‘He Was Derek Raymond’: Revisiting theFactorySeries, Black Novel, and the Beautiful Obscenity inI Was Dora Suarez

Abstract

Through his Factory series and the ‘black novel’, Derek Raymond highlights that violence in crime fiction not only provides a shock factor, but parallels societal issues at the time of a work’s publication and serves as a vessel for philosophical thought. This paper explores Raymond’s background and writing style in an attempt to align his Factory series with the issues British society faced during the 1970s and 1980s, such as class wars, economic downturn, political power, and a rise in violence. Raymond’s work, specifically, included the design of the disturbing acts taken place in I Was Dora Suarez, the fourth instalment in the Factory series. A qualitative study was conducted to address the shock value of the criminal acts in I Was Dora Suarez, and whether or not the author went too far with his graphic descriptions and overpowered the message he was attempting to achieve through his black novels.