The Friday Book《星期五的书》by John Barth
Back Cover: "[The] pieces that make up The Friday Book. . . have a consistent tone of warm personal enthusiasm that is often beguiling." -- Walter Kendrick "Whether discussing modernism, postmodernism, semiotics, Homer, Cervantes, Borges, blue crabs or osprey nests, Barth demonstrates an enthusiasm for the life of the mind, a joy in thinking (and in expressing those thoughts) that becomes contagious. . . A reader leaves The Friday Book feeling intellectually fuller, verbally more adept, mentally stimulated, with algebra and fire of his own." -- Washington Post Barth's first work of nonfiction is what he calls "an arrangement of essays and occasional lectures, some previously published, most not, most on matters literary, some not, accumulated over thirty years or so of writing, teaching, and teaching writing." With the full measure of playfulness and erudition that he brings to his novels, Barth glances into his crystal ball to speculate on the future of literature and the literature of the future. He also looks back upon historical fiction and fictitious history and discusses prose, poetry, and all manner of letters: "Real letters, forged letters, doctored letters. . . and of course alphabetical letters, the atoms of which the universe of print is made." "The pieces brought together in The Friday Book reflect Mr. Barth's witty, playful, and engaging personality. . . They are lively, sometimes casual, and often whimsical -- a delight to the reader, to whom Mr. Barth seems to be writing or speaking as a learned friend." -- Kansas City Star "No less than Barth's fiction these pieces are performances, agile, dexterous, robust, offering the cerebral delights of playful lucidity." -- Richmond News Leader John Barth, Professor Emeritus in the Johns Hopkins writing Seminars, is the author of twelve works of fiction -- The Floating Opera, The End of the Road, The Sot-Weed Factor, Giles Goat-Boy, Lost in the Funhouse, Chimera (winner of the 1973 National Book Award), LETTERS, Sabbatical, The Tidewater Tales (also available in paperback from Johns Hopkins), The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, Once upon a Time: A Floating Opera, and On with the Story -- as well as another collection of essays, Further Fridays. He lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore. For Shelly THE FRIDAY BOOK, OR, BOOK-TITLES SHOULD BE STRAIGHTFORWARD AND SUBTITLES AVOIDED Essays and Other Nonfiction Table of Contents* An Afterword to Roderick Random The Tragic View of Recognition The Role of the Prosaic in Fiction Aspiration, Inspiration, Respiration, Expiration The Tragic View of Literary Prizes The Future of Literature and the Literature of the Future Historical Fiction, Fictitious History, and Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs, or, About Aboutness The Literature of Replenishment Tales Within Tales Within Tales The Prose and Poetry of It All, or, Dippy Verses * But see the caveat regarding even tables of contents, in "Epigraphs," below. |
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