Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle: The Love of Mona
Mayfair and Quinn Blackwood
Issues of Continuity
in Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle
As I read through Blackwood Farm, I noticed issues of continuity that were tipped off by the viewing
of movies of all things. Throughout the novel, Mona Mayfair is said to be fifteen years old at the time she and Quinn Blackwood
meet at Mayfair Medical. She was thirteen years old in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches.
Cameo of Quinn Blackwood Gifted to Lestat From Blackwood
Farm, pgs. 10, 11 (Kindle Edition)
Mona Mayfair's Age
The time setting for The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos was 1989-1990. Rowan and Michael married
in November, 1989 - the same month that Mona later tells Michael she turned thirteen during. Gifford Mayfair notes that Rowan
Mayfair had been missing for sixty-seven days at the start of Lasher - counting from December 25, 1989, that would
set the time and date of the beginning of Lasher to be on or about March 2, 1990.
By the time Quinn met Mona, he was eighteen, older than she by two or three years. If Mona was born in 1976, Quinn would have
had to be born in 1973 or 1974 (if the action was indeed in 1992). However, there is a problem with this.
Quinn tells Lestat that by the time he met Mona, Lynelle was already dead. In fact, he asked the doctor if he remembered
Lynelle, who was to study at Mayfair Medical, while he was hospitalized there after his encounter with Petronius. The
doctor told him that Lynelle was indeed remembered and made mention of the car accident that had killed her. This is
the hospitalization during which he met Mona Mayfair.
While Lynelle was alive, she, Quinn and Goblin watched a film called Immortal Beloved. This film starred
Gary Oldman as Ludwig van Beethoven and was released in theaters in January, 1995, making its video release (DVD did not exist
then, only laser disc) occur later that same year. Quinn could not possibly have seen this movie as early as 1992 or
before.
If Quinn took his three and one-half year tour of Europe from 1993/94 to 1997 and was turned into a blood drinker shortly
enough afterward for the concierge at the hotel in Italy to remember him, it seems the time between his turning and his contact
with Lestat would not have taken another three or four years, especially with Goblin getting more and more vicious.
Again, remember that Quinn could not have seen Immortal Beloved before January, 1995 at the earliest and certainly
not on video at such an early date.
Why do I object to the more than three-year difference between Quinn's vampirization and his contact with Lestat, besides
the obvious reason of Goblin? If you recall, on the night Lestat was introduced to Aunt Queen (which was also the night
she died), she and her little party were preparing to watch the movie Gladiator, clearly identified as the film directed
by Ridley Scott. That film was released to theaters in May, 2000, meaning it would not have been available for rental
or purchase until late 2000 or early 2001. Again, the action at the end of Blackwood Farm was within months
of Quinn's return from his tour of Europe with Aunt Queen.
Let us also not forget that Aunt Queen is confirmed to have been eighty-five years of age at the time of her death.
Her biological father was Julien Mayfair, who died in 1914 but was still more than capable of fathering children,
which he did. If Aunt Queen was born in or about 1915, that would make her 85th birthday occur in the year 2000.
In Blood Canticle, reference is made to the time of year, which is summer. The action in Blood Canticle
is a direct continuation of the action in Blackwood Farm, placing the action in BC in the summer of 2001 - at
that point long enough from the original stories of Lasher when Rowan Mayfair would concievably have aged enough for her blond
hair to naturally show streaks of gray as Lestat notes early on. The only other possibility is that the birth of the
Taltos caused her to show signs of premature aging, but this seems unlikely if the Taltos breast milk restored her completely
- enough to wake her from an almost certainly fatal coma.
Could Mona Mayfair have been fifteen when she met Quinn Blackwood? Not unless we move the action in the first three
books up by about five years and place Quinn and Mona's first meeting to be in or about 1996 or 1997 or different movies
had been used in the book to set the themes that influenced the character's lives. Mona was said to be about twenty
when she was made a vampire. That would have been late 1996 or most of 1997 if we keep to the timeline of the first
three books. Since Gladiator would not be released for a few years, this seems impossible, unless, like I said,
the timeline were reset to a few years later. This is because Mona Mayfair was made a vampire after Aunt
Queen died, and after the viewing of Gladiator, which would most certainly have been available for rental
or purchase by the summer of 2001. This means Mona was actually about twenty-four years old at the time she was
made a vampire, not twenty.
Mona being age twenty at the time of her becoming a vampire would only work if the action in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches
were moved up in time by four or five years. That would be inconceivable since The Witching Hour was first published
in or about November 1990. Lasher was first published in 1993, and Taltos was first published in 1994.
My estimation is that Mona Mayfair could not have been only fifteen years old and Quinn eighteen when they met, despite Michael
Curry's assertion that Quinn was that age at the time. My estimation is that Quinn met Mona - after Lynelle died and
well after the release of Immortal Beloved - in late 1996 or early 1997. He then went on his three and one-half
year tour of Europe with Aunt Queen and their entourage.
Quinn's return from Europe and subsequent vampirization by Petronia/Petronius would have occurred around late 2000 or early
2001, if he had spent months being barred from Mona's bedside and then hiding his vampiric state from Mona, then managed to
be informed that Gladiator was being viewed in his home. It takes us to Quinn's ultimate decision to seek out
Lestat and ask for his assistance with Goblin in the summer of 2001.
Mona would, in this timeline, be about twenty-four years old at this point, because if we keep with the timeline of the Lives
of the Mayfair Witches, her twenty-fifth birthday would not have been until November, 2001.
Since Quinn is older than Mona, he would have had to be about twenty-two or twenty-three when they met.
In Blackwood Farm, Mona and Quinn signed their emails and messages to each other "Ophelia" and "Abelard". These
two characters represent the tragedy of the love affair between a dying witch and a seer of spirits because their love, while
deep, profound, and utterly romantic, is also doomed.
Mona, already wasting away from the illness brought on by the birth of her Taltos daughter, cannot have children for the same
reason. Quinn learns, too late to avoid falling in love with Mona, that he is in fact too closely related to her to
ever marry her. It is not because the Mayfairs do not condone marriages between cousins; it is because those marriages
between cousins too close and who each possess the 92 chromosomes required to possibly reproduce Taltos offspring have resulted
in disaster - the near destruction of the Mayfair legacy and the threat to the continuation of the Mayfair line into
future generations. A marriage between Mona and Quinn would almost guarantee disaster, even if Mona were healthy and
able to bear at the time she met Quinn.
Unlike Ophelia, who drowns herself most memorably, or Abelard, who does not die, but is painfully separated from Heloise,
Mona and Quinn's story becomes different. Quinn, like Abelard, is separated from Mona because her family (Rowan and
Michael) has taken her access to her computer, her only means of contact with Quinn while he is abroad. She is ill,
dying, and the computer only excites her and taxes her already waning resources. Quinn unwillingly becomes a vampire,
and at that point, he deliberately separates himself from Mona, not wanting her to know what he has become.
Mona knows she is dying, but not because she intends to commit suicide. She has no idea that Quinn has become a vampire
but at the end, leaves Mayfair Medical and has her limo driver help her collect all the flowers she can find to take to Blackwood
Manor so she can die in Quinn's bed, on a bower of flowers, just like Ophelia.
What Mona also does not know is that Goblin, the doppelganger whose presence she immediately witnessed and understood (the
catalyst for the beginning of Mona and Quinn's romance) is, at the moment of her flight from the hospital, being exorcised
by Merrick with Quinn and Lestat in attendance. When Quinn finds Mona in his bedroom, among the flowers, waiting to
die like Ophelia after he was sure he would never see her again, he has to reveal to her what he has become.
Abelard and Heloise by Jean
Vignaud, 1819 Click the Image to Read About Abelard and Heloise on The Collector
This is the moment that turns their romance away from Mona dying like Ophelia, cut off from the man she loved by that man
for her own sake, as Abelard apparently did. Quinn was, up until that very moment, ripped away from Mona both by her
family and by Quinn's own vampirism.
It is Lestat, the Brat Prince, who instead transforms Mona from a wasted waif of a being who was the most powerful witch her
family had ever produced to an even more powerful vampire. Quinn had never "turned" anyone and did not understand that
in Mona's weakened state, the tragedy of both Ophelia and Abelard would have been realized. Mona would not have survived
the attempt, and if she had, the two of them would not be able to hear each other as maker and makee cannot do this.
The vampire who turned Quinn, though old, had not received the blood of Akasha, formerly the Queen Mother of the vampires.
That vampire was not taken by Memnoch to witness the crucifixion of Christ and also take in the blood of Christ. Lestat
did both of these things and he is only about 200 years old. Even so, he had to be careful and prepare her to be strong
enough to survive the turning.
Thus, the tragic lovers were given a chance that their chosen literary/historical counterparts did not have. To
remain together forever, to never die, to be able to speak without words, to enjoy freedoms they never could in their human
lives, perhaps for all eternity.
Click the link below to see the 3D model versions of the Blackwood Farm cameos:
Anne Rice used another house she owned in New Orleans as the house Mona Mayfair had lived in
with her parents before living with Rowan and Michael at First Street. You can learn more about the house on this page of
the Parlor:
The time setting for The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos was 1989-1990. Rowan and Michael married
in November, 1989 - the same month that Mona later tells Michael she turned thirteen during. Gifford Mayfair notes that Rowan
Mayfair had been missing for sixty-seven days at the start of Lasher - counting from December 25, 1989, that would
set the time and date of the beginning of Lasher to be on or about March 2, 1990.
By the time Quinn met Mona, he was eighteen, older than she by two or three years. If Mona was born in 1976, Quinn would have
had to be born in 1973 or 1974 (if the action was indeed in 1992). However, there is a problem with this.
Quinn tells Lestat that by the time he met Mona, Lynelle was already dead. In fact, he asked the doctor if he remembered
Lynelle, who was to study at Mayfair Medical, while he was hospitalized there after his encounter with Petronius. The
doctor told him that Lynelle was indeed remembered and made mention of the car accident that had killed her. This is
the hospitalization during which he met Mona Mayfair.
While Lynelle was alive, she, Quinn and Goblin watched a film called Immortal Beloved. This film starred
Gary Oldman as Ludwig van Beethoven and was released in theaters in January, 1995, making its video release (DVD did not exist
then, only laser disc) occur later that same year. Quinn could not possibly have seen this movie as early as 1992 or
before.
If Quinn took his three and one-half year tour of Europe from 1993/94 to 1997 and was turned into a blood drinker shortly
enough afterward for the concierge at the hotel in Italy to remember him, it seems the time between his turning and his contact
with Lestat would not have taken another three or four years, especially with Goblin getting more and more vicious.
Again, remember that Quinn could not have seen Immortal Beloved before January, 1995 at the earliest and certainly
not on video at such an early date.
Why do I object to the more than three-year difference between Quinn's vampirization and his contact with Lestat, besides
the obvious reason of Goblin? If you recall, on the night Lestat was introduced to Aunt Queen (which was also the night
she died), she and her little party were preparing to watch the movie Gladiator, clearly identified as the film directed
by Ridley Scott. That film was released to theaters in May, 2000, meaning it would not have been available for rental
or purchase until late 2000 or early 2001. Again, the action at the end of Blackwood Farm was within months
of Quinn's return from his tour of Europe with Aunt Queen.
Let us also not forget that Aunt Queen is confirmed to have been eighty-five years of age at the time of her death.
Her biological father was Julien Mayfair, who died in 1914 but was still more than capable of fathering children,
which he did. If Aunt Queen was born in or about 1915, that would make her 85th birthday occur in the year 2000.
In Blood Canticle, reference is made to the time of year, which is summer. The action in Blood Canticle
is a direct continuation of the action in Blackwood Farm, placing the action in BC in the summer of 2001 - at
that point long enough from the original stories of Lasher when Rowan Mayfair would concievably have aged enough for her blond
hair to naturally show streaks of gray as Lestat notes early on. The only other possibility is that the birth of the
Taltos caused her to show signs of premature aging, but this seems unlikely if the Taltos breast milk restored her completely
- enough to wake her from an almost certainly fatal coma.
Could Mona Mayfair have been fifteen when she met Quinn Blackwood? Not unless we move the action in the first three
books up by about five years and place Quinn and Mona's first meeting to be in or about 1996 or 1997 or different movies
had been used in the book to set the themes that influenced the character's lives. Mona was said to be about twenty
when she was made a vampire. That would have been late 1996 or most of 1997 if we keep to the timeline of the first
three books. Since Gladiator would not be released for a few years, this seems impossible, unless, like I said,
the timeline were reset to a few years later. This is because Mona Mayfair was made a vampire after Aunt
Queen died, and after the viewing of Gladiator, which would most certainly have been available for rental
or purchase by the summer of 2001. This means Mona was actually about twenty-four years old at the time she was
made a vampire, not twenty.
Mona being age twenty at the time of her becoming a vampire would only work if the action in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches
were moved up in time by four or five years. That would be inconceivable since The Witching Hour was first published
in or about November 1990. Lasher was first published in 1993, and Taltos was first published in 1994.
My estimation is that Mona Mayfair could not have been only fifteen years old and Quinn eighteen when they met, despite Michael
Curry's assertion that Quinn was that age at the time. My estimation is that Quinn met Mona - after Lynelle died and
well after the release of Immortal Beloved - in late 1996 or early 1997. He then went on his three and one-half
year tour of Europe with Aunt Queen and their entourage.
Quinn's return from Europe and subsequent vampirization by Petronia/Petronius would have occurred around late 2000 or early
2001, if he had spent months being barred from Mona's bedside and then hiding his vampiric state from Mona, then managed to
be informed that Gladiator was being viewed in his home. It takes us to Quinn's ultimate decision to seek out
Lestat and ask for his assistance with Goblin in the summer of 2001.
Mona would, in this timeline, be about twenty-four years old at this point, because if we keep with the timeline of the Lives
of the Mayfair Witches, her twenty-fifth birthday would not have been until November, 2001.
In Blackwood Farm, Mona and Quinn signed their emails and messages to each other "Ophelia" and "Abelard". These
two characters represent the tragedy of the love affair between a dying witch and a seer of spirits because their love, while
deep, profound, and utterly romantic, is also doomed.
Mona, already wasting away from the illness brought on by the birth of her Taltos daughter, cannot have children for the same
reason. Quinn learns, too late to avoid falling in love with Mona, that he is in fact too closely related to her to
ever marry her. It is not because the Mayfairs do not condone marriages between cousins; it is because those marriages
between cousins too close and who each possess the 92 chromosomes required to possibly reproduce Taltos offspring have resulted
in disaster - the near destruction of the Mayfair legacy and the threat to the continuation of the Mayfair line into
future generations. A marriage between Mona and Quinn would almost guarantee disaster, even if Mona were healthy and
able to bear at the time she met Quinn.
Unlike Ophelia, who drowns herself most memorably, or Abelard, who does not die, but is painfully separated from Heloise,
Mona and Quinn's story becomes different. Quinn, like Abelard, is separated from Mona because her family (Rowan and
Michael) has taken her access to her computer, her only means of contact with Quinn while he is abroad. She is ill,
dying, and the computer only excites her and taxes her already waning resources. Quinn unwillingly becomes a vampire,
and at that point, he deliberately separates himself from Mona, not wanting her to know what he has become.
Mona knows she is dying, but not because she intends to commit suicide. She has no idea that Quinn has become a vampire
but at the end, leaves Mayfair Medical and has her limo driver help her collect all the flowers she can find to take to Blackwood
Manor so she can die in Quinn's bed, on a bower of flowers, just like Ophelia.
What Mona also does not know is that Goblin, the doppelganger whose presence she immediately witnessed and understood (the
catalyst for the beginning of Mona and Quinn's romance) is, at the moment of her flight from the hospital, being exorcised
by Merrick with Quinn and Lestat in attendance. When Quinn finds Mona in his bedroom, among the flowers, waiting to
die like Ophelia after he was sure he would never see her again, he has to reveal to her what he has become.
This is the moment that turns their romance away from Mona dying like Ophelia, cut off from the man she loved by that man
for her own sake, as Abelard apparently did. Quinn was, up until that very moment, ripped away from Mona both by her
family and by Quinn's own vampirism.
It is Lestat, the Brat Prince, who instead transforms Mona from a wasted waif of a being who was the most powerful witch her
family had ever produced to an even more powerful vampire. Quinn had never "turned" anyone and did not understand that
in Mona's weakened state, the tragedy of both Ophelia and Abelard would have been realized. Mona would not have survived
the attempt, and if she had, the two of them would not be able to hear each other as maker and makee cannot do this.
The vampire who turned Quinn, though old, had not received the blood of Akasha, formerly the Queen Mother of the vampires.
That vampire was not taken by Memnoch to witness the crucifixion of Christ and also take in the blood of Christ. Lestat
did both of these things and he is only about 200 years old. Even so, he had to be careful and prepare her to be strong
enough to survive the turning.
Thus, the tragic lovers were given a chance that their chosen literary/historical counterparts did not have. To
remain together forever, to never die, to be able to speak without words, to enjoy freedoms they never could in their human
lives, perhaps for all eternity.
