Guilty Pleasures
Guilty Pleasures
Pynchon weighs in on Barthelme.
"Wise satirical practice requires the sensitivity and skill of a fugu chef at controlling toxicity, that is, knowing how long to suffer, and how gladly, and when to give in to rage, and the pleasure of assaulting at last the fools in question. Barthelme’s timing in this regard was flawless, though unfortunately, he was prevented from becoming a world-class curmudgeon on the order of, say, Ambrose Bierce by the stubborn counterrhythms of what kept on being a hopeful and unbitter heart."
"Barthelme’s was a specifically urban melancholy, related to that look of immunity to joy or even surprise seen in the faces of cab drivers, bartenders, street dealers, city editors, a wearily taken vow to persist beneath the burdens of the day and the terrors of the night. Humor in these conditions leans toward the antitranscendent—like jail humor and military and rodeo humor, it finds high amusement in failure and loss, and it celebrates survival one day, one disaster, to the next."
"But behind Barthelme’s own slick city-sophisticate disguise still lounged, alarmingly, this good old Dairy Queen regular in some conspicuous hat, around in whose back seat opened containers had been known to roll, harboring the mischievous daydreams of a Texas rounder, not to mention a lengthy stretch of DNA dedicated just to locating and enjoying various highly seasoned pork products."
via Al Gizmo
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/23/donald-barthelmes-slick-city-sophisticate-disguise/
Pynchon weighs in on Barthelme.
"Wise satirical practice requires the sensitivity and skill of a fugu chef at controlling toxicity, that is, knowing how long to suffer, and how gladly, and when to give in to rage, and the pleasure of assaulting at last the fools in question. Barthelme’s timing in this regard was flawless, though unfortunately, he was prevented from becoming a world-class curmudgeon on the order of, say, Ambrose Bierce by the stubborn counterrhythms of what kept on being a hopeful and unbitter heart."
"Barthelme’s was a specifically urban melancholy, related to that look of immunity to joy or even surprise seen in the faces of cab drivers, bartenders, street dealers, city editors, a wearily taken vow to persist beneath the burdens of the day and the terrors of the night. Humor in these conditions leans toward the antitranscendent—like jail humor and military and rodeo humor, it finds high amusement in failure and loss, and it celebrates survival one day, one disaster, to the next."
"But behind Barthelme’s own slick city-sophisticate disguise still lounged, alarmingly, this good old Dairy Queen regular in some conspicuous hat, around in whose back seat opened containers had been known to roll, harboring the mischievous daydreams of a Texas rounder, not to mention a lengthy stretch of DNA dedicated just to locating and enjoying various highly seasoned pork products."
via Al Gizmo
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/23/donald-barthelmes-slick-city-sophisticate-disguise/
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ReplyDeleteGone, but not forgotten ?
Thanks Drew McCarthy - especially liked "As any Elizabethan could tell you if they all weren’t dead, melancholy is a far richer and more complex ailment than simple depression." and "it is still a good honest push back against the forces that favor tragedy, and who of us wouldn’t like to have left something like that behind us?" Quite well written review.
ReplyDeleteI was reminded of In a Narrow Grave : Essays on Texas by Larry McMurtry, who remarks on the native writers and literati that left Texas for the closed expanse of the cities with the beautiful people - some succeeded, some failed, but the loss to Texas literature was the theme. L.M. was speaking of his generation, which was also Barthelme's.
Timothy Street I almost always enjoy reading what writers I admire, write about writers they (and I) admire.
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