Loaded as Grunge Writing by Christos Tsiolkas Grunge writing as described in Ian Syson's lecture and article Smells Like Market Spirit must be a fad or a marketing ploy for profit from the grunge scene and have the same properties and appeal as grunge music, which emerged from the Seattle underground shortly before the emergence of grunge writing in Australia. The properties of grunge music are raw sound, distorted guitars, contrasting song dynamics, focus on music, rejection of theatricality, inspiration from metal/indie/rock/punk, angst-filled lyrics and an appealing towards the disgruntled youth of Generation X. Loaded does not fall into the genre of grunge writing in relation to the description of grunge music. The only reason Loaded is classified as grunge is because it was released during a convenient time when grunge music became immensely popular thanks to the success of bands like nirvana. If it had been published at any other time or without the existence of grunge music, it would have been in a genre called dirty realism, hyperrealism, urban realism, gay fiction, or it simply would not have been published in the mainstream. It is possible that it was labeled grunge in the descriptive context of "dirty" because it contains descriptions of harsh issues that are not in the norm of modern literature. References to drugs, homosexuality, anonymous homosexual encounters, trans gender characters, cultural/sexual identity, the father's sexual abuse of his transvestite son, the location and swear words are the elements of Loaded, apart from the swear words and references to drugs, none of these elements are present in grunge music. What exactly makes it grunge? Grunge music is about freedom, being free to do what you want, social disruptions and social observations/comments. On the other hand 151 pages of subtle complaints are loaded as it's hard to remember liking anything. Protagonist Ari is torn between his cultural and sexual identity, hates conformity, using drugs to get out of his hated reality, using music when he doesn't have drugs, comes to petty conclusions based on generalizations and lack of direction future that doesn't sound very grunge. There are many books written long before, after and during the grunge phase, but do not fall into the grunge genre, titles such as Fritz The Cat written in many stories during the late 1960s through to the early 1970s, featured elements such as references to the music that inspired grunge, swearing, anonymous sex, location, drug-induced orgies, street violence, and social commentary..