Author’s Note: This was originally a paper I wrote for my Southern Literature class back in 2007. It has been slightly edited since then, but I wanted to include it as a blog piece since it discusses most of Brandon Massey’s (who was my first black horror writer I had ever come across; more later) works, most notably Dark Corner. I chose Anne Rice to co-star in this paper, because both represented not only the Southern Novel, but also the subject of the Grotesque, a very intriguing figure of the literary world. One last quick fact, I contacted Brandon Massey via his website to inform him of this paper and he asked for a copy of it when I was finished. I can’t recall what was said after he received the paper, but it was still a honor for him to ask for a copy of it.
Throughout the semester, we have studied intensely the characteristics, themes, and various forms of Southern Literature and how they apply in everyday southern life.
One of the sub-genres of Southern Literature is the Southern Gothic, which according to Wikipedia, “relies on the supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot. Unlike its predecessor, it uses these tools not for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Gothic) Though seemingly steeped in the supernatural, trepidation, and anxiety that refuses to let go of the later generations of those who participated in the horrors of the past, Southern Gothic still display symbols of family, mystery, and southern hospitality. The Southern Gothic has an ironic charm that can be seen in the works of Faulkner, Welty, and, of course, O’ Connor. The two authors who are being showcased for this paper, Anne Rice and Brandon Massey, both display the three characteristics (family, mystery, southern hospitality) that were mentioned before as well as standard tropes of a good southern literature novel. In this paper, my intent is to connect Rice and Massey through their novels and the genres they represent, for Massey that is the Southern Gothic, horror, and African American literature. Hopefully by the end of this paper, you will recognize that these two authors represent the South well through their Gothic tales.
From a one standpoint, Anne Rice and Brandon Massey are seen as horror writers who just happen to set their books in the South and nothing more, but after delving into their past histories you can see where a lot of the motivation comes from in their writing. Anne Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, a trademark city in Southern Literature canon and the setting for many of Rice’s novels. New Orleans inspired Rice’s The Mayfair Witches Saga and most of the central action takes place in the house that Rice resided in while writing the first novel in the trilogy called The Witching Hour, which tells the tale about a dynasty of witches that are overshadowed by a demon named Lasher. The house (and city) are also featured prominently in the other two novels in the series, Lasher and Taltos, as well.
New Orleans also appears in Rice’s more popular set of novels, The Vampire Chronicles. The first novel in the series, Interview with the Vampire, is at first set in San Francisco; but we are later transported back in time to the Old South of New Orleans with the protagonist, Louis, a tragic character that after the death of his brother is forcibly turned into a vampire by the mysterious and malevolent Lestat.
Rice takes a joy in writing about New Orleans in her novels and it seems as if her characters enjoy being there themselves. “And the Garden District, ah, the Garden District. His memories were so ethereal as to be suspect…” (Hour, 62).
Rice’s characters also jet set the world in various locations throughout her novels, such as Paris, London, San Francisco, and Egypt. A story might start in one of these places, but it is sure to find its way back to New Orleans (Smith, 6). Anne Rice’s writing is so surreal that her words flow like water in a never-ending stream. “It was a sight to behold even from a distance. And the jewels only made it more sinister… And Father Mattingly, who believed above all in the sanctity of life, thought Deirdre’s death would have been a blessing…” (Hour, 99). While reading Rice’s work, one can be sure to have more than enough descriptive detail to last them a lifetime. Her intricate eye for detail enhances the reading experience as if you can easily breathe in the various scents and see the enchanting sights of Canal Street from the comfort of your bed.
When asked if she was considered a southern writer in an interview with Playboy, Rice responded, “I was always a southern writer… Books I have cherished and loved are books like Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury… I feel like my writing has always been influenced by these lush Southern writers” (Beahm, 54).
While Anne Rice was born in the south and left for the west coast only to come back to New Orleans, author Brandon Massey was born in Illinois and relocated to the south, specifically Georgia, where most of his stories and novels take place. His relocation was due to his roots and heritage being from the south, which always intrigued him. Massey was fairly new on the scene of horror fiction, his first novel, Thunderland, was published in 1999 and won the Gold Pen Award. A couple of anthologies followed as well as three other novels; Dark Corner, Within the Shadows, Vicious, Into the Dark, and many others.
Where Rice specializes in the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana exclusively some would say, Massey’s writing inspiration seems to stem from Georgia and Mississippi. In Dark Corner, the main plot of the story is set in the small Mississippi town of Dark Corner and it deals with the Southern Gothic aspects of the past, especially with a big dilapidated, antebellum mansion overlooks the town like a menacing force waiting to jump at any given moment. The characters in the town are that of typical southern folks, but the town is majorly black with some whites here and there, and is kind of reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston’s Eatonville, except that Massey refrains from using too much southern drawl or dialect. The setting for Within the Shadows is Atlanta, Georgia, the bustling Black Mecca of the South where most black professionals from all tricks of the trade flock to enhance their crafts.
In an article titled “O Brothers Where Is Thou? The Absence of Black Men Writing Southern Fiction”, the author Brian Egeston asks about the absence of the black male southern writer. He also asks Brandon Massey if he was considered a southern writer and Massey responded that the then new Dark Corner was considered southern fiction. “I wanted to give the reader a bird’s eye view of what this small town in Mississippi was like” (Egeston, online).
Dark Corner, as well as Within the Shadows, can be seen as canonical southern fiction novels as well as most of Anne Rice’s novels. Two of the qualities that hold these novels to true southern tradition are the notion of family and the concept of Southern Hospitality.
Family plays a big role with both authors and it shows through their novels and short stories. In Dark Corner, the central conflict is more than vampires, but the bonds between families, especially that of the father/son relationship. The father/son relationship also appears in Massey’s other novels, but the setting of Dark Corner is prevalent to the overall setting of ancestral ties that bind; and the haunting feeling of the next generation who must pay for the last generation’s sins. This will be looked at closely later. The protagonist, David Hunter, comes to Dark Corner to look for the father he never really knew, just as the antagonist, the vampire Kyle, ironically does the same as well. While these main plot threads are playing out, we are also introduced to the sense of southern hospitality through the town’s inhabitants that ranged from David’s neighbors to small characters who all band together once they realize the supernatural element they are up against.
Anne Rice’s family dynamic is not too different from Brandon Massey’s, but it is very out of the ordinary. In The Witching Hour, the Mayfair family is center stage and it brings, again, the notion of the ties that bind, especially with the incestuous relationships that were the norm within this family. Connection is a constant running theme throughout Rice’s novels and this point is exceedingly tapped on in the Mayfair Witches saga, because of New Orleans as its setting. “Of all these settings, New Orleans is the most important, and Rice’s on this setting emphasizes the importance of family and mystery in this story” (Smith, 143). The vampires in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles have a sort of family unit with their fledgling/maker connections to each other expanding through their many years of existence. These vampiric ties that bind usually have the various covens meet up in New Orleans and Miami ever so often. This could be seen as a metaphor for southern hospitality and a sense of family that you really don’t see anywhere outside the south.
One other aspect left over from the three characteristics of the South is the role of mystery. With the South being a crutch for religious overtones and a past that still clutches to the days of a ‘fearful God’, it isn’t unusual to come across the notion of good and evil. “But New Orleans is not only the place of greatest love, it’s also the place of greatest danger, and therefore the question of separating good and evil is reinforced in setting, too” (Smith, 143). The setting for Dark Corner is very homely, at times; but the decrepit, antebellum mansion that looms over the town represents the Gothic overtones of a community not being able to really escape its past no matter how much it changes. The mysterious overtones of the South help incorporate the Southern Gothic feel of both Massey’s Dark Corner and a majority of Rice’s novels. The mysterious nature of the antebellum mansion and Lestat both are arch-types of the Southern Gothic tale, one being a house that holds a foreboding past and the other a misunderstood Grotesque figure, which could be any of Rice’s characters. Rice’s characters usually are the Grotesque, constantly trying to find their way in the world that is growing more unfamiliar with every year, decade, and century that past. From the mysterious nature of both authors come a sense of hope and faith that these characters cling to so that they can make it through their trials and tribulations, something that most southern fiction depicts, whether or not if it is being questioned in a ironic, satirical way; or if it is being deliberate or metaphorical.
The mysterious nature of the South, the haunting past of a society defeated, and a sense of a foreboding history; as well the notion of family and southern hospitality all find their way into Massey’s Dark Corner and Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, Mayfair Witches Saga, and other novels penned by her. The qualities displayed throughout this essay aren’t usually found in anything outside the South. Each author knows his or her surroundings enough to let their heritage flow through their pens or computer keyboards and give the South a beautiful and accurate portrayal in Gothic worlds that are usually dark and menacing. Hopefully these novels can be seen as valid indications of great southern literature.
Works Cited
Brown, Jennifer. Anne Rice: A Critical Companion. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996
Beahm, George. The Unauthorized Ann Rice Companion. Missouri: Andrews and McMeel, 1996
Egeston, Brian. “O Brothers Where Is Thou? The Absence of Black Men Writing Southern Fiction”. (www.brianwrites.com/obrother.doc)
Rice, Anne. Interview With The Vampire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976
Rice, Anne. The Witching Hour. New York: Balletine Press, 1991
Massey, Brandon. Dark Corner. New York, Kensington Press, 2004
Massey, Brandon. Within the Shadows. New York, Kensington Press, 2005
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