Buddha's Tears


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Transparency, Barthelme and Lahiri

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I've been reading Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection "Unaccustomed Earth" recently, along with "Donald Barthelme" (by Lois Gordon) and "Reading Network Fiction" by David Ciccoricco. First I'll mention some general language features, then I'll compare the writers. In some aspects they're opposites though I like them both. Language Knowledge of, and skill with, words isn't a sufficient condition for understanding the world. In itself it's not even a necessary condition. We learn by doing, by writing. Learning leads to new instruments, new worlds. The Word and World inform each other. For writers in particular, words are not passive mediators. The Self isn't a separate layer either. It needs to be added into the mix. The " World -> Self (Author) -> Word " pipeline is misleading. There are eddies and backflows. Authors write in order to understand. The Reader needs to be added into the mix. The ...
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Breaking into print

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