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.
Magda
