<p>“To be, or not to be” surely constitutes a strange walk on the tight rope between delusion and reality, and apparently, Robert Fleming is a man with immense problems. Who is Ziggy Stardust, and who is Stephen Dedalus? Is it relevant to claim that there is more of David Bowie’s true personality inside Ziggy than of, for instance Charles Dickens’ great expectations within Pip? By examining Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity and it’s main character from a Freudian perspective using Freud’s theories and ideas of the oedipal concept, this is basically a plain attempt in search for a better psychological knowledge and understanding of the musical world of illusion, which finally ends up in a serious effort to interpret the true and inner meanings of Rob’s dreams and personality.</p>

“To be, or not to be” surely constitutes a strange walk on the tight rope between delusion and reality, and apparently, Robert Fleming is a man with immense problems. Who is Ziggy Stardust, and who is Stephen Dedalus? Is it relevant to claim that there is more of David Bowie’s true personality inside Ziggy than of, for instance Charles Dickens’ great expectations within Pip? By examining Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity and it’s main character from a Freudian perspective using Freud’s theories and ideas of the oedipal concept, this is basically a plain attempt in search for a better psychological knowledge and understanding of the musical world of illusion, which finally ends up in a serious effort to interpret the true and inner meanings of Rob’s dreams and personality.

This thesis consists of a novel, eighteenth, and an exegesis, The ‘Lad Lit’ Dilemma: Institutional influences on creative writing practice. It will address my research question; how did institutional factors surrounding the publishing category of Lad Lit influence my creative practice in drafting and re-drafting the novel eighteenth? eighteenth is the story of Will Swift, a seventeen year-old Brisbane university student. Will is part of a close group of friends from high school. When he falls for Kate, family friend of his mate Simon, his first semester of study becomes more complicated than he might have expected. Will’s movement through these issues and character development is represented symbolically through four eighteenth birthday parties. The project’s exegesis then analyses the changing nature of the publishing industry in the last twenty years, and the implications of these changes for creative writers. Together, the two elements of this practice-led research will articulate the shift in the balance between the cultural and commercial imperatives of publishers, explain the impact of this shift for the publishing category of Lad Lit, and explore the ramifications of this for creative writing practitioners.