{"title":"Danielewski's The Familiar and the Concept of the Bibliotrope","authors":"Brian Davis","doi":"10.16995/orbit.6157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.6157","url":null,"abstract":"Introducing the concept of the bibliotrope , this article offers a multimodal retooling of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope that seeks to incorporate the entire expressive apparatus of the multimodal novel into its framework. Whereas the conventional notion of the chronotope is defined by the ways temporal and spatial indices come together as an expressive unity to demarcate the physical parameters and generic functions and other recurrent elements in works of fiction, the bibliotrope incorporates the ways in which combinations of recurrent and highly stylized visual and textual configurations represent physical and social environments as well as the thoughts and actions of characters. The concept is applied to Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar , which I take to be an exemplary bibliotropic text. I frame my analysis of bibliotropes in Danielewski’s pentalogy within the broader context of Danielewski’s signature multimodal poetics, highlighting some of its most salient features, and provide a case study of the character Isandòrno’s bibliotrope. I conclude by outlining some potential research questions for further analysis of bibliotropes in The Familiar and beyond.","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42083969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":".Compostmodernism: Textual Machinery Through Typography and Materiality in Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar","authors":"Aislinn McDougall","doi":"10.16995/orbit.4803","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.4803","url":null,"abstract":"This article defines “.compostmodernism” as a successor to postmodernism by explicating of Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar as an example of .compostmodern textual machinery—a system of two interconnected “machines” (one abstract, the other physical) that are co-dependent and mobilized by the novel’s typography and materiality. Beginning by illustrating how The Familiar exemplifies .compostmodern textual machinery through its experimental typography which becomes the visual manifestation of literary cyber-consciousness, this article indicates how, in visually manifesting character cyber-consciousness, the novel’s typography actualizes the digitality of character interiority, ultimately drawing attention to the work’s status not only as literary artifice, but also as textual machinery. The demands of such experimental typography instantiate a physical relationship between reader and codex that emphasizes the novel’s materiality and requires the reader to engage with the text both physically and digitally. Ultimately, this digital engagement incorporates the internet not only as a crucial supplement for the reader to seek reference, translation apps, and supplementary (albeit obscure) Danielewski publications, but also as a medium for the reader to supplement the novel via social media output and online reading communities.","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49223676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rick Elmore, J. Elmore, G. Isekenmeier, A. Lindquist
{"title":"Review Essays on Recent Scholarship: Elmore Bros. on McCarthy-as-Philosopher; Isekenmeier on Contemporary Literary Mediality; Lindquist on Postnationalism in Postmodernism","authors":"Rick Elmore, J. Elmore, G. Isekenmeier, A. Lindquist","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.4378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.4378","url":null,"abstract":"Three Review Essays: Cormac McCarthy, Philosopher Review of:Eagle (ed), Philosophical Approaches to Cormac McCarthy: Beyond Reckoning. Mundik, A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy.Hawkins, Cormac McCarthy’s Philosophy. Three Ways of Looking at a Horse: Literature and Media / The Medium of Literature Review of:St Clair, Sound and Aural Media in Postmodern Literature: Novel ListeningBarton, Visual Devices in Contemporary Prose Fiction: Gaps, Gestures, ImagesBruhn, The Intermediality of Narrative Literature: Medialities Matter “Where in the World is American Literature?” Tracing the Postnational in Postmodern and Contemporary FictionReview of:Coffman, Rewriting Early America: the Prenational Past in Postmodern LiteratureGarcia-Caro, After the Nation: Postnational Satire in the Works of Carlos Fuentes and Thomas Pynchon McClintock, Topologies of Fear in Contemporary Fiction: The Anxieties of Post-Nationalism and Counter Terrorism [a note from the Book Reviews Editor: if you’re interested in reviewing a book on any aspect of unconventional post-1945 US literature—especially in the present format of single review essays covering multiple related books—please send an email proposing a review to reviews@pynchon.net]","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43703384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gilles Chamerois: Obituary","authors":"B. Chorier-Fryd","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.4759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.4759","url":null,"abstract":"The life and works of Gilles Chamerois (1966-2021).","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47458330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ali Chetwynd, Ali Dehdarirad, Brian Jansen, Bryan M. Santin, Jason Kahler, M. Rohland, Rick Wallach, Sergej Macura, Tim Personn
{"title":"Book Reviews: Spring 2021","authors":"Ali Chetwynd, Ali Dehdarirad, Brian Jansen, Bryan M. Santin, Jason Kahler, M. Rohland, Rick Wallach, Sergej Macura, Tim Personn","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.4370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.4370","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48609031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ali Chetwynd, Andrea Brondino, Dominika Bugno-Narecka, Kodai Abe, Michel Ryckx, Romina Kipouridou, Vít Vaníček
{"title":"Book Reviews, Special Pynchon-Scholarship-in-Languages-Other-than-English Edition, 2020","authors":"Ali Chetwynd, Andrea Brondino, Dominika Bugno-Narecka, Kodai Abe, Michel Ryckx, Romina Kipouridou, Vít Vaníček","doi":"10.16995/orbit.3404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.3404","url":null,"abstract":"Book Reviews, of:Pioro & Paryz (eds) – Thomas Pynchon [Polish]Aliaga (ed) – Thomas Pynchon [Spanish]Nagano –トマス・ピンチョン──帝国、戦争、システム、そして選びに与れぬ者の生 [Japanese – Thomas Pynchon: Empire, War, System, and the Lives of Preterites]Oleha – Perspektivy Konce: Thomas Pynchon a Americky Roman po 11. Zari [Czech – Perspectives of the End: Thomas Pynchon and the American Novel after 9/11]Episcopo – L’Eredita Della Fine: Gravity’s Rainbow di Thomas Pynchon e Horcynus Orca di Stefano D’Arrigo [Italian – The Inheritance of the End: Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and Horcynus Orca by Stefano D’Arrigo]Plus:An interview on non-English-language Pynchon scholarship with vheissu.net bibliographer Michel Ryckx[a note from the Book Reviews Editor: if you’re interested in reviewing a book on any aspect of unconventional post-1945 US literature, please send an email proposing a review to reviews@pynchon.net]","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44573970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review Essays on Recent Scholarship: Kavadlo on Palahniuk Criticism’s Defensiveness; Muždeka on UnPlaisirable Postmodern Translation; Chetwynd on Unnatural Narratology’s Postmodern Potential","authors":"Ali Chetwynd, Jesse Kavadlo, Nina Muždeka","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.3378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.3378","url":null,"abstract":"Three Review Essays: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Palahniuk? Transgressive Fiction Meets Defensive Criticism Review of:Francisco Collado-Rodriguez (ed), Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Choke Douglas Keesey, Understanding Chuck PalahniukDavid McCracken, Chuck Palahniuk, Parodist: Postmodern Irony in Six Transgressive Novels Against the Plaisir-ization of Translation Review of:Barcinski, A Study of Postmodern Literature in Translation as Illustrated through the Selected Works of Thomas PynchonWalkowitz, Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World LiteratureTrubikhina, The Translator’s Doubts: Vladimir Nabokov and the Ambiguity of Translation What Can the First Generation of Unnatural Narratology Offer the Study of “Postmodern” Fiction?Review of:Richardson, Unnatural Narrative: Theory, History, and PracticeAlber, Unnatural Narrative: Impossible Worlds in Fiction and DramaShang, Unnatural Narrative Across Borders: Transnational and Comparative PerspectivesAlber, Skov Nielsen, and Richardson (eds), A Poetics of Unnatural NarrativeAlber and Richardson (eds), Unnatural Narratology: Extensions, Revisions, and Challenges [a note from the Book Reviews Editor: if you’re interested in reviewing a book on any aspect of unconventional post-1945 US literature—especially in the present format of single review essays covering multiple related books—please send an email proposing a review to reviews@pynchon.net]","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43135818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ali Dehdarirad, Bastien Meresse, Brian Jansen, Bryan M. Santin, Christopher K. Coffman, E. Jackson, Jeffrey Gonzalez, Jonathan C. Najarian, K. Hume, Bryan M. Santin, Edward Jackson
{"title":"Book Reviews: Spring 2020","authors":"Ali Dehdarirad, Bastien Meresse, Brian Jansen, Bryan M. Santin, Christopher K. Coffman, E. Jackson, Jeffrey Gonzalez, Jonathan C. Najarian, K. Hume, Bryan M. Santin, Edward Jackson","doi":"10.16995/orbit.2926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.2926","url":null,"abstract":"Book Reviews, of:Dalsgaard (ed) – Thomas Pynchon in ContextChetwynd, Freer, Maragos (eds) – Thomas Pynchon, Sex, and GenderMogultay – The Ruins of Urban Modernity: Thomas Pynchon’s Against the DayAlworth – Site Reading: Fiction, Art, Social FormMullins – Postmodernism in Pieces: Materializing the SocialHenry – New Media and the Transformation of Postmodern American Literature: From Cage to Connectionden Dulk – Existentialist Engagement in Wallace, Eggers, and Foer: A Philosophical Analysis of Contemporary American LiteratureAnderson – Postmodern Artistry in Medievalist Fiction: An International StudyHouser – Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and AffectPalleau-Papin (ed) – Under Fire; William T. Vollmann, The Rifles: A Critical Study [a note from the Book Reviews Editor: if you’re interested in reviewing a book on any aspect of unconventional post-1945 US literature, please send an email proposing a review to reviews@pynchon.net]","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43508193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"William Gaddis' 'Ford Foundation Fiasco' and J R's Elision of the Teacher's-Eye View","authors":"Ali Chetwynd","doi":"10.16995/gaddis.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/gaddis.3","url":null,"abstract":"I analyze William Gaddis’ transmutation, in J R (1975), of material from his abandoned book on instructional TV for the Ford Foundation (1962-3). Finding previously unknown sources for numerous passages of the novel, I focus on a pattern of changed emphasis. Gaddis’ work for Ford is scrupulous about the pedagogical potential of TV, which it sees as a viable classroom tool threatened by administrative misuse. The novel, however, turns material that initially focused on teachers’ experiences and dilemmas into indictments of administrative culture alone. I show how central the Ford project’s conception of administrative problems becomes to J R, trace the way that material originally organized around pedagogical concerns is repurposed to evoke administrative overreach and dysfunction, and demonstrate this transmutation-pattern’s implications for understanding the novel’s narrative and rhetorical drama.","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43952423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review Essays on Recent Scholarship: Keane on Morrison and Love; MIller on Bradbury and his Times; Muth on Redescribing Feminist Aesthetics","authors":"Alice E. Keane, John Miller, K. Muth","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.1994","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.1994","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47708572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}