Neda Aria's Blog, page 17

Writer vs. Writer: S. W. Stribling

In this post, we will get to know an amazing writer, S. W. Stribling. According to S. W. Stribling, he is "a man trying to find his way in the dark, lighting one little candle at a time as he move forward. Ever trying to light the next one before the current one burns out. Writing little etches in digital stone along the way to remind me where he came from." Let's start the interrogation :p

Hi. Glad to have you here. Could you tell us a bit about yourself to start this interview?

Truthfully, I am probably not much different from you or anybody else out there deep down, though on the outside I have lived experiences pretty anomalous on the bell curve of what it means to be an average person. I’ve served in both the United States Air Force and the French Foreign Legion. Both of these chapters of my life included their own unique experiences such as warfare, jumping out of planes, and being yelled at in a lot of different foreign languages. In my free time, I’ve trekked in the Himalayan mountains, meditated in silence for 10 days in Bodh Gaya, and did what brought us together here today - written a book.

No doubt these experiences play a role in who I am, but the older I’ve gotten, the less I’ve allowed them to separate me from the rest of humanity. I suppose that’s where writing comes in. I don’t let my experiences define me and disconnect me from the world as any of them could very well have. Given, I’m not exactly social either. Outside of my wife, I spend more time talking to my 4 dogs and cat than I do to my fellow humans. But I do feel that my writing is a bridge from myself to everyone else. Even if I write about things many people haven’t done or they may not even understand, they still connect to that primordial something we all have deep inside.

Writing is magic. It’s telepathy and time travel wrapped up in a fairly simple idea: here are my thoughts on paper, let them helix with yours now - wherever or whenever you may be.

I know that you’re writing a series called “Sin & Zen” however, unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read them yet. May I know more about them and what inspired you to write them?

I feel I should be good at answering this question by now, but there is always a bit of ‘paralysis by analysis’ when the question comes up. I suppose I’ll just be honest. I really don’t know why I wrote them. I just did. I had something to say and I felt like writing it down. Most likely to maintain some level of sanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bu1nfbCJeI&ab_channel=WarrenStribling

I’ve always enjoyed writing as a form of therapy. It’s what helps me get perspective on life and myself. So the books are very much paralleled to my life. Those that know me and have read it think it is a memoir due to how close it is to what they know about me. Even those that don’t know me say it feels like a memoir. How much of it is true? It’s hard to say really. In many ways, it was my experience, my interpretation of my life. I suppose all memoirs are like that, but I don’t want people to get hung up on facts and lose sight of the true essence of the story.

Given, I had a bit of fun with it. I skipped things. I added things. I changed things. I made myself more of an asshole than I really am. I gave myself more clarity than I often had. For me, that is how fiction is made. You take that messed up and crazy thing called real life and put it into a narrative that has some sense and meaning with a touch of entertainment.

Since I feel like life is about love, that’s ultimately what the books are about. ‘Sin and Zen’ is about the type of love we think about when we hear the word love. It follows Will Strief in first-person as he leaves the French Foreign Legion and tries to find new meaning in life through romance. Will is a fun and confident guy, yet simultaneously broken and vulnerable at first, but quickly finds himself in a confused attraction to a woman that makes him question the meaning of love, trust, and friendship. It also involves lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol - hence the Sin. However, it is equally balanced with Zen - silent meditation, traveling, and mountain climbing. You could best think of it as the illegitimate child of ‘Eat Pray Love’ and ‘Fight Club’.

‘Anger and Hope’ evolves into the 2nd type of love - family love. Will goes back home to America and tries to reconnect with his family as the infamous prodigal son. Family is never easy and trying to reconnect with one’s roots as a black sheep makes it even more of a challenge. This book is the sequel to the first one, but that is more of just a chronological thing. Besides the main character and his dog, nothing else is the same. The second book also doesn’t fall into all the lust the first one does. There is one sex scene and a bit of romance, because well, Will is human and it also connects the readers to who he used to be in the first book. But truthfully, this book dives much deeper into the mind of a depressive and of a veteran trying to readjust to civilian life.

The third book - working title ‘Fear and Love’ - will be the final book for Will Strief I think. It will focus on a more divine love - though probably not what you think of when you hear ‘divine love’. It will combine aspects of the first two books (and forms of Love) to help Will reach the peace in life he has been desperately searching for in the first two books. If for no other reason, I feel I owe it to my readers (and myself) to give Will that. The most common message I get from fans involves something along the lines of, ‘I loved the book. I just get it. I couldn’t put it down. But I feel so bad for Will. I just want so badly for him to be happy and to find what he is looking for.’ So, I’ve got quite the story prepared for them. I’m looking forward to really hacking it out once passion, discipline, and time come together for me.

You have been writing since you were a teenager. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Writing was definitely something I kept to myself most of the time until a couple of years ago when I decided to publish my first novel. Still, I can’t honestly say it is the first time I have written something and shared it with others.

Back when I was in junior high school, a friend of mine and I started writing this funny little story just between us. It was our equivalent of passing notes in class. (Yes, I am that old.) Of course, we eventually got caught and had to read it aloud in class. I think it was Civics or one of those social science classes. We had the entire room including the teacher cracking up. After that, we started to take it a little more seriously, even spending a few hours of our weekends writing the next scene. Once a week, in that same class, we were allowed the last 10-15 minutes so we could share it. We always killed off one student in each chapter, so it really became a thing to ask all week, ‘Who’s going to get run over and killed by a snowmobile this week?’ The snowmobile was particularly funny because we lived in Arkansas and nobody had snowmobiles there. It was completely out of place to get run over by one.

That was for fun, but it did open the door to the magic of words. I mean, just writing these made people laugh. In a darker sense, it manipulated their emotions. It’s a crazy notion to have that sort of hold on this invisible thing inside of people.

Reading makes me appreciate the power of words when I feel a connection to that other author. But watching my wife cry as she reads a new story I wrote for the first time or receiving some of the fanmail I have and how they open up in a way that they are probably too ashamed to do in a public review… Wow. That’s when it really hits me the power of words.

What authors were your inspiration and grew into?

Well, starting from the very beginning, Dr. Seuss. There were some other great stories along the path of youth that inspired me.

But let me try to be brief and jump to the man that I give credit for helping me become an author. Charles Bukowski, like many other people, gave me the idea that I too could share my writing with the world. Many people try to imitate him and rewrite what he has already written. I find that nauseating and exhausting personally. The man gave me so much more than words to admire, why would I steal from him? He gave me the courage to find my own voice, my own style. Of course, I connected with his writing even though I don’t connect with all of his opinions or experiences, and that is what is so magical about it.

Bukowski and I do have a lot of things in common, probably more than I care to admit, but I also enjoy Hemingway, Camus, and Twain. All of whom, I also share similar backgrounds within certain aspects.

Hemingway was a soldier turned writer that lived in France for a bit. Many people say I write like him as well. I do think we both write about life using our military experience without actually writing about said military experience in such a direct and profitable way.

Camus writes about deep philosophy in a simple way. Something I also try to do. Add in the fact we both felt like foreigners most of our lives, we share a lot of perspectives on the world. Besides ‘Le Petit Prince’, ‘L’Etranger’ was the first novel I read in French, and I never felt lost in it, despite how profound it is.

Twain basically grew up right down the street from me and I hope one day my witticisms are on par with his.

I also really connected with Slyvia Plath. That really opened my eyes to how the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women really aren’t that far apart. I even wrote a short story called ‘Butterfly’ as a sort of tribute to her. And also to challenge myself by writing a story from a woman’s perspective. Be warned, that story is not for the faint of heart.

Still, despite these greats and all the others I haven’t mentioned, Bukowski is given the credit for my inspiration as a writer. I even discovered Fante through him. One could say Fante passed his writing style torch to Bukowski, who later lit the world for millions of others. They both write in a voice that I connect with. This lost boy verging on Zen master about everyday life - the good, bad, and ugly. Despite what many people say, I don’t feel they were aggressive or arrogant about it. Albeit, they do have moments of hostility and anger towards the world, but who doesn’t?

And they captured their times as well. That’s another reason why writing what they wrote seems ridiculous to me. We live in different times. I am honored when somebody says, ‘You should check out Bukowski if you don’t know him. You would like him.’ After they have read one of my novels. But I still feel my novels are a voice of our times - born of our times for our times.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Probably nothing. I’d just watch and laugh. But something I often tell people that I see are a bit lost is:

Follow your gut. Trust your heart. Use your brain.

I may also say something equally vague like: ‘Trust the Process’ or ‘Don’t Try’. You’ll recognize the latter from Bukowski’s tombstone inscription and something any fan of Taoism’s Wu Wei will know about it.

You write poetry as well. Where do you normally publish them?

Ha. You did your research well there. However, my poetry is usually kept in my journal, not to be shared with the public. I do occasionally write a poem as an opening or closing for a chapter in my novels. However, the deep stuff I keep hidden away. I even hesitate to transcribe it into the cloud. Despite my brutal honesty in my novels, I feel too vulnerable to make my poetry public.

This, of course, allows me to have greater respect for those that do have the courage to publish theirs. Having said that, it is hard to find good poetry that doesn’t feel too forced or too whiny. This makes me think it isn’t so much the courage of people as it is the desperation for the attention or love of other people. This harsh judgment goes against even my own poetry and hence my great hesitation to share it.

Still, I like to think that even my prose has a poetic feel to it. If I don’t overthink it, I find writing poetically comes naturally enough. Just let it happen. Of course, this more natural way of writing helps to make for a more natural feel in reading.

I saw some posts from you that indicated “transgressive” as a genre for your books. May I know in what sense do you define your writings as transgressive?

You know, I’ve considered my writing Transgressive Fiction since I started writing, but I never really asked myself so clearly, ‘How?’ I have to thank you for that. I would like to call my writing Literary Fiction, but I lack the confidence for that. So beyond that genre, I just don’t see where my writing fits other than Transgressive Fiction. In a world with a million and one categories, I still find myself in a category of ‘others’.

But if forced to think about it, I guess I would say that my writing transgresses what the average person expects from a novel. I don’t write-to-trend. I don’t even write-to-market. Probably why I don’t sell as many books as I could, but I am proud of the books I have written. Tropes are safe and easy to write. I’ve never done anything in my life the safe and easy way.

In a way, transgressive is how I have lived my life. It only makes sense that as a writer I push that sort of philosophy and style onto other people through my words. It isn’t meant to be an attack on the world from a boy in angst. It just is who I am. It’s what comes out when I sit at the keyboard.

Of course, now that I have claimed my home in this literary category of outsiders, I feel I am in good company. And should the gods will it, I hope to one day be seen next to their names in the digital libraries of the world wide web. My wife says that I write like her favorite author, Milan Kundera. So one down I guess.

When did you find yourself attracted to transgressive literature? Why?

I didn’t even know that Transgressive Literature was a thing until I discovered Bukowski. Of course, after reading him, it was like, ‘Why have I never read anything like this before? This is how all books should be written.’ So I looked up what his genre was and voila.

I then discovered many of my other favorite books that I had already read were also in that category and said, ‘Obviously, this is the category for me.’ It was a sort of regressive discovery in that sense. Of course, I don’t like everything in the genre. There’s a bit of trash in every corner of the world. Still, I need less convincing to try a book if it is said to be Transgressive Literature.

To come back full circle here, I guess I discovered Bukowski, and the term Transgressive Literature when I was in my early 20s. I am 35 now, so it’s safe to say, this genre is home with the occasional vacation to a good space opera, historical fiction, or fantasy series.

Finally, which character in your writings most represents you?

Well, I guess I’ve already given this part away, but the main character is a loose representation of me. The personality may be a bit different than who I truly am, but the essence of the character rings true. If you want to find out what that means… Well, you know what to do. ;)

Thank you so much.

If you would like to know this fantastic writer better, please check the following links:

Website: wstribling.com

Facebook: @SWStribling

Instagram: @SWStribling

Writer vs. Writer: Bruce Wilson

In this post, we will get to know an amazing writer, Bruce Wilson. According to Bruce, he is "a man trying to find his way in the dark, lighting one little candle at a time as he move forward. Ever trying to light the next one before the current one burns out. Writing little etches in digital stone along the way to remind me where he came from." Let's start the interrogation :p

Hi Bruce. Glad to have you here. Could you tell us a bit yourself to start this interview.

Truthfully, I am probably not much different from you or anybody else out there deep down, though on the outside I have lived experiences pretty anomalous on the bell curve of what it means to be an average person. I’ve served in both the United States Air Force and the French Foreign Legion. Both of these chapters of my life included their own unique experiences such as warfare, jumping out of planes, and being yelled at in a lot of different foreign languages. In my free time, I’ve trekked in the Himalayan mountains, meditated in silence for 10 days in Bodh Gaya, and did what brought us together here today - written a book.

No doubt these experiences play a role in who I am, but the older I’ve gotten, the less I’ve allowed them to separate me from the rest of humanity. I suppose that’s where writing comes in. I don’t let my experiences define me and disconnect me from the world as any of them could very well have. Given, I’m not exactly social either. Outside of my wife, I spend more time talking to my 4 dogs and cat than I do to my fellow humans. But I do feel that my writing is a bridge from myself to everyone else. Even if I write about things many people haven’t done or they may not even understand, they still connect to that primordial something we all have deep inside.

Writing is magic. It’s telepathy and time travel wrapped up in a fairly simple idea: here are my thoughts on paper, let them helix with yours now - wherever or whenever you may be.

I know that you’re writing a series called “Sin & Zen” however, unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read them yet. May I know more about them and what inspired you to write them?

I feel I should be good at answering this question by now, but there is always a bit of ‘paralysis by analysis’ when the question comes up. I suppose I’ll just be honest. I really don’t know why I wrote them. I just did. I had something to say and I felt like writing it down. Most likely to maintain some level of sanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bu1nfbCJeI&ab_channel=WarrenStribling

I’ve always enjoyed writing as a form of therapy. It’s what helps me get perspective on life and myself. So the books are very much paralleled to my life. Those that know me and have read it think it is a memoir due to how close it is to what they know about me. Even those that don’t know me say it feels like a memoir. How much of it is true? It’s hard to say really. In many ways, it was my experience, my interpretation of my life. I suppose all memoirs are like that, but I don’t want people to get hung up on facts and lose sight of the true essence of the story.

Given, I had a bit of fun with it. I skipped things. I added things. I changed things. I made myself more of an asshole than I really am. I gave myself more clarity than I often had. For me, that is how fiction is made. You take that messed up and crazy thing called real life and put it into a narrative that has some sense and meaning with a touch of entertainment.

Since I feel like life is about love, that’s ultimately what the books are about. ‘Sin and Zen’ is about the type of love we think about when we hear the word love. It follows Will Strief in first-person as he leaves the French Foreign Legion and tries to find new meaning in life through romance. Will is a fun and confident guy, yet simultaneously broken and vulnerable at first, but quickly finds himself in a confused attraction to a woman that makes him question the meaning of love, trust, and friendship. It also involves lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol - hence the Sin. However, it is equally balanced with Zen - silent meditation, traveling, and mountain climbing. You could best think of it as the illegitimate child of ‘Eat Pray Love’ and ‘Fight Club’.

‘Anger and Hope’ evolves into the 2nd type of love - family love. Will goes back home to America and tries to reconnect with his family as the infamous prodigal son. Family is never easy and trying to reconnect with one’s roots as a black sheep makes it even more of a challenge. This book is the sequel to the first one, but that is more of just a chronological thing. Besides the main character and his dog, nothing else is the same. The second book also doesn’t fall into all the lust the first one does. There is one sex scene and a bit of romance, because well, Will is human and it also connects the readers to who he used to be in the first book. But truthfully, this book dives much deeper into the mind of a depressive and of a veteran trying to readjust to civilian life.

The third book - working title ‘Fear and Love’ - will be the final book for Will Strief I think. It will focus on a more divine love - though probably not what you think of when you hear ‘divine love’. It will combine aspects of the first two books (and forms of Love) to help Will reach the peace in life he has been desperately searching for in the first two books. If for no other reason, I feel I owe it to my readers (and myself) to give Will that. The most common message I get from fans involves something along the lines of, ‘I loved the book. I just get it. I couldn’t put it down. But I feel so bad for Will. I just want so badly for him to be happy and to find what he is looking for.’ So, I’ve got quite the story prepared for them. I’m looking forward to really hacking it out once passion, discipline, and time come together for me.

You have been writing since you were a teenager. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Writing was definitely something I kept to myself most of the time until a couple of years ago when I decided to publish my first novel. Still, I can’t honestly say it is the first time I have written something and shared it with others.

Back when I was in junior high school, a friend of mine and I started writing this funny little story just between us. It was our equivalent of passing notes in class. (Yes, I am that old.) Of course, we eventually got caught and had to read it aloud in class. I think it was Civics or one of those social science classes. We had the entire room including the teacher cracking up. After that, we started to take it a little more seriously, even spending a few hours of our weekends writing the next scene. Once a week, in that same class, we were allowed the last 10-15 minutes so we could share it. We always killed off one student in each chapter, so it really became a thing to ask all week, ‘Who’s going to get run over and killed by a snowmobile this week?’ The snowmobile was particularly funny because we lived in Arkansas and nobody had snowmobiles there. It was completely out of place to get run over by one.

That was for fun, but it did open the door to the magic of words. I mean, just writing these made people laugh. In a darker sense, it manipulated their emotions. It’s a crazy notion to have that sort of hold on this invisible thing inside of people.

Reading makes me appreciate the power of words when I feel a connection to that other author. But watching my wife cry as she reads a new story I wrote for the first time or receiving some of the fanmail I have and how they open up in a way that they are probably too ashamed to do in a public review… Wow. That’s when it really hits me the power of words.

What authors were your inspiration and grew into?

Well, starting from the very beginning, Dr. Seuss. There were some other great stories along the path of youth that inspired me.

But let me try to be brief and jump to the man that I give credit for helping me become an author. Charles Bukowski, like many other people, gave me the idea that I too could share my writing with the world. Many people try to imitate him and rewrite what he has already written. I find that nauseating and exhausting personally. The man gave me so much more than words to admire, why would I steal from him? He gave me the courage to find my own voice, my own style. Of course, I connected with his writing even though I don’t connect with all of his opinions or experiences, and that is what is so magical about it.

Bukowski and I do have a lot of things in common, probably more than I care to admit, but I also enjoy Hemingway, Camus, and Twain. All of whom, I also share similar backgrounds within certain aspects.

Hemingway was a soldier turned writer that lived in France for a bit. Many people say I write like him as well. I do think we both write about life using our military experience without actually writing about said military experience in such a direct and profitable way.

Camus writes about deep philosophy in a simple way. Something I also try to do. Add in the fact we both felt like foreigners most of our lives, we share a lot of perspectives on the world. Besides ‘Le Petit Prince’, ‘L’Etranger’ was the first novel I read in French, and I never felt lost in it, despite how profound it is.

Twain basically grew up right down the street from me and I hope one day my witticisms are on par with his.

I also really connected with Slyvia Plath. That really opened my eyes to how the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women really aren’t that far apart. I even wrote a short story called ‘Butterfly’ as a sort of tribute to her. And also to challenge myself by writing a story from a woman’s perspective. Be warned, that story is not for the faint of heart.

Still, despite these greats and all the others I haven’t mentioned, Bukowski is given the credit for my inspiration as a writer. I even discovered Fante through him. One could say Fante passed his writing style torch to Bukowski, who later lit the world for millions of others. They both write in a voice that I connect with. This lost boy verging on Zen master about everyday life - the good, bad, and ugly. Despite what many people say, I don’t feel they were aggressive or arrogant about it. Albeit, they do have moments of hostility and anger towards the world, but who doesn’t?

And they captured their times as well. That’s another reason why writing what they wrote seems ridiculous to me. We live in different times. I am honored when somebody says, ‘You should check out Bukowski if you don’t know him. You would like him.’ After they have read one of my novels. But I still feel my novels are a voice of our times - born of our times for our times.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Probably nothing. I’d just watch and laugh. But something I often tell people that I see are a bit lost is:

Follow your gut. Trust your heart. Use your brain.

I may also say something equally vague like: ‘Trust the Process’ or ‘Don’t Try’. You’ll recognize the latter from Bukowski’s tombstone inscription and something any fan of Taoism’s Wu Wei will know about it.

You write poetry as well. Where do you normally publish them?

Ha. You did your research well there. However, my poetry is usually kept in my journal, not to be shared with the public. I do occasionally write a poem as an opening or closing for a chapter in my novels. However, the deep stuff I keep hidden away. I even hesitate to transcribe it into the cloud. Despite my brutal honesty in my novels, I feel too vulnerable to make my poetry public.

This, of course, allows me to have greater respect for those that do have the courage to publish theirs. Having said that, it is hard to find good poetry that doesn’t feel too forced or too whiny. This makes me think it isn’t so much the courage of people as it is the desperation for the attention or love of other people. This harsh judgment goes against even my own poetry and hence my great hesitation to share it.

Still, I like to think that even my prose has a poetic feel to it. If I don’t overthink it, I find writing poetically comes naturally enough. Just let it happen. Of course, this more natural way of writing helps to make for a more natural feel in reading.

I saw some posts from you that indicated “transgressive” as a genre for your books. May I know in what sense do you define your writings as transgressive?

You know, I’ve considered my writing Transgressive Fiction since I started writing, but I never really asked myself so clearly, ‘How?’ I have to thank you for that. I would like to call my writing Literary Fiction, but I lack the confidence for that. So beyond that genre, I just don’t see where my writing fits other than Transgressive Fiction. In a world with a million and one categories, I still find myself in a category of ‘others’.

But if forced to think about it, I guess I would say that my writing transgresses what the average person expects from a novel. I don’t write-to-trend. I don’t even write-to-market. Probably why I don’t sell as many books as I could, but I am proud of the books I have written. Tropes are safe and easy to write. I’ve never done anything in my life the safe and easy way.

In a way, transgressive is how I have lived my life. It only makes sense that as a writer I push that sort of philosophy and style onto other people through my words. It isn’t meant to be an attack on the world from a boy in agnst. It just is who I am. It’s what comes out when I sit at the keyboard.

Of course, now that I have claimed my home in this literary category of outsiders, I feel I am in good company. And should the gods will it, I hope to one day be seen next to their names in the digital libraries of the world wide web. My wife says that I write like her favorite author, Milan Kundera. So one down I guess.

When did you find yourself attracted to transgressive literature? Why?

I didn’t even know that Transgressive Literature was a thing until I discovered Bukowski. Of course, after reading him, it was like, ‘Why have I never read anything like this before? This is how all books should be written.’ So I looked up what his genre was and voila.

I then discovered many of my other favorite books that I had already read were also in that category and said, ‘Obviously, this is the category for me.’ It was a sort of regressive discovery in that sense. Of course, I don’t like everything in the genre. There’s a bit of trash in every corner of the world. Still, I need less convincing to try a book if it is said to be Transgressive Literature.

To come back full circle here, I guess I discovered Bukowski, and the term Transgressive Literature when I was in my early 20s. I am 35 now, so it’s safe to say, this genre is home with the occasional vacation to a good space opera, historical fiction, or fantasy series.

Finally, which character in your writings most represents you?

Well, I guess I’ve already given this part away, but the main character is a loose representation of me. The personality may be a bit different than who I truly am, but the essence of the character rings true. If you want to find out what that means… Well, you know what to do. ;)

Thank you so much, Bruce.

If you would like to know this fantastic writer better, please check the following links:

Website: wstribling.com

Facebook: @SWStribling

Instagram: @SWStribling

Writer vs. Writer: Bruce Wilson

In this post, we will talk with Bruce Wilson, a fantastic poet I had the opportunity to meet on Instagram. Bruce is an American poet and author, born in Michigan on August 20, 1990. He loves to write late at night, but most of the time he procrastinates about getting any work done. I fell in love with his posts and so I reached out to him for this interview. Let us get to know Bruce more.

Hi Bruce. Could you tell us about yourself and your writing style?

In all honesty, I find myself to be a somewhat boring yet frequently sarcastic thirty-something-year-old from the mid-western United States, that wanted to be a rock star but unfortunately has not even an ounce of musical talent in his body. But other than that, I'm just the typical overly caffeinated, chain-smoking writer, who has a strange tendency to overthink everything and daydream almost obsessively about death, along with the occasionally depressed and somewhat depraved thoughts that roam around in my from time to time moronic skull. And for my writing style, I guess I've never really thought about it, which seems like a lazy excuse for an answer, but I'll try my worst to explain. I generally write the first thing, whatever it may be, that pops into my head, may it be good ideas or fucking awful ones (those usually go directly into the trash, too never, be read by another living being). I'll leave this here before I start making even less sense and move on.

You're a poetry rock star. Do you have any books published or unpublished? Could you tell us more about it/them?

I have three smaller self-published poetry collections, but to me, they're glorified chapbooks that I wish I spent more time formatting (Waiting on a Light That was Never There, City Lights and Drunken Night, and Midnight's Wasteland). I'm also working on two potential novels (Can You Hear Me?, The Broken One). I'm also putting together a bulkier poetry collection and a random short story because I don't like not working on something. Then to answer the second half of the question, the first three collections are just a random amalgamation of poems that I wrote in a way to work off any rust I may have had from not seriously writing poetry for quite a long time. As for the potential novels, they still need a lot of work, but at this particular moment, I'm happy with the direction I find them going in. And the short story is just something fun for me to write, making the main character the biggest asshole I can make him.

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

I can't necessarily bring myself to pick one experience, so I'll give you a few examples. The first experience I had, is when I was younger and asked my aunt (who we'll call Mrs. Walters) a question that was critical of her religion, then listened as Mrs. Walters lost her shit, then told me I was going to hell, which is a weird thing to say to a child. But anyway, I'm going to move on before this turns into more of a rant. My second experience involves discovering a few different musicians, but more importantly, the singers/songwriters. Robert Smith (The Cure), Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Bert McCracken (The Used), and T.J. Cowgill (King Dude [I discovered him a little more recently]). That's to name just a few, and yes, their lyrics were a big part of me learning how powerful language can be, but they still weren't quite as impactful as when I discovered Charles Bukowski and his poetry, which blew my mind. Because I had no fucking clue that you could write poetry like that.

Well, I guess, Charles Bukowski ruined us all. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

The best money I've ever spent as a writer (well, at least when I have any) would have to be putting it back into the community whenever I possibly can. Because I am broke as fuck ninety-nine percent of the time.

What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?

Oddly enough, none that I can think of at this precise moment in time. But in all honesty, there is one poet that I actively dislike. I won't drop his name, but to me, something about his work seems too safe, like he's aiming more for popularity than quality.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

It would have to be, 'never let anyone tell you that writing is nothing more than some worthless hobby, and waste of time.' Because I have wasted more time in my life trying to keep everyone around me happy, and quite a few of them still think I'm just a piece of shit.

I totally agree! You have a lot of interesting poems published on your Instagram. They're brazen and, in my idea, transgressive. May I know how do you come up with such unique yet extremely sexual poems?

Yes, you may. It's a combination of observation, personal experience (Which, I'll be honest, isn't very much), and a perverse imagination. Which typically involves lots of staring at random pictures until an idea appears in my head, obsessively listening to one song on constant repeat, or digging around in my brain for one little nugget of memory to build on.

Interesting. When did you find yourself attracted to transgressive literature? Why?

I would have to say it was when I read Fight Club for the first time, which was well after I watched the movie. But in reality, I didn't know what the genre exactly was until I stumbled upon G.C. McKay's YouTube channel, then watched his video, 'What is Transgressive Fiction?'

Lastly, Which character or poem in your writing most represents you?

I'll just give you an answer for both because sometimes I can be an indecisive bastard. So, character-wise, it would be the male protagonist of Can You Hear Me? Milo Villain. He doesn't one hundred percent represent me, but like any well-broken mirror, there are bits of me reflected throughout him. And poetry-wise, I would say both 'Black Lolita' and 'Forbidden Fruit' because who doesn't love sex and death?

Well, right? Thank you so much Bruce for this interview. I hope we can collaborate in the future.

If you'd like to get to know Bruce more please check the following links:

https://linktr.ee/wilobru666 https://www.amazon.in/Bruce-Wilson/e/B08RNR34P2/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

Transgressive Fiction is not only about sex and gore: A reminder to Transgressive Writers

As a fan and author of Transgressive Fiction Genre, I read a lot of books and articles to understand it more in-depth. What I realized is that Transgressive Fiction is defined as Rene Chun in a New York Times article describes,

A literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the body is the site for gaining knowledge.

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Not just as a Transgressive Writer but an educator, political scientist, and gender and equality researcher, I would agree that most of the transgressive literature includes those elements but limiting Transgression in the form of art to only sex and violence is limiting the potential of this genre. So, I've decided to write an article to expound on what I believe a true goal of Transgressive Fiction is, and if, as an author of this genre, you're not targeting this goal, I believe you shouldn't categorize your books under this genre. It may offend many of my fellow writers but well, ain't it transgressive?

General definition

What is transgression from a common societal point of view can be defined as an unwanted, destructive act of behavior such as the act of violating norms, laws, budgets, etc. Within the early French sociology of religion, the philosophical critique of modernity and art transgression believed that it often holds a revolutionary potential as it can alter the status quo, at least for a period.

Transgression is defined either in the legal, social, psychological, religious, or geological sense of the word refers to,

The process of an overstepping of a boundary. Etymologically transgression stems from the Latin verb transgredi which is composed by trans that means “through” or “the other side” and gredi which means “to go” (Barnhart, 1988).

Beyond this basic definition, I can say there are significant differences among disciplines in terms of how transgression is used which if you'd interested I can recommend you to take a look at "Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology" by Thomas Teo. Theorists like Durkheim and Bataille who are major theorists in the field of Transgression, both wrote novels and theoretical works focused on transgressive excess. In Betaille studies, he extolled in cultural studies particularly its violence. He explains only when there is an 'interdit' transgression is possible. In L'eroticisme he argues that 'the alternative between interdit and transgression is eroticism.

In an article, Tadeusz PALECZNY and Zuzanna Sławik define transgression from a different perspective explaining that the processes of transferring the cultural elements between different racial, ethnic and religious groups reluts in transgression. Hence, in their view, transgression is a kind of exchange and transcultural diffusion between two or more different cultural groups. The processes of common cross-cultural, two-directional influences lead to the creation of new types of universalized identity and create the transcultural forms of social as well as political organization.

Transgression and Norms

Following mentioned definition and brief ideas on what transgression may mean I can say, as a transgressive writer I see this genre as a tool to focus on social issues in different contexts. Words have the power to destroy and create and hence, literature is always used to explore social issues which normally would make many followers of those social issues, many comforters of problematic norms, uneasy and unhappy. As a transgressive writer, your duty is to raise awareness about what is called taboo. If the story you create contain nothing but the explicit sexual scene, drug abuse, and violence without considering a societal problem, in my humble idea, you should market it as erotics, crime, or another related genre that their goal is not targeting 'what is wrong with these people?'

I read many stories and novels from the new generation of transgressive writers and I can say, many of them, not all, are confused about this genre. They were perverted stories without any weight to it, without any depth. I can say that transgressive fiction beauty is the freedom it carries. As transgressive writers or readers, we don't give a damn about what normal people with the average mindset and sheepish beliefs may think. Our goal is to make a change. To raise awareness. To show what is wrong with this sick society.

If you love this genre, if you write it, please consider your position. Your job is not to help your reader to reach orgasm - at least it's not your main duty, but your job is to focus on problems that the average mind of TikTok conformers can't comprehend. If that's not what you want if you only are interested in writing erotic scenes or dismembering someone for no reason at all but entertainment - in your books I mean - don't categorize yourself as a transgressive writer. It offends us who are fighting the stupid norms, that trying to focus on various social issues.

"It's a Small World After All" and we all have a common bond which is our humanity, and the planet we share. While this is an admirable sentiment, it is easy to see that all too often, injustice and oppression within society prevent us from achieving that ideal small world unity. And so, literature has proven to be one of the best ways to understand and combat the difficult social issues or problems that affect certain groups of people in negative ways, that shape our world. A few of the social issues that literature primarily wrestles with are age/aging, gender, ethnicity, and human rights. Don't follow trends of what mass wants. They do not know, trust me. Use the power of words properly.

Thanks for Reading.

Squid Game: Giving You a Squillion and One Reasons to Stay In.

Quarantining at home all too often and incapable of relocating anywhere away from the sofa... I hear you. Conveniently, now you have even more rationale to extend the isolation blues thanks to the ultra-popular South Korean drama/slaughterhouse. And oh, just in case you wanted to debate its popularity, it only became the most ,watched show in Netflix's history recently, but nice try. So, what's the fuss all about and is it really worth it? Let's unpack it...

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A throng of people who are largely in debt up to their eyeballs, get recruited to partake in a set of death-defying children's games in the hope of winning a ridiculous amount of cash that only you or I could ever dream of owning. The series' protagonist, an impulsive gambler and amusing individual named Seong Gi-hun, has to form strategies and alliances in order to survive the game and win the fortune. At the same time, ***SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER*** a cop on the inside trying to infiltrate the game is searching for his brother.

At this point, it's worth mentioning that the show is not an all out violent bloodbath starring brainless characters with a frail storyline. Far from it. As a matter of fact, large chunks of the story are told outside of the killing arenas and gaming location and away from where the VIP's get aroused at the sight of human gore… and other things. Additionally, the storyline itself has enough twists and turns to keep you engrossed and definitely isn't just some senseless survival horror the whole way through. When contestants aren't getting put to the sword, the series does a wonderful job of exploring some deep transgressive elements as well as examining particular human traits and behaviours that begin to spawn when the chips are down. And to no surprise, it all generally comes back to one core thing - money.

A catalyst for a calamity

Swallowing the weight of guilt and admission that the tag of failed father is hanging over your head is probably an unfortunate concept that is all too common amongst the male society. There is an old saying - drastic measures call for drastic action, and for those privileged enough to have children, this appears to ring true if anything attempts to complicate family matters or sees you estranged from them. The result can be an emotional violation, causing extreme behaviour. And that's what we see unfold here in Squid Game as we observe the main character battle the issues of having a daughter living under the roof of an ex-wife who is making preparations to relocate to the United States with her new partner. Indeed, it is difficult to visualise a worse state of affairs than one that sees you getting ripped away for your own offspring. Compounding this would be a struggle to meet your end of the bargain, such as the leading man having a total disregard for his own daughter's birthday. Enter gambling addiction.

Dyeing your hair red for no apparent reason or guzzling Soju alone out the front of a convenience store or may be on the very minor end of outlandish actions in response to dealing with such a crisis, but voluntarily taking part in a human-killing marathon in the form of a children's game so you can financially fund and care for your daughter more adequately is not. Don't get me wrong, Seong Gi-hun is not portrayed as a bad guy. He actually comes across as a gentleman, somebody with a placid nature who looks out for others, and we see these humanistic qualities shine through concerning his soul-stirring relationship with Oh ll-nam, better known as "old man" - a chivalrous elderly man who urinates on himself.

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These two aren't the only characters that we get to inspect either. We also get a glimpse into ,the tremulous life of a North Korean defector who is on a quest to get her brother out of an orphanage and her mother away from the perils of North. There is the highly intellectual, headstrong and borderline psychopath contender who lacks a single moral bone in his body and and my personal favourite, the snake-tattooed gang member with a seemingly large bounty on his head for the debt he owes to other crime bosses. This character gives zero fucks about anybody and too has his share of mental health issues, albeit a different kind. There's someone for everyone.

Perhaps in some form, we can relate at least a little to the predicaments that these characters go through. Again, the fundamental basis for the actions we see on screen all come down to financial hardships. At some point in our lives, we have all been able to connect and sympathise with this subject matter. The interesting components to examine here are the results of navigating through such a depressive plight. Decisions get made either in a logical or emotional way where in a perfect world absent of deprivation, perhaps one or the other would get left at the door more often.

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A balanced assessment

As sadistically brilliant as Squid Game is, it is not the perfect show. No show is.

I praise the dialogue, applaud the depth of characters and story and salute the Tarantino-esque carnage, but I wince at the Front Man subplot. Perhaps I missed something there, but I don't fully comprehend his existence and why he does what he does. He also comes across devoid of possessing any feelings whatsoever. But yes, to avoid sabotaging it for you, I'll shut up now. Adding insult to injury is the omission of a good ending too, which I scowled at. A potential missed opportunity, although you can bet your bottom dollar a season 2 will be in the works to connect the tantalising dots.

I am being a bit facetious here because the pros far outweigh the cons by the length of the Nile, even if you hold daft opinions about minor league, issues with Korean-to-English translations courtesy of the subtitles. Irrespective of how you feel about the production, there is no denying the themes of seclusion, separation, and inequality which features heavily throughout. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it's that the human spirit when pushed to its limits is capable of ineffable chaos. And that perhaps is worth the viewing in itself.

Drop your dinner plans and skip your daughter's ballet recital this weekend (just kidding) and do yourself a favour - grab a copy of the sublime Squid Game and surrender yourself as it wraps its tentacles around you. You'll be hooked like a game of Red Light Green Light.

Writer vs. Publisher: Outcast Press

Well, for us outcasts who write transgressive and are not stars like Chuck Palahniuk, there are publishing houses that try to give voice to such writers. Today, I had an opportunity to talk with the founder of Outcast Press, Sebastian Vice who is also a transgressive author. Let us get to know him better.

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Hi Sebastian. I'm about to ask you the most difficult question. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing style?

I don’t know what to say about myself. I write mostly transgressive fiction and dirty realism. Sometimes I dabble in crime, horror, and westerns. My heart is with the first two though. I suppose my attraction to those genres stems from my marrow deep pessimism and existential nihilism. It’s a bit hard to write in those to categories and not only be more than a little fucked up, but also think that, in the end, everything is fucked.

Could you tell us a bit about Outcast press?

Sure, I suppose the best is to splash what’s on our homepage. “Outcast Press wants stories cut from the bone, written from the gristle that sticks to your soul, based off brain-burning images scorched onto paper. We like raw, honest, dark, in-your-face, tales. The ethos at Outcast Press is a rejection of sacred cows. The beauty of literature lies in exploring themes other mediums consider too taboo. For us, the thrill of transgressive fiction lies within its unpredictability. Stun us. Shock us. Amaze us. Grab us by the throat and never let go. Take the story far, too far—then farther. Then drop us a submission if you dare.”

I wager this pretty much sums it up. We want the best transgressive and dirty realist stories we can find. As suggested above, we don’t think a story goes “too far.” Rarely do stories go far enough.

Why did you decide to start Outcast press?

If you asked me a year ago if I thought I’d start a press, I’d laugh in your face. It was never a dream of mine. I just wanted to write short stories and poems, and maybe someday do novels (maybe). For me, and I suspect my team, it was born out of necessity. No matter how hard I dug, I had a hell of a time finding places that catered specifically to transgressive fiction.

So we started because we noticed a hole in the short story market for transgressive fiction. I mean, it’s hard enough selling a transgressive novel, but as I said, you really have to dig for places that take transgressive short stories (especially places that pay). They’re out there, sure, but you have to really search. Too often I saw places that would flirt with transgressive fiction, but they still wanted satanized bullshit. Nothing against magazines that don’t want dark or transgressive works. But if you market yourself as wanting such? Go all the way, motherfucker, or go home.

One day I snapped. I stumbled upon this journal that fake advertised taking transgressive fiction. So, like any professional, I go immediately to study the submission requirements and such, and I see a list of themes they don’t take (which was akin to a big no for 90% of my stories). I snapped. I thought, fuck this, I know some solid peeps, let’s fuckin’ do a transgressive and dirty realism press ourselves.

Publishing is a notoriously tough business. During your career, what major changes have you observed in the book business? What constants give the industry its strength?

It’s worth noting WHY it’s tough. It’s not tough finding talent. There’s plenty of fantastic writers. My team is fantastic, and not to brag, but each of us are really good at our shit. Paige Johnson is an outstanding fiction EIC. Emily Woe is brilliant as our tech person and has business education (she set up our shop, hooks us up with covers, etc). Both of these fine women I’ve known awhile, and are great at what they do. Amy-Jean Muller blows me away every time a new poetry feature comes out. And I like to think I’m pretty good at promotion, suffering social media, and whatnot.

It’s a tough business mostly, in my view, since the structure of the system puts every roadblock in a small publisher’s path. The sheer amount of work dealing with outdated and needlessly complicated systems is, in my view, designed to make small publishers fail.

There are a lot of working parts to getting a book published. Most of those are expected. But if you want your authors to succeed (which, why wouldn’t you?) you’ll have to suffer dozens of hours of dealing with systems designed to make you fail.

I haven’t really observed any major changes since I started writing or started the press. Rarely do places want to take a risk on something, they want to play it safe, blah, blah, blah. We’ve always seen this. We see it in music, film, and literature.

The constants that give the industry strength? Indie presses. In my view, that’s where you’ll channel the punk rock attitude (sometimes). Small presses, often run by writers themselves (like us), where you’ll find really innovative material.

Why transgressive fiction? What about this genre attracts you?

It’s one of the few genres where I don’t feel like a freak. Where I feel it’s ok to go there. Confession: I’ve been at this writing game for something like 10-15 years. I didn’t know what transgressive fiction was until about 2-3 years ago. All I knew is places didn’t want my stuff. It wasn’t horror, wasn’t literary, wasn’t thriller…what the fuck was it? Then I discovered it had a name. And this isn’t an unusual revelation either. Most people I talk to report much the same: I was writing stories nobody wanted because they were too dark or taboo, then I discovered it had a name.

I suppose I’m attracted to it because of the surprise element. Generally speaking, with other genres, you know what you’re getting. When you crack open a transgressive novel or short story, usually you don’t. There are exceptions of course, but there are plenty of surprises. I like surprises. I hate predictability.

And, I suppose it’s an outlet for my existential nihilism. Cormac McCarthy said: the point is there is no point. Perhaps this is what’s offputing about transgressive fiction. Often, though not always, it’s a vessel for existential nihilism. We don’t learn some lesson. Again: the point is there is no point.

Can you tell us about one of the recently published books in Outcast press?

I can only do one? Rats. Ok. We have our anthology In Filth It Shall Be Found dropping at the end of the month. It’s a collection of 20 transgressive short stories. No theme other than these are transgressive stories. We have some well-known peeps, like Greg Levin, Craig Clevenger, Lauren Sapala, and Steve Golds, to peeps we’ve had the honor of first publishing like Sue Petty and CT Marie. You’ll find a wide variety of themes and voices here. If you dig transgressive fiction, you’ll dig the anthology.

How would you decide which book to publish? What are your criteria? Is it the author or the story?

It’s both the author and the story. The story has to pique our interest, obviously. And it has to be well written, obviously. However, our authors have to be easy to work with. The process is long and involved, and we invest a lot of time and money into everyone we pick up. If the story is good, or great, but the author is seems difficult to work with, we’ll pass. Paige Johnson does a fantastic job making manuscripts shine (the proof is in the pudding—look at Sean McCallum’s debut The Recalcitrant Stuff Of Life). The last fucking thing I want to do is subject her to someone who won’t work with her. The key words are work WITH her.

At the end of the day, we want to sell books, sure. But that’s not our primary metric. We want two things: a good transgressive or dirty realist story, and an author who is professional and easy to work with.

What do you think makes a good story? And what makes it transgressive?

I’ll leave the first part this question up to literary critics. I wish I had a thoughtful answer, but I don’t. What makes it transgressive? It pushes back on some social, personal, political, or moral norm. It can be anything from engaging with necrophilia, to something simple like lying (Chuck P’s novel Choke has as its fundamental transgression lying and making people into fake heroes). I could go on and on, but Google is your friend (I know this is a shitty answer—but I don’t want to drone on any longer than I have).

Do you think women could be good Transgressive Fiction Writers? Why/why not?

Yes, why couldn’t they be? They are human beings like anyone else. Not only can they, but one of my favorite transgressive fiction novels is Tampa by Alissa Nutting. Some people might want to burn me at the stake for this, but dare I say it’s even better than Lolita (and I love that book). For those who doubt me, read Lolita, then read Tampa.

It’s often said transgressive fiction is kind of a boys club. I don’t know, I can list plenty of female transgressive fiction writers (this is a very incomplete list):

Alissa Nutting (Tampa) Monica Drake (Clown Girl) Natalie Nidler (For My Amusement) Joyce Carol Oates (Rape: A Love Story) Kathy Acker (Blood And Guts In High School) Lauren Sapala (Between The Shadow and Lo) Violet LeVoit (I Miss The World) Katherine Dunn (Geek Love) Kola Boof (The Sexy Part Of The Bible) Rachel Yoder (NightBitch—Just released in 2021)

In addition, 9 of the 20 stories from In Filth It Shall Be Found are by women. So yes, women can, and do, write outstanding transgressive stories.

Could you share what is your requirements for submissions?

I’ll just send a link to our page as that would be easier.

,https://www.outcast-press.com/copy-of-about

To close, thanks again for the interview.

Thank you for joining us and sharing your thoughts. It was a fun interview. Hope for future collaborations.

If you'd like to know about Outcast press, please visit: https://www.outcast-press.com/

Carnivalization of Literature and Transgression

"Carnivalization" is the term used by Mikhail Bakhtin in his works Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (1929) and Rabelais and his World (1965) to describe the shaping effect on literary genres. Synonym of Carnivalesque, it is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. The idea of carnivalism is the discourse of structuralism. Carnivalism is the opposite of everything deemed "normal". Now in this post, I would like to find the connection between Carnivalesque and Transgressive Fiction as I feel my writings can include both elements and it may be true in yours as well.

Why Carnival?

Carnival in Fiction

Carnivalization and Transgression

Critic and Conclusion

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Why Carnival?

Carnival roots in mid 16th century: from Italian carnevale, carnovale, from medieval Latin carnelevamen, carnelevarium ‘Shrovetide’, from Latin caro, carn- ‘flesh’ + levare ‘put away’. It was a carnival was a feast observed by Roman Catholics before the Lenten fast began (source). The word carnival derives, apparently, from the Latin carnem levare, ‘to put away flesh’. Traditionally, meat was not eaten during the Lenten fast: thus, a carnival would be the last occasion on which meat was permissible before Easter.

In the past, there were carnivals that were symbolic of the disruption and subversion of authority and a way of turning upside down of the hierarchical scale such as the Feast of Fools, the Abbot of Misrule, the Boy Bishop. So, the carnival permitted "the eccentric, the inappropriate, the sensuous." Bakhtin points out that the totality of popular festivities, rituals, and other carnival forms is deeply rooted in the human psyche on both the collective and individual levels. This means that "an entire language of symbolic concretely sensuous forms" which express a unified "carnival sense of the world, permeating all its forms".

Carnival in Fiction

Bakhtin analyzes the composition of Dostoevsky’s novels using this term. Introduced in his novel, Rabelais and His World, he defines the carnival as an opportunity to “consecrate inventive freedom, to permit the combination of a variety of different elements and their rapprochement, to liberate from the prevailing point of view of the world, from conventions and established truths, from clichés, from all that is humdrum and universally accepted” by creating a fantastic atmosphere that subverts social and hierarchical conventions(source). Each person in the carnival space is an active participant, so Dostoevsky’s use of carnivalization presents opportunities to catalyze the polyphony. In realizing the relativity of all things, the carnival also affirms the unfinalizability of the characters’ sense of self (source). These two characteristics are very similar to Transgressive writing.

Carnivalization and Transgression

Bakhtin's four categories of the carnival sense of the world are where I can connect these two terms with each other. Both Carnivalesque and Transgressive Fiction include:

Familiar and free interaction between people: carnival often brought the unlikeliest of people together and encouraged the interaction and free expression of themselves in unity. In transgressive fiction, the characters are mostly the outcasts and unwanted by society as well. Eccentric behavior: unacceptable behavior is welcomed and accepted in both, and one's natural behavior can be revealed without consequences. Carnivalistic mésalliances: the familiar and free format of carnival allows everything that may normally be separated to reunite such as Heaven and Hell, the young and the old, etc. In Transgressive fiction, we may look at a situation or a character in both sides of Good and Evil. Profanation: in the carnival, the strict rules of piety and respect for official notions of the 'sacred' are stripped of their power — blasphemy, obscenity, debasings, bringings down to earth, a celebration rather than condemnation of the earthly and body-based. This is clearly one element in Transgressive fiction . Critic and Conclusion

So, I believe that Carnivalesque has elements similar to Transgressive fiction but I argue that carnivalization carries a negative weight looking at today's culture becoming ubiquitous as we advance into the 21st century. The elements of shock value in Transgressive fiction and the freedom the Carnivalesque gives an artist is not equivalent to fetishized violence, often sexual violence like that found in YOU series on Netflix or Fifty Shades of Gray or when Eminem rapped about disemboweling his former wife and record sales boomed.

For me, using these two in writing is a powerful tool to raise awareness toward topics that are not open to talking. A book like Fifty Shades of Gray that turns into a bestseller and series of movies clarifies that there is a confusion between creating art and criticizing society through the perspective of taboo matters with what we see on media as trends. This is true that given the state of contemporary culture, it has become increasingly difficult to articulate distinctions between the transgressive and the non-transgressive; at a certain level arguing about that which is beyond the pale is ultimately a subjective judgment. What we see in media is not equal to the primary goal of transgressive or carnivalesque literature but is using such ideas to simply outstrips a culture's tolerance for extremity, monstrosity, and perversion not for breaking norms that question being human.

As Foucault says, "Profanation in a world which no longer recognizes any positive meaning in the sacred is this not more or less what we may call transgression? In that zone which our culture affords for our gestures and speech, transgression prescribes not only the sole manner of discovering the sacred in its unmediated substance but also a way of recomposing its empty form, its absence." But I do agree that transgressive literature ceases to be transgressive once its excess has been constrained by rational appreciation.

Therefore, while it may be a comforting thought that if we can intellectualize the transgressive, we can place ourselves beyond its dark appeal, yet still when we are drawn to write works that violate tolerable bounds, we recognize sooner or later that the same desire that animated us to write serious fiction like Blood Meridian or Dennis Cooper's sadomasochistic novel Frisk could be disarmed by the same spirit that animates the TikTok followers of random influencers who strip-down for no clear reason or making a book like Fifty Shades a best seller, fetishizing a stalker and serial killer like the character in Series You on Netflix and popularity of songs such as Lennon Stella, "BITCH" or Wheeler Walker, Jr., "Eatin' Pussy / Kickin' Ass" and yet banning the arts that criticize such behaviors.

The society that bans the truth and sets the shallow free is a circus. Don't be its clown!

Writer vs. Artist: Stiofan O’Ceallaigh

This post is the beginning of interviewing artists whose arts count as revolutionary, transgressive and against the norms. Today's guest is Stiofan O’Ceallaigh, a multimedia artist and curator born in Ireland. Currently exhibiting between the USA and Europe, O’Ceallaigh’s focus is an exploration of the understanding of a Queer aesthetic, if indeed, there is one. A personal journey and an acknowledgement of flux, his work seeks to emancipate those who know it, by promoting discourse around areas such as HIV, queer art censorship, the body politic, internalised shame/stigma > pride and fundamentally an effort to reduce hate... in all its forms. In 2016 he established the Queer art project called Balaclava.Q, a not-for-profit which strategically functions to connect, promote and create platforms for LGBTQ+ artists globally by devising and producing curatorial projects.

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Thank you Stiofan for joining us today. I'm in love with your art and purpose and I'd like to know Why Do You Make This Type of Art? Why are you drawn to this subject?

I make lots of different types of art in a variety of mediums. In the past, I have worked with video, sculpture, photography, installation, painting (which is my true love), and more recently I have been making digital art. My work explores who and what I am. But my work is also political; responding to current events, especially news in the march for LGBTQ+ equality. As a gay man, I believe that none of us are equal until everyone is equal. I make art because I have to. For me, making art is a cathartic experience. It helps me understand the world around me and helps me say things I cannot put into words. I am drawn to particular subjects, such as identity and experience because in order to understand what or who I am I must first understand where in the world I fit in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGayy5cgGf8&ab_channel=StiofanO%27Ceallaigh HOMOPERSPECTIVES video: source

I understand because for me writing transgressive fiction and non-fiction have the same purpose. Could you tell me, what Does Your Artwork Represent? Does your art represent something about you?

I am a gay man and I was born and raised in Ireland. Those two parts of me form the bulk of my identity and are contained within my work. But overall my art is my biography. Through my art, I tell stories about myself that take place in the here and now. In my work, I also explore my past and (im)possible futures. My art is both a statement and dialogue. A conversation with myself, by myself, is then shared with the viewer in exhibitions and online. Everyone has a constantly evolving understanding of the world, everyone has something to say about the world and their place in it… I have these dialogues through and in my art.

Beautiful answer. What Inspires You Stiofan? What connection do you have to your art?

Art is extremely important to me. I am connected and contained within all of my art. Making art heals me. It gives me a voice and allows me to process, reflect and then breathe. Injustice inspires me. It drives me to create and make indelible marks. People also inspire me, as does art history. In my strongest work, I try to connect all three. During the act of making art, music is my companion which also inspires me. When I make art I listen to music and during the art-making process, the music distracts my brain and creates a gap to allow the visuals to come through me and onto the canvas and/or screen. My art is part of me made tangible.

How Do You Make It?

When making art I usually grab the nearest thing to me; it could be a paintbrush, a camera, a mobile phone or random ephemera, and then I start to manifest something. My art is hardly ever planned. Planning my art would bore me. What excites me and keeps me captivated is the art of making and creating. Usually, I never know how a piece will look until the moment -- as an artist -- you get the gut sense that the piece is finished.

During the covid lockdowns, I lost access to studio space and therefore, for practical reasons, I had to find a way to make art that required little or no space. The obvious solution was to make art on my computer and mobile phone. This resulted in the creation of my most recent series, called HOMOPERSPECTIVES. During the recent lockdowns, I decided to create a daily visual diary to record moments, thoughts, and feelings. I use a combination of apps and computer programmes to create the finished pieces which come in the form of GIFs. More recently I decided to amalgamate selected works from the series to create a short video piece also titled HOMOPERSPECTIVES which will be premiered at a forthcoming exhibition presented by SEAS (the Socially Engaged Art Salon), at Brighton’s (UK) new LGBTQ+ centre called The Ledward Centre.

Lastly, for any artist, there's a meaning for what they're doing. What Does Your Art Mean to You?

To me, art galleries are holy places that allow for ultimate freedom of expression. My art means everything to me. It is part of me. I have been making art since I was 7 years old and it has helped me through the good times and the bad. Since 2016 I have been exhibiting work regularly across the US and Europe. I am a true believer in the arts' capacity to heal and change minds and attitudes. In particular, I feel that Queer art -- more often than not -- is too often censored and therefore underrepresented online (specifically on social media), and in the public realm, and so in 2016 I established Balaclava.Q - An international queer visual art project and collective. Since 2016 Balaclava.Q has been supporting the LGBTQ+ community by connecting, promoting and creating platforms for queer artists. To date over 500 international LGBTQ+ artists have been supported by this project to develop and enhance their careers and networks.

Thank you for joining us Stiofan and I hope to have a chance for future collaborations with you.

If you're interested to know our guest today, please visit the following links:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/stiofan.artist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stiofan.artist/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stiofan.artist/?hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZHrPXGQEAoLigMWzFfZTQ/videos You can explore and learn more about Balaclava.Q here: https://linktr.ee/balaclava.q You can read the latest Balaclava.Q publication here: https://issuu.com/balaclava.q/docs/untitled_final_version_2021

Feminism and Trasgressive Fiction

As an Iranian woman, I believe I grew up learning self-censorship as a norm. It was not until I joined Bangkok women Writers in 2016 that I learned I can fight against self-judgment and censorship and started to write freely. In my previous novels, written in Persian, I was suffering to limit my characters as much as society would accept and my books could get through the "Censorship Department" we have for any published types of art in the country. However, my novel "We Lost The Train" (soon will be translated into English)was my last novel written in Persian that stopped me from writing more. The reason was that the publisher asked me to remove a key character in order for me to get published not that the character was not attractive but because his story was taboo! No matter how much I tried to fit into their standards and limitation, still, there was something in the story that shouldn't be told! Here, I would like to discuss Feminism's escape narratives and transgression in form of writing.

Image source

This is not only the case in Iran. Focusing on the concept of self-censorship, I can say many of us, especially women, are drawn to this behavior because we have been told to act and behave a certain way. This is where I can tell you, as a woman, an Iranian one if you know what I mean, I can say Transgressive Writing freed me. A good example is Rupi Kapurauthor of “Milk and Honey” who faced controversies (however positive for her at the end) and being banned in Instagram regarding her Photos on menstruation. She voiced her side of the controversy using #FreeSpeechZone she says:

“thank you, Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. you deleted my photo twice stating that it goes against community guidelines. I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of [a] misogynist society that will have my body in underwear but not be okay with a small leak. when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified, pornified, and treated less than human. thank you. as a part of my final project for my visual rhetoric course i created this image along with a full set which you can view at www.rupikaur.com to demystify the period and make something that is innate “normal” again cause rape categories in porn are okay. objectification and sexualization is okay. people getting off on naked underage women. bondage. torture. humiliation. abuse is okay but this makes them uncomfortable. that’s what this work is supposed to do. make you as uncomfortable as you should feel when you watch others get abused and objectified. This just goes to show who is sitting behind the desk. And whose controlling the show. Whose controlling the media and who is censoring us.”

Transgressive Fiction and art are always controversial. We are the outcast and imagine adding the spice of gender to this controversy. In my idea, "being a woman is a taboo" no matter where you are, we're still being evaluated by misogynistic standards even by our own gender. There's a research on "Mothers' Blogs about mothering, family and food" that compared the way these women try to show the concept of their happy normal family and discussing difficult topics for example, her upset about another mother telling her children off, and about dilemmas over secondary school selection. This research shows how such narratives of difficulty complexify normative "happy families" stories. This characteristic allows for the registering of transgressive elements of content, within the apparently normative narrative of "happy families" in my idea is a form of self-censorship.

This is where Transgressive Writing, as Mookerjee points out, shows a well-known discontinuity between postmodernism and feminism, postcolonialism or other political themes, and this is "the postmodern novelist's disruption of the traditional continuities". So transgressive potential of feminist escape narratives is often resisted a happy ending or standard damsel in distress narratives, focusing on real female related struggles regarding norms, beliefs, and social standards. These narratives reflect the changing face of feminism, as it sheds its old certainties, is faced with a monumental "backlash" and is refigured as the potentially less threatening "postfeminism".

As a woman writer, either fiction or non-fiction, I encourage you to discuss what you are afraid to discuss. In this case, feminism isn't against anyone, it's about daring to share what society counts as disgusting. Anything natural like female desire, pregnancy-related rights, viginal health, women's pain, menopause, Vagina. Labia. Clitoris. I bet I disgusted some by just referring to natural parts of the human body. If you'd like to join such a powerful community of writers, I encourage you to check The last Book of My anthology, Sokut, (open for submission) here. I am benefitting from the power of Transgressive Writing to empower real feminism, talking about women who are tabooed by their peers, mothers, and sisters. We don't need to be aggressive to be heard, we can just normalize what being a human means.

Thanks for reading and I see you in the next post.

Writer vs. Writer Interview: Paula C. Deckard

A self-published author, professional content writer, blogger, and ghostwriter, Paula C. Deckard prides herself on being an exophonic writer and wants to connect with fellow exophonic writers who love the English language as much as she does. Her works are greatly transgressive and she believes in stories with deep emotional impacts that take readers to a place they didn’t know existed. her stories are of a type to die for.

Hi Paula. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a freelance writer and self-published author from Germany who is currently living in Canada. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the UK, where I have lived and worked for many years. I’m an avid reader, individualist, agnostic, and absurdist who has difficulty not seeking refuge in fiction. When I’m not reading or writing, I’m probably overusing CBD because anything else is a chore—in other words, today’s reality has a numbing effect on my emotions and psyche.

Fantastic. I'm curious about the first time you thought outside of the box when it comes to writing.

That wasn’t until very late! Even though I got into writing at a very young age, I was highly influenced by mainstream YA and romance. I was a hopeless romantic, a lost cause who didn’t learn from “,The Sorrows of Young Fucking Werther.” (In fact, I hated that book.)

I was safe with my hopes and dreams inside a locked box until I immersed myself in classics and philosophy at sixteen. I thought to myself, “Finally, books are teaching me to think for myself!” However, there were hardly any contemporary books from which I could learn to write in a modern way; therefore, it had taken me a while to find my voice and break free from that conventional style that didn’t express who I was. For the longest time, I felt restricted to write about certain things, thinking that there was a limit as to how you approached taboo themes.

Later, Charles Bukowski and Bret Easton Ellis taught me what literature really was—namely self-exposure through honesty and endurance. Their voices were more modern and relatable. I remember finally stepping out of the box and writing about what mattered to me the most.

I can't agree more. Tell me, why transgressive fiction? What about this genre attracts you?

,Transgressive fiction examines another side of being human—the side that ultimately defines us, yet many people are unwilling to connect with it. Themes of narcissism, guilt, sex, death, mental health, and more can be explored deeper and more accurately within the genre of transgressive fiction. Lately, it has helped me connect with the right people, as the average person doesn’t have the capacity for transgression; you don’t really have anything to talk about with them. While still somewhat an underground genre, it’s the only genre that allows you to let loose in the most unconventional way. Transgressive writers fascinate me not only because they’re brave enough to show you who they are, but they write the most extraordinary stories.

Plus, it hurts like it should but in a more mature way. The satirical aspect of it is cool too.

True! What is your current book about? What did you edit out of it?

My latest book, “,Heart like a Hole” is about how a female heart surgeon in New York deals with the absurdities of life. She uses her PTSD as a motivation to make something out of it—sex, surgeries, and blood work versus the reoccurring images of the past.

Honestly, I didn’t edit anything out of it, yet it took me over seven years to redraft it. This process mainly involved keeping the tone consistent, fixing syntax, and rewriting and restructuring the opening chapters (I suck at writing openings).

Since the release of that book was three years ago, my current and second book is a semi-autobiographical piece detailing my life in Germany and the UK. The title is “Passing Crushes,” which I know has a YA ring to it. I had this stupid idea of writing a rom-com (as a joke) until I realized that I didn’t have the mindset for it. Yet the title still resonates with the story, so I doubt I will edit it.

Can't wait to read that one! What was your hardest scene to write?

Some of the surgery scenes were difficult to write, especially when trying to be detailed-oriented, but ultimately, I focused more on what was happening in my protagonist’s narcissistic mind. The semi-bestial moment with the sow was also hard to write. Up to this day, no one has spoken a word of it.

Oh, and there was a cat-killing and a rape scene, which I thought would be hard to write, but it really depends on how in-tune you are with the unreliable narrator. I often put myself in my reader’s perspective, wondering how much they trust my protagonist and whether they empathize with her. If they like her, I’ll know I’ve done it right. However, I don’t know what it says about me if the other readers find her despicable. It’s not easy for me to work it out sometimes.

What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?

I think I have reached a point of empathy where I can easily write from any gender’s point of view. Some physical phenomena might be a bit difficult to explore. I don’t think I’ve written a hardcore sex scene from a man’s point of view yet.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

For “,Heart like a Hole,” I spent about six months researching surgeries, hospital dynamics, and psychology. Since I don’t watch drama series like “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy,” I watched an entire season of “Scrubs,” but I was none the wiser.

It was a very ambitious project and the totally wrong first book to write. While I had the story clear before my eyes, I had to make all the supporting aspects work. One of the most important things was the setting. I’ve only been to New York once when I was a child but never had the opportunity to return. It was okay because I wanted to create a more fictional feel, inspired by American Psycho and even Home Alone 2.

Some facts that you gather from research won’t work well in fiction. My professor once said that if you base your story on a piece of research, everything it asserts must be made true again in the story, reinvented in plausible experience. However, I’ve been very careful with how I use my research.

I tend to only research stuff I’m genuinely interested in and see a story potential. But who knew that the idea of a “blood-stained band-aid” would have me research hospitals and surgeries?

For my second book, I decided to write about what I know. Most of the research materials are in my blog and journals.

Fantastic. It's hard work for sure. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

I attempted about 30 thirty novels between 1997-2002—nothing I would want to share with anyone. The real thing happened in 2006 when the first chapters of “,Heart Like, a Hole” came to light. The second novel is half-finished; it’s currently undergoing a rewriting process.

I tend to finish what I start, but after “,Heart like a Hole,” I decided to be more realistic and straightforward with future writing projects. I couldn’t produce anything like the first book again.

What’s the best way to market your books?

I’m honestly too shy. I only recently started networking with fellow indie authors on social media and my blog. Great things came out of it because we supported each other through reviews and podcasts. That’s how I’ve been spreading the word.

I don’t have a loud personality, so self-marketing has always been challenging. One wouldn’t believe that I’m 50% extroverted; I just don’t know how to use it to my advantage sometimes.

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Sure, every writer does that. My second book will call out some parallels that only those who have read the first one will see. It may even confirm your assumptions about the author.

That’s the joy of creating alter-egos. If you dump a load of secret emotions on a fictional character, they often deal with it better than you. I love the way my protagonist handles my problems, which, in real life, may not be very wise in itself.

What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?

I don’t owe anyone anything, really. Back in the day, it was probably my attempt to understand the things certain people did. If you’re young and inexperienced, you won’t easily understand other people’s actions because you lack the wisdom to put yourself in their shoes.

The truth is, you can’t ever put yourself in anyone’s shoes because you won’t ever know how they feel, neither will you ever know them. You can gain a better understanding of them via your stories.

I used to believe that I could change people for the better until I fell on my face several times. Writing about these people helped me come to terms with their actions. Or I should say—my own actions too because I am part of the cause.

Ellen Parker in “,Heart like a Hole” never came to terms with anything or anyone. You may call her vindictive, unforgiving, and passive-aggressive. Is it reflective of the author herself? Perhaps.

I suppose in my second book, I’ll have to incorporate forgiveness somehow.

Thank you Paula for joining us today and I hope for future collaboration.

Thank you so much again for this opportunity. I had great fun!

If you're interested to know Paula better, please check the following links:

Website: https://paulacdeckard.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulaCDeckard

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulacdeckard

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulaCDeckard

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