ANATHEMATIZATION OF THE WORLD
IS NOT AN ADEQUATE RESPONSE TO
THE WORLD.
TRYING to break out of this bag that we are in. What gave us the idea that there was something better? How does the concept, “something better,” arise? What does it look like, this something better? Don’t tell me that it is an infant’s idea because I refuse to believe that. I know some sentient infants but they are not that sentient. And then the great horde of persons sub-sentient who nevertheless can conceive of something better. I am thinking of a happy island. Intestate Bill moved toward his lack of reward. We have raised him to the sky. Bill will become doubtless one of those skyheroes, like Theodicy and Rime, who govern the orderly rush of virgins and widows through the world. We lifted him toward the sky. Bill will become doubtless one of those sub-deities who govern the calm passage of cemeteries through the sky. If the graves fall open in mid-passage and swathed forms fall out, it will be his fault, probably.
BILL has been hanged. We regret that. He is the first of us ever to be hanged. We regret it. But that was the verdict. We had a hard time hanging him. We had never hanged anyone before. But fortunately we had Hogo to help us. Bill was hanged because he was guilty, and if you are guilty, then you must be hanged. He was guilty of vatricide and failure. He leaped about on the platform quite a bit. It was evident that he didn’t wish to be hanged. It was a fearsome amount of trouble, the whole thing. But luckily Hogo was there with his quirt. That expedited things. Now there is a certain degree of equanimity. We prize equanimity. It means things are going well. Bill’s friend Dan is the new leader. We have decided to let Hogo live in the house. He is a brute perhaps but an efficient brute. He is good at tending the vats. Dan has taken charge with a fine aggressiveness. He has added three new varieties to the line: Baby Water Chestnuts, Baby Kimchi, Baby Bean Thread. They are moving well, these new varieties. Snow White continues to cast chrysanthemums on Paul’s grave, although there is nothing in it for her, that grave. I think she realizes that. But she was fond of his blood, while he was alive. She was fond not of him but of the abstract notion that, to her, meant “him.” I am not sure that that is the best idea.
THE FAILURE OF SNOW WHITE’S ARSE
REVIRGINIZATION OF SNOW WHITE
APOTHEOSIS OF SNOW WHITE
SNOW WHITE RISES INTO THE SKY
THE HEROES DEPART IN SEARCH OF
A NEW PRINCIPLE
HEIGH-HO
DONALD BARTHELME was one of the preeminent practitioners of experimental fiction in postwar America. He was the author of numerous titles, most recently The King and Forty Stories. He died in 1991.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1965, 1967 by Donald Barthelme; copyright renewed
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Cover design & photograph by Timothy Hsu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-82479-6
ISBN-10: 0-684-82479-5
ISBN-13: 978-1439-14440-4 (eBook)
This book first appeared, in slightly different form, in The New Yorker. Certain portions also appeared, in slightly different form, in Harper’s Bazaar and Paris Review.
Donald Barthelme, Snow White
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