AGE OF WIRE & STRING PA

by MARCUS,BEN

• ISBN13: 9781564781963
• ISBN10: 1564781968
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1998-09-17
• Publisher: JOHN MUIR

Summary

In The Age of Wire and String , hailed by Robert Coover as "the most audacious literary debut in decades," Ben Marcus welds together a new reality from the scrapheap of the past. Dogs, birds, horses, automobiles, and the weather are some of the recycled elements in Marcus's first collection'”part fiction, part handbook'”as familiar objects take on markedly unfamiliar meanings. Gradually, this makeshift world, in its defiance of the laws of physics and language, finds a foundation in its own implausibility, as Marcus produces new feelings and sensations'”both comic and disturbing'”in the definitive guide to an unpredictable yet exhilarating plane of existence.

Table of Contents

ARGUMENT
SLEEP
Intercourse with Resuscitated Wife	7	(1)
Snoring, Accidental Speech	8	(1)
Sky Destroys Dog	9	(1)
Air Trance 16	10	(1)
The Death of Water	11	(8)
Terms	13	(6)
GOD
Bird to the North, Act of Wind	19	(1)
Died	20	(1)
G-D	21	(1)
Landing on Floating Island of the Gods	22	(1)
Ethics of Listening When Visiting Areas That Contain Him	23	(8)
Terms	24	(7)
FOOD
The Food Costumes of Montana	31	(2)
First Green	33	(2)
Brian, Treated to a Delicate Meal	35	(2)
Food Storms of the Original Brother	37	(2)
Hidden Food, from Above	39	(8)
Terms	41	(6)
THE HOUSE
The Golden Monica	47	(3)
The Enemy in House Culture	50	(2)
Works from the War Between Houses and Wind	52	(5)
Exporting the Inner Man	57	(1)
Views from the First House	58	(11)
Terms	61	(8)
ANIMAL
Dog, Mode of Heat Transfer in Barking	69	(1)
Silence Implies the Desire	70	(1)
Circle of Willis	71	(2)
Horse, Distinct Category	73	(1)
Where Birds Have Destroyed the Surface	74	(7)
Terms	76	(5)
WEATHER
The Weather Killer	81	(7)
Continuous Winter, in Law	88	(1)
If X > Fire	89	(1)
The Method She Employs Against That Which Cannot Be Seen	90	(2)
The Religion	92	(9)
Terms	93	(8)
PERSONS
Half-Life of Walter in the American Areas	101	(2)
Flap, Wire, and Name	103	(1)
The Animal Husband	104	(13)
Leg of Brother Who Died Early	117	(2)
Hidden Ball Inside a Song	119	(8)
Terms	121	(6)
THE SOCIETY
Automobile, Watchdog	127	(2)
Swimming, Strictly an Inscription	129	(1)
Welder, Cessation of All Life	130	(1)
Arm, in Biology	131	(1)
Accountant, Vessel of Notice	132	(2)
Outline for a City	134	(1)
Terms	135