This link has been bookmarked by 2 people . It was first bookmarked on 16 Aug 2006, by Mike Wesch.
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03 Nov 09
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Laurence Sterne's comic meta-novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, remains one of the most engaging reflections on the nature of The Book.
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ill-effects of rumour-
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thoroughly performative, not so much a story but an extended act of and meditation on story-telling
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infinite possibilities of writing over the exigencies of plot
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endless freeplay
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desire for closure.
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e logic of cause and effect
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Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;--they are the life, the soul of reading;--take them out of this book for instance,--you might as well take the book along with them; [...] restore them to the writer;--he steps forth like a bridegroom,--bids All hail; brings in variety, and forbids appetite to fail. (95)
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self-reflexive
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materiality of the text and undermines the apparent "naturalness" of its faux conversational tone.
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insightful critiques of the illusion of linguistic transparency
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non-linear narrative
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regular appeals to the reader, and self-reflexive commentary
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frustration of linearity
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16 Aug 06
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With its heterogeneous materials, non-linear narrative, regular appeals to the reader, and self-reflexive commentary on the nature of the book, Tristram Shandy anticipates many of the techniques of hypertext fiction. Though it achieves its effects in part because the reader is still forced to proceed through the text page by page, from beginning to end (and thus its frustration of linearity becomes all the more apparent), Sterne's novel remains not only a rich resource of ideas and techniques for writers (and readers) interested in the possibilities of the writerly text, but a perfect meeting of formal innovation and comic genius.
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