Lost in the Funhouse (Anchor Literary Library)
EUR 6,88
laizzez-faire postmodernism - John Barth is not a doctrinaire postmodernist. He does not reject the label of postmodernist writer , but he is not interested in following the doctrine to logical end. That would apparently take the fun out of the funhouse.This book is a series of essays, meditations, short stories and jokes that examine the creative process as ontogeny. Barth is funny and melancholy at the same time. He is skeptical, but also to some degree hopeful, about the possibility of writing anything that could be useful to someone else.His enthusiastic and hilarious references made me want to read or re-read many classic pieces of literature including Allen Ginsberg s Howl, Ovid s Metamorphoses and the Iliad and 1001 Arabian Nights. And he made me believe that I could get a lot more out of them, if I would just question a few more of my presumptions.
Takes you through a journey like no other, a great trip - Barth is truly a genius. He takes the reader through a labrynith of sorts and keeps you on your toes. If you like a challenge this book provides one. It is original, humorous and fascinating, a journey you don t want to miss.
More Self-Serving Drivel from the master - John Barth is a man obviously enchanted with the sound of his own voice, and to this end he wraps reams of trite observations in ridiculously complex frames. Why he should choose to shroud ideas like Are semen sentient and if so do they seek or flee combination with the egg? in pages and pages of overblown prose is beyond me. If you are very lonely or have tremendous amounts of spare time, perhaps this book is right for you. Otherwise, get your transcendence elswhere.
Fantastic collection of experimental fiction! - In his story, The Immortal, Jorge Luis Borges describes a labyrinth as a structure compounded to confuse men, itsarchitecture, rich in symmetries, is subordinated to that end.* Similarly, the stories of Barth s collection _Lost in the Funhouse_, present a labyrinth of narrative fiction, in their exploration of the story as medium, voice, and tool of the magician. The fourteen stories, reflecting Barth s idea of a narrative as a structure, take the varied forms of Mobius strip, letter, autobiography, and tale, what makes for additional complexity, is the insistence by each of the stories characters (who include a siamese twin, heroes of the Odyssey,and an abandoned court minstrel) to have his or her say. Inherent in this is Barth s insistence on the infinite number of possible constructions of a narrative, which stun the reader through his descriptions, plot lines (knots, in some cases), and ideas. Read _Lost in the Funhouse_ to witness Barth s magic, and to be reminded of the combined power of voice and language, storytelling. *(Jorge Luis Borges, The Immortal, _Labyrinths_: New Directions Books, 1962.)