[HN Gopher] John Barth has died
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       John Barth has died
        
       Author : Jun8
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2024-04-03 00:42 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | Jun8 wrote:
       | "Beginnings are exciting; middles are gratifying; but endings,
       | boyoboy." -- John Barth, On With The Story
       | 
       | Boyoboy, indeed! What a way to end to a dismal day! Many years
       | ago (feels like ancient Sumer now) I came across his "Lost in the
       | Funhouse" and was thunderstruck, and not only by the vagaries of
       | his style: I felt a deep kinship to the proton its. It's still my
       | favorite short story. (It was good luck, too, that I read it on
       | its own, the other pieces in the collection were insufferable.)
       | For others, its "Night-Sea Journey" (full text here:
       | https://tigerenglish.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/night-sea-j...).
       | 
       | If you've never heard of him, here's a great intro to his work:
       | https://lithub.com/john-barth-deserves-a-wider-audience/
       | 
       | For a personal take on "Jack":
       | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/books/review/a-twist-in-h...
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barth
        
       | lubujackson wrote:
       | I read "Lost in the Funhouse" some 20 years ago and it has always
       | stuck with me -
       | https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1967/11/lost-in...
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | Giles Goat-boy (published in 1966) sort of predicted Wikipedia.
        
         | dfan wrote:
         | It kind of predicted LLMs too! According to the framing story,
         | the text of the novel was supposedly created by feeding in lots
         | of source material and then having the computer WESCAC generate
         | a plausible first-person account of the protagonist's life.
        
       | einpoklum wrote:
       | I am not familiar with the late Mr. Barth, and could not quite
       | make heads and tails of the obituary. Perhaps someone could
       | suggest one or two short pieces of his work to read to a get
       | sense of what those "high-tech literary gimmicks" are?
        
         | freerobby wrote:
         | I'd suggest Lost in the Funhouse. It's a collection of short
         | stories and showcases a wide range of his authorial style. I'd
         | suggest a paper copy for reasons that will be clear by page two
         | (maybe page one).
        
       | alex_young wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/ukTnb
        
       | fmajid wrote:
       | I've only read "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor" 30 odd
       | years ago, which tries to make the fantastic world of the Arabian
       | Nights mundane in juxtaposition with a magical Chesapeake Bay.
       | The former work better than the latter, but it's certainly
       | inventive.
        
       | freerobby wrote:
       | Damn. He was my favorite living author. Got introduced to his
       | "Lost in the Funhouse" in senior seminar in high school, was
       | hooked immediately. His stories (and especially his writing
       | style) changed how I approach literature and writing at large.
       | RIP.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-03 23:01 UTC)