2014: The Death of the Postmodern Novel and the Rise of Autofiction - Flavorwire

[M Thomas Stevenson]

I think it is a growing thing. But I see Knausgaard -- completely coincidentally the one I quite like, at least admire -- as separate, and kind-of there to lend perceived-credence to the list a little maybe. Because I don't think he's doing anything meta at all -- not him; maybe people's perceptions of him. This whole, self as assemblages of fictions, what is real what is not laziness, is postmodern in and of itself. It's just this time, probably via social media (which many of those writers are from very clean and similar circles of smallish web-heavy presses), instead of just Philip Roth'ing or Hemingway'ing the lived experience, transforming it, keeping it ambiguous, the overtly blog post nature of these new forms throws that whole racket out the window. . . My wonder is, though, in lieu of what? Sorry, rant.

On 4 January 2015, at 23:28, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

Postmodernism, a very slippery word, of course. I dislike it, still
don't have a coherent meaning and see it negatively under all the
words you use for it but I think this guy
mostly sees it as Meta somehow, right? Commenting on itself, narrative
trickery, etc.

It is very thin, with tendentious examples yet, when I keep reflecting
on the surge of memoirs, life stories, the way what used to be
labelled fiction is now autobiography and in other ways he
notes---great remark on Knausgaard imho---

I do think he may see a change in the culture.



On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 5:24 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think the real issue isn't style, labels. It is about depth and sincerity.
> Postmodernism's common sins are pastiche, one-line jabs, easy rip-off
> references, cartoonism.  Pynchon does all those things, but most often with
> deep and complex roots.  GR is his masterpiece. It does rival Ulysses.
>
> David Morris
>
>
> On Sunday, January 4, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Despite this guy's characterization, I still think Pynchon is a late
>> Modernist.
>> But others even on this list call him a postmodernist.
>>
>> The term has been flashbacked definitionally to include another great
>> Englsih novel, Tristram Shandy.
>> A novel that is all in the digressions. (the great Samuel Johnson,
>> wrong this time (as Wood will be with
>> Pynchon) ) said it wouldn't last.."nothing odd will last".
>>
>> Man,  is M &D all in the digressions or isn't it?
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 10:24 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Postmodern architecture has been considered a collective embarrassment
>> > for
>> > at least 20 years. Neo-modernism reigns now.  It is not the evangelical
>> > modernism of the past. It is all about form, style, magazines.  Green
>> > architecture is the closest thing we have to early modernism. Third
>> > world
>> > outreach architecture too.  I don't know how long Modernism really
>> > believed
>> > its story.  In architecture PM has long ago lost its welcome.
>> >
>> > David Morris
>> >
>> >
>> > On Saturday, January 3, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> "Like"...yet someone said This articulated below IS also postmodernism
>> >> (
>> >> who cares, just a label) but
>> >> The return of realism, the self, different though, is what matters, if
>> >> he's right on.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://flavorwire.com/496570/2014-the-death-of-the-postmodern-novel-and-the-rise-of-autofiction
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Sent from my iPad-
>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l