Experimental Fiction

by Armstrong, Julie;

  If such a tree were possible, then so was he; he, too, could cohere, send down roots, survive. Amid all the televisual images of hybrid tragedies – the uselessness of mermen, the failures of plastic surgery, the Esperanto-like vacuity of much modern art, the Coca-Colonization of the planet – he was given this one gift. (p. 94)

  * * *

  Experiment with this: Learning to Experiment with Hybridity

  Write an interior monologue in which a character reflects and celebrates their hybridity, by reflecting on their cultural history, that is, their past, and where they find themselves now, in the present.

  * * *

  Hanif Kureishi, an Anglo-Pakistani writer, confronts racial identity and the experience of the immigrant in The Buddha of Suburbia (1990). Karim Amir, the protagonist, ‘an Englishman born and bred, almost’, is a hybrid of Asian and British, one who is searching for a sense of belonging. ‘The odd mixture of continents and blood, of here and there, of belonging and not’ (p. 3). The book illustrates that there is no fixed self, only innumerable ways of being. Cultural identity is portrayed as being unstable and in a state of transformation, something complex involving new ways of being, resulting in new identities. And the two identities, English and Pakistan, will merge and come together in a new identity.

  More recently, White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith has been hailed as the first black British novel. This narrative explores how history is used and misused, how it affects young people growing up and how they deal with the desire to know their history and to be freed from it. There are stories of three families across numerous generations, linking them to the Caribbean, Bangladesh and India, and via the Second World War, to Italy and Bulgaria. The novel is not so much postmodern in its techniques and strategies, but it deals with the content of a postmodern world, one that is shaped by a cultural mix: Chalfens, a well-established family; Marcus Chalfen’s son described as a ‘cross pollination between a lapsed-Catholic horticulturalist feminist and an intellectual Jew’ (Smith 2000, p. 267). His family’s immigration to Britain took place earlier than the Jamaican Jones’ and the Bangladeshi Iqbal’s. All three families make up a London of social and cultural mix and ongoing change. They’re creating a space in which different races and colours of skin are strangers alike, where contrasting first and last names reflect a mix of history, culture and religion. White Teeth celebrates a metropolis where all strangers are at home, where different heritages can exist side by side in the same neighbourhood, within the same household and even within the same person. Cultural hybridity can exist even if tensions are apparent, but it suggests that change is possible and new spaces of transformation are possible; society can be changed, shaped and re-formed by cultural diversity.

  What techniques and strategies are postmodern writers experimenting within postcolonial fiction?

  In his fiction, Rushdie illustrates that diverse cultures present different ways of viewing the world and that cultural diversity is to be celebrated. ‘The world was new again’ (Midnight’s Children, p. 12). The postcolonial style portrayed in Rushdie’s fiction utilizes eclecticism: Hindu myth is juxtaposed with Bombay cinema and cartoon strips, whilst Islamic lore is juxtaposed against third-world magic realism.

  The effect of magic realism calls into question the boundary between fiction and truth. Based on the early life of Rushdie, Midnight’s Children is a blend of fiction, politics and magic, making the reader aware of the changes in India in the twentieth century. Rushdie undermines the concept of historical truth as recorded fact and presents a multiplicity of histories. He weaves a text that fuses tradition and current cultural influences to create an open-ended, postcolonial discourse. Likewise in Satanic Verses, inspired by the life of Muhammad, Rushdie, once again, blends fact and fiction; for example, Farishta is a Bollywood superstar and is based on Indian film stars. Magic realism is interweaved with subplots that are narrated as dream visions. There are intertextual references, including mythology and popular culture (esp. Chapter VII). He also employs a comic tone and uses irony and satire. In addition, he uses the concept of defamiliarization, by playing with the readers’ perceptions, subverting expectations: ‘I was born in the city of Bombay … once upon a time’ (p. 9).

  * * *

  Experiment with this: Learning to Experiment with Intertextuality to Create a Postcolonial Fiction

  Using ‘I was born in the city of … ’ as a starting point for a piece of fiction, utilize Hindu myth juxtaposed with fact, Bollywood cinema, magic realism and history to create an intertextual postcolonial text.

  * * *

  In sharp contrast to Rushdie’s fiction, Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia is written in a realist style and has a strong autobiographical content. However, it is an example of a postcolonial novel because of its content; the book parodies the postcolonial and ironizes ethnicity. It is a novel which explores Karim growing up and the transformation of his environment. Kureishi uses juxtaposition, collage and many cultural signifiers, especially those associated with popular music, to investigate a young man being both ‘here and there’ both ‘belonging and not’.

  * * *

  Experiment with this: Learning to Experiment with Eclecticism to Create a Postcolonial Text

  Employ juxtaposition, collage and cultural signifiers to explore the world of a young person growing up in Britain in the late eighties, a young person who is both ‘here and there’ both ‘belonging and not’.

  * * *

  Further Reading

  Anderson, Truett (1996) Postmodernism Reader, London: Fontana Press.

  Auster, Paul (1987) The New York Trilogy, London: Faber & Faber.

  Calvino, Italo (1972) Invisible Cities, London: Secker and Warburg.

  ——— (1982) If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, London: Picador.

  Carter, Angela (1979) The Bloody Chamber, London: Penguin Books.

  Coupland, Douglas (1992) Generation X, London: Abacus.

  DeLillo, Don (1985) White Noise, London: Picador.

  Ellis Easton, Bret (1991) American Psycho, London: Picador.

  Gibson, William (1984) Neuromancer, London: Viking.

  ——— (2012) Distrust That Particular Flavour, London: Viking.

  Gregson, Ian (2004) Postmodern Literature, London: Hodder Headline.

  Kureishi, Hanif (1990) The Buddha of Suburbia, London: Faber & Faber.

  Lodge, David (1992) The Art of Fiction, London: Penguin Books.

  Lyon, David (1994) Postmodernity, Buckingham: Open University Press.

  Martel, Yann (2002) Life of Pi, Edinburgh: Canongate.

  McGregor, Jon (2003) If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, London: Bloomsbury.

  ——— (2012) This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, London: Bloomsbury.

  Noon, Jeff (1996) Automated Alice, London: Transworld.

  Palahniuk, Chuck (1997) Fight Club, London: Vintage.

  Potter, Dennis (1973) Hide and Seek, London: Faber & Faber.

  Riley, Joan (1985) The Unbelonging, London: The Women’s Press.

  Rushdi, Salman (1995) Midnight’s Children, London: Vintage.

  Sutherland, Luke (2004) Venus As a Boy, London: Bloomsbury.

  Vonnegut, Kurt (1991) Slaughterhouse-Five, London: Vintage.

  Winter, Kathleen (2011) Annabel, London: Jonathan Cape.

  Winterson, Jeanette (1985) Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, London: Pandora Press.

  ——— (1989) Sexing the Cherry, London: Vintage.

  ——— (1996) Art Objects, London: Vintage.

  Woods, Tim (1999) Beginning Postmodernism, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

  Section Four

  A New Era Is Dawning

  This section will explore the shifting technological, cultural and spiritual climate of the twenty-first century which is pushing fiction into a new, exciting realm, so that experimental readers of fiction can understand what these works are doing, and how. There will also be creative writing exercises to enable
writers to experiment with the writing techniques and strategies that are explored within the following chapters.

  What is the New Era?

  Postmodernism called for a re-evaluation of power; it sought to de-privilege any one meaning so that all discourses were equally valid which led to marginalized groups being given their voice. However, increasingly artistic success has become about money; art has become a business, leading to a conflict of interest, and as a result, some writers have come to judge, and measure, their own success and worth by financial gain. This provokes the question: are we left with nothing but the market? And is this the opposite of what postmodernism originally intended? Postmodernism’s influence has been everywhere and has been the dominant concept of late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and yet, there now appears to be a need to respond and react to something other, but what?

  Certainties have changed. With the complete breakdown of Grand Narratives, our beliefs about time and space, science and religion, reality and illusion, life and death, and the nature of consciousness have changed in ways that we have never experienced before.

  The twenty-first century is a time of political unrest, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, recession, credit crunch, unemployment, repossessions, reality TV, celebrity culture, coalition government, euro zone debt crisis and rapid technological growth. There is a lack of borders, an amalgamation of cultures and migration, so that many people do not know their extended or immediate family history.

  These are times when we really are not sure what is real or true anymore, a time when the boundaries of art, reality and celebrity, advertising, marketing and publicity are becoming increasingly blurred. The current generation has grown up with digital culture. There is virtual and augmented reality – Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter, Skype. People are able to portray multiple, edited representations of themselves on screen. What then are the implications for a life lived out through a computer interface: instant access to friendships all around the world, constant connectedness, online predators, ubiquitous information, instant gratification, knowledge, cyber bullying, paranoia, or all of these?

  New technology allows us to send multiple messages, simultaneous texts, emails and tweets; this has implications for the present moment, leading the present and also reality to be the virtual. Exposure to technology is shifting the hard wiring of the brain; our thoughts are speeding up to cope with the vast amount of information we access, and process, in any one day. We are living in a 24/7 fast-paced, fast-food, fast-changing transient, pinging, beeping, lack of space, lack of silence, lack of solitude world, where, as the film director David Fincher suggests, private behaviour has now become a relic of another era.

  This is a time when it appears that capitalism promotes individualism over the collective needs of society, a society that appears to value money, youth, fame and beauty above all else. It seems the twenty-first century is a time of confusion about consumer culture and values. On the one hand, the self-obsessive slogan Because I’m worth it! views consumption as a right, not a luxury, and the desire for instant gratification as being of the utmost importance. And yet, on the other hand, there is a curious restlessness within society, a sense that we need to change our values.

  We are living in a post-Christian world where there appears to be a yearning for what some deem authenticity and for what others deem meaning. The landscape literature writer Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, suggests that even though church- going figures have fallen, people are ever increasingly seeking to go on pilgrimage. Indeed, the British writer Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry long listed for the Booker Prize in 2011 is testimony to Macfarlane’s suggestion. The protagonist of this book, Harold Fry, leaves home one morning to post a letter and keeps walking from one end of Britain to the other; in his eyes, he is walking to save his friend’s life. He is on a pilgrimage.

  In the twenty-first century, there is a strong desire for individuals to escape the urban and glimpse an untamed world, to reconnect with lost instincts; in turn this is linked with concerns for the environment and displacement. Environmental, cultural and economic factors are combining to make people re-think their lives. There are numerous campaigns for supporting environmental issues, for example, ecotricity, that is, making electricity powered by windmills. Also, there is an increase in the use of solar power and an intention to harness wave power. Growing organic food on shared allotments or keeping chickens and ducks for their free-range eggs have become popular pursuits.

  More nature reserves are evolving and more people are enjoying outdoor pursuits. Cycling has been embraced with enthusiasm, with the government promoting benefits for those who cycle to work; it has been said, Driving Is the New Smoking. Government campaigns, such as 5 A Day fruits and vegetables, incite healthy eating. There are smoking bans in public places and frequent advice is to be found encouraging us to give up smoking and to carefully monitor our alcohol consumption.

  Walking and running have also become very popular, not only for health reasons but also for their spiritual value; as Macfarlane has noted these pursuits offer freedom from the pressures of day-to-day life. There are even those who deem the act of walking an art form, for example, Richard Long, whose work maps territories from Dartmoor to the Andes. On his journeys, Long has arranged stones by roads, aligned pebbles in river beds, traced furrows in sand; he records this work in photographs and descriptions and it was exhibited at the Hepworth, Wakefield: June to October, 2012.

  Fashion designers are using eco-friendly materials. The concept Fact Fashion has been developed. Fact Fashion not only focuses on materials, and the way clothes are made, but it also addresses issues such as homelessness, drugs, poverty; facts such as Every two minutes someone loses their home are being inscribed on garments. Building upon Anita Roddick’s The Body Shop concept, there are more and more eco products on the market. Established in 1992 by the European Commission, a logo now appears on 17,000 products and services across Europe, EU Ecolabel, which identifies products and services as having a reduced impact on the environment. It is even possible to stay on an EU Ecolabel-approved campsite. In addition, there are increasing numbers of recycling bins and less packaging on products, and blogs to combat climate change encourage cycling to work and consumers to buy fair-trade products. Celebrities are becoming more and more involved in charity events, taking their lead from Bob Geldof’s Live Aid. There are fundraising events like Children In Need and Red Nose Day, and sponsored runs, walks and swims.

  Currently, television programmes such as Mary Beard’s Meet the Romans are hugely popular, as is the series Who Do You Think You Are? The popularity of such television series illustrates society’s interest in identity and history. Other programmes which reflect other contemporary cultural concerns and interests include Britain’s Lost Routes, in which Griff Rhys Jones embarks on a trek from Holywell to St David’s in the style of a medieval pilgrimage. And there are programmes like the fashionable Professor Brian Cox’s The Wonders of the Universe, David Attenborough’s Life on Earth and Simon Reeve’s Indian Ocean – programmes which urge the viewer and reader (there are book spin-offs too) to enjoy the planet, whilst at the same time advocate that we treat it responsibly. There are dramas such as the supernatural French series The Returned, which deals with issues such as grief, loss and the spiritual concept of resurrection. There are celebrities such as Richard Gere and David Lynch who promote the Buddhist concept of mindfulness as a way of life. And there is an increasing interest in holistic therapies: yoga and acupuncture, Indian head massage and hot stone treatments, reflexology and reiki. In addition, there is a school of thought which advocates that we need to equip ourselves with emotional intelligence, which, in turn, should be integrated into our political and economic thinking to create a society which includes more compassion and inclusion.

  What implications does the New Era have for the content of fiction?

  The New Era, which has been outlined,
has a number of implications for the writer; for example, it is clearly affecting the content of fiction being created. Currently, there is a wave of fiction which appears to be reacting to the shallowness of postmodern fiction; this new wave asks big questions such as, What is the meaning of life? It is fiction that it is searching for meaning and something to believe in whilst also acknowledging the spiritual, for example, the work of David Mitchell, Grace McCleen, Samantha Harvey, Scarlett Thomas and David Eagleman, the fiction that will be investigated in the chapter: Beyond Postmodernism. The contemporary literature resonates with some modern fiction, dominant themes of Virginia Woolf’s fiction; for example, Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Voyage Out and Jacob’s Room also revolve around a search for the meaning of life.

  The classics are also making a comeback; writers such as Hilary Mantel, twice Booker Prize winner, and Mary Renault are reflecting our renewed interest in history. Likewise, Madeline Miller’s debut novel, The Song of Achilles, won the Orange prize for fiction in June 2012. The Iliad also inspired David Malouf’s 2009 novel Random and poet Alice Oswald’s Memorial, 2011, which are also re-workings of the original poem. This engagement with the classics also links with philosophical questions and connections that many of the noted classics are exploring, for example: What it is to be human? Also, in terms of the Iliad, the theme of war has particular relevance for a twenty-first-century readership where readers have become accustomed to seeing news coverage of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq; Miller has said that she was aware of the parallels when writing The Song of Achilles.

  What implications does the New Era have for the form of fiction?