Bakunowy faktor

[Gość: kornik]

W ciągu kilku dni przeczytałem na forum bardzo wiele o książce Johna Bartha.
Dotychczas nigdy się nią nie zainteresowałem. Napiszcie, czy dużo straciłem,
co jest w niej fascynującego i czy powinieniem ją kupić i przeczytać. Dzięki

[braineater]

Koniecznie! Natychmiast! - wygnać rodzinę na 3 dni z domu, zaparzyć wiadro
kawy, przygotować fajki i nocnik i bez zwłoki zabrać się do lektury jednej z
najcudowniejszych powieści XX wieku. Gdy przeczytasz już te ca. 900 stron to
będziesz wiedział na co poleciała Pocahontas i do czego nadaje się niejadalne
warzywo oberżyna; zmienisz swój obraz Isaaca Newtona wykreowany przez
zafałszowane podręczniki fizyki; dowiesz się jak kupuje się kraje i jak się je
traci, a także odkryjesz na czym polega klasyczny indiański pojedynek. I
jeszcze - będziesz wiedział na czym polega tajemnica nauczania jakiegokolwiek
przedmiotu (sam ją zresztą stosuję z powodzeniem prowadząc korepetycje:),
nauczysz się jak zachować dziewictwo w najgorszych nawet okolicznościach, a
także, być może, zapragniesz zostać poetą laureatem, co wbrew przesądom, nie
jest takie trudne i wymaga bardziej szczęśliwego trafu niźli szczególnej weny
poetyckiej. No i poznasz i polubisz takie niesamaowite postacie jak Henry
Burlingame czy bezimienny towarzysz kapitana Johna Smitha - a więc - rączy bieg
do biblioteki i szybki powrót, by cieszyć się lekturą...
Pozdrowienia:)

[Gość: kornik]

Dzięki, to jest zachęta, ale czyżby nikt inny nie czytał tej książki?

[Gość: haiko]

o mało egzaminu nie zawaliłam przez tę książkę, gdyz jest gruba a tknęłam się
jej w czasie sesji.
polecam gorąco-taka nowczesna wersja "Kandyda" tylko że o Ameryce, bardziej
rubaszne i z przymróżeniem oka. Nie do podrobienia.
Może ktos przy okazji potrafi odpowiedzieć, czy to był taki jednorazowy błysk
geniuszu autora, czy jestcos jeszcze warte równej uwagi

[Gość: Nu!]

Napisał oczywiście.
Moim zdaniem najleszpa to "Koniec drogi" - książka niegdyś
kultowa i toptrendy. "Sabbatical" - dobrze się czyta.

Barth, mojem zdaniem, to idealna lektura dla licealistów - humanistów.
Pokazuje, uświadamia umowność tekstu literackiego.
"Literatura polska" jest pisana z patosem i serio, tymczasem
Barth kontynuuje jakby anglosaski, główny w istocie dla literatury, sposób
pisania fabuły, uwypuklający autora i fikcyjność postaci.

Nawiasem mowiąc Masłowska "wychowała się" na Barthcie. Ale chyba pisze lepiej
niż Barth :)

Ciekawe są jego eseje o literaturze, programowe i nie tylko.
"Literatura wyczerpania" to klasyk.


Oto przewodnik dla początkujących, który gdzieś znalazłem:

"[...] BARTH FOR BEGINNERS

Start with "The Sot Weed Factor" (1961). This frenetic mock-18th century tale
abounds in heroes, villains, fools, plots, counter-plots and, above all, humour.
A word of caution: if you can't handle the vastness here then give up now
because you have just dicovered Barth is not for you and probably never will be.
But I was fortunate. I read this book by accident back in the mid-60s while
listlessly seeking a remedy for ennui, and was forever hooked.

Proceed now to "Giles Goat Boy" (1967). If you are under the age of 40 first
watch a few old newsreels or movies to get the feel of the Cold War days. And
contemplate some photographs of JFK and the lovely Jackie. At first glance this
story seems as different as can be from TSWF, but absurdism and surrealism are
taken to even dizzier heights without ever coming close to losing the reader

By now I was such a devoted Barthite I was compelled to track down his two
earliest published works, "The Floating Opera" (1956) and "The End Of The Road"
(1958). And I was disappointed by these slim novellas with their curiously flat
and rather unpleasant 50s feel. Nevertheless they remain recommended reading
since their protagonists resurface in later stories, are much fleshed out
therein, and become far more complex, interesting and entertaining. But I doubt
if many Barth fans would return to these books except under extreme academic duress.

There follows something of a fallow period, we now know not unconnected with
Barth's own life problems. He sets aside the preparation of his largest, most
ambitious work so far and chooses instead to publish "Lost In The Funhouse"
(1969) and "Chimera" (1972). These are fscinating volumes, but for very
different reasons. LITF is my least favourite Barth book. Apart from a few
exceptions such as "Ambrose His Mark" and "Menelaiad" it is pungent in
self-pity, misanthropy and black despair; albeit heavily and rather badly
disguised by an overly self-conscious "postmodernism" (other people's
phraseology). As indicated, I think it is a great mistake that this uneasy
volume has been hijacked by academics: it is atypical, a blind alley, and it
leads thank goodness nowhere. Insights to the psychopathology of depression have
been done before, and since, and better.

John Barth at Washington College, 2002.

"Chimera" marks a return to form (psychologists will easily discern a change for
the better in Barth's mental health and emotional fortunes) with a brazen foray
into mythological constructs. Three tales here: one is a variation on the
Scheherezade theme (to be expanded magnificently in a later book); the others
are fabulous, impertinent and hilarious takes on classical Hellenic figures.
This book indicates his direction from now on; and scholars, I think, should
take more notice of it than LITF. This one very cleverly leads somewhere worthwhile.

But 1980 is THE glory year, for that is when "Letters" is published. Critics
with inelastic minds have complained that this masterpiece is virtually
unreadable, but "Letters" in my opinion is Barth's pinnacle, and subsequent
books don't quite match up to it (I hope JB never reads this). For me it has
personal significance. Professional preoccupations had seen me drift away from
Reading As Pleasure; but I vividly remember the sultry sweaty night I was
driving out on yet another duty errand when the radio excitedly blurted ' ...
Barth is published, and the Word is ... "Letters"!'

I know of nothing in modern western literature quite like "Letters". It wasn't a
commercial success, but surely that says something about the taste of the
reading public; or the influence of literary critics; or both. In this
sprawling, astonishing, delighting saga Barth cruises quite extraordinary
altitudes in human imagination and English language usage. Characters from
previous fictions are worked up, over, out; all in outrageous fashion. David
Edelman found this story "tedious" and I feel appropriately sorry for him.

OK. Next comes "Sabbatical" (1982), first in a series of yarns set mainly in a
boat, on the water, and about a loving couple (this theme becomes persistent -
vide infra). For me the hero is rather less Barthian than we might have
expected, and I find him a trifle awkward, But perhaps that's just me. There
might be more of the author in the lady of the boat. And Barth is now healed
enough to incorporate some of the experiences of his first marriage without
splashing around too much blood.

But "The Tidewater Tales" (1987) seems to be the book that "Sabbatical" was a
trial piece for. Its' big, complex, enchanting, mysterious. Barth also makes
quite heavy commentaries on matters ecological and political, but these lose
some of their impact on a non-American lke myself who has never clapped eyes on
the Chesapeake. This story might also tempt you to take a serious look at some
of Barth's own favourite authors, just as a bonus.

It gets every bit as good when "The Last Voyage Of Somebody The Sailor" (1991)
turns spacetime inside out more slickly than science fiction ever did, and our
author/hero re-engages with Scheherezade, often in arousingly earthy ways.
Again, Barth weaves in titillating autobiographical wisps and threads to produce
a tale that's tough, poignant, and one to keep coming back to.

The best piece of advice in "Apocalypse Now" is 'Never get off the #%*&@! boat!'
Well we haven't, and we've just reached "Once Upon A Time" (1994). I like this
story very much, perhaps because it seems more autobiographical than any other,
and every dedicated reader loves to imagine that he is seeing something real, if
only a glimpse and a carefully controlled one at that, of his favourite author.
If such touches are meant to be touching, well ... they succeed. There are some
barefaced, intimidating and almost arrogant exercises of the wordsmith's skill
in this book, but in the end you are again left bound as much to the author as
the narrative.

"On With The Story" (1997) is the final volume so far, a clutch of short fiction
pieces. I haven't yet read it - I haven't been able to obtain a copy! I live in
Australia. We fervently hope and quite reasonably assume that there aren't any
great similarities with LITF.

I haven't mentioned "The Friday Book" and "Further Fridays" on purpose. Barth as
academic, historian, critic or social commentator is always good value. But
Barth as Author is simply peerless.

Now, it is a melancholy fact that time and circumstance erode the personal
library; and moreover many Barth books are currently out of print. But the Baby
Boomers are beginning to die off and their collections are already turning up in
secon-hand bookstores. That's how I keep my shelves re-stocked.

Oh. And I got almost all the Pynchon that way too.

Mal McCormack
Melbourne
Australia"

[broch]

"Bakunowy faktor" stal sie popularny wsrod polskich nastolatkow, gdy leader
"Republiki" zaczal powiesc wychwalac w wywiadach. Dawne czasy, sadze ze ksiazka
zostanie z kazdym kto ja czytal, mozna siegac do dowolnych rozdzialow i miec
fantastyczna zabawe. Radzilbym signac tez (wlasnie z okazji jak to sie mowilo
"Bakunowego faktora") do "Tristrama Shandy" Sterne'a. Tylko przedluzy
fantastyczna zabawe.
Bardzo lubie "Listy" nawet jesli sa "nieczytelne". Pseudoegzystencjalny "Koniec
drogi" mnie rozczarowal. "Zagubiony w wesolym miasteczku" i "Chimera" sa
zdecydowanie warte czytania. "The Last Voyage Of Somebody The Sailor" nie mialem
niestety okazji przeczytac choc zajzalem do srodka i powiesc zapowiadala sie
interesujaco.
Krotko mowiac Barth jest warty czytania. Moje ulubione to wlasnie "Bakunowy
faktor", "Letters" i "Chimera"
Milego czytania

2 linki

[Gość: Nu!]

Oryginalny tekst Ebenezera Cooka:
www.uoregon.edu/%7erbear/sotweed.htm
"Click" Bartha on line:
www.tnellen.com/cybereng/barth.htm