Thursday,
July 22, 2010
6:30 p.m.
Madison Square Park @ the Farragut Monument
 Critics
can’t quite agree: was Barthelme the end of
modernism or the first practitioner of American post-modern
narrative?
In a weirdly Barthelmean twist that somehow makes
perfect sense, he won the National Book Award in 1972
for a children’s book entitled The Slightly
Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering
Djinn. The exuberance of that title alone speaks
volumes about the obsessions of this writer who claimed
to be “overwhelmed by Beckett” and produced
some of the most inventive fiction of the post-war
period.
Join the National Book Foundation and a panel of
acclaimed writers for a discussion of Barthelme’s
legacy, influence, and narrative innovations.
Emily Barton is the author of the novels Brookland
and The Testament of Yves Gundron, both named
New York Times Notable Books of the Year.
Tracy Daugherty’s Hiding Man: A Biography
of Donald Barthelme was named a New York Times
Notable Book of the Year in 2009.
Stacey D’Erasmo is the author of 3 novels,
and her critical writing has appeared in such publications
as the New York Times Magazine, The New York Times
Book Review, and Ploughshares.
David Gates is the author of two novels and a collection
of stories, The Wonders of the Invisible World.
His nonfiction has appeared in Newsweek, The New
Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.
For more information about Mad. Sq. Reads, visit www.madisonsquarepark.org/programs/madsqreads.aspx.
Donald Barthelme
(April 7, 1931 – July 23,
1989) is credited with reinventing the short story.
He wrote playful short fiction in the postmodernist
style that has been referred to as literary collage,
using illustration, advertising jargon, and bits of
text from other writers’ works to convey his version
of reality. According to The New Yorker, “His
influence can be seen in the contemporary writers such
as Ben Marcus, Dave Eggers, and Lydia Davis.”
In 1961, Barthelme’s first short story, “L’Lapse,”
a parody of Michelangelo Antonioni's film L'Eclisse
(The Eclipse), was published in The New
Yorker. The magazine went on to publish many of
his stories, including the popular “Me and Miss
Mandible.” This story is about a thirty-five-year-old
man, failing at his job as an insurance adjuster and
failing in his marriage, who is sent to a third-grade
class by error. He would like to leave, but at the same
time he is infatuated by the comely teacher.
Barthelme won the National Book Award for Children’s
Books in 1972 for The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine
or The Hithering Thithering Djinn, and
was a Fiction Finalist for Guilty Pleasures
in 1975. Guilty Pleasures is made up of parodies,
political satires, and fables that were written, says
Barthelme, “on all sorts of occasions and in response
to all sorts of stimuli and overstimuli” (as taken
from the National Book Foundation’s archives).
Barthelme’s story collections include: Come
Back, Dr. Caligari (1964), City Life (1970),
Sixty Stories (1981), and Overnight to
Many Distant Cities (1983). His four novels are:
Snow White (1967), The Dead Father
(1975), Paradise (1986), and The King (1990).
In addition to being an author, Barthelme worked as
a newspaper reporter and an editor. He also held the
position of Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum
in Houston and was one of the founders of the University
of Houston’s Creative Writing Program.
To read a few of Barthelme’s short stories, visit
www.eskimo.com/~jessamyn/barth.
Mad. Sq. Reads is the Madison Square
Park Conservancy's free outdoor reading series. Each
program lasts about one hour, ending with a Q&A
session and book signing. Books are available for purchase
at each program. |
