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Episode 578 - The Master of Rampling Gate (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-07 00:23:56
Imported:
2022-01

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We're stepping over the threshold of 2022 and having a drink with The Master of Rampling Gate by Anne Rice!

Special thanks to reader Rachel Lackey of Rachel Watches Star Trek!

Next up: DOCTOR SATAN!

Comments

Richard Horsman

I am SO excited you're going to do some Doctor Satan. I read Wildside's collection of those last year and they are delicious pulp trash.

Anonymous

Thanks so much for this one guys! I thought I had read everything Anne Rice had ever written (except the Jesus novels), so I was delighted to find out there's still one last short story to look forward to. I'm still a little blindsided by her passing. I just always expected another Vampire novel was on its way. "Lestat versus the Ancient Astronauts" maybe? All joking aside, her work had a huge influence on me in my teens and twenties. She seems to have been a fan of Lovecraft too, as shown by this section from the beginning of "The Tale of the Body Thief" where a man approaches Lestat, throws a package at his feet, then flees: "I picked up the envelope, and saw that it was blank and unsealed. Inside, I found, of all things, a printed short story clipped apparently from a paperback book. It made a small thick wad of pulp pages, stapled together in the upper-left-hand corner. No personal note at all. The author of the story was a lovable creature I knew well, H. P. Lovecraft by name, a writer of the supernatural and the macabre. In fact, I knew the story, too, and could never forget its title: “The Thing on the Doorstep.” It had made me laugh. “The Thing on the Doorstep.” I was smiling now. Yes, I remembered the story, that it was clever, that it had been fun." -Anne Rice, "The Tale of the Body Thief"

Anonymous

Sad to say The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is not erotica. It's straight up hardcore and sadomasochistic porn masquerading as BDSM-erotica. Terribly written, not for kids.

Anonymous

I've never read any Anne Rice. I've thought about it but there always seems like too much to get into and I don't know where to start. So thanks for doing this story! It was a good introduction to Rice's work. Early in the episode you touched on some differences between modern writing and the older style of HPL and company. I found this sort of analysis really interesting!

Anonymous

Ahhh ...Anne. I was introduced by the movie about the time I entered highschool. I quickly read the book and then gobbled up everything until Memnoch. Definitely a mark on my life. But really it goes a bit wonky towards the end.

Anonymous

Sooooo, I've been subscribed for about 3 or 4 years now and I'm up to about episode 505. I just realized that you guys have an RSS feed. I was downloading episode by episode until I realized this. Probably not the best place to put this, but just know that I spent the better part of two-and-a-half years going to the library (I didn't have internet for the longest time), downloading 3 - 4 months of episodes at a time, and syncing them to my ipod to listen to. Just wanted to let you guys know that you were worth it regardless.

Anonymous

I’ve read a couple of her works but just never moved by her. I found the writing juvenile, and derivative. And the whole fascination with pretty vampires strikes me as the same type of wish fulfillment people that writers of sword and sorcery and genre fiction are criticized for especially in todays world.

Steve

The graphic novel is on line here: https://view-comic.com/anne-rice-s-the-master-of-rampling-gate-full/ Isn't this Rampling Gate rather than Rappling - more Charlotte than Vanilla Ice? I couldn't help laughing at Mrs Blessington - totally a name an American would come up for an English person. The American in my game group, in a similar way, called an NPC Smarmington. And I was also amused by Norwood - possible inspired by Conan Doyle's The Norwood Builder, a Sherlock Holmes story. Norwood in South London is unprepossessing suburb about two miles from me. It does have a great Gothic Victorian cemetery, one of the Magnificent Seven. Mrs Beaton and Hiram Maxim are buried there. So didn't do much for me, the romance angle undercut the horror too much. But this is the only thing of hers I've ever read. But great reading by your special reader, she ought to do more Paranormal Romance.

Anonymous

Good story and good reading. Yeah I also only made it up to the mummy and then tried the first witch book and just couldn't. Instead I found Poppy Z Brites novels about that time and never looked back, though Interview and Queen of the Damned will always remain favourites.

Anonymous

I'm glad it was brought up there are no accidental vampires. I've found I've grown quite bored of the trope and imagine how much more interesting an American Werewolf in London would be if the dude after a while flatly refuses the soul of his friend, and his victims, and takes pleasure in it before ultimately being killed.

Anonymous

Whoah, Anne Rice. I have a very vivid memory of my introduction to her work. My dad and I were at the mall, stopping by the B. Dalton. I must have been 12 or 13. Just outside, they had those paperback dumps and one of them was for <i>The Vampire Lestat</i>. My dad picked up a copy, handed it to me, and told me to read the first page. He was entirely tickled by the idea of a vampire rock star, I can still see the twinkle in his eye. I was already a dyed-in-the-wool Stephen King fan, and with Dracula under my belt by that time, he let me read <i>Interview</i> and then "Lestat", and by the time <i>Queen of the Damned</i> came out, I was old enough to buy my own copy. I'd never heard of this story before and it was fun to revisit Anne and her vampires, though I haven't in over two decades. Its a shame about her passing, but I'm glad you guys were able to celebrate her life and her work. I guess technically you could do <i>Interview With the Vampire</i> some March, huh?

Anonymous

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is one of those books that got passed around in my junior high school, along with FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. Andrews and the Earth's Children series of Jean M. Auel (CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR and its sequels). I haven't read Anne Rice in a couple of decades, but I recall enough to catch some possible Easter eggs in "The Master of Rampling Gate": Rampling is the pseudonym she used for EXIT TO EDEN, while Julie is also the name of the heroine in THE MUMMY. Speaking of Julie, she, to steal a line from John Mulaney, has the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair, unless we assume she's under the thrall of her nameless vampire lover/sire — and yes, I had to re-read to be sure, but we never find out the name of the Master of Rampling Gate. And like, I get it, he's Hot and he's Sad and You're Not Like Other Girls, but when we weigh the preservation of one manor house and attached village against centuries of serial killing, I don't think the math works out in your favor. I'm hoping Richard finds a Van Helsing, gets wise, and stakes the pair of them. One other point: your discussion of vampires deliberately making more versus the "all victims rise" model reminded me of the 1985 cult classic LIFEFORCE, in which vampiric aliens are brought to Earth from a comet. Because every victim also becomes a vampire, their numbers double at a terrifying rate, leading to a fairly spectacular climax set in a London overrun by monsters.

Anonymous

Great episode! I have never read any Anne Rice and this was a great introduction for me. Two things made me actually laugh out loud: "It's gross but you can't look away." and "The fop who can beat your ass." I listened to this while running through the park. I feel like I need to qualify that it was a wintery park with lots of sad, bare trees and I was running at twilight. In a discussion many episodes ago on reading horror stories in the appropriate environment, Chris and Chad said they hoped no one was listening to the podcast while working out at the gym. But I really enjoy listening while working out either while running or even at the gym. Being in busy, well-lit, mundane surroundings whilst in headphones privately creeping through lonely places and down dark abysses of nighted secrets with my favorite seekers after strangeness as guides is its own secret pleasure. We can always carry the darkness inside us. Thank you for so much great entertainment and enjoyment!

Anonymous

The ‘they only become a vampire if they get fed vampire blood’ trope was certainly popularised by Anne Rice, though I think it also appears in Fred Saberhagen’s ‘The Dracula Tapes’ which predates ‘Interview’ by a year. The trope itself likely has its origins in ‘Dracula’, where Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood to strengthen his influence over her (though there it doesn’t appear to be a necessary step in making her a vampire - Dracula is not shown to have done that with Lucy).

Anonymous

I read Interview when I was 14? It made something of an impact on me, although I think Michael Talbot's _The Delicate Dependency_ stuck with me more as a vision of vampire society both attractive and repellent, beautiful and sordid. "Master of Rampling Gate" is fatally marred by it's unspeakable treatment of the cat. The cat was just catting, Julie, no need to get all fussed about it.

Anonymous

I started with The Vampire Lestat as well! I'm not sure why; when I was a teen in the 80s, my dad had the whole trilogy. I guess I was just confused? As for Anne Rice's religion, on a statement on her website from 2010 she clarified that she was still committed to Christ but was giving up on Christianity: "following Christ does not mean following His followers." Fair enough.

Anonymous

Great show guys! It really shows how much her books meant to you and I was very sad to hear of her passing. I always meant to read the Vampire Chronicles, starting and stopping multiple times over the years, but it wasn't until last year during my relisten of this podcast that I finally decided to read them in earnest after you mentioned them multiple times in older episodes. I got through the first three books but tbh Queen of the Damned felt like such a slog that I've barely made a dent into the fourth book. Hopefully I can get back into it because the series has always shaped my view on vampires and why I love them so much. Looking forward to I Am Legend. I love that book so much.

Anonymous

I'm probably very late to the party but the twilight vampires might be fairies not actual vampires! https://www.cbr.com/twilight-vampires-are-faeries/