All my work is basically comic
October 8, 2024 2:39 AM Subscribe
Coover was often grouped with William Gass, John Barth and other authors of post-modern or “meta-fiction” of the 1960s and ‘70s. They challenged and sometimes bludgeoned conventional storytelling and grammar, whether through experiments with language, the parody of fairy tales, mysteries and other literary genres or the self-conscious exploration of the writing process. Coover’s trademarks included macabre humor, graphic sex, broad takes on everything from baseball to small towns and an encyclopedic range of cultural references. from Robert Coover, innovative author and teacher, dies at 92 [The Associated Press]
Robert Coover, Inventive Novelist in Iconoclastic Era, Dies at 92 [NY Times; ungated]
Robert Coover’s The Origin of the Brunists [Biblioklept]
The Postmodernist's Dinner [Biblioklept]
Robert Coover, Inventive Novelist in Iconoclastic Era, Dies at 92 [NY Times; ungated]
Robert Coover’s The Origin of the Brunists [Biblioklept]
The Postmodernist's Dinner [Biblioklept]
The Universal Baseball Association is the only one of his works I’ve read but it was definitely rich and strange.
posted by Ishbadiddle at 3:04 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]
posted by Ishbadiddle at 3:04 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]
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(A literary type once told me of the horrible remaindering of Origin of the Brunists, so that Coover never got the sales he should have.)
posted by CCBC at 3:48 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
(A literary type once told me of the horrible remaindering of Origin of the Brunists, so that Coover never got the sales he should have.)
posted by CCBC at 3:48 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
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posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 5:28 AM on October 8
posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 5:28 AM on October 8
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posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:51 AM on October 8
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:51 AM on October 8
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posted by doctornemo at 7:28 AM on October 8
posted by doctornemo at 7:28 AM on October 8
He had fallen before of course: short of expectations, into bad habits, out with his friends, upon evil days, foul of the law, in and out of love, down in the dumps—indeed, as though egged on by some malevolent metaphor generated by his own condition, he had always been falling, had he not?—but this was the most terrible fall of all. It was like the very fall of pride, of stars, of Babylon, of cradles and curtains and angels and rain, like the dread fall of silence, of sparrows, like the fall of doom.
from “The Fall Guy’s Faith”
❤️
RiP
posted by toycamera at 8:36 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
from “The Fall Guy’s Faith”
❤️
RiP
posted by toycamera at 8:36 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]
I read The Public Burning way back when, a beat-up paperback randomly grabbed from a freebie pile in the lobby of a friend's apartment building. I'd never heard of the book, or Robert Coover for that matter. But I started reading and the pages just kept on a-turning. It was good. It had an effect. From the wiki:
Coover first experienced difficulty finding a publisher, and then when he found a publisher, getting it to actually publish the novel, due to legal concerns over the unflattering depiction of Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, Roy Cohn, and others.[1] Then having published the novel, once it became a bestseller, Viking immediately abandoned all support, and withdrew copies without explanation. Coover's editor, Richard Seaver, speculated to Coover that Viking management believed success would attract lawsuits.[2][3]
Despite these difficulties, this novel has received a large amount of critical attention. It has been called "perhaps the most complete replenishment of the language since Whitman and (in a different way) Mark Twain ... no writer since Melville has dived so deeply and fearlessly into this collective American dream as Coover has in this novel".[4]
posted by philip-random at 10:48 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]
Coover first experienced difficulty finding a publisher, and then when he found a publisher, getting it to actually publish the novel, due to legal concerns over the unflattering depiction of Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, Roy Cohn, and others.[1] Then having published the novel, once it became a bestseller, Viking immediately abandoned all support, and withdrew copies without explanation. Coover's editor, Richard Seaver, speculated to Coover that Viking management believed success would attract lawsuits.[2][3]
Despite these difficulties, this novel has received a large amount of critical attention. It has been called "perhaps the most complete replenishment of the language since Whitman and (in a different way) Mark Twain ... no writer since Melville has dived so deeply and fearlessly into this collective American dream as Coover has in this novel".[4]
posted by philip-random at 10:48 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]
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posted by Scarf Joint at 2:22 PM on October 8
posted by Scarf Joint at 2:22 PM on October 8
The Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is an excellent book, especially if you were a semi-obsessed baseball fan who saved all his lunch money to buy a Strat-o-Matic baseball board game, and played an entire season with it!
Coover built an entire world in his head from his "baseball board game", with histories and lore and colorful characters...and on and on. It was a spectacular read for me when I was 20 or so. We will never forget you, Damon Rutherford.
I've read it a couple of times in the last 30 years. I never read it as "meta-fiction" the first time, but the second and third times were even more interesting (for me). Not everyone's cup of meat, of course. An amazing book.
I went to college late (graduated at 40) and Robert Coover was all the hotness in the English department back then. His short story "Where I'm Calling From", from the collection "Cathedral" is my favorite short story.
posted by pthomas745 at 3:03 PM on October 8
Coover built an entire world in his head from his "baseball board game", with histories and lore and colorful characters...and on and on. It was a spectacular read for me when I was 20 or so. We will never forget you, Damon Rutherford.
I've read it a couple of times in the last 30 years. I never read it as "meta-fiction" the first time, but the second and third times were even more interesting (for me). Not everyone's cup of meat, of course. An amazing book.
I went to college late (graduated at 40) and Robert Coover was all the hotness in the English department back then. His short story "Where I'm Calling From", from the collection "Cathedral" is my favorite short story.
posted by pthomas745 at 3:03 PM on October 8
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posted by trip and a half at 3:00 AM on October 8