“Beginnings are exciting; middles are gratifying; but endings, boyoboy.” — John Barth, On With The Story
Boyoboy, indeed! What a way to end to a dismal day! Many years ago (feels like ancient Sumer now) I came across his "Lost in the Funhouse" and was thunderstruck, and not only by the vagaries of his style: I felt a deep kinship to the proton its. It's still my favorite short story. (It was good luck, too, that I read it on its own, the other pieces in the collection were insufferable.) For others, its “Night-Sea Journey” (full text here: https://tigerenglish.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/night-sea-j...).
This is a comment for a rather niche audience, but Barth basically had two literary stages: in his mid to late-twenties, he wrote straightforward modernist fiction (The End of the Road and Floating Opera). The bulk of his career was spent writing post-modern fiction, which included the books most often cited in this thread.
I found his earlier work far more diverting: it featured tight, well-written plots with interesting characters and ideas. By contrast, stuff like Giles Goat-Boy was gobbledygook written for other post-modern academics. Gore Vidal actually has a great essay on this: it seems like Barth started out as a great novelist, but turned toward the (again just my opinion) rather fallow field of post-modernism to further his prestige. Which is a shame, because again, The End of the Road is delightful. I guess my point is this: if your introduction to Barth is seeing people recommend the Sotweed Factor, and you find it inscrutable, I recommend picking up his earlier work instead.
I'm saddened to see that Barth has passed, but I'm happy to see his work get some appreciation here. Coincidentally, I am currently reading a copy of "The Sot-Weed Factor" I picked up from a used and rare book store[0] located about 15 miles from his hometown of Cambridge, MD. It is as insightful as it is hilarious. I can't recommend it and "Giles Goat-Boy" enough.
Oh man. I have been to the Unicorn bookshop several times. Very unique place, walls of books everywhere you look. The vintage Macintosh the proprietor uses to process transactions is awesome. Picked up lots of good sci-fi from there. Hope to go back someday.
I read The Sot-Weed Factor earlier this year. It's a fascinating book, very funny and playful and connected to Maryland history. But none of the postmodern experimentalism of Giles Goat-Boy.
Damn. He was my favorite living author. Got introduced to his "Lost in the Funhouse" in senior seminar in high school, was hooked immediately. His stories (and especially his writing style) changed how I approach literature and writing at large. RIP.
It kind of predicted LLMs too! According to the framing story, the text of the novel was supposedly created by feeding in lots of source material and then having the computer WESCAC generate a plausible first-person account of the protagonist's life.
RIP Mr. Barth. I carried a dog eared copy of Lost in the Funhouse with me through 20 years of my life, picking it up and putting it down whenever I needed something to shift my perspective or jar me out of a rut. Psychoactive writing at its best, the titular story is so transpositional that sometimes I feel like that family trip to the beach was a real memory that actually happened to me.
I've only read "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor" 30 odd years ago, which tries to make the fantastic world of the Arabian Nights mundane in juxtaposition with a magical Chesapeake Bay. The former work better than the latter, but it's certainly inventive.
I am not familiar with the late Mr. Barth, and could not quite make heads and tails of the obituary. Perhaps someone could suggest one or two short pieces of his work to read to a get sense of what those "high-tech literary gimmicks" are?
I'd suggest Lost in the Funhouse. It's a collection of short stories and showcases a wide range of his authorial style. I'd suggest a paper copy for reasons that will be clear by page two (maybe page one).
Only read the Floating Opera (brilliant) and The Sot-Weed Factor. I remember at that time not believing that such a book could be written by a single person. Such an impressive piece of literature.
I’ll never forget the experience of reading Lost in the Funhouse the morning after a decent dose of LSD. Definitely something I wish I could do a second time
I dunno, I don't think I'd really give a shit what the NYT thinks about my body of work, so long as I'm satisfied with it. Who knows how Barth would feel.
> I think I was yeah, the article I saw was just 3 short paragraphs.
It's common for articles on breaking events (such as celebrity deaths) to begin with a short stub, and then be expanded with a full version later. Yesterday I actually saw a note ("updated at X:XX PM EST") although today that's gone. I'm not that intimately acquainted with NYT style, but perhaps that's their indication that this is the "final" version (ie, the one published in print).
