"Behind True Blood, a fight for vampire rights" - The Globe And Mail
June/14/09 18:28 Filed in: Off-Site
The Globe And Mail’s R.M. Vaughan chats with Charlaine Harris about True Blood, gay rights, sucess and more:
--- The great thing about the vampire myth is that anybody who takes it on gets to reinvent the mythology. Yet, you must have had some core texts in your head.
CH: Right. Well, of course, I kind of ricocheted off Anne Rice. I don't write anything like she did, and I don't have the same content or anything, but some of my world is simply a reaction to hers.
And your books are far more political. The vampires' struggles for equal rights can be read as a stand-in for gay rights, or even a reflection on the integration battles of the last generation.
CH: I do have a political take, I definitely do. Yeah, they are stand-ins for gay people, and I didn't really care a lot if there was resistance to that. It was incredibly hard to sell – it took my agent two years to sell the first book. I didn't expect that, 'cause I thought editors were just gonna eat this up. Not. In fact, it was rejected often and with vehemence. Some people just hated it, and said, “How could we market this, where would we shelve it?” Maybe they're thinkin' twice now. ---
Full Article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/behind-true-blood-a-fight-for-vampire-rights/article1177802/
--- The great thing about the vampire myth is that anybody who takes it on gets to reinvent the mythology. Yet, you must have had some core texts in your head.
CH: Right. Well, of course, I kind of ricocheted off Anne Rice. I don't write anything like she did, and I don't have the same content or anything, but some of my world is simply a reaction to hers.
And your books are far more political. The vampires' struggles for equal rights can be read as a stand-in for gay rights, or even a reflection on the integration battles of the last generation.
CH: I do have a political take, I definitely do. Yeah, they are stand-ins for gay people, and I didn't really care a lot if there was resistance to that. It was incredibly hard to sell – it took my agent two years to sell the first book. I didn't expect that, 'cause I thought editors were just gonna eat this up. Not. In fact, it was rejected often and with vehemence. Some people just hated it, and said, “How could we market this, where would we shelve it?” Maybe they're thinkin' twice now. ---
Full Article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/behind-true-blood-a-fight-for-vampire-rights/article1177802/
