On Minimalist Fiction

John Barth, in his short piece, “On Minimalist Fiction,” states that minimalism is the best way to write a piece. “Minimalism is the principle underlying the most impressive phenomenon on the current literacy scene.”  Barth uses the repetition of “striped-down” and “minimal” to emphasize that minimalism is the best way to go presently.

First and foremost, this was the hardest piece to blog on. I never thought that giving my opinion on something could be so hard. Personally, I think that there is some satire in the first paragraph, yet I cannot fully explain it. I think that the last sentence of the first paragraph is satirical as it states “I mean the flowering of the (North) American short story…” In this statement is seems as if he were mocking North America calling it lazy.

Poetry? Prose?

In his piece, “On the Differences between Poetry and Prose,” T. E. Hulme points out the difference between poetry and prose. He compares prose to a concrete thing in algebra that is “embodied in signs or counters which are moved about according to rule, without being visualized at all in the process.” Poetry on the other hand is seen as the rebellious one because, it “may be considered as an effort to avoid this characteristic of prose.” Although poetry is not a counter language, “it is a compromise for a language of institution which would hand over sensations bodily.” In other words they are both concrete ideas/ object however, prose follows the rules and poetry is more of a visual concept.

My interpretation of this piece would be that prose is duller than poetry. I say this because of the comparison that Hulme uses while describing poetry, [A poet says a ship “coursed the seas” to get a physical image, instead of the counter word “sailed.”]

"On the Dangers of Reading Fiction

In his letter, “On the Dangers of Reading Fiction,” Thomas Jefferson expresses his disapproval towards reading fiction.  He compares fiction to poison and states, “When this poison infects the mind, it destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading.” He goes on to say that because of the embellishments that are put in fiction, the reader then rejects “the real businesses of life” because their imagination has been filled with fictitious ideas.Personally, I rarely engage in reading, yet I do not agree with his views, I would rather read fiction and experience the creativity of the author’s mind than sit and read about how the Europeans took over America, we hear enough of that in school why would I want to bore myself by reading that.