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.