Powerfully Exciting Short Story
By Barbara Tetenbaum
Portland, Oregon: Triangular Press, 2008. Edition of 100.
3.75 x 6.5"; 38 pages. Bound in black cloth with paper title on spine.
An artists' book for literary theorists, this postmodern metafiction harkens to the heady (and puzzling) days of conceptual art. This is the reductio ad absurdum of conceptual art applied to literature. A Powerfully Exciting Short Story is the framework for "a powerfully exciting short story."
The story begins: "Chapter One," "(a woodcut showing a scene of dramatic light and shadow)," and "Here is set a mood of calm-before-the-storm…." On the last page: "(this image makes perfect sense now)."
The images are written about only: "(a small ornament)," "(a complicated image showing for modes of transportation)," or "(a small woodcut illustrating this clue)".
This is the short story Sol LeWitt would have written had he been a writer: telling without showing, generality without specific, skeleton without meat (and certainly no heart).
But it does have one other level, a level that perhaps justifies calling this an artists' book, and not just a postmodern mindgame. A Powerfully Exciting Short Story has form, form with all the expectations that form. It's elegant and neat, a small and austere book that fits comfortably into the hand; the printing is clear and crisp, promising weightiness, gravity, significance, and attendant honesty.
Just a game? Or something powerfully exciting?
$95
