William Faulkner: The Postmodern Perspective

William Faulkner The Post raw PerspectiveMany critics consider William Faulkner a modernist writer, citing the succession period mingled with the 1930s and 40s as the era in which he wrote himself into and stunned of modernism. Indeed, Faulkners novels during these years reflect many of the typical aspects of modernist lit, and it is demonstrably innovative and unique. How ever, Faulkner appears to be doing to a greater extent than what the Modernists were employing at the time, especi entirelyy in the condition of his try outation with speech. In fact, the great siemensern writer appears to much so on the road to Postmodernism in his ulterior(prenominal) works than anything. During this period in the midst of the 30s and the 40s what critics c tout ensemble Faulkners modernist epoch his writing too analyzems to flow with La chiffoniers poststructural theories of language. Beginning with The nonwith foundationing and the irritation in late 1929, Faulkner begins hi s journey through the Lacanian Mirror Stage, aw ar(predicate) of the linguistic Imaginary. His effort to craft the imagined solid ground of Yoknapatawpha reflects his early Modernist self in Lacans Imaginary order stage, marking his uncomfortable attitude towards his alienation from the South he once k novel. Quentin, whom approximately critics see as a two-base hit to Faulkner, is the incarnation of Faulkners attitude, and his multiple appearances in Faulkners novels marks the stage in Lacans forge of linguistic development each time. The age ends with the powers fulfillment of the Lacanian journey, with nowhere to turning b arly back. Absalom, Absalom and Afternoon of a Cow prove Faulkners acceptance of the impossibleness of Lacans Real, high erupted by a writing style which could be suitized as transitionally postmodernist. Faulkners modernist/postmodernist identity crisis betwixt the 30s and 40s occurs during the authors Lacanian development in language and thought, finale with the reference of literary workss softness to break the symbolic ceiling. bit it would be unbelievably shortsighted and undoubtedly wrong to refer to The Sound and the Fury as underdeveloped and non modern, the novel is neertheless Faulkners most immature put of literature in the con schoolbook of Lacanian development. Here, Faulkner begins his troubles with language as he is initially trapped in the Imaginary stage. John T. Irwin, in his essay on Doubling and Incest in Faulkners literature, suggests that Faulkner ca-cad the character of Quentin as an unconsciously double of himself. Irwin purports that Faulkners protest definitions about(predicate) the novel support this parallel in the midst of him and Quentin, especially his recognition of his get failures in literature and fate to retell the same stories (Irwin 280). While most critics point to Caddy as the focus of the novel beca ingestion of her single-valued function as the off substance, a Lacanian reading of the text implies that the absent center is truly Faulkner himself since he puts so ofttimes of himself into Quentin (and some of the new(prenominal) characters as well, though it is most prevalent here). Quentins chapter, which be derives progressively more self-reflexive and anxious, reveals Faulkners deliver worries and dissatisfy with language. It ends with his ultimate alienation from every bingle and everything Quentins suicide which is how Lacan explains the reflect stage as ending. Lacan draw and quarters the conclusion of the reverberate stage as the family of studyation of the Ego through subjectification, during which a person undergoes a conflict between his or her get recognition of the self and the actual self through experience Lacan refers to this result as alienation (Evans 110). Quentin has undergone this discovery of his own reality that which others prevail defined him to be and his perception of himself. As Irwin suggests, It is temp ting to see in Quentin a replenishment of Faulkner, a double who is fated to retell and reenact the same romance throughout his life just as Faulkner seemed fated to retell in variant instructions the same boloney again and again (Irwin 281). His conclusion signifies Faulkners assessment of his own fate. He predicts literary failure for himself due to the softness of language full express everything he attempts to convey. This marks Faulkners graduation rule with the futility of language, and his first step in Lacanian development.Through this inner conflict, Faulkner associates with Quentin, and other characters the absorbs of him. Indeed, he puts a part of himself in every character that he creates, plainly characters interchangeable Quentin best serve as literary representations of him when considering his troubles with language. Lacan h old(a)s that in the beginningwe exist as part of one continuous sum of money of be. In this early stage of development, we experi ence no virtuoso of difference, and, but for this reason, the subject has no sense of a separate identity on that point is no I and no other, and, Lacan insists, the two concepts move into into existence together (Duvall and Abadie 98). Faulkners offer at this point in his literary development is more than(prenominal) as Lacan defines it. He has no sense of difference between himself and his work, and and then he meshes himself with Quentin and his other characters. However, his own repressions appear in Quentins thoughts and quarrel, and Faulkner is unaw be of the amount of similarities between himself and the character. Faulkner revised the introduction to The Sound and the Fury several times. In its final version, in which Faulkner doubles Quentins own words in the novel So I, who had never had a sister and was fated to lose my daughter in infancy, touch on out to devise myself a beautiful and tragic little girl (Irwin 283). It is all the flair through his own contact with Quentin that he learns how to connect with this novel, but the kind that he develops with the character ultimately blurs the line between himself and Quentin. Faulkner can see the gap between language and reality, but he cannot seem to streng and so the differentiation between himself and his creations.A year later, Faulkner published his next novel, As I Lay Dying, in which he continues the linguistic struggles and development with the Bundren family. As Terrell Tebbetts suggests, each of the Bundren children suffers his or her own issue with language Cash can however express himself through lists and figures, and though he seems perceptive at the end by explaining what happened to Darl, Cash recognizes Darls problems with language but presumes that they the fault of Darl, not language (Tebbetts 128-130). But it is better so for Darl. This ground is not his world this life his life (Faulkner 149). Cash speaks with a perception that is Faulknerian, as it reflects William F aulkners presage of his own fate. In this novel, he connects most with Darl through their sh bed discontentment with the shortcomings of language.Darls linguistic troubles argon the most serious, as he isolates himself through his inability to express his feelings. His problems cause him to lose his identity, repeatedly asking things about himself such as who am I. Early in the novel, Vardaman asks what Darls mother is (Vardaman describes his mother as a fish), and Darl remarks that he does not have one. I havent got ere one, Darl said. Because if I had one, it is was. And if it was, it huckster be is. Can it? (Faulkner 58). Darls concept of language is that it describes reality, and only reality. He perceives that he does not have a mother because she is dead (hence, the was), yet what he really means is that he no long-lasting has a mother. However, he gets so lost in his attempts to conceptualize this that he arrives at the decisiveness that he does not have a mother. As allu ded to primitively, these troubles affect his own identity. I dont know what I am. I dont know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sopor because he is not what he is and he is what he is not (Faulkner 46). Darl has entered the mirror stage along with Faulkner, and he is and then aw be of the conflicts between his own perceptions and the perceptions of others.Darl is highlighting the gap between the signifier and the signified in language, as Lacan calls it. Darl is our brother, our brother Darl. Our brother Darl in a cage in capital of Mississippi where, his grimed hands lying light in the quiet interstices, sounding out he foams (Faulkner 146). He has been incredibly objective internally, seeing himself in an omniscient, third-person perspective, but this is a result of the inability to reconcile the real him and the him that others perceive him to be (the Lacanian signifier is their Darl, the signified is the real Darl). on that pointfore, he becomes the best example in the novel of a character that, by passing through the mirror stage and entering the Symbolic Realm, alienates himself entirely (even within himself). Darl is besides, then, the most affiliated with Faulkner, since he becomes aw be of the failure of language to ever say what one means (Duvall and Abadie 39). Darl reflects what his mother discovered a lot earlier words atomic number 18 no good that words dont ever fit even what they are nerve-wracking to say at (Faulkner 99). Addie also saw the gap between experience and language, which proves Coras statement that Darl has the most in common with Addie, but her troubles are more connected with the patriarchality of language, and hence not as connected with Faulkner as Darl. Also, Addies death is another example of what Faulkner sees as the futility of efforts to connect reality and language. Likewise, disrespect Darls evolution from the Mirror Stage into the Symbolic Stage, his fate commitment to an nutty asylum provides more present to prove that Faulkner saw no way to prevent these linguistic troubles from alienating and ultimately dischargeing his characters and himself. Therefore, Faulkner is still undoubtedly a Modernist at this point, as well as underdeveloped in the betterment of Lacanian development, because he sees no escape from such a fate at this point. He would say that language is a hindrance more than a help. Darl masters language internally, but he cannot apply it in reality, hence showing thegap between language and experience a modernist thinkingthe wholeness of the image threatens the subject with fragmentation, and the mirror stage thitherby gives educate to an aggressive tension between the subject and the image. In order to melt this aggressive tension, the child identifies with the image The jiffy of identification, when the subject assumes its image as its own, is described by L acan as a molybdenum of jubilation, since it leads to an imaginary sense of masteryhowever, this jubilation may also be accompanied by a depressive re action at law (Evans 115)While Faulkner would not have known the psychological theories of Lacan, the characters of Quentin and Darl seem to fit the characterization of these issues well. However, these two characters are unable to come to terms with their image. While the end of Quentins chapter does not end with his suicide, we learn later that he portion outs his own life because he foresees no escape. Likewise, Darls uncontrollable jape at the end of As I Lay Dying is his twinkling in which he has the opportunity to identify with one part of his disassemble self but proves unable to do so. Darls problem is also go away unsolved, as his internal self argues within, demanding an explanation for his false triumph. They are both(prenominal) aware of their precarious states with language. Additionally, the mirror stage is where the subject becomes alienated from itself, and thus is introduced into the Imaginary order. Clearly both characters have entered this stage and find themselves completely alienated from themselves and the world.Terrell Tebbetts claims that Vernon Tull is the only character in the novel that can come to terms with this problem, resorting to the constant use of like in his descriptions and an employment of similes spell talking (Tebbetts 130). Tebbetts is misled, however, because Tull is actually a Modernist character. By using similes to draw comparisons between things he is attempting to define, he is still grasping for the ideal that Modernists spent their careers trying to reach. Instead, a Postmodernist would take advantage of language rather than per kissually highlight its failures (as I will discuss later). Tebbetts believes that Vernon Tull is Faulkners way of saying that the way out of the problem is acceptance, but the solution is more complicated than round-eyed recogn ition. Besides, characters like Darl, Addie, and Quentin all understood the gap between language and reality, which control them to their own forms of alienation.As I Lay Dying also features a level of intended humor that is classified as pertinacious, or black, humor. wholeness of the best examples of dark comedy in the novel is when we find Addie Bundren propped up on a pillow in order to watch as Cash constructs her coffin. Then Addie raises herself, who has not moved in ten ageShe is flavor out the window, at Cash stooping steadily at the gore in the failing lightHe drops the saw and lifts the board for her to see, watching the window in which the face has not moved (Faulkner 28). This moment evokes immediate laughter because Cash, the oldest child of the family, seems like a proud pet retrieving its catch of the day for his master. Likewise, everyone sees the grotesque and gaunt figure of Addie rise as if from the dead in order to view her burial chamber and then return t o her former position, seemingly in approval. Even more dark comedy lies in Faulkners intended criticism of the other characters views toward each other. all(prenominal) character that makes a negative comment about another is later shown to be hypocritical, being strange and quirky in his or her own way.Elements of Faulkners early novels, especially As I Lay Dying, show that the author was on the road to self-reflexivity and metafiction. Much of the Addie chapter, through its hypercritical look at the failure of language, is self-reflexive because it is actively commenting on the words and ideas presented in the novel, yet the conscious elements seem only present through implication. Faulkner never reaches his potential (or becomes fully aware of what he was doing) with the element of self-reflexivity until Absalom, Absalom and Afternoon of a Cow. In his novels until then, Faulkner also had a preoccupation with what Modernists referred to as the attempt to make it new, trying to experiment with literature and attempting things unseen before. He is first in the Mirror Stage, looking at the traditional novel with its content, form, mimetic philosophy of language, and decides that he call for to break from tradition. Then he enters the next stage the Symbolic and attempts to create new and modern literature. While in this stage, though, he realizes the futility of language, and that everything he attempts fails. Faulkner repeatedly tries to achieve literary transcendence, but all he writes is untarnishedly a symbol of what he truly intends. It is not until Absalom, Absalom that he not only accepts his state and failure, but he knowingly plays with the postmodern techniques and ideas. In the novel, Faulkner uses language to do what Lacan says it does reflect the condition of the alienated subject, the fractured self (Moreland 47). Nothing Faulkner attempts attains the literary transcendence for which he has been searching, and so he realizes this, comes to terms with it, and makes fun of this problem.Faulkners heading through the Lacanian linguistic progression led him prematurely to postmodernism. While he thought he was being modern by experimenting, he was actually employing many elements that surpassed the realm of modernism. As I Lay Dying was his first clear transitional work, in which it marked a road from modern to postmodern literature, as the novel hinges between the two genres itself (although, as mentioned before, it should be classified as a modern text if it mustiness be categorized. Faulkner resists many of the modernist techniques and philosophies, but his break from the movement was not clean, as he continued to inscribe them. Patrick ODonnell agrees with this, aware of the presence of flitting texts Yet, there are moments in the works of the high-modernist authors I have mentioned that work beyondthat shoot its bonds (ODonnell 34). His example from Faulkner is the way in which some of his novels attempt to shatt er the connectionbetween attempting to transcend the past, and being condemned to repeat it (34). This struggle with the past no longer seems to be an issue once Faulkner writes Absalom, Absalom although it had been a focus of his earlier novel, The Sound and the Fury. ODonnell agrees that the later works of William Faulkner present more significant breaks from modernism, suggesting that Go Down, Moses is actually a postmodern rewrite of Absalom, Absalom (36). However, Faulkners work after that became much more conservative, reverting to the modernist tendencies which he displayed at the beginning of his career.Even a quick reading of Absalom, Absalom in comparison to Faulkners early novels reveals large differences between the styles. Much like his presentations of characters in prior novels, Faulkner puts elements of himself into his characters however, in this novel, he intentionally employs a self-reflexive concentration in order to create metafiction. It is here that Faulkner dough concerning himself with epistemology and instead with ontology. Faulkner operates the text differently in Absalom, Absalom in the way that he exerts absolute control over every aspect of the theme and creates a commentary on language and fiction. ODonnell refers to Faulkner not as the author of the text of Absalom, Absalom but as the unseen drop that falls into a consortium of water and gives rise to a series of ripples, borrowing from Quentins own words in the novel (Weinstein 31). In other words, he becomes the catalyst for the things that naturally occur. Faulkner puts enough of himself into the novel that everything he has put into place takes over for him. From this, he no longer stresses or frets over the futility of language instead, he allows it to take over. The metafictional aspect of Absalom, Absalom lies in the unique structure and writing style. Unlike his previous endeavors, Faulkner dares to tell a narration within the story a story about storytelling. Th e act of telling a story is artistic because the bank clerk imposes his or her own will upon it, and it is therefore subjective as well. antecedently he is unaware of the subjective nature of language, and now he not only accepts it, but he employs it as well (his primary storyteller has a subjective viewpoint unlike what he has through with(p) previously). His court in this novel allows him to have fun with it, thus achieving postmodern posture and completing his Lacanian development.Examples of the metafictional aspects in the novel appear most very much during the sections rivet on or narrated by Quentin and Mr. Compson. In chapter four, Mr. Compson tells his son, people too as we are, but victims of a different circumstance, simpler and therefore, integer for integer, larger, more heroic and the figures therefore more heroic too, not dwarfed and involved but distinct, uncomplexauthor and victim too of a thousand homicides and a thousand copulationsPerhaps you are right. P erhaps any more light than this would be too much for it (Faulkner 90). This is perhaps the most problematic examples of metafiction in the novel because of its focus. While, indeed, it involves Mr. Compson commenting on literature through criticizing a story, it is also taking a Modernists perspective. Faulkner, through Compson, is handicraft for a return to myth, arguing that the mythological stories of the past are uncomplex and do not suffer from the ambiguity that plagues modern literature. This focus on the wideness of myths is a common concentration of modernist writers, as is the call to use these stories and make them new. Likewise, Compson seems to be hinting at the significance of this declaration and its symbolism rather than being direct about his point, and implication is the Modernists way of implementing metafiction. The only redeeming divisor of the speech lies in his final words, using perhaps to signify his uncertainty, therefore offering a postmodern, skeptica l perspective and rejecting absolute justness.The fact that the characters are actively telling the story of Sutpen and commenting on it at the same time is somewhat postmodern, as it is including and drawing attention to the author within the story. There are also times when the narrative from a character goes on for such a long time that the reader forgets who is telling the story, and at this point, the presence of Faulkner as a narrator begins to become more evident. It is also then that comments such as the speech from Mr. Compson take on new and deeper kernel, as the reader begins to associate Faulkner with these ideas more so than the characters. Another more complicated example of metafiction appears again in chapter four, as Mr. Compson saysWe have a few old mouth-to-mouth tales we exhume from old trunks and boxes and drawers earn without salutation or signature, in which men and women who once lived and breathed are now merely initials or nicknames out of some now unex plainable affection which sound to us like Sanskrit or Chocktaw we see murkily people, the people in whose living blood and seed we ourselves lay static and waiting, in this shadowy attenuation of time possessing now heroic proportions, acting their actsimpervious to time and inexplicable. (Faulkner 102-103)Faulkner, once again through the mouth of Mr. Compson, is commenting on the state of literature, but more importantly, the uncertainty that literature creates as it all returns to mythology. As he suggests, we as readers have to realize that every story that is told is merely a representation of another, and each is also a mere representation of reality. This also gets back to Faulkners problem with language it never says what you demand it to mean. However, it seems now that he has arrived at a fix for this problemThe character of Judith, when discussing the story, remarks that words are mere scratches without meaning but it doesnt matter that it is so (Faulkner 131). This differs from the perspective of earlier novels characters because Judith both comes to terms with the meaninglessness of language and decides that it is no longer problematic for her. When asked if she wants Miss Rosa to read the letter, Judith replies, YesOr destroy it. As you like. Read it if you like or dont read it if you like. Because you make so little impression, you see (Faulkner 130). Clearly Judith recognizes the futility of language, but she also overcomes the problem, caring not whether Rosa reads the letter or not, because it will not make much of a difference either way. According to Tebbetts, Postmodernists see human attempts to describe and establish truth not only as futile but even as destructive (Tebbetts 131). In other words, if language is purely symbolic, then it cannot lead us to truth. This comes from a poststructuralist view that truth is a transcendent signifier and does not exist (Lewis 96). The novel embraces this, and Faulkner no longer struggles with t he uncertainty of language. Some critics see the novel as having a traffic pattern of uncertainty, which is visible through its use of words like perhaps and maybe. Faulkner had been rejecting this in his earlier novels, but he is finally embracing it here.Faulkner also chooses to engage the metafiction to inform the reader about his Lacanian journey with language. Lacan says that when the individual is able to split and repress a part of itself, it enters the symbolic realm. The subject becomes aware of its absent center but is driven by desire to fill the forfend of absence. For Sutpen in Absalom, Absalom Faulkners momentary stand-in for the duration of this story his enlightenment moment occurs in Chapter Seven, when he is turned away at the planters house (Duvall and Abadie 47). Faulkner, looking back on the past, looks at Sutpen in his Mirror Stage and shines light on his own. Before this moment, Quentin says that Sutpen was no more conscious of his appearance or of the po ssibility that anyone else would be that he was of his skin (Faulkner 185). At this point, Sutpen has evolved into the Symbolic Stage, just as Faulkner does in his earlier novels.Faulkners style in the novel is more oral than literary, and the novel flows through thoughts and character dialogue that often seems like Faulkner himself is orally relating the story to his listeners. Critic Conrad Aiken agrees, calling his unique style grossly overelaborate and grammatically annoying (Aiken 135). However, Aiken claims that this proves Faulkners Modernist streak, which is, as proven thus far, shortsighted since Absalom, Absalom is the authors most postmodern book. What he achieves through this style is the defamiliarization of language, blurring the boundaries of literature. It is these lengthy, seemingly never-ending sentences in the novel that reflect Faulkners aims. Likewise, he also enacts a tactic of slow up disclosure through this approach, starting a section of a story and abruptl y stopping to digress onto something else. This way in which he withholds the points and meaning of his sentences, information about characters, and the continuations of half-finished stories is essentially Lacanian.A characterization of Faulkners novel as either modern or postmodern requires understanding of what it means to be a postmodern piece of fiction. Postmodern literature is often perceive as a reaction to Modernism, which numerous authors, poets, and scholars worried was becoming progressively too conventional and traditional. Likewise, they often saw Modernism as an elitist form of writing, since it was usually difficult and obscure. They cited the many complex literary references as a source of this, and suggested that Modernism was catering only to the highly educated because of these references. Postmodernism, in response, frequently involves pop cultural references, including those to other postmodern works, popular art, telly shows, politics, well-known historical occurrences, and movies. Postmodernism is also often jumbled with fragmentation, but the use of fragmentation is much more severe than in Modernism, as there is sometimes no clear plot, characters sometimes seem pointless, the story is disordered up and confused (often beyond repair). This extreme level of fragmentation is often used to make the point that literature is often more about what is under the surface, and that knowledge of a novels plot does not guarantee that a reader has gotten all meaning from the work. Even Faulkners avant-garde nature and time interval from Modernism does not develop into what postmodern literature is known for.In order to answer the question of where Faulkner falls in the spectrum of modern and postmodern literature, one must turn to scholarship that identifies obvious postmodernism and determine if Faulkner lives up to the standards. Barry Lewis, author of Postmodernism and Literature, provides a great description of postmodernism as it applies to literature. He purports that the literature that best falls into this category was written between 1960 and 1990, and that anything before is transitory (Lewis 96). He suggests that the most important elements of postmodernity are temporal disorder, pastiche, comfortableness with fragmentation, childs play of association, paranoia, vicious circles, and language disorder (95-105). Likewise, Lewis also brings Jacques Derridas concept of play as a postmodernism technique. Instead of the modernist quest for meaning in a world of chaos, the postmodern author denies, often playfully, the possibility of meaning (98). As a result, the postmodern novel is often a parody of the modernist quest. Within Faulkners works, there are elements of each of these characteristics, but they all seem to appear faintly and fleetingly. For example, temporal disorder is overtly obvious in The Sound and the Fury because Faulkner blurs the line between all time past and present are hard to distinguish. H owever, as Lewis would agree, Faulkner does not achieve the degree of disorder associated with postmodernist fiction. Instead of recognizing that history repeats itself and that there are definite concrete moments in time, Postmodernists rather make all time vague and parody other works obsession with time (98). Faulkners Quentin in The Sound and the Fury would have been very Modernist in this category, since his preoccupation with time is ultimately part of what destroys him. However, Absalom, Absalom removes this worry completely, being completely unconcerned about the passage of time since it does not matter. In fact, the novels structure, constantly shifting tenses between present and past ever so seamlessly, is postmodern. Therefore, some of these postmodern qualities appear in the novel, but others do not.Another important aspect of postmodern literature that Lewis points out is pastiche, which literally means to combine and paste together multiple elements. Pastiche, then, ar ises from the frustration that everything has been done beforepostmodernist writers tend to pluck existing styles higgledy-piggledy from the reservoir of literary history, and check into them with little tact. This explains why many contemporary novels borrow the clothes of different forms (Lewis 99). Although there are some critics who suggest that this is part of Faulkners repertoire, arguing that he employs this in Absalom, Absalom there does not seem to be enough evidence to prove that he is actively making the novel parodic. Indeed, there are clearly elements within the story that suggest that Faulkner had the classic Southern knightly novel in his heard while writing it, such as the final conversation between Shreve and Quentin at the end Now I want you to tell me just one thing more. Why do you shun the South? I dont hate it, Quentin said, quickly, at once, immediately, I dont hate it (Faulkner 395). Quentin, who often represents Faulkner, may be repressing something, and it very well could be a shared feeling of Faulkner however, there has not been enough legitimise evidence or scholarship to prove this relationship. Therefore, the novel is not a parody, which hurts its chances at being classified as a postmodern novel.Modernists serve fragmentation and subjectivity as existential crises a problem that must be solved, which their literature attempts to do. Postmodernists, however, believe that this issue is insurmountable, and the only reactionary action that is worthwhile is to play with the chaotic tendencies. In postmodern literature, playfulness becomes the major(ip) focus, thus making any order or incontrovertible truth highly unlikely. Faulkner, at least in his early works and Absalom, Absalom does not seem to venture very deep into this playfulness. Indeed, there is definitely a presence of this in Absalom, Absalom but it never reaches the extremeness that other major postmodern works achieve. Compared to a work like Kurt Vonneguts Slaugh terhouse-Five, Faulkners fiction does not stand up in terms of where it falls on the modern/postmodern scale. The first chapter of Vonneguts book begins by saying, All this happened, more or lessIve changed all the names. I really did go back to DresdenI went back there with an old war buddy, Bernard (Vonnegut 1). The author blurs the line between where his influence ends and where the narrator (who is, in other words, understood to be separate from the author) begins. The first chapter seems more like a preface by the author, or a later comment on his novel that should come after the text instead, Vonneguts first course of action is to set himself up as both the author and narrator. It is clearly postmodern because he is forthright about it instead of implying the blurred line. I would hate to tell you what this lousy little book cost me in money and anxiety and time. When I got