donald barthelme beyond 40/60 stories

louis menand writes abt barthelme in this weeks nyer

this is a dude i forgot to add to my stan list btw, i am a 100% committed head-over-heels barthelme stan

i am a 100% committed head-over-heels barthelme stan

I sort of feel this way, but I don't think I will ever really finish The Dead Father.

Anyone read the new bio?

lol, the fact that i finished and enjoyed the dead father was a major component of my realization and coming-to-terms with my barthelme standom

i've read & liked the dead father and, uh, paradise (don't ask) and the king (which is pretty good, like a long story of his.)

didn't realize the bio was out, will have to check it out

barthelme is pretty much my favorite dude

i like this guy

the opening paragraph of menands piece is about what sounds like the raddest dinner party ever--barthleme & 20 other "postmodern" american writers kickin it in some soho restaurant

pynchon was invited but couldnt make it, of course

did we ever have a "how many books from the barthelme reading list have you read" thread/poll?

oh man we should

barthelme is cool but incredibly inconsistent

I don't suppose that Menand piece is available anywhere without taking out a New Yorker sub?

Funnily enough, I was just talking to Missus T about how Barthelme is probably my favourite writer now that my Pynchon standom has waned.

i haven't read any of this stuff since about 1992, I should revisit it.

Love Barthelme, but I cannot dispute he's influenced more absolute dire unpublished writing seminar twaddle than just about any sui generis modern author.

i tend to like fake-barthelme dire unpublished writing seminar twaddle more than fake-carver dire unpublished writing seminar twaddle

seriously

keep in mind, too, every writing seminar's gonna have some twaddle

the thing abt barthelme is hes so funny which automatically excuses any sort of theoretical transgressions

for max or anyone menand talks more about that piece here:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/02/23/090223on_audio_menand

I've written my fair share of shamelessly derivative fake-Barthelme twaddle, but I can't help it; dude's writing is so much fun, it's infectious, and it's almost impossible for me to read more than a few pages without wanting to pick up my pen.

(this also happens with Raymond Roussel, fwiw, and in both cases it has done nothing to detract from my appreciation for the author)

im always tempted to start a thread abt writers who make u want to write

go for it man

ilx posts that make u want to post

lorrie moore writes abt that barthelme biography over here: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22473 she also talks abt it on the podcast which is useful for those ppl who had been pronouncing his name wrong all this time (i.e me)

I didn't know anything about this suggested link to the Dan Rather attacks until today

That New Yorker piece was nice, there is also podcast of Donald Antrim reading "I Bought A Little City"

Lots of free stories and lit crit here:

http://www.eskimo.com/~jessamyn/barth/

his brother fred is pretty rad in his own way.

http://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/110195.jpg

fred was in the Red Crayola.

Didn't know that!

i love snow white, i was just looking for my copy of it the other day and don't know where it is. :(

i discovered barthelme totally by accident in college, i didn't know anything about him. somehow i ended up in a section of the library where his books were -- possibly while working on a paper about ionesco? -- and picked up the dead father just because it looked interesting. read it in a day or so, was completely hooked. then i went to the short stories and so forth. and of course found out he was actually a famous dude and not just my own private discovery. but finding him that way made his writing feel sort of doubly surprising because i had no preconceptions about it.

the silly gaurdian bangs-marcus story posted on ilm made me think of "king of jazz," which in its way i think is some of the best music writing ever.

there is a thread on the reading list here if you are interested:

Donald Barthelme's Syllabus

does anyone know if any of barthelme's dialogue pieces (like "the leap" or the ones about the conservatory) have been performed, like plays? they seem ideal for that kind of performance and it seems like it's probably been done but a quick google found nothing

been reading a lot of this dude lately. realized i never finished '60 stories' so i did that and then bought 'flying to america.' i think it's to his credit that i can enjoy his stories despite not having any of the english major background to really "get" what he's doing (like references and cut-outs and what-not).

Results 1 - 10 of about 30 for donald barthelme in Google video search.

This looked promising:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttyhB5tQ_E

yah that's kind of what i mean, but i just imagine specifically the dialogue pieces as just two people sitting on a stage.

barthelme's great but don't dig to deep

too

soft yellow pavements

ok I just listened to the beginning of that and they totally read that in the wrong way I think

"some of us had been threatening our friend colby" seems like a fitting allegory for the unfolding situation in syria.

'Cortez and Montezuma' by Barthelme is the best short story I've ever read.

Just finished 40, 60 on the way