Out of genuine curiosity, I'd like to know what you think of this short essay I wrote. It's not really thesis-based non-fiction, but more of a trail of bread crumbs. Regardless of what you may think about the quote at the beginning, the piece is not meant as an attack on transgressive writing, nor is it meant to convert anybody. In all honesty, I'm mainly interested to know whether I'm completely wrong and I'm eager to be lambasted if I am.
http://gutenbergslim.tumblr.com/post/14188908853/gutenberg-slim-5
(I won't be making any money off this, so I don't think it's in violation of this site's terms and conditions. If it is, please accept my apologies in advance.)
To me, transgressive writing isn't so much about opposing moral authority as being honest to the full spectrum of the human experience, even the ugly parts that most people want to ignore. My hope with my writing isn't to corrupt as much as make aware of other possibilities, thereby hoping to expand the simplicities of mainstream fiction.
aliensoul that's quite poignant. I agree 100%.
Well put. I'm all for freedom of design. But there are books like The Jungle which are full of ugliness which no one would include in a list of transgressive novels, perhaps because they portray realistic ugliness, not the extreme, sometimes surreal variety.
It may be the term 'transgressive fiction' is simply not very strictly defined. It's only 15 years old and it may never become an 'official' literary genre, but perhaps a meta-genre, or mode, i.e. one can have transgressive sci-fi, transgressive comedy, etc.
