Chapter 9: One Well-Informed Fish
Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8.
“What an obnoxious fish,” Liz said.
“Yeah,” I sighed, “but you really can’t blame him. After all, he read the newspapers.”
“Well,” she said, brushing a few crumbs off her lap, “in that case then, good for him.”
****
Chapter 10
To what degree are you expecting the reader’s knowledge/lack of same of Richard Brautigan to inform their reading of this?
The post up from here makes me think you want people to know the background, which worked because it’s also the thing that got me to Google his name.
I’m fairly well read, but I had honestly never heard of him. But now simply scanning through some of his titles—Confederate General at Big Sur might tie him into a writing community I’ve read a lot from and Trout Fishing in America seems particularly relevant with your trout having moved to suburbia just as Brautigan himself is now gone—has already changed how I’m reading your story.
Well, if you don’t know Brautigan, I’m hoping it works on its own as a quirky narrative. But if you do know Brautigan, hopefully you’ll begin picking up allusions and the like that will add additional layers to the reading experience. Like having an onion grow in your brain.
Also, it’s written very much in Brautigan’s style and cadence, so some familiarity with his voice will allow you to settle into the piece comfortably, I’d imagine. Like settling into a pair of old slippers.
So. To recap: this piece is a thing unto itself, unless you work hard at gathering up the backstory, in which case it’s an onion growing in your brain while you sit still in a pair of old slippers.
And how can anyone not get excited about that?
Onions and slippers, gotcha.
I have a slot open in the fiction line, any recommendations on a Brautigan book? Barring any, I’m drawn towards CGatBS because 60’s Big Sur is kind of an idealized place to me.
Their all good and quick reads. First, foremost: TFIA. Seminal work for the beats and the early counter-culture. Then I like In Watermelon Sugar (helpfully bundled in the book with TFIA).
Thanks, Jeff.