Talamasca

"The Talamasca" redirects here. For TV series, see The Talamasca (TV series).
Talamasca
Series
First appearanceThe Queen of the Damned (1988)
Created byAnne Rice
GenreHorror fiction
Key people
PurposeResearch,
MottoWe watch. And we are always there.

The Talamasca, sometimes known as the Order of the Talamasca, is a fictional secret society featured in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches supernatural horror novel series.[1]

It is described as a secret society set up to research, investigate, observe and monitor the paranormal, in particular, vampires, witches, spirits and werewolves.[2][3][4] Rice describes them as "psychic detectives". Many vampiric characters from Rice's novels once belonged to the Talamasca before accepting the "dark gift". Jesse Reeves, David Talbot and Merrick Mayfair are the best known of Rice's Talamasca characters.[5]

The Talamasca represents one strand of Rice's theme of anthropology in her work which she repeatedly returns to. There are a number of anthropologists in, or connected with the Talamasca. The Talamasca can itself be seen as a kind of parallel to physical anthropology, looking for artifacts of another world. This is especially clear in the Talamasca's secret search for the Taltos.[6] The Talamasca provides a solid foundation for Rice's work. With a history going back centuries it is like a backbone going through Rice's work which makes it coherent within itself.[7]

  1. ^ Loudermilk, Suzanne (September 29, 1994). "Anne Rice stumbles a bit with Taltos". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference melton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Canfield, David; EDT, 2018 at 11:00 AM (May 14, 2018). "Anne Rice's 'Vampire Chronicles' to get a complete 'Alphabettery' guide". Archived from the original on February 19, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Queen of the Damned: The Vampire Classic That Almost Was". February 17, 2022. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  5. ^ Jacobs, Matthew (October 26, 2021). "An Oral History of Queen of the Damned". Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  6. ^ Frank A. Salamove, "The anthropological vision of Anne Rice, pp. 49–50 in, Gary Hoppenstand, Ray Broadus (eds), The Gothic World of Anne Rice, Popular Press, 1996 ISBN 087972708X.
  7. ^ Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice, p. 127, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996 ISBN 0313297169.