I'm looking to enter a few categories in a particular contest, and the only example of edgy fiction they give that I know the storyline is "To Kill a Mockingbird". So my question is, how would you define edgy fiction? And if you have some other examples of it, I'd like to see them.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
"Edgy" is a marketing concept for those who want to impress people. It really doesn't mean anything in itself. You'd perhaps be better off writing something that makes people think. Anybody looking for "edgy" would probably think a story that makes you think was "edgy." ("To Kill a Mockingbird" is that kind of story, I've been told---I've never actually read it or even seen the whole movie.)
Posted by Smaug (Member # 2807) on :
Thanks--I need to make people think in order to write "edgy" stories, huh? Hmmm. Now that's a toughie Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
What other examples did they give?
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
What is edgy changes with time. Go look at Harlan Ellison(R)'s Dangerous Visions anthologies and you'll get the basic idea.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited February 16, 2007).]
Posted by Smaug (Member # 2807) on :
quote:What other examples did they give?
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, which I've read part of but never finished. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison Walkin' the Floor by Betty J. Vickers
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
If, after you've read a story, you can't stop thinking about the characters or the plot or the implications of what you've read, if it starts haunting you as you're unwinding in bed and trying to sleep...chances are, it's "edgy."
A lot of Harlan Ellison's work does fall into that category. The first story of his I read (I think), called "Croatoan," has stayed with me lo these past---good grief!---thirty-plus years. (I hope the proper spelling of the title has also remained with me.)
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
A Boy and His Dog is very good also, but I should point out that "Dangerous Visions" has only one ellison story. He was the editor of the anthology.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Provocative.
Posted by trailmix (Member # 4440) on :
Deathbird stories is a fanastic compilation of Harlan Ellison's work.
Scenic Route Whimper of the whipped dog Paingod
Are my favorite short stories in that set. Definately what I would classify as edgy.
scott
Posted by Smaug (Member # 2807) on :
Thanks. It's been awhile since I've read any of Ellison's work, but I'll read some of those suggestions so I can see what you mean.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Oh, yeah, I wrote an essay about edginess in response to an OSC review a few weeks ago.
quote:I brought this up on the History Boys thread, but it was not really what that thread was about. Card didn't feel Little Miss Sunshine was actually edgy, but he felt History Boys was criminal. Where is the edge, and what is it for?
I would venture to say the edge involves an artist sharing with the audience a truth in the artist's unique voice. The material itself doesn't have to be new. As we have often discussed, hardly anything ever is new. Newness isn't even necessary in the artist, apart from the fact that we will experience an artist's vision for the first time at some point. (Would you believe I have yet to knowingly see a Scorsese film? Checking IMDB I realize I saw one: Age of Innocence.) An obsession with novelty in art has no more virtue than the drive to eat a different cuisine every night in order to appear "hip".
How does one hunger for what one has never tasted? Is it really a sense of adventure that is satisfied by such wandering? "I ate at a Thai restaurant last night, and I swear it was just like being there!" [Wink] Yet we call it adventure. We must, in order to satisfy some part of ourselves that must be placated to be civilized. It is like small portions of conquest.
In summary the edge is to see new geography within the human soul. (Now I have that "Queen" music from the pirate/ninja mockingbird assault in my head. I think it's Queen.)
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited February 18, 2007).]
Posted by Smaug (Member # 2807) on :
Sometimes I wish I had a high speed internet connection instead of this sloooowwwww dialup. Franc, I was able to watch the video at the library, but they have the sound deactivated there, and my computer connection is too slow to enable me to watch it, but what I saw on the library comp was bizarre and interesting--I just couldn't hear the soundtrack. Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
It was mostly a 15-year old kid narrating exactly what you see on the screen. Including the lens flar and motion blur when you see the pirate ship.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited February 20, 2007).]
