American irrealism and the cult of experience

[alice malice]

Barthelme. Barth. Like the two American Sinclairs (Lewis and Upton)
are often confused.

In "What is irrealism?" G.S. Evans
(http://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.com/what_is_irr.htm) makes
judicious use of Kafka to define irrealism.


On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 11:41 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> I only know Gilles Goat Boy, and it felt dated. It is a allegorical satire
> that I felt its cultural connections had been forgotten in this era.  Not
> Borges or Kafka in my book.
>
> David Morris
>
>
> On Monday, October 27, 2014, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, good stuff. Pynchon ...and the others all fit quite easily into
>> the American tradition.
>>
>> Bartleby and The Intuitionist are closer cousins than the essay allows.
>>
>> And Barthelme:
>>
>> The only real exception to this would be Donald Barthelme, who in
>> works such as Dead Father and the short story collection City Life
>> proved himself to be the most consistently irreal writer in American
>> literary history. More will be written about him in later issues of
>> Irreal (Re)views, but for the purposes of this essay it is sufficient
>> to say that his resistance in much of his work to expressing the
>> specificities of American experience and culture has not proven to be
>> influential.
>>
>>
>> Is he our Kafka?
>>
>> In any event, good stuff.
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 7:43 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > http://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.com/review2a.htm
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l