bull

Madelena Gonzales describes post-realist fiction as being “both enchanted and disgusted by their own simulation of the narrative art, searching for the sublime by through the ridiculous, refusing to separate the readerly from the writerly, they teeter on the brink of schizophrenia and psychosis” (126). It is this psychological, or psychoanalytical, or the diverse levels of the psyche that transgressive fiction is able to penetrate, conquer, and hang for public viewing. Will Self uses Bull to represent this. John Bull explores the psychoanalytic realm of attraction (and repulsion), gender, and intimacy. Self capitalizes on the notion of vulnerability as being a key ingredient of sexual desire. John Bull slowly distorts his rough, haggard, and masculine persona to be a shy, innocent, and impossibly pure sex object, not too different from a young teenage girl who is unsure of her emerging sexual power and who is also prone to being betrayed and mislead by predatory men. Indeed, the enticing knee vagina engrosses and astounds reader with its surreal pornographic imagery. Will Self creates a story that strives to resist a culture of “remorseless eradication of any meaningful individuality” (115).  John Bull becomes something unique and unlike any other human: the man with the knee vagina. He struggles to find his identity and place in the world. Feeling total despair and isolation Bull waits “for oblivion to come” (302).  By simply creating a man who has a vagina on the back of his knee, Self simultaneously opens dialogue to many relevant issues in modern society, most noticeably he addresses the difficulty of pinpointing gender and identity in the constantly changing world we live in. Although the extreme scenario of one day waking up and feeling a vagina on the back of our knee is unlikely, Will Self tries to reintroduce the importance of our individuality. This is especially true when “Bull became once again horribly aware of his leg’s radically independent gender; its strange metabolism; its awful vulnerable yearning” (277). Regardless of Bull’s consistent masculine performance displayed “through [his] aggression and violence” (247),  Bull is able to undergo the process of redefining his existence. Will Self’s use of language to describe the fleshy metamorphosis Bull successfully translates the many prevalent themes of gender, identity, and intimacy in his “in-yer-face-ness” and transgressive style.

jovin

James saw Jovin approaching him, arms slightly cocked back, pace steady, head swiveling smoothly from side to side. There wasn’t a hint of hostility in the man. But Jovin floated over to him, he wanted to make amends. Jovin reached James, and his jaw began to open, his words were scratching to get out. His jaw never opened though. James capitalized on this opportunity he was given, he released a swift uppercut to Jovin’s square jaw knocking him slightly upwards off his feet and then backwards. The sucker punch James dealt Jovin left him on his back still trying to piece together how he got there. With no time to recover from the unethical blow, Jovin remained immobile and vulnerable, left there on the floor like a flipped turtle. His helplessness made Jovin look more appetizing, more elementary, and more delightful to James. James, unable to resist, walked over to Jovin and hovered over him like a hornet teasing his target before piercing him with his stinger. I never saw him descend down onto Jovin. One moment he stood menacingly above him, the next moment what I saw was unrelenting, unstoppable fury being rained down onto Jovin’s eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They were quick, lightning quick. You couldn’t see them but you could feel them. Violently pulsating and vibrating air molecules to make you feel every impact as if it passed through your body like bass you hear from the loud speakers in a concert. The punches and jabs rained down of Jovin’s face, James seeming to be getting stronger and seeming to enjoy this, each punch feeding him making every next punch more forceful. The gently flowing streams of red blood amused James as it began to drown him. Unable to see from all the blood splashed in his face, James began to grow weak. The onslaught of terror ceased for a moment and I don’t doubt if Jovin was by this point dead. 

cock review

Will Self’s novel Cock, part I of Cock & Bull, is a bizarre tale that follows the transformation of Carol as she grows a penis. Self takes us into a surreal world of clashing genders. We let Carol take us through the story, at first a quiet and tame young woman who undergoes the subliminal process of becoming a man “to counter the masculine cultural hegemony” (4). Unlike any other narration, in Cock Self plays with the malleability of the human body as he skillfully dives into the murky waters of hermaphroditism with violently shocking results. 

this too

Mary Gaitskill’s “Don’t Cry” is distant, ethereal, and is bizarrely calm. Trying to confound acts of the human soul, heart, and mind with interrelationships and sex, Gaitskill makes the reader feel a part of an intergalactic high school. As if simple body organs had become extensions of sexual organs, Gaitskill blurs the line between them. Consequently, by unusually changing the physical dimension and arena, Gaitskill’s “Don’t Cry” is able to reach out to the reader in ways that wouldn’t have been as effective in a non-transgressive technique. 

slightly unearly

Chuck Palahniuk’s writing in “The Guts” grabs its readers by the balls and doesn’t let go until they’re swollen and bruised. Much like many other British transgressive authors, Palahniuk, to his advantage, lacks the reserve or common decency to censor himself. His thoughts, like a jail break, are freed and run rampantly on paper. With an objective to stun his audience and leave them staggering out of the room from listening to his hyper-descriptive of masturbation experiments gone wrong, Palahniuk takes the medal. His carelessness to conceal sensitive issues is Palahniuk’s advantage, and, like other British transgressive authors, he capitalizes on it, successfully. 

willy self

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14303215

Will Self doesn’t hold the popular or “prevailing” view of the Olympics being held in the UK. In this segment of the interview we can notice multiple characteristics of Self. He is an assertive, rational, proud, intelligent, and dominating voice in this debate. Self’s aggressively straight-forward and to-the-point personality is echoed in his writing. He isn’t afraid to step on toes or make others feel uncomfortable, rather Self is more concerned with elucidating his point or perspective. Unabashedly honest, we hear Self’s loud voice in Cock and Bull, and we hear it quite clearly. The narration lucidly guides the reader like a motion picture camera guides our eyes in a scene. Self illuminates only what we need to see or know. Leaving out the unnecessary, I find my self charmed by Self’s writing. Not really know what’s going to happen next, Self’s tone never lets skip a sentence. It keeps me flawlessly on track, each sentence seducing me to the next one. Without a doubt, Will Self has a way with words. And I’m not too sure what it is, but it has the terrifying ability to pull me in and never let go.