Who's the best goth writer today?

[BBerntson]

Just wondering who you thought the best writer working in the field today might be. Dead people count too, I guess.

[delicti]

Mick Mercer has been the definitive authority on goth for as long as I can remember. Greg Fasolino (formerly of The Naked and the Dead, currently of Bell Hollow) is also quite good and as you would expect, well informed.

You can pick up Mick's works at www.mickmercer.com

If you want to read Greg's work, you'll have to pick up a Drop Dead Magazine. www.dropdeadmagazine.com

[thedoll]

I'm particularly fond of Anne Rice novels, but more for her elegant writing style as opposed to her gothiness. She refound Jesus and now disowns her previous works about the supernatural but I still love them.

[Minyaliel]

Can't go wrong with gothic stories from the 1800's. That's some great stuff hidden beneath a few piles of rubbish there.

[Vyvian Blackthorne]

Good goth () writers today...Hmhh...Yeah, the majority of them are dead. But for present times I'd have to say Anne Rice's early work, some Stephen King, Tom Holland (very underrated) and for authors that are more goth, in the sense relating to our subculture, there's always as Deli said, the fablous Mick Mercer.

Heh. I wish I could say H.P. Lovecraft, because he lived at least throughout a small part of the 20th Century.
Goth Forever
Goth Forever
Goth Forever

[Underwater Ophelia]

Best goth writer...

That would be me. I'm glad I could answer your question.

[darkangelv]

Anne Rice books are the best, or that's what i think.

[Vyvian Blackthorne]

Originally Posted by Oph

That would be me

Gosh.

You know what, I think you're right. Poet, precisely. I'll also say Amanda Harris.
Goth Forever

[BBerntson]

Mick Mercer and Greg Fasolino, I haven't heard of. I'll have to check those out. Thanks.

[Vyvian Blackthorne]

Greg and Mercer are journalists, just for the record.

Goth Forever

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Vyvian Blackthorne

Gosh.

You know what, I think you're right. Poet, precisely. I'll also say Amanda Harris.
Goth Forever

Oh, you're just trying to get on my good side...
Very rarely do people like or appreciate my poetry. I write all the time, I just never post it here because people usually don't respond--good or bad.

[Vyvian Blackthorne]

Good side? Naw, but that'd be nice
I really liked Pillow, and that collection you posted. Kind of like Millay with Baudelaire echoes.
Goth Forever

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

Oh, you're just trying to get on my good side...
Very rarely do people like or appreciate my poetry. I write all the time, I just never post it here because people usually don't respond--good or bad.

I'd like to read some. The literature forum needs more posts from people with a fucking brain. And your comments to other "poets" show you at least have an idea of how not to write the sort of shit that makes me throw up in my mouth. That darkangelv kid seems to epitomize the standard of poetry around here, with a couple of exceptions. I've only read about two poems that I've liked since joining.

Pwease?

[Underwater Ophelia]

Then I shall post!

[viscus]

Neil Gaiman.

[Godslayer Jillian]

There's no such thing as a good goth writer.
Some writers are enjoyed by goths (e.g. Neil Gaiman, E.A. Poe, Storm Constantine...)
But I haven't known any writer whose purpose is to appeal to the 'dark community' that I can respect.
EDIT: Southern Gothic doesn't count. That's a specifically literary style that has nothing to do with the 'goth' obviously implied in this thread. Besides, not many goths would genuinely say their favorite authors are Harper Lee and William Faulkner.

[obscurite_beautee]

Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kilpatrick, and some other erotic vampire gothic romance writers...

[A Simple Poet]

I agree with Jillian ... they're aren't any. Not if you are using novels as the basis of comparison.

Gaiman isn't bad, Hamilton and Kilpatrick are seemingly doing their best to keep the erotic essences alive. But you have to go back to the 1800's to appreciate good gothic writing.

I partially blame horror films for this. They sort of cast a shadow not only over the expectation of savoring a novel, but they've rather ruined the genre because Goth is not necessarily horror and vice versa.

[d.Nox]

A few people have mentioned the gothic writers of the 1800s, and I have to agree. Even discounting Dracula, Poe, and other perennial favorites, there's precious little "gothic" or goth-friendly literature that can compare with works like Melmoth the Wanderer or the stories of Hawthorne, Hoffman, or even the scores of anonymous writers of the period.

Appropriately, the best Gothic writers are long since dead.

[obscurite_beautee]

Originally Posted by A Simple Poet

I agree with Jillian ... they're aren't any. Not if you are using novels as the basis of comparison.

Gaiman isn't bad, Hamilton and Kilpatrick are seemingly doing their best to keep the erotic essences alive. But you have to go back to the 1800's to appreciate good gothic writing.

I partially blame horror films for this. They sort of cast a shadow not only over the expectation of savoring a novel, but they've rather ruined the genre because Goth is not necessarily horror and vice versa.

Since you put it that way, I rather enjoy Frederich Nietzsche's works....Now I don't really know if he is a "gothic" writer or not.....

[BlackGothicRose]

I got to say of the authors of the past: H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker of Dracula, Mary Shelley of Frankenstein, and Edgar Allen Poe (I especially liked stories on the Raven and The Black Cat). On current authors: Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, and, of course, Anne Rice and Laurell K Hamilton.

[JCC]

missfreakychick

[Stuporman]

There's no question in my mind that Lovecraft tops the list. He had such varied creativity, but it always (that is, usually) remained true to the purpose of being really creepy. I especially like the idea of godlike entities that aren't exactly malicious as much as they're just completely indifferent to mankind, and don't much care whether we live perfectly happy lives or descend into madness and death. I hate it when a superpowerful evil wastes its time going to the effort to make humanity unhappy (In fiction and reality). It's like a wealthy industrialist taking a week off of work to go poke an ant farm with a stick. Lovecraft goes about the scare in a logical way. And what's scarier than logic?

[silverbaal]

Well, we're talking about modern writers. That would be like within the last 100 years or so. I don't think they would call themselves, "Gothic", but since their work appeals to the subculture, I would say Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz... What exactly do we mean by "Gothic"? Gothic doesn't also have to mean vampires, flying buttresses, and the works. It should also be about exposing some facet of society either for what it is or simply in a new light. It can also be about showing evil in a new light, other than how it is usually represented. There's a lot more of "What is Gothic" that we can name. There's a lot that can classified as "Gothic". More than you think. All three of these authors are a little cliche to mention but then again they write a lot more than just horror stories. They write a lot more than about the macabre and the supernatural. You have writers like King that not only write about the ooky-spooky of telekenisis (Carrie, great book, btw), but can make you feel for people who otherwise would be discarded as the villian simply for having supernatural powers. The same with Anne Rice. She's a lot more than simply a writer of vampire fiction. She's give human souls to the vampires. I dunno. Personally...I find that what is Gothic in a book is aimed beyond cheap scares.

How it makes you think and what it makes you think about is scary.

The scariest things to me, and this goes for movies as well as books, are simply shedding human light on "evil" (which can be seen in so many horror flicks, even the dumb ones, past and present) and showing double standards "one person's good is another person's evil" views of good and evil. Just showing evil in a new light.

[Steppenwolf]

Originally Posted by silverbaal

You have writers like King that not only write about the ooky-spooky of telekenisis (Carrie, great book, btw)

The scariest things to me, and this goes for movies as well as books, are simply shedding human light on "evil" (which can be seen in so many horror flicks, even the dumb ones, past and present) and showing double standards "one person's good is another person's evil" views of good and evil. Just showing evil in a new light.

I remember now Misery , which I find in a way very disturbing and not completly far away from goth ... I have no idea what's King doing right now , but in the 70's and 80's he was an important reference . Thinking about books like "Pet Cematary" , The shining , The death zone (great film) or Dolores...

I find that what scares us people most is not supernatural , its probably the other side of the "natural" or "normal" , like i.e. psychopatic nurses who turns to be "death angels" , or mothers who kill their own sons . What scares us to death is finding at the corner that where used to be found the light , now we find a shadow , hidding some unknown (and at the same time well known) danger ...

Goth is not always clasic horror (meant ghost and haunted houses) , to me the best goth is more psychological : Look at the double sided/hypocrit mind of doc Jeckyll , look at the main character of "the black cat" (Poe), telling to you that he was a bad person , but letting himself go into the absolute madness without caring at all ...

Every writer who can make this fear realistic enough may be classified as goth , but not every writer who only can paint a haunted house and a pack of ghosts , this writer can be only classified as a "horror writer" ....