Anne Rice and Role Models

I recently read Anne Rice's Blood and Gold.

She tells the story of Marius, a former Roman Imperial Senator. Marius' story is full of personal honor and tragedy. He speaks of three loves, who he claims to love whole-heartedly, despite their eventual abandonment of him. (Though I guess it says something that there are only three of these loves between Imperial Rome and the Renaissance.)

I started thinking about how many people take Anne Rice's vampire characters as role-models. I guess if you really needed a role-model, of the whole cast, Marius might not be the worst. However, I wouldn't recommend him either. There's all the back and forth about his noble murders of the Evil Doer (a vampire's got to eat!) and his erotic/homo-erotic love for each of the people who he makes into vampires. It makes it sound like life is a constant struggle for twisted honor and passion. The seduction of an adolescent boy is romanticized - not exactly praise-worthy, but perhaps the dream of many of Rice's young readers. How many lie awake at night, waiting for Marius to sweep into their beds?

I don't really know what more to say about this. I enjoyed the book as something to read before bed; to passively let the story unfold for me. Beyond this passing thought about how sad it is that some people try to be these vampires, I hadn't and don't intend to give it any more deep thought.

The figures all have major character flaws, though, so I really wouldn't recommend trying to emulate any of them.