The Whole Shebang

Hey y’all. So this one is a bit of a redux on an ish I did back in Janny called The Whole Megillah. I was gonna make that the first of a series, and man alive, am I glad I did not. Why? Well, some things have changed, including the thoroughly unsurprising yet nevertheless untimely demise of Ello. That, and Substack (the service I use to send you this) has made it super plain that they are pro-all kinds of bullshit I’m not about. So that has changed my approach to writing about them as a company.

So, down to today’s business: I’d like to give you a tour of my offerings. I do this every so often, and it seems to help at least one of you out, so. It’s time, once again.

I am, first and foremost, a human being.

My name is Tracy. You know me, probably, or are starting to. Everything else I do is subordinate to the fact that I am a living being, and so subject to all the thrills and travails that come with that. You are, too! So let’s jam together.

I am a writer, primarily of fiction.

I’ve been writing off assignment since fifth grade, primarily what is sometimes called metafiction—which has some stylistic similarities to creative nonfiction, but is actually something of its logical inverse, meaning if CNF uses fictional techniques to tell nonfiction stories, metafiction uses nonfiction techniques to talk about fiction or the act of making fiction … as fiction. That’s my take, anyway; that’s what I mean, when I’m talking about my fiction as metafiction. It’s one of those terms that’s become quite nebulous, so you hear it defined a number of ways. But that’s what I mean, as I’ve just said.

What kind of fiction do I write? Weird shit, but not weird fiction, per se.

Probably any writer but the staunchest adherent to a chosen genre (or ‘literary’ if genre is a curse word for you) hates classification, pigeonholing, or categorization. I am particularly resistant to it—obnoxiously so, at times, I’m afraid—yet, somewhat confusingly, I also kind of crave accurate taxonomy? I know. I’m a mess.

Anyway, here is a list of what terms I think apply and maybe how. I’ll go from broadest to most specific, when able. Some are parallel in terms of scope. And I’ll link to a previous issue that features an example, if I can find a clear one.

Speculative Fiction

So some folks use ‘speculative fiction’ as an umbrella term to catch science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

It was coined, though (by Heinlein, I believe, but set the record right if I’m wrong), to describe science fiction and fantasy writers of the 60’s who had more literary ambitions and saw themselves as being distinct from (and frankly better than) their more commercial and/or juvenile counterparts in ‘sci-fi’ land.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to see that distinction as kind of snobby and so I eschew it in favor of ‘New Wave’ (or ‘New New Wave’). Also, you see something similar that happened in comic books about a decade or fifteen years later where all these writers we essentially fans of their genre and had ‘grown up’ so they wanted to tell ‘grown up’ stories to and for each other. Which only makes sense, really. It also makes sense that if a genre is to survive, it has to eventually start telling stories suitable for younger readers again. I am, at least to date, not a great candidate to do this—though my story cycle, Gaucho, is somewhat close, I suppose.

Hogwash!, by the by, is decidedly not for kids, just fyi. I don’t know why I paired them up … Oh wait! Yes I do. But I’ll save that for another time. It’s not a huge reveal or anything, but it might spoil some things. Anyway, it is more of a nihilistic, semi-futuristic alt western. Whatever that means.

Science fiction

More specifically, what you might call ‘soft science fiction’ broadly or ‘New Wave’ more specifically. I think this is accurate for almost everything I write.

Fantasy

We’re including ‘science fantasy’ in here—or at least straddling with science fiction as I described it. Other subtypes of fantasy that are probably accurate to a greater or lesser extent are ‘magical realism,’ ‘modern’ or ‘urban’ fantasy—though not the kind you are used to, most likely. My Azza-Jono stories are probably the clearest examples I have, even though they’re not that clear. But there is magic that exists alongside cars and speculative technology.

Transgressive fiction

This probably applies to everything (except Gaucho), and it’s not a term I really love, but. If the shoe fits, I guess. I have many examples, but the most recent one is from Teresa’s Backbone.

I see it as most genres are repressive not that transgressive fiction is truly transgressive, but. Whatever.

Gonzo

So this term has been applied to the style of journalism that Hunter S. Thompson did, and also to the bizarre, anything goes style of early Dungeons & Dragons adventure design and many of the contemporary OSR throwbacks to them. I’d say both are kind of what I mean? But, obvi, not being a journalist, it’s more like a fictional take on it, sharing the subjective emphasis of storytelling; and, in more the D&D sense, a kitchen sink and dream logic approach to the content.

This is the main lens through which I view my main literary beast, The Secret of Secrets. And, indeed, the persona of T Van Santana themselves is from this work. But why not start where I started? With Everything Fails … or, you can take the outtakes, with the First Cut story path in Teresa’s Backbone.

Progressive science fiction

I doubt I coined this, but I thought it up without reference. And what I mean by it is similar to both what ‘progressive’ means in ‘progressive rock’ and in the political sense. Yes, I am a progressive and was using that to describe my positions before it was cool. Or, you know, I see myself that way, at least. I don’t really like talking openly about politics that much because most people don’t know what they’re talking about—I don’t mean that in the sense that I don’t agree with them; just literally, they don’t understand the terminology and use it in a very comments section kind of way. It’s just not worth it.

Anyway, all I’m saying here is I take my writing seriously as both an art and a set of skills, and am working to master my style and approach and present complex and entertaining work. You know, hopefully. You can decide how well I’m doing; that’s your job, not mine. Oh, and I also believe that, sadly, all art is political. So I am trying to examine that as we go in the text and by how we approach telling stories and how we cope with the failures of this as artists, citizens, and human beings.

Cyberpunk

Sigh. I mean, I guess. William Gibson said the genre was dead, like, what? Two years in? I dunno. Nowadays it seems rife with Europeans who still glamourize misogyny and edgelord tropes. I’m not about any of that. But some of my characters do have cybereyes and there are evil corporations (wait, that’s redundant, yeah?) and shit, so sometimes people put me next to people I’d rather not sit next to. But such is life.

Oh, andand I had a chat about this the other day, and he pointed out that there is some hope for the genre still, which was a bit of an eye opener for me. We also agreed that ‘solarpunk’ is probably the more hopeful sibling, and that is deffo where my interests lie. ‘Hopepunk’ is another one, though we both agreed that it is currently ill-defined.

Oh oh, and one more thing about cyberpunk: Folks tend to forget that it is a blended genre. You know, usually. It’s a mix of near-future science fiction, dystopian fiction, and hard-boiled detective fiction. I postively dig the latter, and would say I try to incorporate Chandleresque elements into a lot of my stuff, but espesh the Secretsverse/TVan stuff.

Dystopian

Bigger sigh. So I am freaking exhausted—as are many of you, I’d imagine—by the whole dystopian genre. When I was a younger person, I knew this genre as ‘post-apocalyptic’ and it was my shit. But, you know, I was depressed or whatever. So while I suppose my stuff still has some post-apoc or ‘dystopian’ themes or set dressing, I try to veer more into ‘neutopian’ spaces rather than outright dystopia or utopia (because one person’s utopia is another’s dystopia, but that’s another convo).

Also—and this is true of cyberpunk, as well—we basically live in a dystopian, cyberpunk-y setting now. Like, in real life. So. Kina kills my literary boner for it, if you’ll forgive the crass turn of phrase.

Slipstream

Okay, no one knows what this is and the text editor is telling me I’m approaching the email max length, so I’ll wrap this up. I don’t know that it entirely works for my ouevre as a whole, but probably for Azza-Jono at least. Maybe some Secrets stories, too.

Okay, thanks for reading, y’all. Have a look at my newest book, which has different reading orders called ‘story paths.’ All that is here:

Till next time, keep at it!

Xoxo,

T

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