7/8/09

I can see GWOM as a reaction to works like City of Glass. I think GWOM really fits in with what Barth was talking about in the Literature of Exhaustion. Lethem’s form is very similar to Chandler’s, as is his main character but he is not doing the same thing as Chandler. He realizes that using the exact same form of detective story as Chandler would be, as Lethem put it, embarrassing. He knows that the detective/hero of Chandler’s is out of place in a modern context, it’s reflected in the fact that Metcalf is rapidly becoming obsolete in his own time and place. But that is what makes GWOM original and modern. Although Lethem is using forms that some may consider “exhausted” he is doing so in an ironic, satirical way that makes GWOM new and original. I feel like GWOM is somewhat a reaction to the thought that everything has been done and so nothing can be original; Lethem reacts to that by combining unoriginal forms (aka detective/noir, self-conscious fiction, science fiction/speculative fiction) in a way that manages to both evoke the traditional forms and seem original at the same time.
-Samantha Pepper