Hydbid fictions

Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com American literature Generation X www.Ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> • www.Ebook777.com Contents Intl'oduction Prom Modernists to Gen Xers LIBRARY Or CONGRESS CATALOOUlNG-rN-PI;BLICATION DATA Grassían} Daniel, 1974Hybríd fictions: American líterature ¡¡nd Genenlliun X Daniel Grassian p cm Indudes bibliogn.lphícal refel'enccs and indexo Hybri¡d Dcsires 33 Hybrid Identities and Conflicting Relationships 78 Ethnic Hybridity ISBN-I3: 978-0-7S64-1632-5 softcover : 50# alkaline papel' § Hybrid Tcchnologies Hypertext) the Internet and the Future of 125 Printed Fictíon L American tietion-20th cemury-History Ilnd criticismo Social change ;n Iiterature Literatul'e and socíeryUnited Slutes-History-20th century Pluralísm (Sociol scíences) in litcrature Hybridity (Social scicnces) amI rhe arts Generatinl1 X-Inrellectuallife Tirle PS374.S67G73 2003 81O.9'3552'09045-dc22 20030t7625 166 179 BrÍlish Líbral'Y eataJoguing datll are Bibliography 191 Index 197 02003 Oaniel Grassian AH rights reserved No pare 01 ¡his boa/¡ may be reprodua:d (}T i,: any ¡ami (Ir by ally mecuu, elecmmic (Jf rnechani¡;al, m¡;/uding photocopymg 01' recof,lill1: or by any írifrmnali"/I storage a/ld retrieval.yslcm, wÍlhoul permíssion he wrÍling from rhe p",blúher 011 ¡he covcr: Ron Rozzelle, Umitlcd (,IJan wúh Vel>e¡ioll Blireds) 80" l( 50", oíl :md acrylíc on 1992 Manufactured in the lJnired ol' America IVfcFarlalld &' Compar¡y, Inc., J'ltblí;hers }Jox 6/1, JeJJcTSoH NOTlh Carolina 28640 w·ww mcf'arlandpub.crI/1/ v www.Ebook777.com • Introduction Chances are jf you ask an average college student who his ar ber favorite author is you might rcccive a blank Slare or sn occasional Tom Clancy, J.K Rowling, Scott Turow or King Unforrunatcly, most people 001 discover ar rediscovcr !iterature after college If anything, the average persoo reaus increasingly less as he or she ages Haw many collegc stu¡jents) or twenry- or rhirty-somcthings can name, let alone have read, fiction writer of their generation? Even a liberal estímate wuuldn't ,be higher than 25 percent or 30 percent and a conservative estimate might be even below pcrcent On the surface, this appcars to be damning news for lhe future of American literature, eonfirming the worst fears of postmodern, literary doomsayers, Yer serious literary ücrion has a!ways reaehed onlya small Imdience, What perccntagc of Americaos knew about Thumas Pyochon uod John Barrh in the 1960s aod 1970s? And what percenlage of young Americans in the 19205 aud J9308 knew of Erncst Hcmingway ami WiIHam Faulkncr? would nor argue that a vastly greater number 'of AmerÍcans knew o[ mose canonieal crs than thuse who now have heard of or have rcad David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers) Neal Stephenson, William Yallmann, Sherman Alcxic, Michde Serros or Douglas Coupland This is nor lO suggest that mere basn't been a steady decrcasc in thc number of serious literary rcadcrs in Amerita, for indeed bclicvc there has been But not enough, would argue, la constitute a gcnuinc lilcrary crisis as sorne crítics like Allan Bloom might contend Since thc 19605, academic critics have rheorized that literalure is wdl on ilS wal' to becoming obsoletl: Uf, at Ihe very least, [hat it has lost a substuntial amount of its power as an influential medium of Bod:!1 and cultural eriticism After al1, we live in a visually attuned culture, and each youngcr generation LO he less engagcd with Iiteralme than the lasto Whilc having sorne merit) these speculations could lead ro rhe belíef tbat in lhe futttre, works of American litcrature wil! hecome historieal artifacts rcIegated lO lesser or even negligible roles in botb me uníversity anó our pub]¡c lite It also suggests t11at the quality ;:" ,", " "; • !¡ Introductiun lntroduction of serious contcmporary American !iterature has so dcteriorated rhat it is no laoger worthy of academic or intellecrual srudy, One of the mary objectives o[ Hybrid FictiotlS is to overturn this misconception aod to argue that contemporary American literatme is not only alive and well, but has mmatcd in and important ways, reflecting the various, sígnificam changes in American culture during rhe last twent)' years Furthermore, will argue that we have reached a paint at which we can no ¡onger effectively describe a literary movement as being time bound (or dominaring a certain time) as scholars often wirh American realism, naturali!im, modernism and cvcn posrmoderoism, I Tr cannot be asserted with certaimy thar [he periad rrom 1980 ro 2000 is the age of new realism, maximalísm, or multículturalism, though a case could be madc for rhc application of ea eh termo Becallsc of the probferarion of writing stylcs from maxímalism to minimalism, cullural pluralism and the díverse composition of the rcading public, we have rcached a point at whích literary movements cannol dfectively be defincd OT classifled by time or era, Instead, we have entered a períod of literary ec1ecticism and hybrid lictions, which utilíze a wide variety of literary approaches, have confticting viewpoints and blend media and [echnological forms would like to clarify my use of the term "hybrid" in re'ference ro two ímportant and cultural critics who huye i"requently used lhe term: Homi Bhabha ¡¡nd [Mikhaíl Bal championcd almost al! forms ol' sexual expression as healthy aud life alIirming Thcy became the first selfconsdous literar)' icaos, products of a ncw advcrtising-and eonsumerb:ued society that packaged and labcled thcm as "beatniks" (unlike the modernists, who \Veren't labeled as such until after the era af the writhad moslly passed) Unfortunately, as Thomas Pynchon so brilliantly the Beat movemcnt detcriorated into a satirizes in his first novel, media-genetated subculture of "Beatn¡ks" who pervertcd the original Beats' messages of freedom and sclf-expression lnto aggressive, and Iargely phony, fashion coosciousncss Thc media helped transform the socially rebcllious but intellcctuaI Bcats who sought religious or spíritual enlightenmcnt and sought to breed compassion and tolerancc ¡nto aimless, les!> than coherent, leathcr-wearing asocial míscrcants playcd so brilIiantly by Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1954) and James Deun in Rebel withOUl el Cause (1955).4 This transformation is signífieant because it was the fina but not the last time thal the media would pervert 01' shape the direetion of social and Iiterary gencratiom • '" I! Hybrid Fictions From llfodernists to G(m, Xe1's The Beat heyday was a bríef pocket in time, gradual!y overtaken a new literary movement.' Indecd, in lhe preface to his short-story colleetion, Slow Leamer, Thomas Pynchon argues that durJng the early 1960s, "We were at a lransition point, a strange post-Beat passagc of cultural time, with Out loyalties divided" (2), In the late 19508 and early 1960s, (he post-Beat era quícldy transformed ¡me rhe postmodern liter!lry era with the ftrst publications and subsequent critical acclaim ol' rhe now-canonical John Banh, Thomas Pynchon, Robcrt Coover, Donald Barmelme and William Gass Following the lead of the experimental, daring Beats in rhe 1950s, rhese wrircrs further pushed literary and linguislic boundaries with their use of metanarrative, parody, histurieal deconsrruction and abstract ;uxtapositions Modermsm placed high emphasis on interiority, or (he capacity of the individual conscíousncssusual1y that of the poet-to make meaning from a fragmented and enervated exterior social reality, However, the next generation of American artísts and writers re;ected rhe modcrnist goal of making meaning end nchíeving transcendence and evcn regarded the push to so as potentia\ly destructíve and posl'ibly [aseisl in its ímplicit totalitarianism line with Ezra Pound's eventual Fascist leanings) If modernists looked for ncw epistemological foundatiom, their literary descendantn, postmodernists, rejected the supposed bcnefits 01' or even philosophícal basis [ur lhis sort of search, revding instead in mllltiple forros 01' narratíve and eompeling, equally valid thcories and pcrspectivcs, in theJ9,&.os, With the beginnings of the fiction writers began to look at fiction in diJTerent ways, Postmol lernism revealed a general mistrust of the epistemological authority oí' me interpretative nuvel large!y because the complexitíes ()f contemporary society made al! ínrerpretations of reality arbítrary and thercfore simultancously accurate and absurd, Toe ernism w' that literature is ílS own reaITty ci1Jiat ticUon nceu nOt addr.e.s.QJ!!lX realities 01 er than its own a sei one of the chíef inventlsofl1ierđocrefđiSf1nov'erđtWaSSi:ream of consciousness, one of the chief innovations of postmodern líteraturc was thc metanarrative In the Pastmadenl ConditirJrl, J.:.an argm:s thaT by the late twentietl1 century, Western culture had gradually gnmd, theories in favor of smaller, competing narratives,or me tan a rr:ativc,: 57) , These purportedly upset the hegemDny of stanuar linear narrative and deccntered the author, subiecl and piOlo Fiction thereby became morr;: 01 a battleground 01' compeling voiees and viewpoinls, polyphonous texts without cithcr a clcar center or an exact intcrprctationf ' Howevcr, as postmouetn philosophers and multkultural pcrspect¡ves bcgan 10 grow atAmcrícan during thc 1970s nnd 1980s (replacing rhe new critical, structural, psychDanalytical Ilnd existcntial SChODls of critíclsm of the 1950s and 1960s), contemporary American "serious fiction" ¡arge!y divcrged fram postmodernism to sD-called mínlmalism or relrorealistlc writing While art lheorists use the term "minimalism" to name the stylc of art in which objects are stripped down to their elemental, geometric form and presented in an impersonal manner, literary critics adorlcd rhe artístic term ro describe a new kind D[ fictional movemcnt Ol' genre beginníng in the 19705 In raCl, ir is one of the leading writers and essayisls uf lJterary postmodernism, John Barth, who first used {he word "minimalism" as a contemporary literary trend to summarily describe the fiction of Raymond Carver,Ann Beattíe, Richard Ford, 'lbbias Wolffand otners who began publishing in the 1970s and 1980,7 At lhe same time, Barth championed own writing (and that uf others like William Gaddís) as "maximalíst," which he compared "Iife at its best" (!Jatth, Further Fridays) 88) Responding Cor not responding) to lhe postmodern insistcllce 011 a lack of cpistemological or existential cerlaimies, these so-callcd minimaJisr writcrs championed and focused upon empidcal or emotional reaJiry filtcrcd through individual subjectívity (in lhut sense, [heir writing or reverted to modernistic forms), Of these writers, none has beca more significant than Raymond Carver, whuse heart-wrenching short srories about the desperatc working class and ubiqu¡tous American lonelincs8 struck a chord with readers and virtually rcsuscitated the short story, openíng [he doors for writers like Richard Ford, Bobbie Ann Masan, Fredríc Barthclme, and Tobias Woolf With the resuscitation of the short-story form and a new reader interest in plot-driven, nonc;xpcrimcntal narraLive also caOle the first wave oí" new fiction writers barn a genera tian aner most American postffiodcm writers The 19808 saw rhe rise of the mcdia-dubbed literary brat pack of Bret Easton Ellis, Jay Mdnerney sud 'Huna Janowítz, Whíle s[ill in their t"y.renties und early thirties, Ellis, McInerney and Janowitz bccame minor cclcbrities, with their largcly dismal caricatures of vapid middleand upper-class white American Jife, primarily focused in lhe [win urban cenrers of Los Angeles and Ncw York Their most significant and IlIs[ing work is Mclncrney's Bright Lights) Big Cicy (1984), ElIis's [,es;' lhan Zera (1985) ano Staves 01 New York (1987), all of which were subsequentIy coopted by Hollywood and maJe inLO movies, starring ceJebrities such as Michael J Fox, Andrcw McCarthy and Robcrt Downey Jr Thereby, Ellis's, McInerncy's and 1anowi[¿'s work.s bccame amliated with lhe medía-labelcd brat pack of young Hollywood actors and ac[resscs such as Fox, McCarthy, Downey, Molly Ringwald, Al!y Shccdy, Rob l,owe and Demi Moore lndeed, thcir work was summaríly labeled by «:ritics as "brat-pack" fiction, 10 , ss to 11 • 12 i' , ¡' ,I :¡: flrom AfndfJrnrsts to Gen Xel"S lIybrid Fictions While T would not argue that the würk of Ellis, McIncrney and Janowitz is brilliant or groundbreaking in either content or form, these writers mark an important transirjon from the previous generation of American postmodern writers like John Bsrth, Thomas Pynchon and Roben Coover ro the subjects of ,Hybrid Fictions ElIis, McInerncy and Janowitz wrote fictíon thllt made literature relevanr once more for a ncw generatlon of Americans All three writers argue that most Americans, especíally younger Amcrícans who have more of a symbiotic rdationshíp wíth televisual and uudio media than gencrarjons, suffer from dcsensitiz3lion and a lack of emotional nffect They cast a wary, accusatory finger at the totalizing dIects of popular culture which champions anifice and breeds emotional desensítization and frigidity, as well as thc eammon dys[unctions of contcmporary American families, They also show a jaded media sensibility and a renewed inrerest in the modernist search for episcemological certaintics Furthermore, the works of these writers also introduced a new form of ironic satire, a hallmark of Gencralion a tnetic s.till used by many young American writers, Should the fietion of McIncrney, Ellís and Janowítz be considered postmodern literature? To address thís qucstion, T want to darify [he meaning of the word "postmodernism." Fredric ]ameson bas argucd tl;lat "postmodernism" arose from late capitalillm and the globalization of the world market after World War n Howc:ver, Jamesan's argument does not identify the psychological and social elfeets of world globalization or consumerism would add to Jameson's lheory that by the míd to late ¡¡ud certainly by the 1990R, there was a revelation of the social and individual effects of a glohal, rampant capitalism based on consumerísm The 1980s ushercd in a new phase of American capitalism rhat involved the cultural domination oC an "individual," whose "identity" becamc largely detcrmined by consumcr/popular/postmodern culture, This is what ElIis, McInerncy, ]anowitz and like-minded novelists such as Mark Lindquisr, Walter Kirn and Jeff Gomez all stcrnly critique, and this is one rcasan characters often appear fiat and two dimensional It is Dat that lhe writers and their charaeters are dull, as sorne critics have proposcd Rather, the world o[ the charlOcters (and cven authors) revolves around the popular culture forms oC tclevision, film, musí.e, fashion and consumer products 10 3how a lcvtl of insight or sophisticalÍon, a character might perform a eompellíng analysis of musical gr01Jpll such as Patriek Batc:man Qoes in the narrative interludes of Bret Raston American Psycho (1991) or llave penctrating rhought, about 'tabloid stories as "You" docs in BriglH Light:f, flig City However, would argue rhat their work is narrow mindcd and rcficcts only a segment of American culLUre in the 1980s, Stíll, tbcir Iiction sbould be seen as stepping away [rom postmoderníty and toward cllntemporary hybrid tlctions , '.' J' Duríng the 19905, a new generation of American fiction writers grew in prominence The largely pop-culture-influcnced work of writc:rs is not postmodern, or if ir ís, then there has evolved a new brand of postmodernity whieh differs from that of [wenty or thirty years ago The term "postmodernism" grew in populariry duríng lhe 1980s lO rhe poinr of overuse and virruully blanketed the study of contemporary literature, Indeed, the label of postmodernJsm does not Icnd ltself wel! to intellec[Ual scrutiny In a sense, rhe term perfeetly reflects ¡he dogma of deconstruction, which champions substitution, uncertainty and questioning Postmodernism is interchangeably used as a phílosophy (or anríphilosophy), a cultural epoch and a literary movementf4'Followíng ltS own disonJered erhos, postmodernism purposc!y or accidentally ¡mzzles academics and the general public through its inherent linguistic ambiguity and confusionfYet, out oi ílS amorphous confusion, postmodcrnism has been adopted by conremporary American media and culture as a form of anJrchic entertaínment From the playful self-reflexívity of Kevin WiIlamson's Scream fllms, whích deconstruct formulaic horror movics, the self-parodying David Letterman, and the pastiche and fusion of "altcrnative" musicíans Iike Beck to the ,meta-watching, sdf-reflexive Simpsons, postmodemísm and deconstruction have become part and parcel of American pop culture, which has in tum becQme a primary arca of inquiry for Il new generatíon of American lietion writers who realize that thc tcchnomedia landscape from film ro television lo lhe Inlernet has bccome out primary envlronment, OUr primary field of refcrenee, artificial though ir may be.& While these new wrirers are stíll young, ranging from their early thirties to their mid-forties and will no doubt produce a significant blldy of work in the years to come, feel tbat the time has come to begin COI1sidering the literary nnd cultural implieations of theír.already impressive and substantial corpus of work These recent are largely members of rhe American genération considercd today Generation X, consiRting 01' individuals born between 1961 and 1981 Cognizant of [he resistance and hostility to the label Generation X, r [eel much of tbc hustllity ls warranted As Douglas Brinkley argues: The tcrm Generarion X has become 1\ derisive media catchphrase, a snlde pUl-down [o those, Iike me, who were born betwecn 1961 and 1981 h ís important to ask who is doing tÍle labelíng When Genrude Stein tald Ernest Hemingway, "You're 311 a lost gcner- ,r: r, 13 ation," shc was part of it When Jack Kerouac eoined lhe term "!he beat generatÍcm," he saw himself as a "beat." Although "X" was meant to rcfcr to che '60s generarion, by the time the term carne lo tÍle United States bcgan to be uscd by rhe Boorners to explaín !heir own bcwilderlng childreu [lj, Free ebooks ==> •www.Ebook777.com Hybrid Ficliuns Prom A-Joden'lists to Gen Xe,·s Nevertheless, "Generation X" has value as a term of classiflcation in that it aptly describes a di verse generatíon that cannot be simply denned Drre significant problem is overcoming the lingering stereotypes of Generation X as being slackers, emotionally and íntellectually stagnant and vapid, apatbetie, brairrwashed ereations of popular culture Even Douglas Coupland, whose 1991 novel, Generatioll X, helped dellne a generanon, has distanced himself from categorization and stereotypes tbat support his basic belief lhal Generation X ís paradoxically deflned by its lack of eommonality and indeterminacy He encouragcs people to "continue defying labels: Once people Ihink thcy've pigeonholed you, they'JI tbink tbey can exploit and use you Let X ::o X" ("Generation X'd," 72) With due respect to Coupland, Generatíon X is nOlcompletely eclectic or indeterminate Rather, there is sorne cohesíon amongst the generatíon, espccially in terms of the central and common ground of media-focused historical and political events, as well as television shows, films and music tbat frequently serve as thcir common frames of referenee Wbile Hybrid FiClirms is not a study in Gen X Iiterature, ] contenO that during the time thut American postmoderni,m has bcen canonized (bcginniog in the mid-1980s), a new literary genre has beeo developed primárily by Generation X writers, datíng back to the mid-1980s with the first publícations from the literary brat pack of HlIis, McInerney and Janowirz In addition to brat-pack fictíon, others have called the fiction of young contemporary writers anything from post-postmodernísm, image [¡ction, punk fiction, downtown writing, and neorealism, to minimalism The wide naming dífferentiation sbows the increasing difficuhy in coming up with agreeable labels To sorne exlent, labcling a literary movement or generation has always been somelhíng of a guessing game Certaínly, tbere is great distinction among various modernist, postmodernist and Reat wríters, but tbere is sufficiem and common grúund in order LO c\assify them as distinct literary movemenls.-Howcver, lhe most recent generation of American fictiún writers is even more difficult to labcl or c1assify, in part beca use their wide range defies precise labelingill Furthermore, young fietion writers themsclves appear resi"stant lO any form of labding ur c1assíflcatíún, As products of a media-suvvy, consumer-based socielY, lhey recognize tbat labeling of any SOflS tends to be used by self-interested media to capture the vicwer/hslener's attention and money Most tellingly, in his shorl-story colleetíon, Gid with Curious Haír, David Foster Wallace explains his resislance toward lictional categories: like divicting history inw cosmic and tragic Hnd prophetíc and apocalyptic, ís líke dívidíng human beings into white and blaek and brown and ycllow ami or:mge ]t atomizcs, does not bind crowds, and, like everything timclessly dumb, leads to blind hAlIed, blínd Joyalty, blínd supplicatiol1 Diffcrence i3 110 lover [346] 14 i i ¡ o i ; II l· Dividing this fiction business into rcalíslic and modcrn and 1I and :lnd naturalistic and su\"and meLa is www.Ebook777.com 15 While would not agree with Wallaee that genre labeling is "límelessly dumb," it does have drawhaeks, most notably in increasing the prcjudicial attitudes toward writcrs who become fenced into categories and classincations At the same time, there are common conventions Ín a literary category or movemenl, and while the deseription of any calegory will necessarily be a generalizalÍon, there is normally enough common ground in most literary movements to make thcm uscful metbods of categorizalion The primary area in which thcre is sufficient common ground to effectívely the most recent generation of American writcrs as a is in popular culture, There has arisen a symbiosis between popular culture and identity in contemporary postmodern Ameriéa As Larry McCaffery argues, there has been "a prodígious expansíon of culture throughout the social realm, to the point at which everything in our sociallife-from cconomic value and state power practice to the very structure of thc psycbc-ean be saíd to have beeome cultural in some original and yet unlheorized sense" ("Introductory Ways," 9) Popular cuhure has become the primary text of reference for young, contemporary, American [¡clÍon writerg Whereas John Barth claimed in his poslmodern treatise "The Literature of Rcplenishmem" that a truc postmodern writer has "a foot in the narrative past": (The Friday Book, 204), most hybrid fiction wr;iters have botb feet firmly planted in the cultural presento Popular clJ,lture, allied wÍlh mass media, has set up rival bistories of its own, complete witb moderníst and poslmodernist [orms Contemporary American fiction writers typically rely on popular cultural history than on narrativc or literary history as subslance [or their worh, Canonized postmodcrn writers tcnd to revel in postmodern (dis)integration as litcrarily and culturally liberating, but postrnodern (dís)íntegration has the serious poten tial to beeome a personally destruclive [orIn of empty decadence, In recent riction, young American fiction writers oí"tcn porlray popular culture as a prison of postmodern fragmentary Ihought, rcsponsible for the production of eilher manipulaled, emotionally impoverished persons or cognizant disgruntlcd consumers, who recognizc tbcir cmotional and psychic ísolulion in a dissolute, consumcrbased, postmodcrn culture (often called "slackers" for their aHemp[ ID live economically unfettcrcd by America's consumtr/corporalt: Tndecd, there has becn a shift in how to regiln.l popular culture :JS cvi- • ' m , "S'l'f";d F;etion, lit, "., hit' Indeed, hypertext to ve bceorne a 19nificant;"I:! litcrary and commercial eommunity How cr, hypertexr does nat and perhaps cannar live up to ilS mopie pro se of beíng limitless and allinclusive Indeed, even hypertext schular eorge Landow admits, "rnost of rhe hypertex[ fietíons have rcad or ard described, Iíkc mafly c01lections of educatíonal material s, take a essemialIy caurious approach to the problems of beginnings by olferin the reader a lexía labeled somelike 'start here' that combines t functions of title page, introducrion, ami opening paragraph" (10 IL would scem lhat needs to ve sorne framework Of boundaries to make ir user Pren3i y" and popular a will just be a random conglomeratíon oí" hyperlinks, and would submit that computer savvy usen; wíU become casily bored by such a devclopmenc Hypertcxt does nor solve the supposed dilernma of hegemony in narratíve Rather, would argue that as each generaríon grows more accustomed to easy, passive pleasures, there ariges a growing desirc for the totalizing power of linear narrative If anythíng, fumre "readees" wíIl want to work leES to achieve the narrative payoff, so it i8 antithetical to consider that the [uture reader will iovest time and encrgy lO jointly construct El good nory ]0 an extent, hypertext can fulfill this function by bcing user fríendlier, far what can be easíer than merely dickíng on hyperlinks? The teaderfvíewcr of hypertext no longer has ro work al crc3ting mental images of the ongoing narrative becaus.e the hypertt:xt creator has alrcady provided the corresponding images for the reader/viewer This would suggest that future hypertext will become more defincd, with [ewer permeahle boundaries and fewer chaiees In essence, hypcrtext may become more like printed, Iínear fictions would IJot go so [ar as to argue that hypertext has no redeemable values or that ir enCOUnlges liule or no intellectual thought on the part of the reader However, hypcrtext makes the process of "reading" and "ínterpretation" roo casy l'urthermore, ao individual can'r retain a copy of his or her bypertext adventure/story and study it in greater detail as one might with a printed storj' or novel With no real guiding force, the reader/viewer oi" a hypertext application is left mosdy to his oc her devices, like a small boat ¡ost in a without substantial navigational aids Furlhermore, hypertcxt lacks what good printed, narratíve literature provides: insight, interpretation, cven escapc As Sarah Sloane proposcs: ! 1 j I i.1' Ii I ,1'; ;; L }: '1'1" r- r ' f ,- 'j , - 173 ' 1··· ', -,)l::; "t , l!:: " -.,' ¡:bey educare; and they carp and co¡¡x When we rcad, we read to measure ourselves, to weigh our Own sOllls, to compare oursclves and our choices Wilh those 01' üther people [189J Furdlermore, would argue lhat rhere will also continue ro be gifted wríters who can beller make senflc of the contemporl;lry wodd, such a:;; those have already inve8tigatcd in Ihe prcvious chapter, Imked, [ read fiction by those be1icvc to be in sorne ways more intelligent, talentcd or experienced than myself While not necessarily take lheir intcrpretarions al face value, feel {huL lt:arn from tbe precisely worded, linear narratives of others It is a vast oversimplification to suggcst lhal linear narratives are all hegemonic, for [hey can ¡¡¡Iso be instructivc and chaHenging Furthcrmore, many cxcel!ent printcd fictions leave much to the imaginatior¡ and personal interpretatíon In addition, primed fictions work hecaOse o[ their inherent detachment Reauers can best evaluare siUlations when removed from the stimuli of everyday life Michae1 Joyce admits, "Media sccrs may lalk about how we won't need stories sincc wc will have new, virtual worlds, but soon those new worlds too, wi11 have theír own srories and we willlong for new ;\iords ro put them into" (184) Even hypertexl scholar Sarah Sloane admits, "No hypertext have read is 01' {he quality of any great novel written in this ccnUlry" (127) Ir is doubtful that hypertexr wíll be able lO match the power and instruction [hat primed fiction oirers uso This is not ro suggest that the Internet and hypertext appliculions can serve [ittle oc no tlscful purposcs as instructionaltools lndccd, fed lhat the Internet has now become an area that can aSslst printed ficcion and young American fiction wrircrs Sinee the mid-1990s, the Internet has grown in size and importancc Just as there are celcbrity fan-based websitcs, there are now also fanbased author websítes There are rnany websites dcvoted to canonical American writcrs like Ernest Hemingway and WiIliam Faulkner, just as there are many websitt:s devored 10 lesser regarded, cult authors like Kerouac These websites provide background information, acadcmic resources, discussion boards and link;; tú similar webpages for casual rcadcrs and academic rescarchers alike .:!.-" Storíes Ilre more thar¡ chrollological, prediétahle, and patterned evenlS; rhey are interpretable meaningful; they are rhetoricaL They leH us who we are, and whether alld how we shimld act They reftect ilie valucs oC ourselves and our contexlS, and invite lheir rcaders ro rcflcct on ilie same Stories educare through symbül 01' exa!llpie or cüunterexample n Thcy are meaningful; t!ley can be catharlic; Ifype,-text, the Inte,-net and rhe Future o[ PrÍl1t,''' e-maíls of news and rcquests for informarion It ís what keeps me " Mantarus cmphasizes lhe sire's importance as an academic resource and eagerly looks for any essays about Wallace lO oJace on his websJte There are other Wallace-hased websites líke J\1r whil;h provide hyperlínks to academic resources, such as Andrew Sandley's David Foster Wallace page, located at http://pubweb.northwcstSandly reports over 15,000 viHirs, and similar tu Mantanis, his wcbsíte contains news aboul Wallace and hyperlinks lO interviews and wcb publicatiom Whi!e not as comprehcl1sive as the Howling Fantods wcbsite, lhere ís also a hOfnepage for William T Vollmann, called "Opening lhe Book: A William' T Vollmann homepage" (http://homc1.gtc.ncllcsweet/volldesigned by Chrís Sweet Sweet "startcd this web page in of 1996 wirh one goal in mind; The further exposure and promotion oí' rhe author Wílliam T Vollmann." Sweet proclaims VollmanI] to be "one of the greatest authors of our century," and rhe purpose of his webpage is to help bring auention to Vollmann's work Sweet offers links to n:views of Vollmann's books as well as intervicws with Vollmaon While there im't a comparable web,Íle for Richard David G D,¡dd has created an online "Richard Powers bibliography" (http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/powers.hnnl) which lists aH of Powers's novels and contains línks lO reviews o[ bis novel s and artícles aboul Powtr!> Wbile the websitcs ] have just explored have been created by fam, sorne fiction writers actively use lhe web lO promote rheir work or, in the case of Nea! Stephenson, lO dissuade people from contacting him homepage (hnp://www.well.com/user/neall) is not desígned to attract possible fans or to serve as a meeting place for fans, but ralher ro di¡;suade people from l:Ontacring him Ralher, hís direct aim is to answer commonly asked quelitiom and tú dissuade people wifu business proposals [rom contacting him direclly Stephenson, in faet, annoum:es lhal "The purpose of thif: webpage ís to help me focu1> my aUenlion on writíng my next novel." Although rrequently L1l1der renov8lÍon, Douglas Coup!and's multimedia homepage at www.coupland.comis user fricndly while as a place for Coupland ro file and pLlb!ísh many of his cssays and journals In ílS 2001 form, Coupland's wchpage appearcd hke a collag!;;': of consumer items and popular images, The frout page eonlained a collage of a mixer, Captaio Crunch box, il map • 176 1[ l1;,il 1;} !'I r: k l;¡ i!1 :1 Hybrid Fictions of Ameriea on a silhouetted fa¡;e, u hand holding a shiny cube and a pícture of a tornado Clicking on the fronl page Ied one to the index, a eolleetion of hyperlinks in the form uf pop images such as a rubix cube Java script wíth furthcr hypertext selectiuns appeared after placing the cursor on one of the pop ¡mages The línks led to Coupland's "archives," his tour diaries, a portrait gallery, as well as a are melTIbers af Generation X, and as such, they must contend with media stereolypes of their generatían as brainwashcd, apathetic slackers with little intellectual knowledge or interest The litcrary corollary to su eh a stcrcotype would be that an apathetic, intellectually limiLed nr generarion cannot produce of signífi¡;ant caliber It is my hope that Hybrid Fielions will help overturn this unfounded Hypertext, (he Internet and the Ftttttre uf Printed Fiction 177 generalizurÍan and tbat I hove demonSlrated that a new, younger gene radon of American writers has emerged who can and ought to be classitied by their hybridity Young American fictíon writcrs champíon thcir hybridity borh personally and literarily, for hybridity deníes puritYi hybridity denies catcgorizatíon and hegemony It is my hope thal Hybrid FicEÍOIls hreaks ground in the study in a new genre 01' American literaturc Every generation oí" American fiction writers, from the transcendentabsts to the reaJists to the modernists and postmodernists, have reinvented literature according to their changing times Caught in between two demographically largcr generations, rhe socially rebellious baby boomers and technologically and financially astute Generation Y (bom afrer 1980), Generatíon Xers have had to work hard nOI ro be submerged and to stereotypcs One significant way they is through countcract !u.:tíve hybridity Contemporary American literature has survived and even thrived despite the stiff competition from film, television and computer technology I.iterary fiction is especially important al this time in history becuuse we are moving raster as a species-technologically, psychologically and historically Hybrid fiction writers, who cannot be c1assified in a specific genre or camp, provide an effective middlc ground betwccn the mythopoeic, meaning-searching modcrrust movemcnt and the overwhelming pluraJilY and indecisivencss of the postmodern movement It may be that we are in a transítory period before the establishment of the next major Iiterary trend But more likely, thc current trend of blending and hybridízation is one that willlast for sorne time, as it oÍfers artists the wonderful opportunity tu broaden their horizons and frees them from prcfigured límíts or boundaries ' • ¡i"ilL t,¡J f" diI i , j- ,', 'i, I L 11 i' Notes Introduction movcmcnt from around the time nI' the Autumn Salan in when "fauve"\" firsr exhihitcd their paimings, to as late dose oC World War I (Hoffmann as and Murphy 1) In addidoll, T.S Eliot envisioned modernísm as ti form oC broadened by e1emellf1> of Easlern gion and philnsophy, 4, Normunlvlailer a1so helped to perven (he image of lhe Beaes inlo "cool" psychoties in essay "Tbe WhÍle Negro." However, a case could be made that ñction writers Kathy Acker llnd Tom Robbins represent a second-order generation (lf Bcat fiction writCTS, Furthermore, bom Ginsbcrg and Burrollghs pllblished fiction and poctry until their deaths in the 19905 Thereby, Ilot wish to slIggest t/lat Bcat writing completely disappeared fram AmcrÍCa ar the beginning of the 19608, bllt atgue ¡hat Beal writers experienced a ,hortlived peak in the late 1950R, Minimalist art frequcnt1y takes the form of sculpture, for exomple, with Danald ]udd, Dan Flavin Carl Andrc, amI Sol LeWitt [Jowevcr, Lhere are a n\.lmoer of pailllers, including ElIsworth KeJly onu Pfllnle Srclla in his oft-quoted "1'he Literatun:: of Replenishmcnt," }ohn Barth argucs lhat through play, pastiche and parody, the ideal postlllodcrn aulhur reviralizcs "above the rhe power of {iction, qllurrel bctwcen realism and írrealísm, forrnalism and 'comenrism,' pure and the main charac\er., es ;¡ body-building celebrity_His appcallics in his cerebral-infused humor, a sor\ oC braíny Hunter S Thompson, combining surrcalistic imagery with that uf television and scicnce Míchael Chabon is rhe author of The Mysleries 01 Pittsimrgh (1988), A Mode( W"rld a/ld Other Stories (l991), Wonder Boy! (1995) 8nd The Arnazing Adventum CJj Kavalier & Clay (2000) Susan Daitch is the authQr of L.C (1986), The C()iorist (1990) and Swrytown (1996) Riel: Moody is the author of Garden State (1992), The!ce Storm (1994), The Ring of Brightest Angel! arQ'Il7ld lIeaven (1995), Purple Arnerica (1997) and Demollology (2000) Katherille Harrison is, \he Buthor of Thicker ¡fran Water (1991), ExpOJure (1993), 1'oison (1995), The Kil$ (1997) and A Vísit from ¡he }"o"t Emancipa/ion Society (2000) A.J\l., or Amy, Bornes is the author of Jack (1989), The SaJety 01 Oójects (1990), In a Counrry 01 Mothers (1993), Thc End 01 Atice (1996) and M sic lor Torc:lting (1999), )onathan ¡:¡rallzen is the lluthor of Tite Twenty-Seveflfil City (1988), Strong MollOn (1992) and The Ccmections (.2001) Donald AntrÍlll is the aulhor of Elec! Mr, Robirtsanfor a Bmer j,l?í,rld (1993), The Hundred Bro¡}¡ers (1997) and The Verificatioltin (2000) )ennifcr llgan has written Tlle Jr¡vl'sible Cimu (1995), Emerald Ciry (1996) and LQok a¡ Me (2001) Colson Whitehead is the aUlhor of The [n¡uitiortiu (1996) and JollII Hmry Days (2001) thal most of tbe 12 While it is authora l'm are maje Ca\!casians.I not feel thBt such a is sexist or racisl Ar the same time, I am not sure that this is nor a mere coinci- dence To be certain, there are many yOllng, ethnicaIly divcrse writers Dnd many more young female writers, yel morc mal e Caucasían appeaf 10 llave a larger hreadth and scope of cullural and literary kllowledge Historícally, the v&st majodry of c:enonica! writers, íncluding American modcrnist and poslmodernist writers, are mal e Caucasians Why is lhis ] WQI,l!d that being in a positíOIl of historical and cultural power, as white, heterosexu al m en Íl1 Am críea are, frees some of the more privíleged 10 write about larger issues that aH'eet the majoríty of Americans, rather than f()cusing on estllblishing their own personal Or ethnic identity, whích is alrcady relatively secure Members of historienlly opprcssed mihority groups might understandably be more cerned with struggling [or equality and indívidualilY, rather than Irying to interpret or capture al! of American culture ín a more holistic manner Therefore, at the risk oI bcing politicelty incorrect, submít thae Wallace and Powers, both whíte and bOlh mal e, stand out 9S the literary twin towcrs of Iheir generar ion, both juslly bcing awarded rhe MacArtllUr "Genius" felJowsbip, tbe only American Ilction writers of their generatíon 10 receive this elite aWArd 13, Wallace writcs about Phílo, IIlinoís, and the elfect of growing up in thc rural Midwest in bis nonfictioll picce, "Dcrivative Sporl in "lomado AlIey," in A Supposedly Frm Thú¡g ¡'ti Never Do Again 14, WaUace cites Thomas P,'nchon and Raymond Carver as majar inlluences but spccincally poínts 10 Domdd Banhelme's slory "The Ballaon" as convincing him of the power of líctíon and jnfluencing him to become a fiction wrilcr 15, r fcel that this is a skiIJ which Ihe medía help develop by exposing viewers ro people from different cultures and background s, Ver, this ITIight al50 reflcct Ihe rcmote-control-like low anendon span of generatíon, wha often bccome bored casily and rhcrcby "flip" rrom chllraCrer to characler www.Ebook777.com 181 16 Not only have many books been published aboul "Generation X" with ¡he title 'Gcne.-atíon Xi rhe term is regularly used by me media and \Vas even llsed by Presidcnt George W in October 2001 congressíonal sddress, Chapter 1, A person could argue that altempt ro argut' for the imponance these ",dlers i8 itself a narcissistic acfYer, olfer no llpologics on behalf of mysdf or the Bur!Jora l'm investigating, in pan because believe that narcissísm IS a loaded, ambiglll'us !crm and "Iso duc to the fact !hat fcel that all human> are at least parlíally narcissistic Vnlike Lasch,l would nat argue that being narcissistic, in its various dcfinitions, js a defillite \iabílity A person can be nercissistic in lhe sense of being selr-indulgcnt ar in being arroglll1t or elitíst NOlle of these attitudes ís intrinsically unethícal or morally questíonabl c, In fact, Ilarcí:;sism or extrernely high self-esteem can be social!y beneficia! in sparking ambitlon and social change Therc is also a thin line between passion, dcsire anct narcissísm Finally, it i8 too simplistic for a person merely LO describe anothcr person as a narcis,;jst In fact, ¡l is of¡en difficult [or a pcrson to asccrtain whether anorher person i& or not For ¡nstance, sorne llave argued fhat Mother and I3íshop Desmnnd Tutti are self-ínvestcd narcíssislS whosc sccmingly alLruistic are just unco[lscíous attcmpts ro bol.ter Ihe!f own sclf-irnage F.ven if [his is so, it would not invalklate thcir many benevoknt amI wondcrful acts Related to lhis, liction writer Douglas Couplaml tks the Scinfield plmiumellon to a culturc-wide move roward "observlltional comedy." The chief úíllerence previous comcdy amI obsetvational comedy ¡¡es in what {he comedian chaoscs to com:entrate lIpon Contcmporary American lire is composcd of many imeractíons with olhers and saturaled wirh the use of consumer prodllcls whích practically cvcryonc • 182 1; ',' " Notes-Chaptcr uses and takes for granted In an articlc títled, "The Observationalists," Coupland argues that in cOl1remporary information- and snciC1Y, rhere has n new brced of comedian who appears like a SIIVVy, cynical consumer, poking fun al the images and objects Inal have become parl of American cuhure, Coupland claíms: " Anybody can describe a pre-moistcned towelelle lo >'ou, but it takes a gr.md observ8tional comedían to tell you what, cxactly, i¡; ¡he 'deal' with rhem, Such IS the nature of observil!íonal comedy, Observational comedy doesn't depend un situatíon or character or anything but a tone noble comedian adrift in lhe modern world, the unobscrvable-!hose banlllof minLltíae lurking threshold of perception: remOle control ul'¡its" ObservationaHsts» Coupland rhe imporrance of observarit,,.,,,,t in rbe pOSlmodern world: provide in a periad af wha\ seems to be fracture, Ohservationalisrs makc ir okay to be ú member of rhe culture us ir really js, not as ideologues would huye you wish culture wel'e The obseFatíonalist is your tour guide-somebody who, Iike yon, is stranded Gulllver-like in this world of sí1ly lhings silly-íshly kookoo" (Coupland, Observalionalísts" online), Furthermore, Coupland urgues that televísion rhe framework ror lbe try ro keep us shuu aad foc:used instead of being advcrtisers Thercby, I!wareneS1> uf note, ::ermin of BilrCllsm ane! humor, nOl:lbly írony aud self-deprecation, have growo In precedenee during the ¡¡nu 1990s As Couphmd c!llims: "The '80s ccrtainly made people imnic, and ies only going lO get more su, Irony is armor, lhere lo protecl people from ami overblown online), Simllarly, Rol'> Owcn argues, "Ir Ihe MTV innovation i8 one halhnark of Gen X, another impOrlallt allrilmlt Ihis genera¡ion's seose of humor, whích is self-conscious, self-deprecatÍng and filled wirh irony, hut al so tends 10 be somewhat suhvenive and antÍestabhshmcnr" (Owcn, 54) There is a genuine ilnd widespread distTust of amhonl,', polilics and categorization apparent ín [he younger generatíon, who hold HUle in esreem and rnuch in contempr Rob Owen arglles further: "In rhe Gen X lífetime, there's been corruption in just about every institution-families, churches, the governmem Thar's wh, Xers laugh at rhem, why rhey appear ro have so Iittle respect for them" (üwen, 10), Indeed, in rhe past ren years, lateshow comedy moguls líke David I.elter2nd hy Lena have hecomc more influential ilnd respected than mast politicians in WashingtDn, Nightly, rhey indiscriminately lear at ¡he facades of politicíans and celebritícs, dísphtying a Imowing, almost nihilísric eynicism, Líke\\lisc, rhey repeatedly make self-dcprecating comments, not placina themselves above ¡he fray and speaking on a direcl level lO ¡he knowíng audience Letlerman and Leno nol suggesl lha! Ihey are betrcr than rhe subjects of their biting sarcasmo Rather, they play on their own perceived physical and rnental imperfections, always cautirJUs not to appear superior to the audicnce With latc-night talk show" "the use of humor for lransgression o[ public discourse into the personal has been establíshed ']'hlk recnact one of rhe celllral fuoctions of televisioll: to fllmiliarize" (Marshall" 125) While talk ShOW5 allow viewers a perceived window imo rhe lives of celebrities, they also a hcalthy skepticism and 3111iestabli,hment menralíty Orhcr tclevision comedy shows such as the long-running Sarurday Nlghr Liv(!;, des pite in drop in qualiLy in rhe 19808, ha.s expe-rícnced a crilical and cummercial resurgenc:e durjng lhe 1990s, 'fhat satiric comedy has come to play ¡¡ huge role in American culture becllme starÜingly evident in lhe 2000 presidelllial campaign, in which both candidatcs reporteóly chungeLl their debate styles afler walchíng lheír caricatures 011 Saw.rday Nigla "mI Notes-Chapters 3, c"cn contribu¡ed to a preelection presidentíal cornedy special One shudders 10 thínk ot crudire presidential sraresmcn Iikc Woodrow WíIson, RD.R or even the humorle&s, Reagan participating in such an self-deprecaring and become pan and contcffioorary American culhave come !O trust those who can at rhemselves and distrustJ'ul (lf tbose pcrsons, however noble 01 commítred, who appear too erioU8, c:onfidem or arrogam '10 an exlenl, sarcasrn and sc1f-deprecation are wonderful ractics that prevent individual and organizatíons [rom genillg too high and mighty, but st ¡he same tíme, &Jrca¡;tic humor can be vícious, unfeeling and al so ao empty arlífice, a mask for One might wondcr, is there nothing sacred in American culture? For ce.rrainly, anyitavu,n!\! is nO\\l fair game for the of larc-night tc1evi,ion 4, Granted, this comment may not ro pogt-Septembcr 11, 2001, hcJieve thar tbe computcr game Powers refers to is Civilízarí(J1I, amI ¡he author confesscs to having becn nearly addicted ¡O it himself In The Scimce of H(1ppílless, Srephen Braun argues, W 1hday the line betv.'een mental \lIness and normalcy has become blurred IU the point thál a full)' functioníng, relalively happy penan can walk iaro a· doctQr's oftií.:e, wmplain vaguel)' of periodic low mood or low energy, and walk out wilh a prescriplíon for Prozac, al Xanax, or Rítalin know this not only fmm extensíve intervicwing, bm 31,0 did exacdy this during the of this book" Julie Krisreva's Rlack Sun Culumbia Univeísity I'ress, know rhar were mOfe coment own wríting, would be a lcsser writer Whílc Ir i8 a source of frustrarían in that am rarely pleascd wirh my writing and self-crilícal, believe lhar rhese unllleasanr fcclings help me ímprove as u wl'itcr and persone Funhermnrc, if I 183 \Vere even more personal1y content, would read less, be a less devoted rcacher, and be less sympathetic to the plighrs of olhers Chapter l Coupllll1d's characters subscquently try lO move toward a more authentic, basic \Vorld that is somehow r.emovcd from the inlluence of mass or popular culture This is essentially ¡he same move tbat Erne1!t HemingwlIy's N\ck Adams malees atthe end of fu OurTíme, in the story "Big-Two Hearted River." Bur whereas Nicle scems able to relUm ro natUrc aod rernove himself from society, Coupland's charllcters nut seem to be able to ful1y remove themselves from popular or poslmodern cullure because it has become too deeply entrenched in thcir psyches, -Z, This postmodern homogenization has taken a furlher step loward becoming postcolonial homogenization The globalization of lhe world economy is gradually producing a globalized,American-domina¡ed, popular culture, ln Cimera/ion X, Andy mentlOos that when he ¡ived in Japao Ihere \Vas an equivalctll X generarion called "shin ¡in rui," oI' new human beings, that were similarly ísoluted and fragmented in lheír cu!rurc Inddentally, Coupland hirnself is Canadiilll, and his fiction, even when it is bascd in Canada, appcars almost indistinguishable fram American ficrion 3, This i8 a peI'vusive theme in Thomas Pynchon's Tile Cryir¡g af!-or 49 (1967), 10hn Barth's The Floating Opera (1956) and Tite EIld 01 rhe Road (1957), Chapter l Alfred Kisubia also argues thal "Multícultural amlllgllmation is an ápproach ro racial and ellmÍc relatíons tllat does nor condone lhe dominance of any onc culture or raee bU( that will Illlow 1111 groups 10 be ernpowered within a common stare Multicultural amalgeen $old worldwide since 1996" (48).lndeed,1 would argue lhat Richard Powers uses this very development uf !he CAVE Virtual Re:¡!ity Theater as one of the primary mDde:ls for his cavcrn in Plowillg ¡he Dr.1rk (2000), which will explore hller in chapter Que 01 the mOSl promi,íng afeas [or virtual reulíly development is lhe uni· vcrsity 01" North Carolina "1 Chape! 1-lill and Ihe Trianglc rcsearch arca A como pany cal\ed 3n.t11:1ch set \lp sl10p in lVotes-Chupter Chapel 1-lill in 2000, "close to wl1crc one oi the leading VR groups in America 15 bllsed al rhe IJníversity of North Carolina as a sorl of 'sman incuhalar: has been rrying lO get varioug \IR rechnologies to ¡he stage where investors and enLrepreneurs are ready to take the plunge" ("Virlual )-Iype) Real p.,.('),rini"'tl:.»Í' Purthpl"tnnTP under 01' North Caroiina (UNC) tD mQve virtual worlds one Slep to Ihis idelll by enabling real-time D reconstru ::! íOIlS ol' rhe u ser aod orher real objects io an immersive virtual environment Whcn Ihe ¡nlO o places a body part such as (In arm into lhe virtual fiche! of view, the image-bascd system captUres rhe body pan and buílds a 3D, graphical representatíon of it, which tbe Uiier sees in lhe virtual world in lhe ame way it w()uld appear in the real \"orld [n additíol1, the user CBn intenlet with otller real objects that are ¡¡Iso contained wíthin field of view For example, if the UStr rcaches an arm into lhe viewing space 10 grab a physícal obíect oll' of a dcsk, he Of she will see an accurate!;¡ mented, and clothcd o-ynohir,,¡ sentalíon of ¡he arm ¡¡ccuratc rcpresentatíoll 01' the (Mahoney, 17) 14 At Ihe el1d of rhe novel, Stephenson reveals tha¡ L Bob Rife actually con-o tmls ¡he metaverse 15 This Is not a lypO His oame is spcllcd D1I51d, nOl David 16 This appears in several (Ir 8"1lard's srories, exempliued by Ihe urban overcrowdíng portraycd in "Thc Concentralion City," as well Burdepk:lioll of lntcrzone in Naked !lnd Extermiuator! (1960) Do Android, J)ream Shcep? (1968) and Ubik 17 In Frallzen's novel, St, Louis appoims Indian v.,Olllan, S Jammu, as po!ice chicf S Jammu brings in lnu,an nationals, \Vho bcgin terrorízíog Ihe city, cal1i;ing civil unreSL J In S,ww Crash, Ihe VniteLl States has becn partially parceled loto gatcd, 187 suburbau communities that Slephcnson caUs whíle ¡he rest of the countty is an anarchíc, violent, urban wllstcland The Voired Slllles government no Jonger funcliolls in a legislarive manncr Rather, lhe governmem has hecome privatízed, reduced to "Fcd Land." Fed Land has become an Orwellian nighunare of conslanl supe.visiDn In an informatíon-o.íented society, whcre ac\:ess to informauon bccomes the primary avcnue to achieve power and world domination, it ,eems rhat lhe elA lYould merge Library of Congress as thcy in SIIOW Crruh 19 Punk nlllsic champions lhe individual/outsider who coofronls Olth ority and Ilccording to his 01' hef own persDnal codeo While ir is somewhat of all auolescent punk music also celebrates autonomy from aUlhoríty and parent figUfCR Ir has blue-collar, working-c1ass roots ami often endorses against oppressive legal and economÍl.: th¡¡\ kccp lowcrcla,s ind¡vidual, chained to an uncertain hand·¡o-mOUlh lifestyle In keepíng with rhe aggressive pun\: erhos, S,ww Crash i filled with fighling and lIigh-paced Il. •www.Ebook777.com Bibliography Adams, Henry The J:.'ducatio,¡ 01 Hmry Adams BoSIOO: Houghton Mifflin, 1927 Ainsworth, Patricia Uud¡;1'srauding Dcprcssioll Jacl::.son: University Prcss of Missis2000 A!cxie, llldian Killer New York: Atlantic Momhly Prcss, 1996, TI/e úme Ral'lger and Tomo Fisrfigh¡ ¡'I Heaven New York: Allantic Monrhly Prcss, 1993 Elues New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995 The Toughest Jlldia,¡ in ¡he World: Srories New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000 Allcn, Frcdcrick "The Myth uf Artificial Intelligencc." American Hentage, February 2001, 52(1):28-32 Anneslcy, James Blank Fic¡iolls New York: Sto Martin's Press, 1998 Bakhtin, Michd The Dialogic ImaginacírJt1 Auslin: UniversilY of Texas Press, 198\ H8rth, Johl1 Thc Friday Book; Rssays and OtÍler Nmljialoll New York: Putnam, 19114 Further Fridays: Essays, Lectures, alld Other NOllficrion., 1984-94 Boston: LnUe, Brown, 1995 Barthes, Roland Critical Essays from the Fréllch by Richard Howard Evanston: Northwestern Uni'lers;ty Press, 1972, Bhabha, Homi Tite Locat.ion 01 Culture London; Routlcdgc Press, 1994 Birkctfi, Sven "Bulterfly A NClVCI" (book review) The New Rcpublic, Aprilll, 1994 B1ank, Dennis "Army Enlists 1lollywood [or Some Traíning Help." Goverrm¡ent COftlput.er Neu's, )anl1ary 8, 2001, 20(1):30 l3loom, Allan The Clusing 01 the American Milld, New York: Simon and Schu&ler, 1987 Bloom, Harold How to Rilad ,md Why, Ncw Yllrk: Scribner, 2000 Blume, Harvey "Two Geeks on Their Way to A Conversation with R Powcrs." Atl/l 149 humor 23,52,69, 75, 106,181-182 HUiSton, lora Nea!e Hmdey, T.H l84 hypertcxt 165-!77 The Flintstones 89 Ford, Richard 11 Foucault, Michel 79 lllinois SLete Fair 37-38 informaLílln theory 29 Inglacias, Enrique 120 Internet 4, 81, 132-B3, 139,141, 154, 166, 173-176, 185-186 lrigaray, Luce 1B4 imuy 69-70, 182 Gaddís, Wi\liam 1t Gllrda, Felíciano 130 Jac.:oby, Russell 101-102 ]¡¡meson, Fredric 12, 142, 145,184 Janowitz, lama U-12, 14,17 Johnson, Robert 31,107 )ournalism 52, 54-55 joycc,James 7, 167 joyce, Michael 171,173 Garsby 127 Fox, Michael J 11 Franzcn, Jonathan 17, 180; The Corre,,riom The Twenly-Seventh CÚy 143,187 futllrís¡s 127 Gates,:BiII 135 Generation X 4-5,12-14,30,33,39, 43-44,49-50, 52, đ9, 89, I03-J04, 115,12.1, 176-177, IB3 Generatíon Y 177 German cxpressíonism 127 Gibson, William 30, 131-132; NeUlvmoncer 140-141 Ginsberg, Allen 9, 179 12.183 Gomez, Jeff 12, 16 Gomales, EIÍ1m 187 music 30 164 Habermas, Jurgen 78,81 haekcrs B3, 146,151 Hagcdorn, IR9 Hanson, Dcck 13 Haraway, DOllna 185-186 Hard-boiled detective fictiol1 131 Harríson, Katberine 17,18U Harlley, Hal 17 Harvard Collcgc 19, 189 flawking, S¡ephcn 125-126,129 Kant, Immal)uel 78-79 Kerouac, Jack 8-9,13, 2t, 91, 173 Kíllg, Rodney 187 King, 1,1&0 Kirn, 12 Kísubia, AJfred 183 I