The New Canon: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

[Henry Musikar]

The New Canon is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on
great works of fiction published since 1985. These books represent the
finest literature of the current era, and are gaining recognition as the new
classics of our time. In this installment of The New Canon, Gioia looks at
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/03/02/073307.php 

"The post-modern novel is a slippery thing. It easily collapses into
self-parody or even an attack on its own sustaining principles. After all,
when everything is deconstructed, why should the deconstructor be exempted?
When the pundit insists that "no standpoint is privileged and no discourse
is objectively true," the most appropriate response is: "Same to you,
buddy."

As a result, the most ardently deconstructive novels of recent memory - such
as House of Leaves or Infinite Jest or Special Topics in Calamity Physics -
are perhaps best read as savage attacks on post-modernism, even while they
imbibe it as their mother's milk. These books are multilayered, but not in
the conventional way of inviting interpretation of their symbolic meanings,
rather in their complex attitude toward meaning in general. They are the
literary equivalents of the snake swallowing its own tail." 

http://tinyurl.com/calamity-physics 

Henry Mu

KCUF, 128 Kb/s on Shoutcast Unlimited and still the Most Eclectic Music on
the WWW, will be down briefly today or tomorrow for a server move, after
which the 98 Kb/s feed will probably go away: 
http://tinyurl.com/kcuf-on-shoutcast-limited/ to play,
http://www.urdomain.us/kcuf.htm to see what's playing, and now available on
RECIVA Internet-Radio receivers, http://tinyurl.com/kcuf-on-reciva 

KCUF can now be listened to using a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget:
http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?bt=1&q=KCUF (Hope you like little
Grigori, or is that Henry the Octopus)