Who Is John Barth?
Once upon a time, Barth was the hippest writer in America. Nowadays many consider his concerns with the mythical story cycle and the mechanics of storytelling relics from the ’60s. While college students still read stories from Lost in the Funhouse in literature classes, his works do not seem to maintain the same kind of cultural resonance as, say, those of Thomas Pynchon or Don DeLillo. It doesn’t help that Barth’s novels are almost entirely unfilmable, rarely touch on current affairs, and don’t trek in self-pity or ingratiating sarcasm or apocalyptic pessimism.
So why post a site dedicated to John Barth?
Because he is one of the most influential authors of the second half of the twentieth century. Because I have found surprisingly little published on the web about him and his works. And because, despite all his literary pyrotechnics, he remains one of the best simple story-tellers alive today. (It’s also a nice excuse to post some reviews and an interview with Barth I conducted in 1991 to promote his Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor.) John Barth remains an extraordinary influence in American letters.
More About Barth
Barth for Beginners. An excellent introduction to the works of John Barth, by Mal McCormack.
Tales of the Eggplant. A front page article in the Wall Street Journal about Barthomania from 1973.
More Tales of the Eggplant. Other articles in the media about the Eggplant Society.