The Glass Mountain
Author | : Donald Barthelme |
Publisher | : Penguin UK |
Total Pages | : 14 |
Release | : 2014-03-06 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780718196264 |
ISBN-13 | : 0718196260 |
Rating | : 4/5 (64 Downloads) |
Download or read book The Glass Mountain written by Donald Barthelme and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A glass mountain sits in the middle of a city and at the top sits a 'beautiful, enchanted symbol'. Seeking to disenchant it, the narrator must climb the mountain. Confronted by the jeers of acquaintances, the bodies of previous climbers and the claws of a guarding eagle he, slowly, begins to ascend. In true postmodernist form, subject and purpose collide as Donald Barthelme uses one-hundred fragmented statements to destabilise a symbol of his own - literature's conventional forms and practices. With a quest, a princess and an array of knights, Barthelme subverts that most traditional of genres, the fairy-tale; irony, absurdity, and playful self-reflexivity are the champions of this short story.