A Vampire is a Flexible Metaphor
March 2, 2014 10:46 AM Subscribe
Meghan McCarron interviews Kelly Link for Gigantic magazine. They talk about The Vampire Diaries, fanfic, patterns in stories and the craving for distortion, among other topics. Great news for Link fans: she has a new short story collection, Get in Trouble, coming out in 2015 and is working on a novel!
This is awesome!
I first got into Kelly Link after Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen were included in a truly excellent humble ebook bundle, a couple of years ago. And I loved it - mostly because of the way she presents monsters as monsters, and not trying to soften them. Her prose style, too - there's a sort of matter-of-factness that I like. And then funny! She's funny on top of it! That's just not fair.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:17 AM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
I first got into Kelly Link after Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen were included in a truly excellent humble ebook bundle, a couple of years ago. And I loved it - mostly because of the way she presents monsters as monsters, and not trying to soften them. Her prose style, too - there's a sort of matter-of-factness that I like. And then funny! She's funny on top of it! That's just not fair.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:17 AM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Wow, what synchronicity. I've just started reading Pretty Monsters and I'm very much enjoying it. Very rewarding sentence by sentence - an awful lot of craft and care in evidence.
posted by RokkitNite at 11:21 AM on March 2, 2014
posted by RokkitNite at 11:21 AM on March 2, 2014
Now trying to figure out who should be the secret vampire in every TV show. Don Draper is too obvious of a choice of Mad Men. Maybe Harry Crane? It would explain how he retains so much influence when nobody really likes him.
Joyce is a vampire slayer, Ken Cosgrove is obviously a spy.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:28 AM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Joyce is a vampire slayer, Ken Cosgrove is obviously a spy.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:28 AM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
That's awesome. The concept of a Kelly Link novel is intriguing... after so many good short stories can she make the transition?
posted by selfnoise at 11:38 AM on March 2, 2014
posted by selfnoise at 11:38 AM on March 2, 2014
Add to that, I'm no longer watching television in which middle-aged men figure out how to be men. I'd rather watch shows about teenaged girls figuring out what it means to be a monster. I like coming-of-age stories, ghost stories, horror stories. I love stories about doppelgängers. I didn't realize how much I craved a show that was gothic, over the top, Gormenghast on the CW.
Yes yes yes. My wife and I love The Vampire Diaries. We don't even consider it a "guilty" pleasure. (Though this last season has been a bit inconsistent, especially with Damon's characterization.)
posted by kmz at 11:41 AM on March 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yes yes yes. My wife and I love The Vampire Diaries. We don't even consider it a "guilty" pleasure. (Though this last season has been a bit inconsistent, especially with Damon's characterization.)
posted by kmz at 11:41 AM on March 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
kmz, you just quoted my favorite part of the article! I've never heard of Kelly Link before and haven't watched Vampire Diaries but I'm delving into both now.
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 11:49 AM on March 2, 2014
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 11:49 AM on March 2, 2014
Kelly Link has been a favorite writer of mine since the first story of hers I read. She is a treasure.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:18 PM on March 2, 2014
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:18 PM on March 2, 2014
I watched a bunch of TVD but I had to give up when I realized that humans were just as disposable to Elena as to the vampires. How many innocent deaths has she either overlooked or enabled or been indirectly responsible for? I couldn't put up with it anymore after (cough) a couple seasons.
I'm waiting anxiously for a Kelly Link novel.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on March 2, 2014
I'm waiting anxiously for a Kelly Link novel.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on March 2, 2014
(Note: yes I read the link. I could watch it the way she suggests for a while, but it began to weigh on me.)
posted by Justinian at 1:20 PM on March 2, 2014
posted by Justinian at 1:20 PM on March 2, 2014
Oh, and she made an appearance recently on McSweeney's, with an excerpt of a story called "Catskin," which will be in their upcoming (?) MAMMOTH TREASURY OF THRILLING TALES.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:21 PM on March 2, 2014
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:21 PM on March 2, 2014
"Catskin" already appears in Magic for Beginners, btw. Which is a brilliant collection that I push on everyone I know. Kelly Link is a wonder.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:18 PM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by eyeballkid at 2:18 PM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Kelly Link is awesome. And I had a brief Twitter conversation with her a while back concerning this article and her love of Vampire Diaries, which I share.
posted by Kitteh at 2:49 PM on March 2, 2014
posted by Kitteh at 2:49 PM on March 2, 2014
Yes yes yes. My wife and I love The Vampire Diaries. We don't even consider it a "guilty" pleasure. (Though this last season has been a bit inconsistent, especially with Damon's characterization.)
Dude, THIS season has been a bit inconsistent w/r/t Damon's characterization? What about every other season?
I love Katherine, though, so I'll stick around as long as she does.
Have you been watching The Originals? Boring premise, and I hated the entire idea of "Originals" on TVD (I thought TVD was an analogy for race relations and maybe also about Southern identity, what with the immortal plantation owners and complicated overlapping of communities and layers of oppression but SILLY ME it's really about some random Viking family or something?). But The-Originals-the-Show actually ended up righting a lot of that stuff and is coming into its own, I think. There was this sequence cut to an amazing blues track in last week's cold open that just slayed me.
Anyway, this maybe means I'll have to read Kelly Link; I hadn't heard of her before.
posted by rue72 at 3:49 PM on March 2, 2014
Dude, THIS season has been a bit inconsistent w/r/t Damon's characterization? What about every other season?
I love Katherine, though, so I'll stick around as long as she does.
Have you been watching The Originals? Boring premise, and I hated the entire idea of "Originals" on TVD (I thought TVD was an analogy for race relations and maybe also about Southern identity, what with the immortal plantation owners and complicated overlapping of communities and layers of oppression but SILLY ME it's really about some random Viking family or something?). But The-Originals-the-Show actually ended up righting a lot of that stuff and is coming into its own, I think. There was this sequence cut to an amazing blues track in last week's cold open that just slayed me.
Anyway, this maybe means I'll have to read Kelly Link; I hadn't heard of her before.
posted by rue72 at 3:49 PM on March 2, 2014
I'm no longer watching television in which middle-aged men figure out how to be men. I'd rather watch shows about teenaged girls figuring out what it means to be a monster.
When I surf through my channels it seems like every other show is about middle-aged men trying to figure out what it means to be a monster.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:01 AM on March 3, 2014
When I surf through my channels it seems like every other show is about middle-aged men trying to figure out what it means to be a monster.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:01 AM on March 3, 2014
Also, I've only seen The VD in passing, but reading the interview, especially this sentence, "It's about people doing awful, monstrous things and the consequences of those awful things: that's a gothic story," it occurs to me that it's basically Dark Shadows meets giallo.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:16 AM on March 3, 2014
posted by octobersurprise at 6:16 AM on March 3, 2014
I just popped in to say I love Kelly Link and will read this at my leisure!
posted by Mister_A at 9:05 AM on March 3, 2014
posted by Mister_A at 9:05 AM on March 3, 2014
mas Kelly Link por favor.
oh! she sold a new collection of stories last year!
come ooooon 2015.
posted by echocollate at 12:34 PM on March 3, 2014
oh! she sold a new collection of stories last year!
come ooooon 2015.
posted by echocollate at 12:34 PM on March 3, 2014
Um, creepy confession: I love Metafilter too. I lurk. I'm a lurker. Will now go off and lurk some more.
posted by kellylink at 2:50 PM on March 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by kellylink at 2:50 PM on March 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Anyway, thanks for saying so many nice things, especially those who said them about The Vampire Diaries. It gladdens my secret-vampire-loving heart.
posted by kellylink at 2:53 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by kellylink at 2:53 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
METAFILTER'S OWN
posted by Justinian at 2:56 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Justinian at 2:56 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
My facebook page has become overrun by fervent secret vampire discussion now, I'll have you know. So thanks for that.
(No, really - thanks for that. It's pretty entertaining. We went from children's television to Oscar nominated films to sitcoms with a brief detour into world events (ANGELA MERKEL) and then back into JRPGs)
posted by dinty_moore at 4:47 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
(No, really - thanks for that. It's pretty entertaining. We went from children's television to Oscar nominated films to sitcoms with a brief detour into world events (ANGELA MERKEL) and then back into JRPGs)
posted by dinty_moore at 4:47 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
IS IT 2015 YET because Kelly Link is the best and a whole new book of her short stories is like if Christmas were on my birthday, but way better. Magic for Beginners might be my favorite short story of all time, because it seriously is magical, and it kind of doesn't really make sense but then, it makes so much sense, and it's fucking beautiful either way.
Also, Kelly Link is the reason I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and for that I am forever grateful. I was somehow too cool for school to watch it in high school and college while it was actually airing, and after that was kind of like "eh, I'll watch that someday once it crawls to the top of my Netflix queue". Then Kelly Link gave a reading in Iowa City (where I lived at the time) and she was amazing and gracious and talked for a really long time to everyone in the book-signing line. She talked for a good 5+ minutes to the person in front of me about how awesome the Buffy musical episode was, and I thought that if someone who writes these amazing stories thinks Buffy is another amazing story, I'd better check it out right away. I binge-watched the whole show (and then all of Angel) over the next couple months, which helped me through a kind of awful period of grad school.
I am also seriously jealous of everyone in this thread who hasn't read her stuff yet and is about to go read it for the first time.
posted by augustimagination at 10:32 AM on March 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
Also, Kelly Link is the reason I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and for that I am forever grateful. I was somehow too cool for school to watch it in high school and college while it was actually airing, and after that was kind of like "eh, I'll watch that someday once it crawls to the top of my Netflix queue". Then Kelly Link gave a reading in Iowa City (where I lived at the time) and she was amazing and gracious and talked for a really long time to everyone in the book-signing line. She talked for a good 5+ minutes to the person in front of me about how awesome the Buffy musical episode was, and I thought that if someone who writes these amazing stories thinks Buffy is another amazing story, I'd better check it out right away. I binge-watched the whole show (and then all of Angel) over the next couple months, which helped me through a kind of awful period of grad school.
I am also seriously jealous of everyone in this thread who hasn't read her stuff yet and is about to go read it for the first time.
posted by augustimagination at 10:32 AM on March 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
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