What the fuck is transgressive fiction?

See, only somebody who can't actually write, who is either a critic or some arty, wanky student studying English Lit would ever attempt to define what transgressive fiction is.

See here, somebody's definition - http://transgressivefiction.pbworks.com/w/page/31524188/Transgressive%20Fiction

The thing with transgressive fiction is, you simply cannot define it or lay down rules (Christ, it's transgressive, so there are no rules).  You certainly shouldn't attempt to define it merely for your fucking BA or MA in English.  Transgressive fiction is no more complex than this - "an individual, who may or may not be a nice person caught up in a really fucked-up situation."  End of definition.

From that definition, even John Steinbeck and George Orwell have written works of transgressive fiction.  It's not all "The End of Alice", about men tossing themselves off over unconscious children.  Thank fuck.  It's about situations we wouldn't like to be caught in.  More than that, it's all about getting into the mind of the person in that situation.  It shouldn't just be about shock.

If I wrote a short story about turning up for work on my last day in the civil service, drinking 14 doubles of neat Jack Daniels (that's British doubles, not American ones) in the space of 90 minutes, then turning up back to work totally fucked out of my brain, that would be a work of transgressive fiction (actually, that did happen, so perhaps that's not fiction).  People like to read about people doing things they themselves won't do.  From the lowest common denominator, the mummy porn of Fifty Shades of Shit, or the thriller writing of Higgins and Seymour, we read about things that we're too scared to do.  For me, transgressive fiction doesn't just write about it - it gets you right in the lead character's mind.  It's tough to write, believe you me, because you have to become that person.  It might be easier to read, but it's still fucking tough.

But don't be put off by transgressive fiction.  Some writers use that whole "Schlock and lure" thing.  I don't.  I write about real people caught up in a fucked up place.  Today, you're fixing your kids' breakfast, you're going to work, you're occasionally pissed off by work-based politics.  Tomorrow, the doctor might tell you that you've got 5 months to live.

What do you do?

Read Besotted and find out what Benjamin Beerenwinkel did ...