Book•
Alternate Worlds: A Study of Postmodern Antirealistic American Fiction
01 Jul 1991-
TL;DR: In this paper, Kuehl looks at 11 literary traits the post modern antirealist finds user friendly, in a pattern search through the works of some of today's most imaginative writers - Barth, Barthelme, Coover, Gass, Pynchon and Vonnegut.
Abstract: "Plot, character, setting and theme", according to John Hawkes, perhaps the first post-World War II antirealist, constitute "the true enemies of the novel". Working from that position, John Kuehl looks at 11 literary traits the post modern antirealist finds user friendly, in a pattern search through the works of some of today's most imaginative writers - Barth, Barthelme, Coover, Gass, Pynchon and Vonnegut, to name only a few - from some who have made it to the top of the bestseller lists to other barely known outside academic circles. Framing the study are an introduction by James W. Tuttleton, grouding the contemporary works in the context of early American writings by such countertraditionalists as Irving, Poe, Howells and Twain, and an interview in which the editor challenges the author as devil's advocate fro the realists, thrus enriching both points of view.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In the early to mid-twentieth century, thermodynamic entropy became a ubiquitous metaphor for the dissolution of Western values and cultural energy as discussed by the authors, and many Golden Age science fiction writers portrayed twentieth century technological progress as anti-entropic, a sign of Universal progress and unity which might postpone or negate both cultural and thermodynamic forms of entropy.
Abstract: In the early to mid-twentieth century, thermodynamic entropy—the inevitable diffusion of usable energy in the Universe—became a ubiquitous metaphor for the dissolution of Western values and cultural energy. Many Golden Age science fiction writers portrayed twentieth century technological progress as anti-entropic, a sign of Universal progress and unity which might postpone or negate both cultural and thermodynamic forms of entropy. Following the evolutionary metaphysics of Georg Hegel and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Golden Age science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov imagined the creation of powerful collective beings whose unitary existence signified the defeat of entropy. In contrast, later literary postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon and Pamela Zoline often accepted and even exalted in the chaotic, liberating potential of entropy. In postmodern fiction, the disorder of entropy was often compared favorably to the stifling hegemony of cultural universalism. More broadly, these two responses might be understood to represent two societal stages of grief-- denial and acceptance—to the new trauma introduced to the world by the parallel concepts of cultural entropy and a Universal “heat death.”
1 citations
01 Sep 2019
TL;DR: This paper explored the use of the cut-up method to disassemble text and explore how the fragments can be constructed, reconstructed, or deliberately misconstructed to create a new text.
Abstract: Cut-up method has been notably applied as an avant-garde form. It originated as a piece of anti-art and its most famous practitioner, William Burroughs, used its fragmentary aesthetic to complement his transgressive subject matter.
This thesis explores cut-up method’s relationship with Surrealist painting and its application as a means to the marvellous; the method’s ability to surprise both writers and readers. It addresses the central question: how can the Cut-up method be used to disassemble text and explore how the fragments can be constructed, reconstructed, or deliberately misconstructed to create a new text?
I have adopted a cognitive approach to the analytical essays, which draw upon cross-disciplinary material including art history, literary criticism, cognitive science, information theory, computing, and the neuroscience of memory.
The theoretical analysis and creative practice are integrated in both process and form. Discourses from the theoretical essays are mapped and remapped onto the creative practice and back again. Associated concepts such as fragments, entropy, confabulation, structure, and entrainment are examined both in the fiction and analysis.
Empty your Eyes and Bite the Star identifies how, when viewed as a way of writing, cut-up operates from the bottom up rather than top down as in conventional models of practice; and explores the resulting differences in process and structure. It demonstrates the method’s usefulness as a means of generating original text but also shows how cognition imposes certain limitations on its effectiveness. It identifies areas that may be explored by practitioners to effectively target aleatory methods within new domains of creative practice and identifies how further research into the use of cut-up is possible using a quantitative analytical approach.
TL;DR: In this paper, the brain of a man is put into orbit to communicate with the Earth, and his relearning process goes through phases parallel to the ones Julia Kristeva describes in Revolution in Poetic Language.
Abstract: In Plus, the brain of a man is put into orbit to communicate with the Earth, and his relearning process goes through phases parallel to the ones Julia Kristeva describes in Revolution in Poetic Language. The flux of bodily impressions that the protagonist, Imp Plus, cannot translate into language penetrates the text through its rhythms, sounds, and seemingly incoherent grammatical structures, initiating a physical relationship between the reader and fiction.