Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Short Story Wednesday: "Lantern Marsh" by Poppy Z. Brite


This is my kind of sweet, tame Halloween tale. Not too scary, but a little creepy. And with an environmental message on the side.

The story begins:

"The marsh brooded on the outskirts of town. We children sometimes played there during the day, poling flat-bottomed boats through the dark water, choked with swamp hyacinth, stranding ourselves on any of the hundreds of tiny islands. By day the marsh was a place of filtering, shifting patches of sunlight, cypress and live oak bearded with Spanish moss...

At night the lanterns took over."

Three kids (Bronwen, Phil, and Noel) live in Lantern Marsh, a town near a beautiful marsh. All of them are intrigued by the marsh, but Noel is obsessed with the marsh and its lights. Every night the lights hover above the marsh. The teachers say that it is caused by marsh gas, but none of the kids believes that.

Noel also despises a local businessman, Mr. Prudhomme, who owns half the marsh and wants to take it over and develop the land. Years later, when they go off to college, Mr. Prudhomme very nearly succeeds at doing this, but Nick carries through on his promise to stop the development. The ending is mildly creepy.


I read this story in Halloween Horrors. That book is a 2010 reprint of October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween, ed. by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish, published in 2000.


I also read a few more stories from this anthology, but none of those engaged me. They were not bad, just not the type of story I enjoy. Some combine horror with sadness, some were bland and somewhat silly. I will probably put this book on the shelf and try more stories in it next year.






26 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

My husband was a big fan of Poppy Z Brite.

George said...

I'm a big fan of Poppy Z. Brite, too. And I'll have to look into that HALLOWEEN HORRORS anthology. I've never seen it before.

col2910 said...

Heard of the author and may have tried her years ago when I read a bit of horror, but nothing has stuck.

Rick Robinson said...

Nope, no horror or scary stuff, thanks. The true horror is how long that driveway work is taking…

TracyK said...

Rick, you are so right. It is worse for us because we are so far from the street (which is a benefit in other situations). They said we would be able to access the driveway, just no cars, but they were wrong, we have had piles of broken up pavement and ground down pavement on the driveway for weeks. We can't get packages delivered and we have problems lugging in groceries. But, still, these are small problems in comparison to some. I think we should have a working driveway in about a week.

TracyK said...

Patti, while researching for this post I found some info about Poppy Z. Brite's short story collections and that the setting is often New Orleans. I am interested in looking into some books and stories by this author.

TracyK said...

George, as Todd Mason pointed out to me earlier, the anthology originally came out 10 years earlier as OCTOBER DREAMS, which is a more fitting title I think. On Goodreads, both titles got very mixed reviews, some people liking all the stories, some people didn't like any of them. It has lots of Halloween Memories essays also.

TracyK said...

Col, I have always avoided horror fiction, but Glen reads in that genre plus a lot of ghost stories, so I get some exposure.

Margot Kinberg said...

I know what you mean, Tracy, about stories that are creepy, but not gory or too unsettling. Once in a while I can enjoy a truly scary story, but most of the time, they're not my thing. Glad you liked this one.

TracyK said...

Margot, the horror and gore were off stage in this story, so not too bad. More left to the imagination, which works well for me.

Todd Mason said...

Brite moved toward crime fiction after making a mark in horror, and then rather abruptly hit a block or otherwise found other things to do with her life.

TracyK said...

Todd, Thanks for that info. I had just read that bit about her retiring from writing this morning. Wikipedia notes that the author was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky; Fantastic Fiction says New Orleans, Louisiana. Do you know which is correct? Just curious.

Todd Mason said...

Well, more properly these years if indeed not always, his life, as Brite has transitioned, as I've just been reminded.

TracyK said...

True, Todd, the Wikipedia article notes that he would prefer to be referred to by male pronouns.

Todd Mason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Todd Mason said...

I don't, Tracy--I can say that Brite has liked to rearrange his biography in some ways, but his personal website notes he was born in New Orleans just after his parents moved there from Kentucky, while the WIKI source is one Constance Brite, presumably a relative...whether mother or sister or ?, dunno. SECOND LINE is his New Orleans cf novel (only, so far, I believe) and he has the one story in SHADOWS OVER BAKER STREET that might also be one of the early marks of her literary transition away from horror...

http://www.poppyzbrite.com/bio.html

Todd Mason said...

His literary transition, that is (thought I'd caught all those, but won't leave/erase another ghost comment).

TracyK said...

SECOND LINE sounds interesting.

Cath said...

Years ago I had Poppy Z. Brite recommended to me by several people but I can't remember what the novels were about. Vampires maybe. I never did try her.

dfordoom said...

while researching for this post I found some info about Poppy Z. Brite's short story collections and that the setting is often New Orleans.

Her stuff is seriously weird, but not in a good way. Lots of seriously sick stuff. Exquisite Corpse is simply disgusting. I think you'd be well advised to steer well clear. Or make sure you have a vomit bag at hand. Seriously.

TracyK said...

Cath, if you ever try them I will want to hear what you think. The other horror stories by this author may be more than I could take, but this story was not so bad.

TracyK said...

Dfordoom, I had considered trying some of the books in the later series set in the restaurant world in New Orleans.

I just looked up Exquisite Corpse, and you are right, that would be too extreme for me.

dfordoom said...

Tracy, while EXQUISITE CORPSE is the most extreme there are things in all Brite's early work that are very extreme.

There was a major change in horror fiction and crime fiction around the late 80s, in the works of lots of authors. It was not just that the material became more extreme. There was a subtle tonal shift. The books gave the impression of being assaults on the reader.

Popular culture started to change. An obsession with sex was replaced by an obsession with extreme violence. There was the serial killer obsession. And books (and movies) dealing with serial killers started to change. Popular culture started to become very unhealthy, or that's how it seemed to me. Popular culture started to become not just violent but aggressive in its celebration of violence and misery.

I got to the stage where I felt that I just didn't want to get inside the heads of the people creating this stuff.

It's interesting to compare serial killer movies of the 70s (such as Italian giallos) with serial killer movies a quarter century later. Serial killers had gone from being villains to being people admired by the film-makers and writers.

And Brite was one of the writers pushing that change, and pushing it hard. Brite was one of the the authors who convinced me that I wanted to put as much distance as possible between myself and contemporary pop culture. When I finally made a complete break with contemporary pop culture I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

I've now told you more than you ever wanted or needed to know about my relationship with pop culture!

TracyK said...

Dfordoom, that is very interesting information about Poppy Z. Brite and pop culture. I never have understood pop culture, how it is formed and influenced. I am definitely not interested in celebrating violence. I wonder how Brite's opinions have changed over time, and what influences she/he had.

Rick Robinson said...

I read with interest what dfordoom had to say, and I agree. Social media has exacerbated the problem.

TracyK said...

Rick, I have noticed over the years that torture (graphically depicted) features more in crime fiction than it seemed to in the past. I suppose that fits in with graphic depictions of violence in serial killer thrillers. Those are the kind of books I give up on, even if the writing or characterization is good.