Coover's "The Universal Baseball Association"?

Question

One of Jameson’s complaints against postmodernism is that we have lost the capacity to retain our own past (Jameson 125). How does this apply in the light of Coover's "The Universal Baseball Association"?.

Answer 1

Well, as you know, the text of the "Universal Baseball Association" is working at two levels-- the "real" life of J Henry Waugh, and the world that he has created (the world of the UBA). So, begin by looking at the way that memory and history operate in each of the worlds.

I'll leave it to your own judgment as to how to situate the (crucial) final chapter of the book, and the relationship this has to the relationship between the "histories."

(Clearly a Biblical parallel is open to you, if you want to draw on the J Henry Waugh = YHWH connection.)

Answer 2

Something that I would call clingy and nostalgic.

A philosophical perspective of "here and now" is in direct conflict with the desire to hold onto the past.