Is anyone familiar with the short stories of Donald Barthleme? If so, what do you think of them?

Question

Which is your favourite?

I like the story called 'The Glass Mountain', from his book 'Sixty Stories'. It is a rather cynical look at knighthood and its objectives.

My favourite story is 'At the Tostoy Museum' from 'Forty Stories'. It is a story where the pictures do a lot of the talking. It shows how Tolstoy abused the innocence of the Russian peasants with his pretentious religious rhetoric. One picture comes with a caption like "Leo Tolstoy at the Scene of the Disaster: Note Tolstoy's position in Relation to the Disaster". It almost looks like Tolstoy had helped to cause the disaster, and he was the first on the rescue scene. At the end, Tolstoy's blown out of proportion face is shown in his museum near the ceiling. It looks like he had been exhalted.

'The Genius' from 'Forty Stories' provides a critical look at genius. In it it is suggested that a roster of world geniuses be kept so they could be called upon to help alleviate problems such as hunger and world peace.

Re. the preceding remark: Who was the genius who invented the atomic bomb? Note: North Korea, Iran, the United States, Japan

"Every man of genius contains within himself a false man of genius." - Paul Valéry



'The Glass Mountain' can be accessed online at:

http://www.fti.uab.es/sgolden/docencia/glassmountain.htm

I AM CORRECTING A TYPO:

The name of the author is Donald Barthelme. The error escaped my attention while I was posting the question.

Answer 1

Barthelme was a bit too "pomo" (postmodern) for me: his fiction seemed artificial, focusing on a single scene or incident. We used to call this "flash fiction" and write things like it as warm-up expercises in writing class. Often oen of his "stories" would seem to have no reason or meaning, and any attempt to see it as a symbol was clutching at straws. Beautful language, though. He reminded me of Ray Bradbury without the ideas.