I recently came back to reading some serious literature after a hiatus. I just re-read
Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq. I think this qualifies as a serious contemporary novel, i.e. it features spiritual malaise and social fracture. Though with moments of dark humour, it is rather depressing as most recent serious fiction is. So when I ran across this newish genre of ergodic writing, I was surprised and delighted to find quite a different mood. Picking up the novel
"S" by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst, once you get it out of its outer sleeve, you are astonished to find what seems to be an old-fashioned hardcover novel that looks as if it were stolen from a college library. It even smells like an old book. Everything about it, the design, typefaces, layout, everything is a perfect reproduction of a book published in 1949--there is even an old library catalogue sticker on the spine. It is also heavily marked up with multi-colored pen and pencil scribblings on nearly every page--a dialogue between two students exchanging comments. There are also random insertions, scraps of paper in English and other languages, post cards, photos and even a napkin. This is a post-modern production that is actually retro. There is nothing to reveal that this was actually published in 2013. There is a dual narrative: one the surrealistic adventure story of the novel, which is titled
Ship of Theseus by V. M. Straka and the story of the margin scribblings between Jen and Eric, the two students who are trying to deal with academic politics, their own personal relationship and the mystery of who is V. M. Straka. It is really a great read and kind of fits with my recent project to de-digitize as much of my life as possible. There is no possible way to publish this as a Kindle book.
Some samples:
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The pleasures that come from reading this are those of trying to sort out what is going on in the various narratives, plus the sensual pleasure of holding a substantial old-style book, plus the smell of old paper (don't know how they did that), plus the colors and textures of the inserted scraps--rather like a collage now that I think of it. This is a fun serious read.
The closest musical equivalent I can think of is the
Sinfonia by Luciano Berio that incorporates all sorts of quotations include an entire movement from a Mahler symphony. But really that is a very different idea. I can't quite imagine what a musical equivalent would really look like...
4 comments:
It's an interesting question. Strauss' Ariadne Auf Naxos is fairly close as it involves two groups of characters who go along separately but occasionally argue or interact with each other.
Maybe sonata form too.
That book by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst reminds me rather of Danielewski House of Leaves, which caused quite a stir a quarter-century ago and also can’t be faithfully represented in Kindle format. Yet I also remember a critical Amazon review of House of Leaves way back then, where the reviewer said that a few such seemingly-innovative works experimenting with design had appeared before, from time to time, throughout the twentieth century, but ultimately they simply had no staying power as literature instead of mere gimmickry.
If you haven’t read it, you might also enjoy Nick Bantock’s Griffin & Sabine, a book consisting of actual letters in envelopes that must be removed to read the story, though this is one of those artworks where the author produced really lame sequels that only diminish the impact of the good original work.
Don Quixote the book has plenty of staying power and contains many post modern tropes. The issue most times is that not enough care is taken to make the various strands equally good rather than the concept itself.
I picked up the Danielewski book as well and I will be reading it after this one. But I have read two other examples in the past. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne was a book I encountered and loved in the 70s and in the 80s I discovered the Dictionary of the Kazars, both of these experiment successfully with the idea of the novel.
And actual "literature" seems so grim these days.
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