Anne Rice's vampires...

Really, if Anne hadn't written Interview With the Vampire back in the mid-seventies, would we have this proliferation of vampire writing today?  The sad thing of course, is that none of it is as good as Rice's.  No one can match her when it comes to creating vampire, and other worlds. 
I was and still am a fan of her first two books, but for me, after that, it just wasn't, I don't know, as potent.  I read a few more, then stopped. But I read those first two novels at the time they first were published, and was completely enthralled by the content. And seeing the first movie,many years later, made me see how difficult it was to transfer the story to the screen. Even though it was quite amazing, it still couldn't match the images I carried in my mind. 
She has written so much, and has, I'm sure, many, many devoted followers. As for me, I am selfish.  I want a character like Louis all to myself, to converse with when I'm in the mood. :)  Thank goodness she thought him up.

Anyway, I just found out that Interview with the Vampire is being made into a graphic novel, but told from Claudia's point of view.  Which makes sense, given the heavy influence of manga novels today.  A little, well, odd too, considering that Claudia will have to die eventually.  Of course she was a little girl for a long, long time. I wonder if it will ever be made into an anime style movie.

I just watched the Studio Ghibli? version of  The Borrowers, titled Arrietty,  and really enjoyed it, mainly for the imagery.  I read this book when very young, and have pretty much forgotten most of it except for the thrill of imagining tiny people who made use of our "giant" things. 

Now I am waiting for the two Snow White movies to be released.  I can't wait to see how they've been re-envisioned.  I was very disappointed by the latest Red Riding Hood. I did like The Brothers Grimm, and am hoping for something more in that vein. 

Slaves of time?

"Be Drunk"   

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.

by Charles Baudelaire 
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Does our work makes us slaves of time?  Many people can't wait for retirement, for freedom to spend their time as they like.  Our time is not our own at our workplace, and for some, that which should be personal time after a full day is also at the mercy of our careers.

 Baudelaire came into an inheritance, so he never wanted for money.  I wonder how many people still get that sort of money.  How many of us can or will claim an inheritance that will guarantee financial freedom?  And what about those who know they will inherit a tidy sum, so that they have more personal freedom to do as they please in the present.  Do they do as they please then?

If only work could be so truly a part of our existence that we could feel completely fulfilled by it.  In education, so much time has become focused on paperwork that the time in the classroom represents only a fraction of our time. And no one seems to count the psychic energy we as teachers expend as part of our working time.  Teaching is a very complex profession, which demands much of us.


Value your time.  I think spring always lets us be a little more drunk with life, which is why we wait for it, some of us more impatiently than others.