The Possibility of Music

Fiction & Literature, Short Stories
Cover of the book The Possibility of Music by Stephen-Paul Martin, University of Alabama Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stephen-Paul Martin ISBN: 9781573668019
Publisher: University of Alabama Press Publication: December 20, 2010
Imprint: Fiction Collective 2 Language: English
Author: Stephen-Paul Martin
ISBN: 9781573668019
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication: December 20, 2010
Imprint: Fiction Collective 2
Language: English

An exhilarating collection about the limits of language, narrative, and identity.

The Possibility of Music is an imaginative reconstruction of America in the early 21st century. What would our post-9/11 society look like if it were viewed through a series of funhouse mirrors?

Each of Stephen-Paul Martin’s stories is a response to this question, a prose exploration that redefines what it means to write fiction in a world in which the Sistein Chapel has become the Mall of America. Nightmarish at times, playfully amusing at others, Martin’s prose is relentlessly inventive and challenging, relocating the experimental tradition of Joyce, Kafka, Borges, and Marquez in a contemporary context in which intelligent communication has become both impossible and increasingly necessary.

"I’d always told myself that if I ever wrote my own music," the narrator of one story says, "every composition would become its own distinct struggle with aesthetic questions that emerged as the process unfolded." In good part, that’s what animates The Possibility of Music, a book in which John Coltrane’s "Love Supreme" moves through characters and stories like a soundtrack.

 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

An exhilarating collection about the limits of language, narrative, and identity.

The Possibility of Music is an imaginative reconstruction of America in the early 21st century. What would our post-9/11 society look like if it were viewed through a series of funhouse mirrors?

Each of Stephen-Paul Martin’s stories is a response to this question, a prose exploration that redefines what it means to write fiction in a world in which the Sistein Chapel has become the Mall of America. Nightmarish at times, playfully amusing at others, Martin’s prose is relentlessly inventive and challenging, relocating the experimental tradition of Joyce, Kafka, Borges, and Marquez in a contemporary context in which intelligent communication has become both impossible and increasingly necessary.

"I’d always told myself that if I ever wrote my own music," the narrator of one story says, "every composition would become its own distinct struggle with aesthetic questions that emerged as the process unfolded." In good part, that’s what animates The Possibility of Music, a book in which John Coltrane’s "Love Supreme" moves through characters and stories like a soundtrack.

 

More books from University of Alabama Press

Cover of the book Presumptions and Burdens of Proof by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Treatise On Laughter by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book The Central Intelligence Agency by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book They Live on The Land by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Frank Norris Remembered by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Lower Ohio River Valley by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Points of Honor by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book The Kishinev Ghetto, 1941–1942 by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Reflections on Public Administration by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Chronicle of a Failure Foretold by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Encounters with American Ethnic Cultures by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book The Road South by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book John Steinbeck Goes to War by Stephen-Paul Martin
Cover of the book Education for Liberation by Stephen-Paul Martin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy