Writer as perv: bricolage, bowerbirding, observation

Abstract

Recently it was suggested that my creative method (bowerbirding, bricolage, engaged observation) might properly be described as ‘perving’. Affronted, I rejected this accusation. But the idea wouldn’t go away, a question remained. How does observation that informs a story differ from perving or voyeurism? Creative writers lurk everywhere, observing and eavesdropping for quirks and foibles to bring life to their stories. I review my creative methodology against the current discourse about the eclectic methods of enquiry through which writers interrogate the world, including thievery, plagiarism, borrowing, voyeurism, perving, to assess the validity of this charge of perversion.