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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Art’s capacity to disturb

20/3/2017

13 Comments

 
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With a little over two months until the publication of my second novel, the focus has moved from improving the text itself – apart from scouring the proofs for a stray comma or worse – to ways of articulating what the story is about. You’d think that page upon page of carefully selected words could speak for themselves, but no. To interest readers, I have to write and talk about what’s between the covers.

I’m much more attuned to this aspect of being a novelist than I was the first time, when I blogged about not knowing what my novel was about. I’m happier with my elevator pitch (Underneath is about a man who keeps a woman captive in a cellar) and with the blurb. I’m beginning to draft guest posts for my blog tour and I hope I’ll have a sufficiently fluent spiel by the time I get to the launch. But there are still aspects I’m not yet sure how best to articulate. One of these is the place of visual art within the story.

At the beginning of the novel, the narrator, Steve, meets Liesel in the canteen at work when she pretends to mistake him for another man. A few days later, she accompanies him house-hunting, and invites him to come with her to see an exhibition at the gallery for contemporary art, The Space. While Liesel is moved by the paintings, Steve is (privately) contemptuous (p15):

it pissed me off: the painting was ugly and poorly executed and resembled nothing I’d encountered this side of the womb. To be honest, I found it kind of depressing. I … stood before a canvas that might’ve been meant to represent a bloody massacre or the maws of hell. Or the artist’s grandad’s garage, for all I cared.

Later, in conversation with her friend and colleague – and Steve’s nemesis – Jules, Liesel suggests the art unsettled him (p30):

Liesel stroked my hand. “Steve found the exhibition rather disturbing.”

“No I didn’t. I found it boring.”

“Same difference,” said Jules. “When you’re overwhelmed by emotion your mind switches itself off.”

In the same scene, the two women, who both work in a forensic mental health unit, discuss taking the patients to view the exhibition (p29):

“I don’t know,” said Liesel. “It might be kind of challenging.”

“What’s wrong with challenging?” said Jules. “At least it’s honest. Better than blotting out their feelings with drugs.”

As an art therapist, Liesel’s job is to connect with the patients’ inner worlds not through words but through art. In an attempt to help him understand her work, she shows him (although as a responsible
fictional therapist she knows she shouldn’t) a piece by a man who feels emotionally broken (p89):

Liesel took an old shoebox from the filing cabinet. She set it down on the marble-effect tabletop and raised the lid. “Hold out your hands!”

I was tempted to cover my eyes, like in the party game where they blindfold you and put a peeled plum in your hand and pretend it’s Nelson’s eyeball. Yet when she passed me a crumpled brown paper bag, the effect was even more peculiar.

How weird to hold an Action Man again. But … [t]his one had been to war and come home in pieces.

I took out a severed plastic head, a broad-chested torso with a pollarded limb dangling from each corner, two disconnected hands and two disconnected feet, a clump of hair, and four tubes of pinky-yellow plastic that might once have been his forearms and lower legs. I held up a shrunken camouflage suit between my forefinger and thumb.

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More detached from his own turbulence than he realises, Steve doesn’t see how he has also channelled his instability into art. In flashbacks, the reader sees the vulnerability of the boy – with no father, a depressed mother and two bossy-verging-on-bullying older sisters – who becomes the jailer. As with any typical youngster, he spends time drawing or colouring in and, although on the surface his pictures aren’t particularly grim, there’s an unacknowledged sadness around the absence of the father who died before he was born.

But it’s on the cellar walls that Steve unwittingly expresses his inner turmoil. Before it becomes a prison, it’s a love nest, a romantic hideaway from the world. When he paints the walls in “intertwining snakes of claret, copper and carnation”, he thinks he’s merely brightening the place up. Liesel thinks he’s doing something similar to the artists whose work was exhibited at The Space.

Although I’m probably closer to Steve than to Liesel in preferring paintings that are pretty to those that perplexing , I do value, at least in principle,  art’s capacity to disturb. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s something even more disturbing in an attempt
to exist solely in the light. I don’t know whether Liesel ever took her patients to that exhibition, but I recognise the fear, both in her and in her more powerful psychiatric colleagues, that this would entail too much risk. People with severe mental health conditions like psychosis can be extremely disturbed and disturbing, especially those who have behaved in ways that get them admitted to a secure unit. For their sakes, as well as for the sake of those who care for them, and the general public, it makes sense to keep the atmosphere calm.
Yet it can be a small step from tranquil to tranquillised, to the emotional deadness typical of the old long-stay psychiatric hospital wards. I’ve explored this in academic papers, but I’m not sure if I’ve yet managed to capture it in my current WIP, and hopefully my third novel,  Such Dreadful Lies, set in a psychiatric hospital in the process of closing. It does currently have a scene in which a character’s artwork is misunderstood by the staff. I’m wondering if that might furnish my point of entry.
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I can make a start by using it as my setting for this week’s flash fiction, on the theme of a place where art is not allowed:

Fragile minds

“I’m deeply disappointed.”

My second visit to her office. She was scary enough at my recruitment interview. Now I’ve been “invited” to discuss my expense claim.

“Wasn’t it addressed in your training?”

I could be done for fraud. “I’m sorry I lost the receipt. But you can check the prices at the Tate Modern café.” It wasn’t meant as therapy. An ordinary outing as friends.

“Forget the coffee. Matty returned so agitated they had to sedate her.”

Agitated? She was alive!


But there’s my CV to consider. “Another chance?”

“No more galleries, okay? Art’s too disturbing for fragile minds.”

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
13 Comments
Norah Colvin link
20/3/2017 11:06:39 am

Hi Anne,
I very much enjoyed reading more about Steve and Liesel. It is so exciting that your second book Underneath is going to be out so soon, and that your third is on the way. The blurb is fantastic. It makes me want to know more. I didn't check if I can preorder, but only UK and US Amazons are listed. That's okay. I'll get my copy as soon as it is available. If I'm excited, I can't imagine how excited you are.
Your flash is great too. I agree. I think art, and many indiscriminate things, can disturb fragile minds. I hope this young person gets a second chance, or they may have another fragile mind on their hands.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/3/2017 04:31:33 pm

Aw, Norah, it’s nice to know you’re excited too. I’m sorry I didn’t provide a link to Amazon Australia but I imagine it would be there in the same way with the discount for Kindle preorders. I do hope you enjoy it.
I think it’s going to quite a while before my “third” novel is ready for editing is there’s a lot that isn’t adequately realised in character, voice and plot (just about everything really) but I’m hoping to get some time to work on it this week.
Glad you liked the flash. Now I’m wondering exactly what they looked at in the gallery that was particularly disturbing. Never having been to the Tate Modern, I wouldn’t know!

Reply
Lori Schafer link
20/3/2017 06:04:45 pm

I've been so out of touch I didn't even know you had a second book coming out! Can't wait to read it :)

Reply
Annecdotist
22/3/2017 10:01:34 am

It’s lovely to have you back, Lori, and I’m still tickled by your spoof cover for Sugar and Snails – dread to think what you do with Underneath ; - )

Reply
geoff le pard link
21/3/2017 10:31:43 am

I'm not sure who or what is the moist disturbed here!! The flash works as a great teaser for book three and we all want to get in to book two (I know, I know, I have it but I'm incapable of starting the next book with one on the go... call me old fashioned). As for art disturbing, blimey it does that to me so heaven knows what it does to someone already unstable. Very engaging post, though, had me thinking loads...

Reply
Annecdotist
22/3/2017 09:59:05 am

Thanks, Geoff, that’s what I like to hear. I’m interested in how people identified as mentally ill get to carry the disturbance of the rest of us to a degree.
I’m the same in not wanting to confuse myself by reading a couple of books concurrently (can still happen though) although since I’ve been reviewing it does happen as I prioritise finishing a book when I’ve got space to write the review.

Reply
sarah
22/3/2017 11:57:49 pm

I'm sorry to stick my nose in here but, Geoff, your typo made me queasy. (Also made me laugh at the irony.) You said, "moist disturbed" instead of "most disturbed" which is fun because that word ("moist") is disturbing to me. See? Fun. :-)

Reply
sarah
22/3/2017 11:54:40 pm

Ugh...elevator pitch, blurb... Those are painful in so many ways.

I've been following along with Underneath but I didn't know Liesel was an art therapist. How did I miss that? This is fascinating. You know I'm excited for this one but Secrets and Lies sounds amazing. I think I will love it.

Reply
Charli Mills
23/3/2017 06:53:01 am

A rich post, Anne and an exciting lead up to your book launch. It feels edgier than your first novel and yet, even in this brief reading there's the same style I recognize as yours and trust you to lead us "Underneath." Though I suspect it's going to be quite the ride! As for your flash, how closely aligned are agitation and aliveness and do we want to give up connecting to life in favor of sedation? You seem to go deeper with each subsequent book, searching perhaps for those answers.

Reply
Annecdotist
23/3/2017 09:30:51 am

I love your capacity to detect patterns, Charli, and I think I am creeping ever closer to that core of disturbance. And yes indeed, it’s a lifelong challenge to get that balance between stimulation and stagnation, which I suppose manifests itself most clearly in bipolar disorder, often thought to be associated with creativity (although I’m a bit sceptical about that).

Reply
Annecdotist
24/3/2017 10:46:57 am

Thanks for your comments, Sarah, including the one to Geoff, and apologies that I can’t get my reply to appear directly underneath right now. (Technology always going weird on me.)
Interestingly, I remember your dislike of the word moist which I generally find innocuous, but somehow I get your disturbance in this context, or feel my own!
I might not have mentioned that Liesel is an art therapist – although Steve definitely misrepresents her work, I hope I haven’t. I’m glad you like the sound of Secrets and Lies – it worries me slightly that I’m enjoying it writing so much, even though I can see the holes in it. I do hope that it works out.

Reply
Sarah
25/3/2017 12:55:31 am

So. I'm having the same issue with the "reply" button.

"Pfft!" to your having too much fun writing the book. To hell with plot holes. Write on and enjoy! You'll fill them in.

Also, happy to see your lovely face back on Twitter! You are no longer a Twitter Ghost. :-)

Reply
Annecdotist
27/3/2017 12:44:09 pm

It’s useful to know that it’s not only my computer that’s struggling to reply and I’ll get onto the help people.
I’m relieved to have a face of any kind on Twitter – I’d thought for a while it must be something about my computer settings but never got round to trying on a different computer. I’m still amazed how many people chose to follow me in my time as a ghost.

Reply



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