Lowbrow Art and Transgressive Fiction

On the rise in the past thirty years has been a movement known as lowbrow art, defined again by our friends at Wikipedia as:

Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it’s a sarcastic comment.

So what is Lowbrow to the Transgressive movement, and to transgressive fiction? The answer: an inspiration.

Take, for instance, the art of Camille Rose Garcia. Her works, sometimes culturally-motivated, showcase a variety of grim-looking characters floating around decrepit environments. Having released picture books, Garcia is now featured in prominent galleries and may not be considered “lowbrow” by her peers, rather “highbrow,” but is still a great inspiration.

From the series "Ultraviolenceland."

Joe Coleman, a favorite of my mother, features surreal, often violent dream-scapes that make the viewer cringe a little. His work is as rich in detail as it is in impact, and usually has some political or social motivation to it. His writing has appeared in the Apocalypse Culture series, only adding to his underground acclaim.

A small detail from a much larger piece

These two are but a few of a great collection of artists, some of whom may be found in your very own local galleries. For more information, browse the web or check out any number of books on the subject.

The Roots of Transgression

Every movement has to have a basis. For the Dadaists, it was the first World War. For the Beats, it was American culture then—and for the Transgressives, it may very well be American culture now. We live in a sanitized culture, one that bans clove cigarettes and makes illegal more harmless drugs like marijuana. One that watches its citizens like hawks; it is no longer a government for the people, by the people, but a government over the people and against them. And in the midst of so much cultural, economic, and political turmoil, a group of people have slowly been rising up.

They are authors, artists, musicians, people. They spread their message through books, through art, through music, through angry blogs and articles.

But where did they come from? Where did the literary movement, the movement that began one of a different sort, come from? Fingers could be pointed at the literary classics Lolita, Hell, Venus in Furs. The first true transgressive novels before “transgressive” was defined, these books set the standard for outsider literature. Filled with dark, disturbed characters and written in beautiful styles, it is these books which caused uproars in society.

And it is the job of the Transgressives to cause an uproar now.

I encourage those underground artists, writers and musicians to come forward and communicate, work together, and find their change the way the Dadaists and Beatniks did. There needs to be a change, and it’s up to the artists to do it.

Top Five Must-Read Transgressive Novels

So. You’ve read this far into the blog, heard it mentioned several times, maybe even heard the term before. But you might be wondering: what is Transgressive Fiction?

“Transgressive fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who use unusual and/or illicit ways to break free of those confines. Because they are rebelling against the basic norms of society, protagonists of transgressive fiction may seem mentally ill, anti-social and/or nihilistic. The genre deals extensively with taboo subject matters such as drugs, sex, violence, incest, pedophilia, and crime.”

-Wikipedia, the source of all the world’s most reliable information

Great! You’re saying. I’m a pretty sick fuck, or at least interested in them—I’d like to read this books. But where do I start? Well, fair reader, fear not—I now present to you a top five list of novels which make for a fantastic jumping point.

5. American Psycho

Following roughly three years in the life of investment banker Patrick Bateman, American Psycho is a controversial book exploring the meaning and worth of society’s mores. Pill-popping and hallucinating, Bateman spends his free nights as a serial killer, the book’s descriptions becoming progressively more and more stomach-churning as he falls deeper into the pit of madness. Though at times tedious and hard to follow, this book makes a great starting point for anyone interested in transgressive fiction.

4. Lolita

Written long before the label ‘transgressive’ came into effect and causing an uproar upon publication, Lolita has gained a certain measure of infamy for its depiction of pedophilia through the eyes of Humbert Humbert. Narcissistic and extremely unreliable, Humbert chronicles his infatuation with the Nymphet Dolores “Lolita” Haze from a jail cell. Their cross-country affair is as disturbing as it is beautifully-written, a true classic piece of literature.

3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Though not fiction per se, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing is a hilarious look into American drug culture, and a grim testament to the death of the American Dream. Opening with a drive through the desert in a red convertible packed with drugs, Fear and Loathing follows Thompson and his attorney as they stumble through Las Vegas in search of a story for a magazine and the American dream.

2. Fight Club

The most contemporary piece in the entire list, Fight Club is a must-read for everyone. Chuck Palahniuk’s relatively fast read is a fantastic, blurring tale of a man, his best friend, and the woman they love—and the underground fighting ring the former two founded. When it evolves into something more, however, the nameless narrator finds himself alienated—and the twisting plot leaves the reader feeling the same.

1. Anything by Hubert Selby Jr.

One could hypothetically pick out a book written by Hubert and say, “Here, read it, this is his best one,” but that would be at once impossible and selling the recipient short. All of his books are fantastic reads, without a doubt, all the way from the scattered narration of Last Exit to Brooklyn to his final book, Waiting Period, the story of a veteran whose thoughts of suicide turn to those of vengeance. Every last one of them deserves to be read, and re-read, and read again—and though this writer’s personal favorite is Waiting Period, Requiem for a Dream has gained particular acclaim. Besides—any author prosecuted for obscenity is worth a look or two.

A Sit-Down with Supervert

In today’s enlightened-yet-sanitized culture, there remain topics which are swept under the rug. The author “Supervert” uses his literature to drag them into the light.

With two published books and four websites under his belt, Supervert is the underground author to end them all. Tackling the taboo, his work—specifically Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish and Necrophilia Variations—focus on typically discomforting sexual fetishes. It is not to change people’s minds, he explains, but rather to examine and challenge society’s assumptions.

The Nature of the Work

Supervert’s first published book, Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish, takes a clinical, case-study approach to its subject, a man named Mercury de Sade, whose fascination with that which he cannot quite reach seems at once pitiful and repulsive. A similar theme is carried on in his second work, Necrophilia Variations, but in a far different fashion. Rather than removed from its characters, the book is a series of vantage points—in the author’s own words, “…a cubist portrait of sex and death.”

With another book almost ready for publication, Supervert writes that he considers his works to be a series, rather than a set of individual pieces. “Each book forms a dialogue with all the others,” he wrote in the interview. For Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish, he preferred a cool, more impartial palette; but for Necrophilia Variations, he attempted to tackle a more personal voice. “I wanted it to be intimate because death is intimate, something whose presence we all feel closely.”

Artistic Intent

Behind every piece of art, there lies a certain intent—but Supervert finds it difficult to place his, adding, “To ask about the intent of a book is to impute no small amount of mental health to the author.” Rather than having a particular desire for his work, he explains, his intent is to free himself from the book’s hold over him. Ideas can be destructive, and should be dealt with before they torment their host.

To Supervert, the completion of Necrophilia Variations was akin to excising a tumor, leaving a gap to be filled with more ideas. Writing is something of an expulsion to him, a clearing of the mind, one that seems almost necessary—but to his readers, it is far from unwelcome. Supervert’s creations are thought-provoking, validating, and sometimes, very touching. His explorations of stones once better left unturned has garnered great praise, and is certain to attract more.

Future Plans

Although reluctant to discuss them in public, Supervert stated that he does, in fact, have plans in store for future creations; in addition to the aforementioned piece to be published “once logistical problems are solved,” he is already beginning another. With his experimental styles and startling themes, Supervert is certainly an author for which to keep both an open eye, and an open mind. To keep up-to-date with his latest literary news, visit his website or befriend his MySpace page.

Whose Skull Would You Steal?

Another contest currently being held, this time by Unbridled Books, is “Whose Skull Would You Steal?” Exactly what it sounds like, folks. You tell them whose skull you would steal if you could, and if you win, you get a free book on the act of actually stealing a skull. Visit here for more information. The deadline’s coming up soon, so be sure to enter!

Dark Sky Magazine

Terribly sorry for the long delay in posting, things have been busy. But as the first official post, I’d like to introduce you all to a personal favorite magazine of mine, Dark Sky Magazine. They publish fantastic experimental work, but, most importantly, they are hosting a poetry contest. If you’re out there, poets, do your thing and send them in. The deadline is Hallowe’en.

“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.”

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

-Dante Aligheri, Divine Comedy

You have probably stumbled upon this blog in a vain attempt to entertain yourself, having read through all serial and culture periodicals whatever fine blogging sites the internet has to offer. At bookstores, you’ve flipped through the tabloids and fashion rags, skimmed science fiction quarterlies and art collections, and, if you are like me, found it all to be very…well, Disney. Fashion models—really just hangers for clothes—wafting paper-thin across runways; make-up and hair to look like a princess, or attract one; the same old short stories where everything ties together neatly, everything has a plot and a point and a moral. Even the porn is unrealistic—think, a depiction of the most natural act in the world, falsified.

It’s enough to make a person sick.

And when a person becomes sick enough, they start a zine.

Welcome to Porno | Graphic. Here, you won’t find many happy endings of a normal brand. Here there are no supermodels, here the closest you’ll find to makeup-tips are tattoo designs, here you will see the world, and art, for what it really is—transgressive, dizzying and surreal.

What is transgressive? Transgressive is a genre of literature that has existed more or less since the late seventeenth century. It can be anything from enlightening to disturbing; from a relative tameness, to a kind of pornography you’ll only be able to find with five different passwords and a trip to Thailand. This is the genre of the outsiders—its stories are those of people trapped within the confines of society and seeking a way to destroy their chains, usually via methods most find distasteful. These nihilistic, mentally-ill, anti-social characters are you and me and everybody else, in one way or another, no matter how we like to admit it. In transgressive fiction there is no such thing as “taboo.” There is just a story to tell, or a scene to show, or an action to be taken.

It is the genre most representative of real life.

In daily life, in those sudden, striking moments of loneliness and emptiness even when surrounded by your friends, you are transgressive. In that instant, your life becomes a transgressive novel. When you skip school, cut work, follow your instincts, just get in the car and drive, you are transgressive. Man in his nature is transgressive. So is his writing. So is his art.

So welcome again to Porno | Graphic—a zine of culture in these transgressive times. Enjoy your ride, and stay tuned for an F.A.Q.

ETA: F.A.Q. is now available here. Go drink it in.