#billy z brite
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Queer horror from my teens
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I periodically wonder whether these books are still known and read by young goths and horror fans as they were all extremely important to me in my teenage years, so I thought I'd share them.
Though I'm cishet, during the mid 90s two of my favourite authors wrote primarily queer fiction: they were Anne Rice and another author from New Orleans who is now known as Billy Martin.
He came out as a trans man in 2011, however these books were published prior to that so unfortunately you have to search for them under his deadname. This is why I've used that name in the tags on this post. I don't believe the books were ever reprinted with his current name.
Though I loved Rice, I always felt a more immediate connection with Martin due to his vivid portrayal of subcultures like goth and punk, and how it felt to be a teenager who was part of them. I could see myself in many of his characters as I had the same interests, listened to the same music, and shared the same sense of social alienation. Remember in the 90s the Internet was still a reasonably new thing, and many of us didn't have a home Internet connection at all. There was certainly no social media, no YouTube, and no real way to meet and interact with like-minded teens unless you were lucky enough to have another "weird kid" at your school. If you were a weird kid, you likely had very few friends and were bullied.
That as much as anything else led me to seek solace in books written by an author who I felt understood me, and characters who became my friends.
Lost Souls is about vampires in a kind of Lost Boys/Near Dark way. Fans of the YouTuber OfHerbsAndAltars might be interested to know that this book is where the name of his channel comes from - it's a description of the taste of Chartreuse liqueur.
Drawing Blood is about ghosts, a "murder house", computer hacking, comic art and a very beautiful (if rather messed up) romance. This one is probably my favourite of the three.
Exquisite Corpse is about serial killers, set against the AIDS crisis of the 90s. If you like the Hannibal TV series you'll probably enjoy this one - imagine if Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer had somehow met.
Martin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to descriptions of blood and gore, violence, abusive parents or his portrayal of toxic romantic relationships (of which there are many in his books), but if you can deal with those things there is also a great deal of beauty, phenomenally good writing, and a somewhat unique perspective on the supernatural.
Maybe I'm biased, looking at these through the lens of my teenage self. Maybe they'd seem horribly dated to today's young audience. But I still wanted to make this post in case there's someone out there who will end up loving them as much as I did.
#queer horror#lgbt horror#90s goth#90s punk#90s alternative#goth#gothic#horror#vampire books#vampire fiction#haunted house#poppy z brite#billy martin#lost souls#drawing blood#exquisite corpse#of herbs and altars#90s#trans author#queer author#goth book#gothic horror#goth subculture#punk subculture#lgbt fiction#queer fiction#queer goth#Lgbt goth
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Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z. Brite (currently Billy Martin)
#quotes#new favorite book. also it is vile and i cannot reccomend it in good conscience#poppy z brite#queer writers#horror writers#billy martin#exquisite corpse
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“To everyone else he was Tran. In English, the short sharp syllable suggested movement (transmission, transpose) and the crossing of boundaries (transcontinental, tranquilize, transvestite), both of which he liked.”
#exquisite corpse#poppy z brite#billy martin#horror#queer horror#lgbt horror#gothic fiction#art#character design#digital art#my art#i need to go to a goth club with him badly#tran vinh
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i feel like i shouldn't like this terrible man as much as i do
#i always hand pick the most morally reprehensible character as my favourite and this book has like 11#really enjoying it#exquisite corpse#William Joseph Martin#William j Martin#Billy Martin#horror novel#horror#queer horror#andrew compton#jay byrne#poppy z brite#<the author's deadname but he still uses it professionally sometimes#lucas ransom#tran vinh
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Can you love when you cannot love?
"Je veux m'anéantir dans ta gorge profonde,
Et trouver sur ton sein la fraîcheur des tombeaux!"
Femmes Damnées - Delphine et Hippolyte (À la Pâle Clarté) - Charles Baudelaire
Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
"Ah! I have kissed thy mouth, Iokanaan, I have kissed thy mouth. There was a bitter taste on thy lips. Was it the taste of blood? Nay; but perchance it was the taste of love. They say that love hath a bitter taste. But what matter? what matter? I have kissed thy mouth."
Salome - Oscar Wilde
"When I say forever [...] I mean until the black death of the world. An Ivan means just the present moment, the flickering light of it, in a green field, his mouth on yours. He means the stretching of that moment. But forever isn’t bright; it isn’t like that. Forever is cold and hard and final."
Deathless - Catherynne M. Valente
"I love you Jay."
"I can’t say that. If I loved you, I don’t think we’d both still be alive. But I know you, Andrew, and that’s something I’ve never said to anyone else."
Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z. Brite (Billy Martin)
"You cannot love."
"I cannot. And yet I cannot be sated without you."
Nosferatu, 2024 - Robert Eggers
#Me: pointing at this like the Will Smith meme#Doesn't look that weird in this company now does it#see bitch i did my homework and brought receipts#what have you got#Deathless has so many excellent quotes#might do a whole post about them because it deserves to be more well-known#nosferatu#nosferatu 2024#nosferatu spoilers#nosferatu 2024 spoilers#ellen hutter#count orlok#robert eggers#charles baudelaire#femmes damnees#poetry#baudelaire#wuthering heights#emily bronte#catherine earnshaw#heathcliff#salome#oscar wilde#deathless#catherynne m. valente#koschei#marya morevna#exquisite corpse#poppy z brite#billy martin
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JK Rowling: hello children Rowling: i want you to sssay hello to Rowling: graham lineham Lineham: [wearing foil hat] free masons run the country Rowling: he'sss got sssome great ideasss you should hear
Poe: joanne you don't need to bring him here Poe: like, you really don't Rowling: he hass thingsss to sssay and you're ALL going to hear them Poe: this is really kind of off topic for us here Rowling: EVERYONE will hear them
Rowling: ssssee, yearsss ago i disssmisssed graham lineham'ssss babble as the bad opticsss ravingsss of a lunatic Rowling: but now that the overton window hass sshifted Rowling: i'm proud to sssay thessse bad opticsss ravingsss are quite good actually!
Rowling: go ahead, graham, tell them what you told me Lineham: trans people produce no great films, no music, no art Lineham: they're incapable of doing this basic human thing because they're subhuman Lineham: untermensch, if you will Rowling: isssn't he great?
Lineham: trans books are always universally panned because of their incoherence Billy Martin: Hailey Piper: Eve Harms: Gretchen Felker-Martin: Joe Koch: M. Lopes da Silva: Arden Powell: Lor Gislason: Julya Oui: LC von Hessen: GE Woods: Michelle Belanger: Rain Corbyn: SA Chant:
FT Catulla: Viktor Athelstan: Meagan Hotz: Ziggy Schutz: Rose Sable: WN Derring-Judith: Charles Maria Tor: Devaki Devay: Dayna Ingram: Ori Jay: Ai Burton: Gabriel Valentine: Cosmin-Mihai Birsan: Jei D Marcade: Rhiannon Rasmussen: Max Turner: Taylor J Pitts: Vincent Endwell:
Bri Crozier: Theo Hendrie: Derek des Anges: Briar Ripley Page: Winter Holmes: gaast: Maya Deane: Charles-Elizabeth Boyles: Layne van Rensburg: Amanda M Blake: May Leitz: Alison Rumfitt: Rivers Solomon: Lillian Boyd: Torrey Peters: Taliesin Neith: Daniel M. Lavery: Joss Lake: Aubrey Wood: Jonah Wu:
Daphne du Maurier: Patricia Highsmith: Franz Kafka: Kafka: wait Kafka: why did the camera pan to me
Barker: oh you know why haha Poe: clive Kafka: why Kafka: [hugging blåhaj] i don't know what you mean
#midnight pals#the midnight society#midnight society#clive barker#edgar allan poe#jk rowling#graham linehan#franz kafka#billy martin#poppy z brite#hailey piper#eve harms#joe koch#gretchen felker martin#aubrey wood#ge woods#jonah wu#gaast#maya deane#may leitz#patricia highsmith#daphne du maurier#torrey peters#alison rumfitt#lillian boyd#M. Lopes da Silva#Arden Powell#Lor Gislason#Julya Oui#LC von Hessen
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excerpt from Drawing Blood, Poppy Z Brite (1993)
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great article by poppy z brite / billy martin about the intersection of queerness and horror. thought it might also resonate with a lot of people here.
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guess my favourite author (impossible edition)
#txt#pzb#finally showing all of my brite collection (so far) :-D#i also technically own a hardback copy of drawing blood#but my friend has it right now lol#so i couldnt photograph it </3#also if any1 wants me 2 scan the chapbook just lmk... im not sure if its available 2 read online#so if its not and u wanna read it... let me kno :-3#ignore how many repeat books there r btw LOL#i hav autism ok...#its just me and my three (3) copies of lost souls against the world.......#idfk what 2 tag this as#poppy z brite#billy martin#lost souls#drawing blood#exquisite corpse
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local cannibal seeks victim soulmate ‼️
Bonus Tran being cute & color versions :
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#exquisite corpse#horror literature#character sheet#tran vinh#andrew compton#jay byrne#my art#ink drawing#this is an open invite to discuss this book with me#it was so powerful it broke my art block i cant get these guys out of my head#oh just realized#blood tw#im proud of my andrew design he looks appropriately british#tran deserved better and i love him sm#jay i have too many thoughts on. what being named lysander does to a mf#poppy z brite#billy martin#pencil sketch#cannibalism tw#queer horror#lgbt horror
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Lost souls playlist including all artists mentioned in the book i could find and some song i associated with it
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just finished poppy z. brite's "exquisite corpse" and it absolutely wrecked me. was especially really, eerily compelled by the abusive and tense relationship between luke and tran.
they are both such fascinating and honest characters. i've met them, i've known them, i've loved them, i've been them. so i had to sketch them out.
i really loved the book but it is incredibly graphic and is probably the most objectively vile thing i've ever read. it's a book about two gay serial killers, the runaway who gets caught up with them, and his abusive ex-bf-turned-abrassive-niche-radio-host.
but, it is also such an honest and compelling exploration of queer relationships, of desire, of mortality, and of the social impact of HIV/AIDs. also the prose is bone-chilling, beautiful, and gruesome while still feeling very down-to-earth and real.
#art tag#exquisite corpse#billy martin#poppy z. brite#poppy z brite#queer authors#trans authors#queer characters#digital sketch#digital art#character design#none of these characters are blorbos i hope this goes without saying LMAO
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i know you
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You will be safe as long as I live: forever, or nearly so. I love you.
- Poppy Z Brite
#my post#2023#collage#mixed media#lost souls#poppy z brite#billy martin#lost souls poppy z brite#goth
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started reading exquisite corpse & had to make a rough sketch & description of some characters
#exquisite corpse#horror#horror books#queer horror#queer books#poppy z brite#billy martin#lgbt horror#gothic fiction#art#my art#character design
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