[Dragaera] Jasper Fforde

Ken Koester kkoester at email.ers.usda.gov
Wed Aug 8 09:47:42 PDT 2007


Casey Rousseau wrote:

>KG> == writ by Kenneth Gorelick
>KK> == writ by Ken Koester
>
>  
>
Nono--"KK" is writ by Snarkhunter, obviously ;-)

>KK> The conceit of imagining that literary works, characters, plots, etc, 
>KK> are real and interact with the real world is interesting enough (cf. 
>KK> Tom Holt for other treatments of this basic idea) & you can have a lot 
>KK> of fun with it, but I don't find myself as compelled by them.
>
>KG> See Robert Heinlein for a discussion of fictons.
>
>Better yet, see Pirandello's  Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore (Six
>Characters in Search of an Author).
>

Well, yes.  If you want a serious treatment, that is.  Or for a complete 
180, Butor's =La modification=, in which you yourself are a character.  
Or Sarraute's =Les fruits d'or=, in which the work itself is a 
character.  Or perhaps best of all, Sterne's =Tristram Shandy= in which 
the physical object could be considered a character.  Although I 
sometimes think Firesign Theater gave him a real run for his money.  The 
20th century gets real excited by the notion of dissolving the bounds 
between work of art, artist, partaker of art, etc., ad inf., ad nausem, 
ad astra per asperagus (& bonus points if you know the author & short 
story that appears in).

Snarkhunter, writ by himself




More information about the Dragaera mailing list