Reminds me of what Sebald said in his Paris Review interview: “I have an aversion to the standard novel: ‘She said, and walked across the room’ — there’s something trite about it. You can feel the wheels turning.”
Peter Weiss's Leavetaking and Vanishing Point could be filmed but how would one posit his uber melancholy in 30 frames per second? Bingeable? Not at all. Filmable? Certainly. A tenuous plasma of plot with the mucilage of intent holding it all together. He owed so much to Hamsun in this sense, didn't he?
"These fictions do not purport to be projections of some sedate, agreed-upon reality. Instead, they suggest the secret dream-life of a culture, harnessing its most intimate fantasies and anxieties." Love these lines. If anybody has any doubt just how far out Anti-Realist novels can go, check out these three -
Reminds me of what Sebald said in his Paris Review interview: “I have an aversion to the standard novel: ‘She said, and walked across the room’ — there’s something trite about it. You can feel the wheels turning.”
Pierre Senges should be in this pantheon, perhaps. Nothing less real than writing in tandem with the dead. :)
This is fantastic! Godspeed 🤝
Peter Weiss's Leavetaking and Vanishing Point could be filmed but how would one posit his uber melancholy in 30 frames per second? Bingeable? Not at all. Filmable? Certainly. A tenuous plasma of plot with the mucilage of intent holding it all together. He owed so much to Hamsun in this sense, didn't he?
"These fictions do not purport to be projections of some sedate, agreed-upon reality. Instead, they suggest the secret dream-life of a culture, harnessing its most intimate fantasies and anxieties." Love these lines. If anybody has any doubt just how far out Anti-Realist novels can go, check out these three -
Gulping's Recital by Russell Edson - https://glenncolerussell.blogspot.com/2022/06/gulpings-recital-by-russell-edson.html
The Dreamed Part by Rodrigo Fresán - https://glenncolerussell.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-dreamed-part-by-rodrigo-fresan.html
The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus - https://glenncolerussell.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-age-of-wire-and-string-by-ben-marcus_13.html
Truly in awe of what you've written. Thank you for this endlessly enjoyable and instructive essay.