Idiot Circles: Observations on Donald Barthelme's Fictions

Abstract

A heaviness, a sludge quality, blankets society with multiple distractions. Society takes refuge under window dummies, falling dogs, machines, buffalo humps, dwarf presidents and brain-damaged writers. "Now at such a point, you will agree, the question turns from a question of disposing of this 'trash' to a question of appreciating its qualities, because, after all, it's 100 percent, right? And there can no longer be any question of 'disposing' of it, because it's all there is, and we will simply have to learn how to 'dig' it - that's slang, but percularly appropriate here."