pomo

[Calaman, William]

Barth's essay can be found (among other places, I'm sure) in "The Friday
Book" -- so titled because that's the day of the week Barth devotes his time
to non-fiction writing. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but I do see it
quite often at used book stores. Barth's collection of short fiction, "Lost
in the Funhouse", also exemplifies quite nicely the points he makes in his
essay.

-- whc

-----Original Message-----
From: Jedrzej Polak [mailto:jedpolak at mac.com]
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 6:04 AM
To: Mark David Tristan Brenchley; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: pomo


The main point of "The Literature of Exhaustion" published in the late
sixties may be summerized like that: "Literature said everything what was to
be said,  and now it can only repeat itself".  Barth illustrates his
argument with the discussion of novellas by Jorge Luis Borges  (especially
"Tlon"). I feel a bit uneasy about elaborating on  an essay, which - no
doubt - was meant to be read and  discussed, and not "elaborated upon" in
one or two email sentences; at the same time I realize that "elaborating on
the Literature of Exhaustion" puts me in a very tempting, postmodern and
metaliterary situation Barth writes about. Nonetheless,  I shall  advise all
interested parties to read Barth, and then have a look at his opus
(especially "Letters", but also "The Sot-Weed Factor")  from the perspective
of the "Literature of Exhaustion".  I'm sure he wrote those two books
bearing in mind what he had postulated in the essay.  In that respect, those
two novels (if one can call "Letters" a novel) are the best elaboration of
the thesis I mentioned  above.

jp

> From: Mark David Tristan Brenchley <mdtb at st-andrews.ac.uk>
> Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 10:44:28 +0000 (GMT)
> To: Jedrzej Polak <jedpolak at mac.com>
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: pomo
> 
> 
> This "ground-breaking essay-cum-manifesto" by John Barth sounds
> intriguing. Care to elaborate?
> 
> Mark
>