Subject
Nabokov mention (fwd)
Date
Body
On the Charlie Rose program of March 27, the host interviewed David Foster
Wallace. I must admit I had never heard of him, but he's apparently a highly
regarded young writer; the author, among other things, of INFINITE JEST, a
novel with end-notes(!). He spoke of the end-notes as a means for
fragmenting the text to reflect the fragmentation of reality, without too
seriously disorienting the reader. At one point, he mentioned post-modernism
as the literature that interested him when he was in graduate school. Asked
to define "post-modernism", he said that for him it was "the black humorists
who came along in the 60's", (and) "the post-Nabokovians": Pyncheon,
Bartheleme, Barth, etc. What interested him in this kind of writing was "the
self-conscious text": conscious of itself as text, of the author as persona,
and of the effect it has on the reader. He suggested that post-modern
writing "has run its course, to a great extent;" that (and here I am less
than confident of the accuracy of my paraphrase) it has enervated itself, and
contributed to the enervation of American culture. If you are interested in
this but missed the broadcast, the transcript is available for $7 (video
$29.95) from Hyperscribe, 1535 Grant St., Denver, CO 80203; 1-800-ALL-NEWS.
Earl Sampson
Wallace. I must admit I had never heard of him, but he's apparently a highly
regarded young writer; the author, among other things, of INFINITE JEST, a
novel with end-notes(!). He spoke of the end-notes as a means for
fragmenting the text to reflect the fragmentation of reality, without too
seriously disorienting the reader. At one point, he mentioned post-modernism
as the literature that interested him when he was in graduate school. Asked
to define "post-modernism", he said that for him it was "the black humorists
who came along in the 60's", (and) "the post-Nabokovians": Pyncheon,
Bartheleme, Barth, etc. What interested him in this kind of writing was "the
self-conscious text": conscious of itself as text, of the author as persona,
and of the effect it has on the reader. He suggested that post-modern
writing "has run its course, to a great extent;" that (and here I am less
than confident of the accuracy of my paraphrase) it has enervated itself, and
contributed to the enervation of American culture. If you are interested in
this but missed the broadcast, the transcript is available for $7 (video
$29.95) from Hyperscribe, 1535 Grant St., Denver, CO 80203; 1-800-ALL-NEWS.
Earl Sampson