Beauty is Terror (Poppy Z. Brite in General)

Member Name: edie

Product:	Poppy Z. Brite in General
Date:	23/05/01 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A unique writer

Disadvantages: Not for delicate sensibilities

The introduction to Poppy Z Brite's book Self Made Man contains a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke that goes "For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure." This, to me, is key to her fiction. Poppy Z Brite combines shocking subject matter with a lush delicate style. And manages to make not just compatible but stunningly, vividly dependent on each other.

Poppy is often categorised as a horror writer as her work contains zombies, vampires and ghosts. Although she is too complex to fit neatly into any genre. There is an undeniable eroticism in her novels though a perverse one. Specifically Poppy finds beauty in that which most people find disgusting: death, decay and internal organs.

Love it or hate it, Poppy creates a unique world. most of her writing takes place in the deep south of America, specifically New Orleans. But it is a New Orleans of her imagination, more dangerous, seedy, romantic and haunted than the real place could ever be. The mood is compelling producing a hypnotic effect that makes everything else fade into the background. (They're not recommended for tube reading or you'll miss your stop).

Her work not without problems. The best writers should provoke the reader, but Poppy often just irritates me. What's especially irritating is her good qualities seem inextricably linked with the bad ones. In much the same way that the eroticism and violence in her world are twinned together so it seems impossible to have this talent minus the flaws.

One major irritant is the lack of substantive females in her work. Poppy's undeniably a fag hag, (although I’m sure she would be pleased by this label) so almost all her characters are homosexual men. Yet its strange that as a women she seems incapable of writing female characters. Women get ignored or badly characterised in her work to such an extent that would be called misogynist in a male writer.
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br>Another thing that bothers me is her simplistic anti-establishment morality- police, parents, school, and conventional careers are bad, bad, bad. But drugs, eyeliner, homosexuality and industrial music are the apothesis of life. None of which I have any problem with, but this one dimensional view ironically makes her more constricted than the straights. While Poppy must be the last person in the world who thinks that goths are cool.

Partially, my problems are personally based. At it's worst her writing reminds me embarrassingly of my angsty, teenage self. I don't imagine myself to be much of a grown up now but its odd that someone in their mid-thirties still seems stuck in the mindset of a troubled pretentious adolescent. What's also apparent is how similar her work is. Most novelists are limited in their subject matter but their genius is in their original treatment of this. After reading several poppy stories you can predict how they will end and even what metaphors she will use. On initial exposure her work is stunning but after reading a few books the law of diminishing returns begins to kick in. I still think that people’s favourite Poppy novel is always the first one they read.

Anyway the books:

Lost Souls 1992
This was her first novel and an instant cult favourite. With its family of vampires travelling from New Orleans to Missing Mile, North Carolina, this book pleasingly combines vamps and rock and roll (though it does remind me a bit too much of Anne Rice’s work) It also memorably captures the heady, humid atmosphere of the deep south. (you can almost smell the bourbon.)

Drawing Blood 1993
This is my favourite and a welcome return to Missing mile. Trevor is only survivor of a his father's massacre of his family and 20 years after the tragedy comes back to his childhood home. but his quest for answers is complicated by Zak Bosch, a computer hacker on the run. Drawing Blood is
probably poppy's most oddly life affirming novel, even managing a boy meets boy and they live happily ever after ending. Though only in America it seems, is it possible to have a moody, existential hero called Trevor.

Swamp Fever 1993 (Also published as Wormwood)
This was her first collection of short stories. the compilation includes the excellent His mouth will taste of wormwood which is classic poppy fiction in miniature. This is one of her best work's as Poppy's style is at its most addictive in short stories.

Self Made Man 1998
Her second short story collection is not quite as good as Swamp Fever but is still readable. Some are in the classic poppy vein like Self Made Man: a serial killer/ zombie tale. And America and Vine of the Soul return to the characters from Lost Souls and Drawing Blood respectively. There are also experiments like Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz which is an intriguing attempt at historical fiction.

Exquisite Corpse 1996
This is her most extreme work to date and even avid readers might find it difficult. Its the story of a couple of cannibalistic serial killers in Aids-ravaged New Orleans. Exquisite Corpse matches bleak nihilism with an ability to offend. I don't quite agree with the appalled reader who graffitied the inside of my library copy with "why are libraries wasting tax-payers money on this filth." But the savouring of violent death still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Courtney Love; The Real Story 1997
Poppy recently wrote a well received biography of Courtney Love. It was her first major non-fiction work suggesting she is branching out into different areas. Although the florid soap opera of Courtney’s life lends itself to Poppy's sensibilities and its still written in her excessive prose .

Lazarus Heart 1998
This was a novel spin-off from The Crow. This is something of a minor work as its within the limitations of
the movie novelization genre. Despite the obvious sympathy with The Crow's doom-laden plot it still has the feel of something done mainly for the money.

Guilty But Insane 2001
This is another non fiction essay collection which apparently includes a speculation on a relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I haven’t read but it looks like an pointer to her obsessions.

What’s apparent from the list is Poppy hasn’t written a major novel for 5 years. This is a bit worrying suggesting serious writers block. Especially since Exquisite Corpse in all it's literary extemitis suggested the end of the line of her work. It'll be interesting to see where poppy goes in the future. I hope she develops as a writer and manages to marry a more mature, deeper outlook with her own peculiar style, if she does I think she'll be formidable author.

More information can be found at her website poppyzbrite.com

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