that has occurred elsewhere. That kind of devastation does not need to happen. It certainly should never make anyone feel as if the only solution is a permanent one to a temporary problem.
If you believe someone is doing something wrong, something that should be handled through proper channels (and no, YouTube channels are NOT proper channels for such things), you need to address it through those proper channels in the way they require. Not engage in cyberbullying, defamation and harassment.
Especially if those with the authority to take action or the legal right to complain do not agree with you.
If those with the authority to take action and the legal right to complain regarding my site's content had a problem, they would let me know about it, believe me. And they would let me know about it directly. Unless and until that happens, it is what it is. Beyond that, your only appropriate option is to contact me directly if you take issue with my content.
I say this because recent events, including what happened to Mikayla Raines, really hit a nerve with me. I've seen how ugly things can get in genres like true crime. Is it "true crime" or "truly criminal"? I can't always tell anymore.
But I have recalled that I can be a stubborn sort who will move my content across an entire, 17-year-old website to protect it and because.... I'm pretty sure now that it's not in MY DNA to give up. Even if I remove the social engagement aspect of the site, the content will remain. It is my commentary, my opinion, my perspective, and what I think can really serve to educate readers across generations about the novels and the spirit they were written in.
Now, the Vampire Chronicles are more well known than the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, but I think no matter the differing amounts of popularity of each series, there is something very important that should not be overlooked. Their author had a talent for putting her whole self into her stories, her characters and weaving so much detail and history into them that the result effects readers in many different ways to this day.
You can read an Anne Rice novel once and come away with several impressions, all memorable. Then, you can reread the same novel years later and your first impressions become more defined along with even more details that jump out at you in that second reading. There just aren't that many authors who can write like that. In fact, I really can't think of another author who wrote novels quite like Anne Rice did.
The most surprising thing I came away with the first time I read an Anne Rice novel from cover to cover? Really read it? It was relatable.
I know. What.
Because despite the fact that extraordinary events we would call "paranormal" today were woven into the Mayfairs and their family history, they were...human. Some had a genetic anomaly that when triggered by environmental factors (like both parents having the same genetic anomaly), meant they could reproduce an offspring known as a "Taltos", a "walking baby". Many Mayfairs who were not even immediate family members of the Designee of the Legacy at one point or another had abilities inherited from shared ancestors that again, we would call "paranormal" today.
Genetics can be a funny thing, but like anything else in life, we're not merely limited to our genetics. The point is, a family of humans are, through no fault of their own, having to contend with generations of unexplained phenomena and responses to it they might not even be aware of let alone understand. How many families can say the same when examining their own sets of unusual circumstances?
Quite a lot, I think.
I don't think I've ever let fly with this one, but if you read my brief story of how I came to read Lasher for the first time and became an Anne Rice fan then and there, there is a part of the account I've never expanded on.
No, not the part about it not being a "fantasy" or "sci fi" novel (nothing against those genres; just not what I was looking for). WHY was a novel about a spirit that seemed to haunt the same family for generations so appealing to me?
And WHY was a novel that was a sequel to The Witching Hour jumping out at me when I was supposed to be reading Interview With the Vampire and eagerly awaiting its release on home video, VHS (this was 1995; shush) like everybody else??! I wasn't supposed to buy a VHS of Legends of the Fall first, so what was going on here?
A ghost.
I didn't call it that at the time, though.
