Craft Notes
Sex and Brevity, Fracture and Complexity
Photo by Gary Glass.
Savannah Scholl Gruz questions if the elements of fiction are obsolete in a really interesting post on her blog. She asks, “But why, too, are stories so often about empty sex and blow jobs? Why are so many of them full of violence and figurative blind corners.” Her discussion expresses a real concern over the highly sexualized, fragmented short story and she also notes that, “Maybe we are the decade of fractured, sexual narratives in the same way that we have, in many ways, become a fractured and highly sexualized culture.”
As a writer who often writes sexual narratives, sometimes fractured in nature, but often times, linear and complex, I’m pretty intrigued by her commentary. Savannah asks if the proliferation of highly sexualized work is a deeper commentary on our culture, a reflection of this moment in time but I would say that literature has always been highly sexualized. It’s only the nature of highly sexualized work that continues to evolve. Similar concerns as the ones Savannah shares in her post were raised at the end of the 19th century, for example. Elaine Showalter’s Sexual Anarchy is a great book that looks at the evolving sexual culture of the fin de siecle and how those cultural changes manifested themselves in literature and popular culture.
The stories Savannah discusses are the kinds of stories I am often drawn to. There’s a lot to mine when writing (or reading) about sex and sex can serve as a narrative frame for just about anything. If there’s an increase in highly sexualized writing I think it may be more a reflection of narrative potential than zeitgeist. There are, of course, some writers who are using sex to create a spectacle, or to shock and titillate, certainly, but even those reasons for writing about sex interest me.
I am confused, however, because Savannah also discusses how short fiction seems to be getting shorter and shorter. There’s a real concern in her post about how we can build complexity in our stories if we are consistently held to short word limits. I don’t think there’s a connection between highly sexual work and brevity so I would have liked to see these two subjects addressed separately. That said, I too often wonder about how storytelling is affected by really low word limits but I don’t think that experiments with the short form (ie. hint fiction, nano fiction, micro fiction, flash fiction) are only a response to a culture with a decreased intention span, as she asserts in the opening of her post. That may be some part of it but to a larger extent, no matter how skeptical I might be, I think writers are really trying to push what it means to tell a story and how a story can be told. Brevity and fractured or fragmented narratives (which I would love to also discuss in more depth) are just two examples of how the short form continues to shift and grow. Those kinds of stories are not being written at the expensive of longer, more complex and linear narratives. I don’t believe that complexity cannot be incorporated into a very short story. What does it mean for a story to be complex, anyway?
I know Savannah wants to engage in a discussion about literature and how the short form is changing so go, read the post, then come back here and let’s talk.
Tags: elaine showalter, narrative, sex
Not writing about sex in the new millenium, especially in a fractured, elliptical way, is like not writing about pop culture in the 90s. The ether is positively permeated with sex right now. To not write about it is to avoid what is right in front of you. Our culture is hyper-sexualized.
Kate Zambreno just posted a really interesting related post about a similar subject tying in the Marina Abramovic show at the MOMA and the complexities of writing the body, particularly for women. In particular the sort of double bind involved with that but also the (radical?) potential that this opens up (e.g. Jelinek’s Piano Teacher and Wonderful, Wonderful Times):
http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-does-this-represent-what-do-you.html
I think that very short stories force readers to work more. If a piece is only 100 words (or even 10 words), then you really have to participate in order to get a narrative out of it. You have to fill in the gaps yourself; you can’t just sit back and let the story wash over you.
I also write about sex a lot, but I am an incorrigible romantic so I cannot write empty, violent or hateful sex. I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it.
If you define Parataxis as checking your iPhone during sex, then she may be on to something.
Ah, yes–Marina Abramovic! I reviewed one of her exhibition catalogues, probably 6 years ago…she would ascend a platform by way of a ladder whose slats were upturned knives…whoo, some real-time metaphor, that. Also, I follow the Frances Farmer blog, too. She has some great insights.
I’m *really grateful* to Roxane for advancing this topic. I agree that sex, in many ways, is an effective tool for excavating power relationships and simply relationships in general, with all their intricacies and emotional depth (or shallowness as sometimes is the case, depending on the story). One of the most powerful stories I’ve read recently to use sex as revelation is Roxane’s “Pilgrims,” which appeared at Annalemma (you can read it here: http://annalemma.net/features/pilgrims.html). The deteriorating nature of their relationship is laid out very clearly in their sweaty sex. So, it’s definitely not the sex itself that I feel less (honestly, no pun is intended here) stimulated by. It’s more that it has to be an integral part of an emotional connect or emotional severing…for me, it has to have meaning (as opposed to something like, say, this: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/33924/a-moral-pornographer/).
I do think that, although I grouped the issue of sex and flash/micro fiction together, they are totally separate issues. I’m just wondering how fiction will look in ten years because of the movements that are being made now. I see the online literary community as the avant garde that is pushing away outmoded boundaries, the very rules and definitions that I teach in my classes…will they still be valid? Will long-form fiction eventually become entirely side-lined with the next generation of readers. It’s an interesting landscape we’re moving into. I’m excited about this discussion and hope it keeps going.
I agree with this a lot, Roxane. Literature is not a zero-sum game where the proliferation of very short writing necesitates less longer fiction. Most of the time I’m reading flash micro etc is not my novel time; it’s fitting good, engaging reading into slots it wouldn’t otherwise be.
If there is a relationship between sex and length, perhaps it’s more of a statement against literary foreplay.
Hi Savanna! You were actually in an antho with me that was nothing but fractured sexual narratives by Better Non Sequitur, the publisher that just published my own complete collection of fractured sexual narratives.
Your’s was good!
Its a fractured world, we just live in it.
I absolutely loved Zambreno’s post about the naked body in art. It was particularly interesting coming from the pov of someone who has used their body as a medium. Abramovic’s work is an example of using this medium in order to create a multitude of different viewer experiences based on the viewers previous experiences. The naked body inherently includes sex / sexuality in these works and that coupled with the variety of audience generated emotions creates a beautiful abstract phenomena. It seems in my experience of reading flash/micro posts online that are highly sexualized, this natural harmony of sexuality and emotion that comes in work such as Abramovic’s is often traded up for harsh point blank fucking — not necessarily sensual (in any sense of the term). While plenty of writing such as this has its place and purpose, more often than not it seems to be for nothing other than shock value. (snooze)
Sorry was referring to Tamsin Nutter’s post for MOMA, not Zambreno’s – mistype!
Sorry, I mean Savannah….(whistle)
Hey, Brendan! Awh, fantastic! I didn’t know about your book–I will buy a copy now. Yes, I really enjoyed your story, too. Thanks!!
Not writing about sex in the new millenium, especially in a fractured, elliptical way, is like not writing about pop culture in the 90s. The ether is positively permeated with sex right now. To not write about it is to avoid what is right in front of you. Our culture is hyper-sexualized.
Kate Zambreno just posted a really interesting related post about a similar subject tying in the Marina Abramovic show at the MOMA and the complexities of writing the body, particularly for women. In particular the sort of double bind involved with that but also the (radical?) potential that this opens up (e.g. Jelinek’s Piano Teacher and Wonderful, Wonderful Times):
http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-does-this-represent-what-do-you.html
I think that very short stories force readers to work more. If a piece is only 100 words (or even 10 words), then you really have to participate in order to get a narrative out of it. You have to fill in the gaps yourself; you can’t just sit back and let the story wash over you.
I also write about sex a lot, but I am an incorrigible romantic so I cannot write empty, violent or hateful sex. I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it.
Hi there, Ben~ Thanks for responding to this! This is great and it’s very heartening…I think we need both: flash and long-form. They do, as you say, fill in the open spaces, and I really feel there is often an interpollination–I mean, one prompts another. What I worry about, especially with the students I see come up from behind us is that there won’t be a place for long-form in the long term. A lot of my young students have zero tolerance for longer stories and want the action to be: ‘pow! right in the kisser’ rather than savoring and reflecting. So, two ot three generations from now, will flash and micro entirely replace long form in the creative writing field or will the pendulum swing back (or am I totally underestimating the desire of future folks to want to emerse themselves in prose, rather than having fleeting sensory experiences)? Just getting philosophical here, and wondering. I know none of us have a crystal ball, but what do you think?
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Savannah’s initial statement concerning short (and shorter) fiction, ‘Attention spans are shorter; digital media lend themselves better to shorter works.’ I also think Kirsty is right in that very short stories force readers to work more, though maybe just as hard as someone who’s had to read just a short story. Writers are competing not as much with each other, but fundamentally as much with other forms of entertainment–even from advertisements, billboards, radio, movies. I see this as our culture being less sex-driven and more ‘sensually’ bombarded. Everything in our world, even the technologies that bring Americans the information and entertainment they want, are moving quicker, faster and better every day. These are the arenas and stages of writers as performers. A lot of independent film has adopted some of this shortness or brevity and I honestly can’t say how many times I’ve loved movie trailers, but not the movie or felt the movie not worth paying to see. To that end of being bombarded or hyper-sensitized, I really feel a practicing or even pop psychologist would have a field day comparing the results of exposure to these forms of entertainment and linking them to the amount of diagnosed, treated or even speculated mental disorders and stress in just the last decade or two.
If you define Parataxis as checking your iPhone during sex, then she may be on to something.
Thanks Savannah! I remember you because of your story, which I thought was one of the better ones in the book, and also because you said some kind words to me which I very much appreciated.
I mean..”one of the best ones”
It is one of those days….
Our cultural obsession with the shorter attention span is so pathological and wrong-minded. I very much appreciate your comments here but I absolutely disagree. Good writing of any length will be read in any medium. We’re not competing with billboards and movies and all that stuff. We’re competing with other words. Yes, all that other stuff is out there but the notion that we’re somehow beholden to the existence of all these entertainment options really riles me.
Brendan Scott Connell, what is your middle name?
Ah, yes–Marina Abramovic! I reviewed one of her exhibition catalogues, probably 6 years ago…she would ascend a platform by way of a ladder whose slats were upturned knives…whoo, some real-time metaphor, that. Also, I follow the Frances Farmer blog, too. She has some great insights.
I’m *really grateful* to Roxane for advancing this topic. I agree that sex, in many ways, is an effective tool for excavating power relationships and simply relationships in general, with all their intricacies and emotional depth (or shallowness as sometimes is the case, depending on the story). One of the most powerful stories I’ve read recently to use sex as revelation is Roxane’s “Pilgrims,” which appeared at Annalemma (you can read it here: http://annalemma.net/features/pilgrims.html). The deteriorating nature of their relationship is laid out very clearly in their sweaty sex. So, it’s definitely not the sex itself that I feel less (honestly, no pun is intended here) stimulated by. It’s more that it has to be an integral part of an emotional connect or emotional severing…for me, it has to have meaning (as opposed to something like, say, this: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/33924/a-moral-pornographer/).
I do think that, although I grouped the issue of sex and flash/micro fiction together, they are totally separate issues. I’m just wondering how fiction will look in ten years because of the movements that are being made now. I see the online literary community as the avant garde that is pushing away outmoded boundaries, the very rules and definitions that I teach in my classes…will they still be valid? Will long-form fiction eventually become entirely side-lined with the next generation of readers. It’s an interesting landscape we’re moving into. I’m excited about this discussion and hope it keeps going.
Hee, hee! I answer to all variations…even the occasional Samantha and Susannah. :-)
Sorry, Roxane I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just been a long-standing belief of mine that I seldom get the chance to exert or say.
I agree with this a lot, Roxane. Literature is not a zero-sum game where the proliferation of very short writing necesitates less longer fiction. Most of the time I’m reading flash micro etc is not my novel time; it’s fitting good, engaging reading into slots it wouldn’t otherwise be.
If there is a relationship between sex and length, perhaps it’s more of a statement against literary foreplay.
I’m not offended at all. I disagree but I think your viewpoint is just as interesting as mine.
Zusya
I actually sort of do agree with what Chris is saying. Not that writers are competing with this, but that their writing is influenced by billboards and mass advertising I have no doubt. Since the time of Erik Satie, writers have gradually been drawn into writing in imitation of ads, either self-consciously, or not.
This is also surely what draws people to places like Facebook and Twitter and even blogs like this. Everyone likes to advertise themselves.
Yes, I see just what Chris is saying. I think it’s inevitable that we must compete with other media. We’re entertainers while also being teachers (we’re always teaching something when we tell a story). But also, when I say this, I’m looking long-term…solely because of a trend I see with my students. They are so much more connected to texting and their Facebook (even in class, and I’m not really condemning them for this) than to their books. Their writing seems always to gravitate towards the sentence fragment. I even get text-speak, and I see language slowly transforming (dying? evolving?) as their fingers move across their phone keyboards. For good or ill I don’t know. With this in mind, I think we will (if we aren’t already doing it) have to compete with other media for their attention. And maybe they’re not the audience we want, but they seem to be a sign of things to come. (Speaking of employing the media, I just saw James Kalen is attempting to get on the Colbert Show, I think?) I guess the question then is who do we want to write for? Who is our true audience? Certainly, we have each other, and I’m very glad for that. But I feel the expectations of our audience will inevitably change because of the shape of things now and its impact on entertainment expectations. Of course, there’s always been this divide (take Clement Greenberg’s Avant Garde and Kitsch essay), and our culture got through that and remained fairly literate. But I see our culture looking more and more like the citizens in Fahrenheit 451, with wall screens on all sides of the living room. Sometimes it seems like the lure of the brief and sparkly can sometimes be overwhelming and just turns more heads than words do, and sometimes only because they require time and concentration to unpack.
It’s not that I don’t see where Chris is coming from but rather that I am frustrated byt he sense of defeat, that alas, this is just the way it is.
We’re definitely pushing back against the trend though. I do reach some of my students because they get excited about reading when I introduce them to new work online, stuff outside the comparatively dry textbook (I’ve started bringing into my lit class your work, Roxane, along with Michelle Reale’s and Jen Michalski’s). I tell them to look and see how observations are made and effective descriptions are built and to look deep and be more patient while searching for meaning. Anyway, I really love this discussion, Roxane. Thank you again so much for posting it.
Replying to Roxane and Savannah: Well, that is the way it is for now. But of course to just pretend that it is “all” like this is not true etiher.
Savannah is dealing with students, so probably she sees this more directly.
But there is a whole planet out there.
There are old men picking coffee beans in Central America and women in far away islands who take months to tell a story.
There are guys on death row writing 2,000 page books as fast as they can.
There are libraries full of multi-volume works by men who wore curly white wigs.
But here in No.1 Country On Planet we are fractured.
I do wonder about that sometimes, especially as someone who engages frequently (daily) deals with very short writing. I do think many young writers (in America?) are tired of lyricism, of description for its own sake. That relates to length but isn’t synonymous with it Personally, I see the novella and other longish forms getting more traction. I think the internet and the potential for new publishing modalities make everything possible again. I also think some of the students’ preference for writing short is an extension of insecurity.
That said, when I last was in a workshop (two years ago), no one was interested in flash or anything of the sort. I wonder if part of this writerly preference is in fact a representation of what some editors and more prominent writers themselves prefer.
A cynical reason for this move is also a matter of time investment. Not all fiction titillates. It makes it easier to invest in reading a story if it’s not going to be your cup of tea when you know it won’t take very long. I really do think that’s a huge part of it.
Hi Savanna! You were actually in an antho with me that was nothing but fractured sexual narratives by Better Non Sequitur, the publisher that just published my own complete collection of fractured sexual narratives.
Your’s was good!
Its a fractured world, we just live in it.
I absolutely loved Zambreno’s post about the naked body in art. It was particularly interesting coming from the pov of someone who has used their body as a medium. Abramovic’s work is an example of using this medium in order to create a multitude of different viewer experiences based on the viewers previous experiences. The naked body inherently includes sex / sexuality in these works and that coupled with the variety of audience generated emotions creates a beautiful abstract phenomena. It seems in my experience of reading flash/micro posts online that are highly sexualized, this natural harmony of sexuality and emotion that comes in work such as Abramovic’s is often traded up for harsh point blank fucking — not necessarily sensual (in any sense of the term). While plenty of writing such as this has its place and purpose, more often than not it seems to be for nothing other than shock value. (snooze)
Sorry was referring to Tamsin Nutter’s post for MOMA, not Zambreno’s – mistype!
Sorry, I mean Savannah….(whistle)
Hey, Brendan! Awh, fantastic! I didn’t know about your book–I will buy a copy now. Yes, I really enjoyed your story, too. Thanks!!
I teach at the university level too and I simply refuse to indulge in this idea that it’s all about Facebook and text messaging. Let me back up and say yes, students might prefer to communicate that way but I consider it absolutely unacceptable in terms of what students turn in for coursework. I make them write often, in complete sentences, and at length. All of my colleagues do the same thing so yes these fractured modes of communication exist but they do not have to dictate how we write.
Hi there, Ben~ Thanks for responding to this! This is great and it’s very heartening…I think we need both: flash and long-form. They do, as you say, fill in the open spaces, and I really feel there is often an interpollination–I mean, one prompts another. What I worry about, especially with the students I see come up from behind us is that there won’t be a place for long-form in the long term. A lot of my young students have zero tolerance for longer stories and want the action to be: ‘pow! right in the kisser’ rather than savoring and reflecting. So, two ot three generations from now, will flash and micro entirely replace long form in the creative writing field or will the pendulum swing back (or am I totally underestimating the desire of future folks to want to emerse themselves in prose, rather than having fleeting sensory experiences)? Just getting philosophical here, and wondering. I know none of us have a crystal ball, but what do you think?
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Savannah’s initial statement concerning short (and shorter) fiction, ‘Attention spans are shorter; digital media lend themselves better to shorter works.’ I also think Kirsty is right in that very short stories force readers to work more, though maybe just as hard as someone who’s had to read just a short story. Writers are competing not as much with each other, but fundamentally as much with other forms of entertainment–even from advertisements, billboards, radio, movies. I see this as our culture being less sex-driven and more ‘sensually’ bombarded. Everything in our world, even the technologies that bring Americans the information and entertainment they want, are moving quicker, faster and better every day. These are the arenas and stages of writers as performers. A lot of independent film has adopted some of this shortness or brevity and I honestly can’t say how many times I’ve loved movie trailers, but not the movie or felt the movie not worth paying to see. To that end of being bombarded or hyper-sensitized, I really feel a practicing or even pop psychologist would have a field day comparing the results of exposure to these forms of entertainment and linking them to the amount of diagnosed, treated or even speculated mental disorders and stress in just the last decade or two.
Thanks Savannah! I remember you because of your story, which I thought was one of the better ones in the book, and also because you said some kind words to me which I very much appreciated.
I mean..”one of the best ones”
It is one of those days….
Our cultural obsession with the shorter attention span is so pathological and wrong-minded. I very much appreciate your comments here but I absolutely disagree. Good writing of any length will be read in any medium. We’re not competing with billboards and movies and all that stuff. We’re competing with other words. Yes, all that other stuff is out there but the notion that we’re somehow beholden to the existence of all these entertainment options really riles me.
Brendan Scott Connell, what is your middle name?
Roxane, you are correct. No one should dictate how you write.
And getting on your students is a good thing.
But the real culprit, is right here. The internet. Mechanical society.
So, it is (in my most humble opinion) not really the fault of the students.
Why did I first click on this post? Because of a headline. The word sex was in there.
That was enough for me.
Personally, I don’t really see why half sentences can’t be as beautiful as whole ones.
Water is still water, whether frozen, falling from a rock or sitting under bubbles in your bathtub.
Hee, hee! I answer to all variations…even the occasional Samantha and Susannah. :-)
Sorry, Roxane I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just been a long-standing belief of mine that I seldom get the chance to exert or say.
I’m not offended at all. I disagree but I think your viewpoint is just as interesting as mine.
Zusya
I actually sort of do agree with what Chris is saying. Not that writers are competing with this, but that their writing is influenced by billboards and mass advertising I have no doubt. Since the time of Erik Satie, writers have gradually been drawn into writing in imitation of ads, either self-consciously, or not.
This is also surely what draws people to places like Facebook and Twitter and even blogs like this. Everyone likes to advertise themselves.
Yes, I see just what Chris is saying. I think it’s inevitable that we must compete with other media. We’re entertainers while also being teachers (we’re always teaching something when we tell a story). But also, when I say this, I’m looking long-term…solely because of a trend I see with my students. They are so much more connected to texting and their Facebook (even in class, and I’m not really condemning them for this) than to their books. Their writing seems always to gravitate towards the sentence fragment. I even get text-speak, and I see language slowly transforming (dying? evolving?) as their fingers move across their phone keyboards. For good or ill I don’t know. With this in mind, I think we will (if we aren’t already doing it) have to compete with other media for their attention. And maybe they’re not the audience we want, but they seem to be a sign of things to come. (Speaking of employing the media, I just saw James Kalen is attempting to get on the Colbert Show, I think?) I guess the question then is who do we want to write for? Who is our true audience? Certainly, we have each other, and I’m very glad for that. But I feel the expectations of our audience will inevitably change because of the shape of things now and its impact on entertainment expectations. Of course, there’s always been this divide (take Clement Greenberg’s Avant Garde and Kitsch essay), and our culture got through that and remained fairly literate. But I see our culture looking more and more like the citizens in Fahrenheit 451, with wall screens on all sides of the living room. Sometimes it seems like the lure of the brief and sparkly can sometimes be overwhelming and just turns more heads than words do, and sometimes only because they require time and concentration to unpack.
It’s not that I don’t see where Chris is coming from but rather that I am frustrated byt he sense of defeat, that alas, this is just the way it is.
We’re definitely pushing back against the trend though. I do reach some of my students because they get excited about reading when I introduce them to new work online, stuff outside the comparatively dry textbook (I’ve started bringing into my lit class your work, Roxane, along with Michelle Reale’s and Jen Michalski’s). I tell them to look and see how observations are made and effective descriptions are built and to look deep and be more patient while searching for meaning. Anyway, I really love this discussion, Roxane. Thank you again so much for posting it.
Replying to Roxane and Savannah: Well, that is the way it is for now. But of course to just pretend that it is “all” like this is not true etiher.
Savannah is dealing with students, so probably she sees this more directly.
But there is a whole planet out there.
There are old men picking coffee beans in Central America and women in far away islands who take months to tell a story.
There are guys on death row writing 2,000 page books as fast as they can.
There are libraries full of multi-volume works by men who wore curly white wigs.
But here in No.1 Country On Planet we are fractured.
I do wonder about that sometimes, especially as someone who engages frequently (daily) deals with very short writing. I do think many young writers (in America?) are tired of lyricism, of description for its own sake. That relates to length but isn’t synonymous with it Personally, I see the novella and other longish forms getting more traction. I think the internet and the potential for new publishing modalities make everything possible again. I also think some of the students’ preference for writing short is an extension of insecurity.
That said, when I last was in a workshop (two years ago), no one was interested in flash or anything of the sort. I wonder if part of this writerly preference is in fact a representation of what some editors and more prominent writers themselves prefer.
A cynical reason for this move is also a matter of time investment. Not all fiction titillates. It makes it easier to invest in reading a story if it’s not going to be your cup of tea when you know it won’t take very long. I really do think that’s a huge part of it.
I can’t do empty or hateful sex either.
I see sex as a window to the participating individuals at their most powerful and most vulnerable, fully exposed, longing, needy, hungry, assertive, multilayered, gunning for connection and communication.
Sex is also a window to the culture. Maybe that’s why there’s a lot of sex writing now that’s empty, violent or hateful?
I don’t think we’re beholden to other media, Roxane, in terms of how we “should” or can best make our work, but we are definitely competing with every other form of “entertainment” on the planet for, let’s say, market share (i.e., audience eyeballs, heart and mind, and dollars), and it’s up to each individual whether or not to integrate 21st century multimedia elements into new literary work, either as inspiration or by adopting/adapting methods to extend said work’s artistry or artistic reach. It’s not mandatory, perhaps, but I think it’s a choice well-worth exploring. Case in point: fragmentary narratives. To me, these are clearly derived from the quick-cutting narrative forms of contemporary film and music videos.
I teach at the university level too and I simply refuse to indulge in this idea that it’s all about Facebook and text messaging. Let me back up and say yes, students might prefer to communicate that way but I consider it absolutely unacceptable in terms of what students turn in for coursework. I make them write often, in complete sentences, and at length. All of my colleagues do the same thing so yes these fractured modes of communication exist but they do not have to dictate how we write.
Roxane, you are correct. No one should dictate how you write.
And getting on your students is a good thing.
But the real culprit, is right here. The internet. Mechanical society.
So, it is (in my most humble opinion) not really the fault of the students.
Why did I first click on this post? Because of a headline. The word sex was in there.
That was enough for me.
Personally, I don’t really see why half sentences can’t be as beautiful as whole ones.
Water is still water, whether frozen, falling from a rock or sitting under bubbles in your bathtub.
I can’t do empty or hateful sex either.
I see sex as a window to the participating individuals at their most powerful and most vulnerable, fully exposed, longing, needy, hungry, assertive, multilayered, gunning for connection and communication.
Sex is also a window to the culture. Maybe that’s why there’s a lot of sex writing now that’s empty, violent or hateful?
I don’t think we’re beholden to other media, Roxane, in terms of how we “should” or can best make our work, but we are definitely competing with every other form of “entertainment” on the planet for, let’s say, market share (i.e., audience eyeballs, heart and mind, and dollars), and it’s up to each individual whether or not to integrate 21st century multimedia elements into new literary work, either as inspiration or by adopting/adapting methods to extend said work’s artistry or artistic reach. It’s not mandatory, perhaps, but I think it’s a choice well-worth exploring. Case in point: fragmentary narratives. To me, these are clearly derived from the quick-cutting narrative forms of contemporary film and music videos.
I took the photo at the top of this article. You are welcome to use it, but please provide a credit and a link to my site: http://shutterglass.com. Thanks!
I took the photo at the top of this article. You are welcome to use it, but please provide a credit and a link to my site: http://shutterglass.com. Thanks!
[…] HTMLGIANT / Sex and Brevity, Fracture and Complexity My husband took the photo that illustrates this blog post. It turns up around the web a lot, often uncredited. See the original here: http://www.shutterglass.com/Now-Showing/Old-Hotel/2066860_cS9Lj#106376261_ukhTN […]
Absolutely. Getting on your students is a very good thing. I actually have to fail a fair number of student papers because they insist on blunted expressions, bad research, and sentence fragments–even though we go through all the ‘best practices’ very carefully in class. While there are the few that try and succeed, a great number of them just don’t give a rip. They live in the now and never look to the later. These are the ones that text in class. Now, in the future, will these be our readership? I would say definitely not. It’s the ones who reach for education, higher levels of thinking, and the delights offered by language (even as if morphs). Still, I kinda feel that the direction of our culture is so often driven by the demands of the masses (um, wow, that sounded pretty dated and Marxist, but *shrugging*) and these popular preoccupations trickle back up into the higher levels of culture and changes it forever. Public radio, for instance, would have crapped twinkies back in their 1970s inception if disco had been issued through their transmitters….and now, what did they use as bumper music yesterday when I was in the car? Not any old Saturday Night Fever either…It was “Flashlight”! My jaw hit the steering wheel so hard, I thought I would have to go to the dentist. Zadie Smith, too, has been really interested in Tupaq…I remember hearing her say that in an interview a couple of years ago. So this cross-pollination isn’t necessarily bad. They’re simply changes and with change comes a conflict of ideas. As language morphs because I think it will, slowly, like genetic adaptations do over generations…I just hope that we don’t have to sacrifice layers of meaning and nuance (And here, I’m really speaking about students and their general significance to the shape of things). Like crap, Savannah, can I never write a short reply?
Hi Ben!
Apologies for not replying sooner…I didn’t realize this post was up here…I kept scrolling down and missing it.
Yes, I agree: I find the same to be true with students who care (I added the qualifier ‘care’ here only because I was just writing below about the students who don’t seem to care). These students often feel that what they have to say isn’t valid or important and cut their observations off at the knees. Also, I should say that several of these students are aspiring writers, who want to stretch their abilities and become effective observers, who will eventually contribute to the writing pool (I hope anyway).
But! What you say about the movement away from lyricism and description for its own sake is *really, really interesting* and maybe this is actually a key to what I’m really getting to in this whole ‘what’s happening now’ reflection. The treatment of aesthetics is changing in the sense that we’re purging more (sorry, I can’t think of a better word here–>) roccoco writing and replacing it with more spare prose that communicates action more directly. Of course, there are so many things that co-exist at any point in history, and in some circles (particularly genre writing, like horror and sci-fi, where I sometimes circulate) seems interested still in descriptions (this is a generalization, of course…not all of these writers have works like that). But literary fiction does seem to be moving towards a spartan, harder edged language…sometimes even Bizarro-style in subject matter. Yes, I can totally see this.
Thank you very much, Ben! I’m really charged by your thoughtful response!
“I kinda feel that the direction of our culture is so often driven by the demands of the masses…”
Uh, ya think? Seems pretty obvious to me.
That said, I appreciate where you go with it. The “Flashlight” thing, so funny!
I spend a lot of time with “the masses” (in the classroom, in Oakland), and I for one love it. (I suppose it depends on which “sub-mass” one is hanging out with. I’m “lucky”, mine I love.)
Will do.
Absolutely. Getting on your students is a very good thing. I actually have to fail a fair number of student papers because they insist on blunted expressions, bad research, and sentence fragments–even though we go through all the ‘best practices’ very carefully in class. While there are the few that try and succeed, a great number of them just don’t give a rip. They live in the now and never look to the later. These are the ones that text in class. Now, in the future, will these be our readership? I would say definitely not. It’s the ones who reach for education, higher levels of thinking, and the delights offered by language (even as if morphs). Still, I kinda feel that the direction of our culture is so often driven by the demands of the masses (um, wow, that sounded pretty dated and Marxist, but *shrugging*) and these popular preoccupations trickle back up into the higher levels of culture and changes it forever. Public radio, for instance, would have crapped twinkies back in their 1970s inception if disco had been issued through their transmitters….and now, what did they use as bumper music yesterday when I was in the car? Not any old Saturday Night Fever either…It was “Flashlight”! My jaw hit the steering wheel so hard, I thought I would have to go to the dentist. Zadie Smith, too, has been really interested in Tupaq…I remember hearing her say that in an interview a couple of years ago. So this cross-pollination isn’t necessarily bad. They’re simply changes and with change comes a conflict of ideas. As language morphs because I think it will, slowly, like genetic adaptations do over generations…I just hope that we don’t have to sacrifice layers of meaning and nuance (And here, I’m really speaking about students and their general significance to the shape of things). Like crap, Savannah, can I never write a short reply?
Hi Ben!
Apologies for not replying sooner…I didn’t realize this post was up here…I kept scrolling down and missing it.
Yes, I agree: I find the same to be true with students who care (I added the qualifier ‘care’ here only because I was just writing below about the students who don’t seem to care). These students often feel that what they have to say isn’t valid or important and cut their observations off at the knees. Also, I should say that several of these students are aspiring writers, who want to stretch their abilities and become effective observers, who will eventually contribute to the writing pool (I hope anyway).
But! What you say about the movement away from lyricism and description for its own sake is *really, really interesting* and maybe this is actually a key to what I’m really getting to in this whole ‘what’s happening now’ reflection. The treatment of aesthetics is changing in the sense that we’re purging more (sorry, I can’t think of a better word here–>) roccoco writing and replacing it with more spare prose that communicates action more directly. Of course, there are so many things that co-exist at any point in history, and in some circles (particularly genre writing, like horror and sci-fi, where I sometimes circulate) seems interested still in descriptions (this is a generalization, of course…not all of these writers have works like that). But literary fiction does seem to be moving towards a spartan, harder edged language…sometimes even Bizarro-style in subject matter. Yes, I can totally see this.
Thank you very much, Ben! I’m really charged by your thoughtful response!
“I kinda feel that the direction of our culture is so often driven by the demands of the masses…”
Uh, ya think? Seems pretty obvious to me.
That said, I appreciate where you go with it. The “Flashlight” thing, so funny!
I spend a lot of time with “the masses” (in the classroom, in Oakland), and I for one love it. (I suppose it depends on which “sub-mass” one is hanging out with. I’m “lucky”, mine I love.)
Will do.