"Invest in a feather duster - the possibilities are endless"
About this Quote
Anne Rice’s line lands like a wink from inside a velvet-curtained room: domestic on the surface, deliciously improper underneath. A feather duster is the most polite object imaginable, a symbol of housekeeping and respectability. Rice weaponizes that respectability by hinting at its other life - a prop that can slide from tidying into theater, from “cleaning up” into making a mess on purpose. The humor isn’t just in the double entendre; it’s in the way she uses the language of sensible self-improvement (“invest”) to bless indulgence. It’s capitalism-as-alibi: you’re not being decadent, you’re being practical.
The subtext is classic Rice: the erotic hiding in plain sight, and the thrill of transgression performed with good manners. Her vampires and witches are always negotiating desire against decorum, turning rituals into invitations. A feather duster fits that universe perfectly - a soft instrument, designed to graze surfaces, suddenly recast as a tool for sensation, power play, and role reversal. “Possibilities are endless” is coyly expansive, refusing to specify, letting the reader collaborate. That open-endedness is part of the seduction: it’s not instruction, it’s permission.
Context matters because Rice wrote for audiences hungry for the gothic as a lifestyle, not just a genre. This quip could sit beside her larger project: smuggling taboo through elegance, making the forbidden feel plush, humorous, and oddly wholesome. The joke is that cleanliness and kink share a closet, and she’s handing you the key.
The subtext is classic Rice: the erotic hiding in plain sight, and the thrill of transgression performed with good manners. Her vampires and witches are always negotiating desire against decorum, turning rituals into invitations. A feather duster fits that universe perfectly - a soft instrument, designed to graze surfaces, suddenly recast as a tool for sensation, power play, and role reversal. “Possibilities are endless” is coyly expansive, refusing to specify, letting the reader collaborate. That open-endedness is part of the seduction: it’s not instruction, it’s permission.
Context matters because Rice wrote for audiences hungry for the gothic as a lifestyle, not just a genre. This quip could sit beside her larger project: smuggling taboo through elegance, making the forbidden feel plush, humorous, and oddly wholesome. The joke is that cleanliness and kink share a closet, and she’s handing you the key.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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