I have trouble considering Poppy Z. Brite a feminist author. All
female characters in her books are overshadowed by the men, who are
usually androgynous and can pass for women.
I've read all her books ("Lost Souls", "Drawing Blood",
"Wormwood", and "Exquisite Corpse"), and I've come to the conclusion that
she is basically a hack. And not a very good one at that.
When I first read "Lost Souls", I liked it. She can do wonderful
descriptions of the South, which I suppose is her one saving grace. I
then read "Drawing Blood" which I also liked. "Wormwood", her short story
collection, is also good.
Then I read "Exquisite Corpse". And that was just plain BAD. It
wasn't the gore that got me, it was the writing, the plot, the sheer
brainlessness of it.
Living in New Orleans, and leaning towards the subculture known as
"Gothic", I also saw that Brite was, essentially, stealing her ideas from
a variety of sources. The climatic torture scene in "Exquisite Corpse"
was stolen, almost image by image, from the bootleg Nine Inch Nails video
for the "Broken" ep.
Maybe it's because she's living in New Orleans...maybe it's
because she wrote about vampires...Poppy Z. Brite is slipping into Anne
Rice mode. It doesn't matter how bad it is, people will buy it and
consider it wonderful.
Kate Bolin
who just woke up and shouldn't be discussing horror writers right now
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"I'm already in the gutter....next stop, it's the drain..."
Alien Sex Fiend "I Walk The Line"
Kate Bolin http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~kbolin
Founder of Delenn Deserves Better!!
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