The Aesthetics of Post-Realism and The Obscenification of Everyday Life The Novel in The Age of Technology

The Aesthetics of Post-Realism and the Obscenification of Everyday Life: The Novel in the Age
of Technology
Author(s): Madelena Gonzalez
Source: Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol. 38, No. 1, Realism in Retrospect (Winter 2008), pp.
111-133
Published by: Journal of Narrative Theory
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The
Aesthetics
of Post-Realism
Obscenification
The
Novel
Madelena
in the
of Everyday
Age
and
the
Life:
of Technology
Gonzalez
This article will examine how a post-realistaesthetics situated withina

Baudrillardeanrealm of simulacrahas come to dominatemuch of contemporaryfiction.The excessive consciousness of the "real" as mere artifice
leads many serious authorsto engage in an ongoing mockeryof mimesis.
YellowDog (MartinAmis, 2003), Fury (Salman Rushdie, 2001), Dorian:
An Imitation(Will Self, 2002), and The PowerBook (JeanetteWinterson,
2000) are all works by major, well-establishedwriterswith international
reputations,and theyhave been chosen in an attemptto illustratesome of
the dominanttendenciesin the Britishnovel today.They all seek to renew
whetherit be to their
a doubtingdiegesis throughconstantself-reference,
own statusas textsor throughrecourseto a pervertedand ironic intertextualitywhich is used to bolsterup theirbeleaguered poetics. As theyengage in the cloning of creativityin order to produce the endless replicas
and debased imitationsof compromisedoriginals,which theymake available to theirreadersas examples of a late postmodernand, usually virtual,
"reality,"the verymedium or mode of expressionof the novel is put into
question. The rampanttechnophiliawhich characterizesthese examples
century
may be representativeof a wider tendency in the twenty-first
novel forwhichtechnologyconstitutesbothan opportunity
forexperimentationbut also an essential threatto its future.1In competitionwith the
2008by
38.1 (Winter
JNT:Journal
2008): 111-133.Copyright
Theory
ofNarrative
JNT:Journal
ofNarrative
Theory.
112
World Wide Web of stories,the networkedenvironmentof the internet,

manywritersfeel the need to flextheirliterarymuscles, committingtheir
textsto excess and the extreme,not only thematically,but also formally
and linguistically.By "blinding"the reader with theirown formof "scithese novels are
ence," reinventingliterarinessas demotic ornamentation,
in the process of re-appropriating
the space usurpedby the contemporary
technoversewithits levelingimpulse.The symbolicpovertycaused by the
spread of industrialtechnologyto all spheres of human conduct is thus
being challenged by a desperate attemptto re-aestheticizeour so-called
post-realexperience and therebyreconnectus to a consciousness of the
political and the ethical.
Afterthe Last Post
"Apocalypseis alreadyhere"
- JeanBaudrillard,
RequiemfortheTwinTowers
Is a post-realisticmode the most viable way of writingabout 21st-century
experience,or even the only way? The writersexamined here obviously
thinkso. According to JeanetteWinterson,television and cinema have
takenover thenarrativefunctionof thenovel, which leaves it "freeforpoetryand forlanguage thatdoes more thanconvey meaning" ("The.Powerbook"). This questioningof the relationshipbetween language and meaning goes hand in hand withtheproblematicstatusof thereal, as explicated
Even
by Jean Baudrillardand otherproponentsof ultra-postmodernism.
TerryEagleton,hardlya championof postmodernthought,is readyto concede thatthedisappearanceof thereal has in itselfbecome a cliche of contemporaneity:"Yet what nobody could have predictedwas thatWestern
civilizationwas just on the brinkof going non-realistitself.Reality itself
had now embraced the non-realist,as capitalist society became increasinglydependentin its everydayoperationson mythand fantasy,fictional
wealth,exoticismand hyperbole,rhetoric,virtualrealityand sheerappearance" (67).2
We undoubtedlylive in an age which eitherprides itself on, or has
scared itselfinto,being "post-everything."
As Anne McClintock explains,
"The recurrent,
almost ritualisticincantationof the preposition'post' is a
I
of a global crisis in ideologies of the future,particubelieve,
symptom,
and theObscenification
Aesthetics
ofEverydayLife 113
ofPost-Realism
larly the ideology of 'progress'" (93). This epoch of "urbi-postness"is
thusalso one of disillusionmentand crisis,catastropheand ongoing apocenhanced but also trivializedby incessantmediation,by
alypse, artificially
its daily performanceon our televisionscreens,via radio waves or the internet.The now all-pervadingself-consciousnessof the Westernworld,
engaged in incessantcontemplationof its own (not veryglorious) doings,
has invaded contemporaryfiction,which is likewise characterizedby an
obsession with overexposure.Hence the thrivingindustryin metafiction
which has now long been mandatoryin the
and general self-reflexiveness
marketforall genresof serious fiction.Withinthiscontextof compulsive,
if critical,narcissism,the ordinaryand the quotidian endlessly contemplated take on the luriddetail of the pornographic.The obsessive descriptionof everydaylife such as is witnessedon realityTV, forexample, pressurizes many novels into adoptingever more explicit positions and poses
in attemptsto redeem themselves frombanality and to recapturea lost
originality.However, this only vitiatesintercoursebetween medium and
spectator,makinga mockeryof mimesis and replacingit withan obscene,
if interactive,peepshow.
Contemporarynovels and, indeed, artin generalparticipatein the loop
of repetition,imitation,and fascinationwithbanality.The specterof Andy
withthe threatof endless reproWarhol's soup cans hauntsrepresentation
infinite
creation.
ductioninsteadof
Playfulself-consciousnessis intended
to provide absolution fromthe crime of copying,as if the meta-importof
any workof artcould make up forthe lack of originality.The phrase "obscenificationof everydaylife," a quote from Yellow Dog where "Dickhead" is thelatestin fashionablecocktails,is a leitmotifin all these novels
(Amis 11, 35). Most obviously and predictably,it appears in the frequent
portrayalsof particularlyexplicit and, at times, outlandish or unsavory
sex: a princessbeing servicedby a tulipin The PowerBook, incestin Fury
and YellowDog, the "conga line of buggery"in Dorian, a phrase, significantlyenough, already recycled froma television review of Big Brother
it is patentin the
( Dorian 68; Feeding Frenzy 208). More interestingly,
worlds
have lost touch
in
these
fictional
way thatthe charactersdepicted
withauthenticity.
They are mere replicas, but not even of themselves,for
all identitiesare borrowedand may be shucked on or off again at a moment'snotice,as thefollowingquote suggests:"Remember,Dorian can be
whateveryou want him to be- a punk or a parvenu,a dodgy geezer or a
114
dotingcourtier,a wittyfop or a Cityyuppy"(108). In Furythistragiclack

of originalityis actuallymaterializedthroughthe conceit of masks which
are used to effecta coup on an island in the South Pacific. All thatis said
and done carries the painful stigmata of several layers of deja vu: an
abortive knife attack is the replay of memorable scenes from Quentin
Tarantinofilmsand, in the same novel, murderersdress up in Disney costumes to perpetratetheirdeeds. These "individuals,"if theycan be called
such, are presentedas cliches of theirown makingwho are easily reduced
to specifictraits:theEarl-Grey-sipping
Dorian, wistfullyand nostalgically
moment
and
at
Oscar
Wilde
one
shootingup the next; the supnodding
as a
about
as
convincinglyterrifying
posedly Kray-likeJosephAndrews,
the
embarhis
Zimmer
villain fromEastEnders as he slumps over
frame;
to join the
with
ambitions
narrator
of
The
PowerBook
amorous
rassingly
to
her
but
who
makes
love
and
ruinous
ten
of
lovers,"
keyboard
"great
top
alone (Winterson77).
The literaryhangover from the great works (Wilde, Woolf, Kafka,
Nabokov, Swift,Dante, Boccaccio, Malory,Donne, and Shakespeare) experiencedthroughthe bloodshoteyes of the overdoserscontributesto the
impressionthatreadershave of witnessingsomethingillicit,of being party
to a sacrilegioustextfest,
accentuatedby the risque subject-matter:
sex, violence, crime,deviancy.However, more disturbingthanthis is thejaded
of the daily violence of
experienceof life,the constant"in-yer-face-ness"
existence,which progressivelyloses its power to shock. It is worthnoting
here the convergencebetween this tendencyin the contemporaryBritish
novel and what is happening in the theatre,where recent plays dealing
brutallywith similar subjects in a similar mode have contained health
warningsfor the spectators.3When all is bared and no holds are barred,
horroris so predictablyhorriblethatit becomes a pose ratherthana reality,a cliche insteadof an authenticemotion "Horrorism"in thewords of
When
a characterin YellowDog (Amis 150).
everythingis made visible,
but unnecessarilyso, withoutdesire and withouteffect,torporhas a tendency to triumphinsteadof excitement.As JeanBaudrillardexplains,the
obscene is what is made unnecessarilyvisible withoutgiving rise to any
desire or effect( Cool Memories IV 59-60).4
The lives lived in these novels are in thrallto the contemporarytechnoverse,wherehumanbeings are imprisonedwithin,as much as liberated
by, a mobile networkof cell phones, iPods, and laptops, the batteryof
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 115
technologywhich is now partand parcel of everydaylife and contrivesto
furnishour twenty-first
centurybodies withan arrayof artificiallimbs,alus
to
lowing
experience nostalgicallythe occasional twitchesand tremors
of real feeling.The anxietypermeatingthese narrativesis a love-haterelationship with the contemporarytechnology-ledworld and the writer's
place withinit. As Self explains, "The writerin an age of mass standardization, corporatism,stereotypy,and the remorseless eradication of any
meaningfulindividuality. . . representsthe promise of an untrammeled
life" ( Feeding Frenzy 140). This is an example of the way in which writers' perceptionsof theircraftis challenged by the increasinglywide access to technologythatdominatessociety's account of itself,in relationto
which fictionmustconstantlyand anxiously situateitselfas a rival narrative. The question seems to be, how does the novel, a traditionallylowtech form,requiringonly pen and paper,interactwiththisnew stateof affairs or state of the art? One of the answers lies in the relentless
questioningof the mediumin which any authorworthhis postmodernsalt
must indulge so as to make patenthis awareness of the flawed natureof
representation.
Despite the obsessive invocationof "storytelling"by such
writersas Wintersonand Rushdie, and the numberof times thatthe word
"story"actuallyappears on thepage, the focus is more on thetellingas an
event than on the eventper se, as the preposterousplots of these novels
bear witness. The reader,on the otherhand, must be satisfiedwith fragmented"storyettes"ratherthanwithfull-blowntales.
However, the excess of questioning, self-awareness, and self-consciousness which has penetratedthese fictionalorganismsalso endangers
theiralreadyfragilecredibility,at least in the examples chosen here. Thus,
one wondersat timesif an object such as The PowerBook is reallya novel,
or even a book at all, or merelya literarygadget or gizmo:
ThePowerBookis notmethodologically
new.Exceptthatit
isn'treallya novelanyway.It's morelikea setof shortstoriesbeingmarketed
as a novel.. . . Exceptthatitisn'teven
a set of shortstories.It's morelike a bundleof bitsand
pieces, nicelylaid out, signed,numberedand bound in
cardboardand sold as an artist'sbook at a
home-splodged
in
collecprivategallery theWestEnd. It's a half-finished,
artifact
whichhas somehowstumbledintomasstors-only
116
)NT
market
circulation.
It's close,in fact,to notbeinga bookat
all. (Turner)
More thansimple suspensionof disbeliefis now requiredof thereaderof

thiskind of text:we are being asked fora willingnessto face head on the
rampanttechnophiliaof novels which are strainingto constructa new
techno-poeticsout of their(frequentlyexaggerated)claims of interactivity
and technologicalknow-how,"digitally"enhanced by typefacegimmicks,
jacket graphics,and iconic chapterheadings.These strategiesboil down to
morethanmeregenre-bendingand morethana merequestioningfromthe
inside of the novel as medium; theyare attemptsto integratenew media
intoits veryfabric.However, the technicaland technologicalpossibilities
for the novel are limited,which is precisely where language and form
come intotheirown.
The fascinatedhorrorwithothermodes of being and writingblend togetherin the ever more recherchepoetics of these novels, forone of the
ways to win back a lost originalityfromthe standardizationof thoughtis
and daring,an excessive litthroughlinguisticand formalexperimentation
which
exhibits
in
full
view
the
exacerbated
utilitarianismof
eraryquality
thelanguage of technologyand fashionsout of it an ornamentallydemotic
architectureto ensure relieffromhomogenization.These authorsplunder
both the treasuretrove of great works and the resources of technology,
disturbsthe infabricatinga discursivespace where constantinterference
evitabilityof reproduction.The spectralsoup tinsare replaced by spam as
a postmodernpyrotechnicalviruspollutes all systemsof representation.
It
is a case of over-writing
in orderto writeover.
In expressing themselves thus, these self-createdtechnicians of the
telling may have found a way of reclaiming the original meaning of
techne,thatis to say,of "art."The novels underexaminationhere are both
complicitwiththe technologicalage and revoltingagainst it. By situating
themselves on the cusp of this ambiguity,they make valid statements
about our postmoderncondition,however much opprobriumtheirexcessive subject-matterand style may occasion. The baroque elaborationof
thebanal is a challenge fortheliterary,
but also a way of puttingintoquestion a simplifiedvision of "society" as informationsuperhighwaystretching into the classless, stateless,genderlessdistance. It acts as a powerful
and obvious simulacrumaiming to compete withand outdo its technolog-
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 1 17
ical counterpart,the networkedstoryworldenvironmentof the internet.
For as these complex word games enable such writersto prove, precisely
theimpressionof levby foregrounding
language and its power structures,
eling to be had throughunlimitedaccess is mere illusion.5
The arcane eruditionof contemporaryvulgarityof Self and Amis, as
well as theneo-romantic,neo-poetichyperboleof Wintersonand Rushdie,
make them membersof a techno-eliteof contemporaryword-engineers.
The simultaneouslyreactionaryand revolutionarytactics of these writers
are strategicattitudestowardsthecommodifiedconditionof aesthetics,especially in a world in which we are no longer individualsbut consumers,
or even objects of consumptionourselves. Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel,
Never Let Me Go (2005), depictingthelives of humanclones raised solely
for theirorgans, provides a melancholy metaphorfor this condition,as
does realitytelevisionoffera ludicrous illustrationof the same tendency.
The impendingbut aborted disaster of our condition is a featureof all
these novels, a state that Self describes as a "profoundsense of unease
about the non-appearanceof the apocalypse" ( Feeding Frenzy 236). The
echo of the last trumpwhich goes on trumpingad nauseam
reverberating
pushes poetics beyond the pale, as novels seek to produce tirelessly,and
withever more sophisticatedvariations,the horrorof our conditionin full
view in the hopes thata liberatingcatharsismay be effected.Faced with
thecontemptand indifference
thatfamiliaritybreeds,these writersare enin
an
to
gaged
ongoing struggle reaestheticizeour existence,albeit negatively,in orderto challenge the symbolicpovertycaused by the spread of
industrialtechnologyto all spheresof humanconduct.
Mocking Mimesis: The Interactive Peepshow
"Perhapsthisis thestyleof thenewmillennium,
A pre-Enlightenment
senseof linguistic
formality
with
virtual
Coupled
post-post-industrial reality"
- MartinCrimp,TheMisanthrope
All of these writersindulge energeticallyin the acrobaticsof stylisticand
narrativesurrealismin orderbetterto mock mimesis. The realistaesthetic
is displayed, only to be surpassed; it is fawned on and then held up to
ridicule as pastiche slips into parody. The main protagonistschosen by
118
INT
theseauthorsare all "mimetists,"addictedto imitationand manipulatedby

ventriloquistnarratorswhose original premise is the insincerityof the
copy and the poetics of consumption.Such is what various paratextualelements imply: the subtitleof Dorian, which reads "An Imitation,"the
jacket of The PowerBook, designed to resemble a portableApple PowerMac computer,the tabloid chapter-titlesof Yellow Dog, or the different
typefacesused in Fury. These hollow men and women are exposed as
fraudsby the verynarrationof their"stories" and fail to believe in themto be able to give a convincingperformanceof a stable
selves sufficiently
from
the
start.
Xan Meo of YellowDog plays at being the "Sensiidentity
tive New Age Guy" untila bump to thehead reveals him as MCP extraordinaire,while theeffete,mannered,and professorialSolanka in Fury turns
out to be an intellectualand emotionalcharlatanwho findshimselfat first
standingover his sleeping spouse witha kitchenknife,thenplayingout incestuous fantasieswithhis nubile neighbor,and finallypeddling philosophy forthe masses in a cheap internetsaga. As forHenryWottonand Dorian, they are such sublime caricaturesof campdom thatthey may very
well be, by theirown admission, mere fictionswithinfictionswithinfiction:"we're all inventionsof one sortor another"(276). The implicationis
that the manuscripthas been writtenby Wottonand that the characters
about which we have been reading have been merelyliving out his fantasies. Such layeringand mise en abyme is typicalof the "technological"
sophisticationof these writers.The PowerBook, on the otherhand,is peopled by marvelous virtualcreations,including the unreliable narrator,a
veritabletechnologicaltransvestite
who refusesto distinguishrealityfrom
thefantasiescirculatingin cyberspaceand fabricatesnew identitiesat will.
As already suggested,all this is par for the course and can easily be
construedas partof the greatanti-realistproject of the High Modernists,
echoed in various pronouncementsby Winterson:"I am not interestedin
realism forits own sake. The point of fictionis not to mirrorreal life but
to set out fromit, to alter our viewing angle and perhaps even the world
we are viewing" (qtd. in Showalter). In other words, and with a nod to
Oscar Wilde, it is the spectator,and not life,thatartreallymirrors,and the
self-consciouspoetics of these novels plunge the reader into a veritable
abyss of "specularity."Whetherit be formallyor linguistically,or both,
theyare all narrativesoperatingagainst themselvesand thrustan awareness of artificiality
on theiraudiences at the same timeas theycontinueto
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 119
embroilthose audiences in the preposterous"fiction"of theirchaotic and
sprawling stories. They create and undermineat the same time, deconstructand reconstructin the same breath.
forthe
Each is characterizedby multipleplot strandsand by difficulties
readerin distinguishingsubplotfrommain story,a paradigmwhich is relevant at all levels of these narrativeswhich insist on mixing up the momentouswiththebanal. Endless punningand wordplay,technicaltrickery,
frequentchanges of point of view, and the saturationof the textwith images and metaphorsof vision and sightoblige readersto ceaselessly contemplatethemselvesin the act of looking. The incessant pointingto the
framein which such writersindulge, deconstructingand foregrounding
everythingin advance, makes us only too aware thatwe are stationedon
the otherside of a two-way mirrorfromwhence ironical glances can be
exchanged withthe narrator.The mirrorheld up thusbecomes a mockery
of mimesis and an excuse for a pantomimeof verisimilitude,as we are
tauntedwith parodic suggestionsof plot and storylineand presentedinstead withendless reflectionsof reading,writing,and interpretation.
Lured into a series of virtualworlds- Baz Hallward's video installation, Cathode Narcissus (Self), Clint Smoker's e-mail correspondence
(Amis), Solanka's websaga (Rushdie), The PowerBook's internetsurfing- readers are doomed to become the celebritiesof the texts thatthey
are reading,thecomplicitdoubles of narratorswhose refusalor incapacity
to produce thetrueand thebeautifulobliges themto go shoppingfortranscendence in the debased mall of consumer culturevia the hypertextual
links providedby an excessively fragmenteddiegesis: "Click on the links
formore PK info or on the icons below foranswers to 101 FAQs, access
and to see the wide range of PK merchandiseavailable
to interactivities,
forINSTANT shippingNOW. All major creditcards accepted" (Rushdie
168, emphasis original). Slaves to the ubiquitous screen, of the alreadyseen, readers,like the protagonists,inhabitan uncannypresentwhere, in
thewords of Baudrillard,"the media have put an end to real event"and individuals ape the watered-downperformanceof realitywhich is all they
have access to, fashioningthemselves into the stars of theirown lives,
gods by proxy("Toward a Principle"358).6
To some extentone mightsuggest,much like Self and Wilde, thatthe
moderninternal"I" has taken the place of the voices of the gods in our
consciousness ( Feeding Frenzy209). The hall of fame is in fact a hall of
120
INT
mirrorsand any pleasure or interestderivedcomes fromwatchingoneself

in the act of watching,as the frontiers
betweenoutside and inside become
blurred.
The
deliberate
confusion
of "I" and "You" in The
increasingly
of
"I"
and
"he"
in
Yellow
and
the techniqueof multiple
PowerBook,
Dog,
focalizationwhich all of these novels tendto adopt destabilizerepresentation once and forall. The willfullycorruptaestheticat play here partakes
of a fetishisticand shameless obsession withthe fragmentedmultiplicity
of the self as it goes throughthe motionsof desire:
"Let's start.Whatcolorhairdo youwant?"
"Red. I've alwayswantedredhair...."
"So whatshallI wear?"
"It's up to you.Combator Prada?"
"How muchcan I spendon clothes?"
"How about$1000?"
"My wholewardrobeorjustone outfit?"
"You'rethewriter."
"It's yourstory."
"Whathappenedto theomniscient
author?"
"Goneinteractive."
"Look ... I knowthiswas myidea,butmaybewe shouldquit."
"What's the problem?This is art not telephonesex."
(Winterson
27)
As we catch a glimpse of the misshapenreflectionsof humanitythatthe
texts' distortingmirrorsproduce for us, we break into horridlaughterat
the grotesquereplicas which have replaced the aspirationto perfectionof
true art, now no more than a temporarycommodityof the imaginary,
chained to the immoralprincipleof the spectacle: "The monitorsfizzed
intolife. On the screensthenaked Dorians effervesced.Helen staredat the
gloriousbodies. Baz Hallward's piece was mostcunning;it forcedall who
looked upon it to become involuntaryvoyeurs,Laughing Cavaliers, compelled to ogle theyoungman witheyes pinionedopen" (Dorian 42). Nothing exists in these fictionalworlds if not to be seen and seen again.
can neversignifymore thana tricksy
Althoughclaims forinteractivity
pose forthenovel, which is by its natureincapable of authenticinteractivitydespite such experimentsas B. S. Johnson'sThe Unfortunates(1969),
the moral responsibilitydenied by the narratorsis shiftedonto the shoul-
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 121
ders of the readers,who in the words of one criticof YellowDog, "cannot
but see" and are obliged to confrontthemselvesin the act of confronting
thehorror(Ganteau).7 Like spectatorsat an interactivepeepshow,theyare
no longermerelyobserversbut profoundlyand morallyimplicatedby the
very performanceof watchingin which theyare engaged. Indeed watching itselfbecomes the single most significantact of the twenty-first-centurypost-realitydeployed withsuch perverseglee.
There is indeed somethingdisturbingabout the involvementof readers
in textswheretheyare cast as both victimsand perpetrators
by proxy,responsible fortextualantics: "What is it you want? Freedom for a night"
(alienation) and intimacy
(Winterson3-4). The mixtureof Verfremdung
whichthese writerspractice,as well as theirconsummateventriloquism
Self's cod Wilde, Rushdie's tongue-in-cheekKafka, Amis's gallery of
gangstersand porn stars,Winterson'sMalory,Shakespeare, and Oasis, all
to establisha moral
productsof linguisticsophistication make it difficult
or textualhierarchywithwhich to judge events. Readers have troublepositioningthemselvesin relationto whatis shown,as emotionis lost behind
a series of screens and layers,forthe excess of prostheticsseparatesthem
froma realitythatimitatesthe alienation which may resultfromthe cultureof technology.As TerryEagleton explains,
itself
Thereis anothersensein whichculturecan interpose
betweenhumanbodies,knownas technology.
Technology
ofourbodieswhichcan blunttheircapacity
is an extension
to feelforone another.. . . Technologymakesourbodies
farmoreflexibleand capacious,but in some ways much
and
less responsive.It reorganizes
oursensesforswiftness
ratherthan depth,persistenceor intensity.
multiplicity
(156)
Where culture has become technology and technology culture,the integrityof the body and the integrityof the textare compromised,leaving
both in pieces yetlongingto be whole.8 Readers who search fordepthare
invariablybroughtback to the surface,fortheconsciousness of mediation,
of an outside agency fragmenting
perception,means thatthe only revelation to which theycan have access is the hollow infinitudeof irony:the
How then
awareness of theirrole as partof thecreed of self-reflexiveness.
122
should we judge these authors:as passive chroniclersof decadence, vicious satiristsor cynical pornographerscashing in on a post-permissive
societyfromwhich taboos in art and life have disappeared? How can we
come to termswiththe mixtureof junk, gimmick,and literarysophisticationwhich is pushingsuch novels into our faces and "out of theirheads"?
An Excess of the Real:
The Novel "In-Yer-Face" and "Out of Its Head"
"Whenwe areoutofourbody,we are outofourmind"
- TerryEagleton,AfterTheory
All of these novels are based on an aestheticof the extreme,both in subject matterand in language. As well as attackingmodern-daymythsby
subjecting them to overexposure- the Royal family and the Princess
Diana cult (Dorian , YellowDog), fatherlyand motherlylove ( YellowDog,
Fury,The PowerBook), freedomof thepress ( YellowDog), racial and sexual equality( YellowDog, Fury,Dorian , The PowerBook)- theysubjectto
pitiless scrutinythe art of fictionitself.The shibbolethsof good writing
are materialized and wheeled out on stage like the giant phalli in the
comedies of Aristophanes.Once before our eyes, theyare deconstructed
There
by ridiculeand lose the power of mysterythroughover-familiarity.
is nothinglike rubbing shoulders with the forbiddenfor it to lose its
totemicpower. The hard and soft porn which operates on the level of
theme,what is shown and whatis leftto the imagination,is thusalso relevant on the metaphoricallevel of the writingitself.However tolerantthe
it is difficult
to
enlightenedreadermay be of theexperimentalin literature,
the
in
which
these
writers
draw
attention
to
accept
way
stylisticstrategies
in orderto mock them.If Yellow Dog is drunkon the demotic,adopting
tabloidparlance,East End underworldslang, a cornye-mail idiom,as well
as inventingcountless stylisticsubtletiesforthe language of the porn industry,Dorian raises the stakes of expressionto a climax of aestheticexcess where Huysmans meets Burroughsin an overdose of mind-altering
poetics. Self piles metaphorupon metaphorand selects the rarestof archaisms to conjoin withcontemporaryslang as a collective heroinorgyis
performedto a recitationof Donne's "The Flea." This intercoursebetween
the learned and the vulgarmay be secretlyadmiredby readers,but it may
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 123
also cause themto recoil in distaste,forthereis more thanan elementof
the unseemlyto a techniquewhich involves the indecentexposure of the
truthand beautyof artas mere technicalwizardry,an ostentatiousdisplay
of language skills and poetic range in the service of special effects.
As forThe PowerBook, it leaves no escape fromits hystericaland hybrid "sur-romanticism"
and its undignifieda-genericism,creatingan indimixture
of
the
gestible
elaboratelymetaphysicaland the cornilyobvious
as it militantlycontests conventional fictional mores.9 Heroic mountaineers,explorers,and legendarylovers rub shoulders with the mysterious, but somewhat repulsive,inhabitantsof a "Muck Midden" (137), as
well as withcontemporarybourgeoisadulterers,caughtin predictablelove
triangles;poetic flightsof fancymodulate into pornographyand the marvelous segues into a crude parodyof realism. Fury,an undignifiedtechno
mix of Disney, science fiction,and Shakespeare, exhibits a distinctpenchant forthe vampiric,forit feeds offa visibly weakened and disadvantaged realityin orderto strengthenthe all-pervadingfictionalitywhich is
destinedto replace thehost cultureby the end of the novel. Thus an imaginaryinternetsaga becomes thedisquietingmirrorimage of the anti-hero's
everyday life, which is already saturatedwith excessive referenceto a
contemporarycultureof the hyperrealand unable to distinguishbetween
the trueand the false.
The pointof such techniquesis to take formaland linguisticmasteryto
the limitsof what is acceptable in print,not merelyon the literallevel of
the numberof expletives and explicit referencesto sex and violence, but
by puttingto the test and to the text the shock value of a poetics which
revels in radical and disturbingincongruity:the incessantjuxtaposing and
registers,worlds and levels, the surfeitand mixing
conjoiningof different
of minorityidioms (a resultof a consumer-basedculturewhere we are all
partof some focus group,yetdisenfranchisedfromthelargerculture),and
the disrespectfulintertextualsampling which compulsively exceeds its
own sources.
This hereticaland inflationary
poetics disturbsbecause of its failureto
with
a
identifiable
mode or stylewhich mightgroundit in
faith
keep
single
a recognizable fictionalrealityor convention.Neithercan such a poetics
be explained by,or reduced to, any particularconceit,strand,school or influence,forit has thatall-inclusivequalityof the WorldWide Web, where
everythingis apparentlyon show and forthe taking,but at the same time
124
paradoxicallyungraspable.There are few limitsto thecrimeswhichit will

commit against literarydecorum or the violation of codes in which it is
ready to indulge. These tendenciesare particularlynoticeable when dialogue intervenes.Episodes of direct speech, the functionof which is to
provide a coded commentupon the conventionsof dialogue in fictionby
using a strategyof hyperrealisticimitation,have a disconcertingeffecton
the reader:
"Chickslikesalad."
"What?"
"Chickslike salad. That'sa realdifference
betweenthe
sexes.Chickslikesalad."
"You eat salad."
"Yeah butI don'tlikesalad.No manlikessalad.Chicks
likesalad.AndI can proveit."
She waited."How?"
"Chickseat salad whenthey'restoned.A bloke would
wanthis chocolatebar or his sugarsandwich.Not some
bullshittomato.A chick'11eat salad in themorning
. From
the fridge.Only a chickwould do that.That's how sick
chicksare.Christ,is thatthephone?"
"It's thefridge."
"The fridge?"
"It's new.Haven'tyou noticed?It makesa noiseifyou
leave thedooropen.You leftthedooropen."
"Fuckoff!"he calledoutto it."I wonder.Am I thefirst
manon earthto tellhisfridgeto fuckoff?"(Amis93)
If we are ready to accept a certaindose of poetic license, the fact,forexample, thatpeople do not really speak like this in real life (suspension of
to accept thattheyshould not even be speakdisbelief),it is more difficult
like
this
in
a
unless
it is indeed a verylame parodyof the script
novel,
ing
of an appallinglybad film.In orderto commentupon the irrelevanceof
Amis feels obliged make a mockeryof it by self-conscious
verisimilitude,
to
rub
the reader's face in his novel's compulsive self-parody.
imitation,
text
is
no
Every
longerjust a text,but a hypertextprojectingits readerbeyond conventionalfictionallimits.
However, when,as is frequentlythe case, hardcoreeruditionmeets the
Aesthetics
ofEverydayLife 125
ofPost-Realism
softporn of facileness,it is not merelythe reflectionof the multipleand
mixed aestheticsof postmodernism,but, forthese authorsat least, a way
of stakingout new territory
forthe novel, pushing out the boundaries of
whatit is possible to say and representin fiction.The stylisticshock value
of such an aestheticexceeds thatof the actual events depicted,horribleas
theymay be, fortheyare also excuses forincreasinglybaroque variations
on the same themes,equally significantas pretextsfor elaborate experiments with demotic expression as for theircontent-value.These novels
may indeed deal withincest,violence, pornography,deviancy,and so on,
but all of these characteristicsapply equally to the poetics thattheyinflict
on theirreaders,reflectingthe anxieties of a post-experimentalage where
incessant linguisticplay and bricolage are the tools required for the expression of contemporarytechnological reality.In such a climate these
writers,it would seem, feel theneed to flextheirliterarymuscles and compete with the World Wide Web of stories by puttinginto play theirown
versionsof technologicalknow-how.Of course, by tryingto go one better,
theycommitthemselvesto strategiesof excess, as a verybriefanalysis of
the comic impulse in theirwork will prove.
Althoughthereis nothingintrinsicallycomic about any of these novels, the poor joke, the indigentpun, and bathos infectthemat everylevel.
This is hardly surprising,consideringthat they depict a world in which
tragedyis unrecognizable,a mere momentaryvirtuality,and where the
truthof the actual is supplantedby the way thatit is perceived and reacted
to, or re-enactedby its audience. Everythingbecomes mildly amusing,
whetherit be rape, exploitative relationships,sex between fatherand
daughter,or violentdeath,foreverythingworks on the principleof equivalence. The provocationis obvious, but compulsion also plays a part,as if,
like word-junkies,the authorscannotresista quick linguisticfix,a self-indulgentproofof the indigence intrinsicto the world with which theyengage. However, it is not so much thatthese writerssufferfromthe inability to write well and tastefully,but from an addiction to hype and
the desire to crank up theirwritinga notch,the temptaover-the-topness,
tion to use all of the toys as they play theirdirtygame with the novel.
Thus Amis, Rushdie and Self committhemselvesto crass puns, tasteless
wordplay,and sick jokes, the latterrevelinginfin de siecle ribaldry,while
the linguisticplayfulnessof Wintersontakes us beyond the cringe in its
kitschycorniness.Readers wince as they are shown what should remain
126
hidden:themechanicsof language and storyin which thesewritersopenly

glory,the dirtylaundryof the intricacies and intimacies of their craft
shamelesslyaired in public.
The mixingof categoriesand registersand thecrashingobviousness of
the writingstrategiesare more shockingfinallythanthe eventsportrayed,
for they provide the crude special effectsof a vitiatedpoesy. Narrators
turnpornographers,
destroyingtheirtexts' mystiqueby overexposureand
an
overkill,imposing excess of the real (which is really a loss of the real)
and vouchsafingunlimitedaccess to thatwhich should remainhidden. It
should be rememberedthat, according to Baudrillard, "pornographyis
( Seduction 28). A poetics of saturation,a linbaroque over-signification"
or
guisticglut smog, envelops all levels of the diegesis, makingit impossible to see the storyforthe language or,indeed, to recognize any storyat
all, as if the novel were constructedaround special effectsand secondary
to these. The repetitionof motifsand metaphorsis intentionallyheavyhanded,and theconceits to which the authorshave recourseare all excessively self-conscious.These texts do not stop at the recyclingof other
texts,buthave no scruplesin quotingthemselvesas well since theyare devoted to makinga spectacle of themselves.Both enchantedand disgusted
by theirown simulationof the narrativeart, searching for the sublime
throughthe ridiculous,refusingto separatethe readerlyfromthe writerly,
theyteeteron thebrinkof schizophreniaand psychosis.
Ultimately,such exhibitionismmeans that they risk hoisting themselves withtheirown petard.In factthese novels mightbe consideredas
formalexperimentsin literaryhara-kiri,an hypothesisborne out by the
mostlynegativereviews thattheyhave received in the press. Some of the
titleswill sufficeto give an idea: "Someone Needs to Have a Word with
Amis" (Fischer), "Confusion in the Doll's House" (Tandon), "Outdoing
Wilde in Sex, Excess and Snobbery" (Canning), "Eternal Triangles:
JeanetteWinterson'sThe Powerbook is Lost in Cyberspace" (Showalter).
Junkliteratureis one thingif it stays in its own littleghetto,but serious
writersrecyclingits well-triedformulasin order to reinvigoratethe fictional organismis quite another.10
It is also possible to level a charge of mannerismor exacerbatedaestheticismat these writers,and both these accusations are in themselvesa
commenton the dissentingtendenciesat play in novels which flirtwith,
and flitbetween,high-and low-culturalreferencesand style.However,be-
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 127
hind theirseeming loss of integrity,
theirabandonmentof the ethics of
story,and theireschewing of the saving technicalityof the pre-established
rules of the tellingis the growingconfusionbetween the human mind and
the virtualworld of computertechnologythattheyenact commentupon,
illustratingthe indiscriminate all-at-onceness, the wired-upness, and
wired-innesswhich is characteristicof contemporarylife. Thus, in Fury,a
website saga graduallybecomes indistinguishablefromthe "real" story,
one which itselftakes place in a curiously artificialenvironmentresembling a filmset,wherepeople directtheirown lives in accordance withthe
scriptson offer.Winterson'snarratorsuffersfromsimilar existentialand
aestheticconfusion,tryingto be both man and woman at the same time,to
control her fictionalworld and also share responsibilityfor it with her
readers.
The body and the mind are shown to have willinglyand compulsively
delegatedtheirfunctionsto machines and technologyin an orgyof biological and organic confusion, as Clint Smoker's aborted internetaffair
proves when his virtualdreamgirl reveals herselfto be a transsexual.Sigthis incidentprecipitatesthe crisis of the novel, the road accinificantly,
dent in which JosephAndrewsdies. In Dorian, as in Wilde's original,the
artifact,in thiscase thevideo of Dorian, ages ratherthanthecharacter,but
Self adds a twist:not only is the contentaffectedby decadence, but the
medium also, for the cassette predictablywears out. In both The PowerBook and Fury,computersare virtualsubstitutesforsex, replacinghuman
interactionand, in the latterat least, signaling the commodificationof
artisticcreation: "The computerscreen burst into life. Images raced towards him like bazaar traders.This was technologyas hustler,peddlingits
wares, Solanka thought;or,as if in a darkenednightclub,gyratingforhim.
Laptop as lapdancer" (Rushdie 179).
By submittingto the electroniccolonization of the senses, synchronizborrowing withwhat Steven Connor calls the "cultureof interruptions,"
the
"total
flow
and
of
attention
of
television
and
visual
flickering
ing
these
writers
the
of
the
novel
as
we
know
it and
media,"
destroy
integrity
willinglysabotage the conventionsof the reading pact (77, 78). Connor
maintainsthatdevelopmentsin technology,such as digital reproduction,
in
make it more difficultforauthorsto controlresponse and interpretation
an audience. The writersdiscussed here encourage, as well as fear,what
Connor calls "over-reading"and "under-reading"as a way of focusingat-
128
tentionon the dynamicsof the reading act in the technologicalage. In a

similarway,accordingto some, technologyhas challengedthe instrumental pact between humankindand machine and thus the integrityof both.
Technological metastasislooms over these textsas the virus of linguistic
and technicalone-upmanshipand showmanshipseeps into all areas of the
fictionalsystem,overloading it and threateningit with shutdown.Henry
Wotton,the flamboyantcharacterdying of AIDS in Dorian, himself a
writer,provides a metaphorforthis criticalconditionin which the novel
findsitself.Flirtingwithtextualdeath by excess, these authorsseek to reinstateaestheticinvolvementat theheartof an artificialculturallandscape,
a place where everythingis possible and nothingis ever fullyrealized,
whereconsumptioncurrentlystandsin forconsummation.
Escaping from Cyberia: The Dangers of the Post-Real
"The endlessbeginnings,
theinfinite
endings"
- MarkRavenhill,SomeExplicitPolaroids
at the turnof the
Commentingon The PowerBook and fiction-writing
twentiethcentury,Elaine Showalterdescribescontemporarynovels as "all
dressed up and nowhere to go," resortingto the "small change of romance" instead of the big subjects: "They are measuring out in latte
spoons thegreatestsocial materialofferedto fictionsince the 1840s." Certainlyit would seem at timesthatthese novels, a cross-sectionof turn-offiction,have been absorbed into a universeof indiscriminate
the-century
"kulchur"and pop, which lulls itselfinto complacency by imaginingthat
virtualspace is farricherand more interesting
thanreal space. The excitement of playing with and borrowingfromnew media, what Connor describes as a process of "culturalimpingement,"should not, however,obscure the awareness that these works show of the way in which the
aestheticspherehas been absorbed by the economic sphereof production.
The globalization of the market,the perpetualfluxof money,the promiscuity of all signs and of all values, the global diffusionof anythingand
everythingvia communicationnetworksconstitutethe real pornography
of our times. Sexual obscenityis a mere bagatelle in the face of this corporate copulation, a fact which these novels attemptto illustrategraphically.
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 129
One of the consequences of this triumphof consumptionis the loss of
of society
individuality,as well as of a wider solidarity,the fragmentation
into separate groups and tribalizedentities:the gay clique in Dorian , the
in Yellow Dog , the rich and fagangsterunderworldand porn fraternity
mous in Fury, not forgettingWinterson's "rich-enough-to-live-like-apoor-manEurochic" set withtheirweekends in Capri and Paris and their
"
recipes for"salsa di pomodori (Turner).As Naomi Klein suggestsin her
for
book No Logo , thisfragmentation
has importantpolitical ramifications,
the drifttowards identitypolitics of the 1980s may have played into the
hands of corporatepower. Accordingto Klein's analysis,campaigningfor
of marginalizedgroups was veryappealing to sectors
betterrepresentation
of the advertisingindustry,while a recognitionof diversitywas easily
transformedinto a form of niche marketing,a point of view that Self
echoes in a discussion of his novel: "Being gay is a lifestyleoption. . . .
Capitalism's won" (qtd. in Yeh).
In his introductionto the firstvolume of plays by "In-Yer-Face" playwright Mark Ravenhill, Dan Rebellato describes the political consequences of the fading of the subject and the evasion of the corporeal in
contemporarysociety:
thatwe carry
The claim thatthereare only mini-stories
aroundwithus, thatrealityhas ended,thatprogresshas
of course,makesresistanceto thegrand
been discredited,
of
story globalizationimpossible.It makesourexperience
of realityimpossibleto share;we move,once again,from
membersof a commonsociety,to individualconsumersof
individualstory-portions,
(xv)
Accordingto the FrenchthinkerBernardStiegler,the distressof the individual which resultsfromthis stateof affairsmay translateitselfinto neuroses, obsessional behavior,rationalizinglogorrhea,or even collective suicide- all of which are glaringlyin evidence in contemporarytheatreand
fiction.
It is in this lightthatwe can understandthe literaryreaction of Amis,
Rushdie, Self, and Wintersonto the symbolic povertyof our age, the appropriationof the symbolic by industrialtechnology,which has made
aesthetics both a theatreand a weapon of economic conflict. With the
130
nostalgia and conviction of latter-dayRomantics,theyare waging a war

of words against a process of global commodificationwhich appears to
democratizeart,but which instead proposes merelyyet anotherflattened
version of culture.By makingdeviancy theircreed, theyseek to liberate
the libido which has been captured and channeled into production,and
to resist aesthetic conditioning,whatever form that it may take. More
hyper-than post-, they recognize the aporia or lack that characterizes
late capitalism: an empty space or cyber wilderness, our atomic winter
of feelingwhere affecthas been bypassed by technology.It is not to unroll the scroll of the much-delayed apocalypse that they indulge in the
exaggeration of effects- the anti-climacticand even lame endings of
theirnovels prove as much. What they are aiming to impress upon our
minds is an aesthetic consciousness of our dangerouslypost-realcondition, a consciousness which may eventuallyreconnectus to the political
and even the ethical. This may be the most valuable lesson taughtby the
novel at the beginningof the 21st centuryand the catharsis which it so
ardentlyseeks.
Notes
1. A similar
trend
canbe seenincontemporary
American
novelsbyauthors
suchas Bret
EastonEllisandRichard
Powers.
2. Forpolitical
scientists
suchas Francis
BeerandRobert
the"linguistic
turn"
Hariman,
ofpost-realism
whichseeseverything
inrhetorical
rather
thanrealterms,
contains
no
sinister
butinvolves
instead
"anemancipatory
a
"renewed
emundertones,
dynamic,"
andfreedom,"
andfinally,
thebeliefthata "postrealist
can
action,
phasisonagency,
affect
hisorherworld"(4).
3. Foranin-depth
ofthe"In-Yer-Face"
intheatre,
seeAleksSierz,Instudy
phenomenon
Yer-Face
Theatre:
British
DramaToday(London:
FaberandFaber,
2001).
4. See alsoJeanBaudrillard,
Seduction
BrianSinger
, trans.
Macmillan,
(London:
1990).
5. In "Science,
andPostmodernism,"
UrsulaK. Heiseexplains
howtheinTechnology
ternet
atfirst
seemedtopromise
as
well
as
for
democratization,
greater
empowerment
individuals
and
the
transformation
of
social
but
structures, finally
marginalized
only
servedtoreinforce
socialdifferences
andtobolster
ofconup thecorporate
empire
sumerism.
Aesthetics
ofEverydayLife 131
ofPost-Realism
anamusing
Dorianex6. Itis worth
thatSelfincludes
passageinhisnovelwhere
noting
the
loss
of
the
real
to
a
fellow
dinner
Baudrillard's
theories
guest
concerning
plains
(143).
Thisobalsoevokesthetendency
to"enforced
7. Jean-Michel
Ganteau
scopicactivity."
in
the
of
a
to
the
novel
desire
sessionwithseeingandwatching
qualreproduce
speaks
filmscripts
andseemto
thesenovelspartially
resemble
ityoffilm.Indeed,attimes,
ontheir
readers.
strive
forvisual,as wellas mental,
impact
andliterature
canalsobe seenas anopbetween
theinterface
8. Ofcourse,
technology
whenittakes
an
infinite
number
of
novel
to
for
the
openreadings
suggest
portunity
and
"Postmodernism
novel.
Steven
theform
ofthehypertext
Connor,
(See
computer
Camto Postmodernism
in The Cambridge
Literature"
[Cambridge:
Companion
disthiskindof formwhichthewriters
bridgeUP,2004],62-81.)It is precisely
theincurcussedhereseemtowanttocopy,butalso tomock;hence,forexample,
web saga in Furyor theparodyof internet
froma commercial
sionof extracts
evincean amThese
in ThePowerBook.
obviously
contradictory
strategies
surfing
fortheirart,but
whichrepresents
an opportunity
to technology
biguousapproach
alsoa threat.
FicFederman's
inimitation
ofRaymond
"sur-romanticism"
9. I usetheterm
Surfiction:
claim
theambitious
tionNowand Tomorrow
(1975).It is also worth
remembering
todo in
: "WhatI amtrying
inhervolumeofessays,ArtObjects
madebyWinterson
is not
A
that
needs.
form
a
form
that
answers
is
to
make
work
twenty-first-century
my
its
andnot'a novel'as defined
theterm,
'a poem'as we usuallyunderstand
by own
is
finished"
The
novel
form
novels.
I
do
not
write
(191).
genesis.
novelas "literary
to Winterson's
in referring
hasno scruples
10. ElaineShowalter
junk
food."
Works Cited
Jonathan
Yellow
Amis,Martin.
Dog.London:
Cape,2003.
A Reader
. Ed. Thomas
ofEvil."Postmodernism:
a Principle
Jean."Toward
Baudrillard,
1993.355-61.
London:Harvester
Wheatsheaf,
Docherty.
London:Macmillan,
1990.
Trans.BrianSinger.
Seduction.
Paris:Galilee,2000.
IV: 1995-2000.
CoolMemories
132
Hariman.
Just
"Post-Realism,
War,andtheGulfWarDebate."
A.,andRobert
Beer,Francis
A
Examination
Worldwide
ofLanguageUse in thePolitical
Politically
Speaking:
1
CN: Praeger,
1998.
Feldman
and
Christ'
de
Landtsheer.
Ed.
Ofer
Westport,
Sphere.
2005.<http://socsci.colorado.edu/~beer/PAPERS/prjwgwd2.pdf>.
184-95.13July
Rev.ofDorian:AnImWildeinSex,ExcessandSnobbery."
Richard.
"Outdoing
Canning,
10 Oct.2002. 13 July2005.<http://enjoyitation.
By WillSelf.TheIndependent
39656.ece>.
ment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/articlel
TheCambridge
toPostmodSteven.
"Postmodernism
andLiterature."
Connor,
Companion
ernism.
Ed. Steven
Connor.
2004.
62-81.
UP,
Cambridge:
Cambridge
NewYork:BasicBooks,2004.
After
Theory.
Eagleton,
Terry.
Tibor.
"Someone
NeedstoHavea WordwithAmis."Rev.ofYellow
Fischer,
Dog.ByMar4 Aug.2003.13July
tinAmis.TheTelegraph
2005.<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/>.
Jean-Michel.
"Violence
ItsOwnTail:Martin
Amis'sYellow
Ganteau,
Dog." UnpubBiting
lishedResearch
2005.
Paper,
andPostmodernism."
TheCambridge
Heise,UrsulaK. "Science,
Companion
Technology
toPostmodernism.
Ed. StevenConnor.
UP,2004.136-67.
Cambridge:
Cambridge
Kate."She's GotthePower."TheObserver
27 Aug.2000. 13 July2005.
Kellaway,
6121,359570,
OO.html>.
<http:books.guardian.co.Uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,
2001.
Klein,Naomi.NoLogo.London:
Collins,
Harper
Anne."TheAngelofProgress:
Pitfalls
oftheTermTostcolonialism.'"
Social
McClintock,
Text31.2(1992):84-98.
Dan. Introduction.
MarkRavenhill:
London:
Rebellato,
PlaysI. By MarkRavenhill.
2001.ix-xx.
Methuen,
Salman.Fury.London:
Jonathan
Rushdie,
Cape,2001.
London:
2001.
Self,Will.Feeding
Frenzy.
Penguin,
Dorian:AnImitation.
London:Viking
2002.
Penguin,
ThePowerBook
is LostinCyElaine."Eternal
Jeanette
Winterson's
Showalter,
Triangles:
The
2
16
2005.
Guardian
2000.
berspace."
Sept.
July
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/
00.html>.
4058145-99930,
3858,
print/0,
Aesthetics
ofPost-Realism
ofEverydayLife 133
De la misere
Bernard.
1. Uepoquehyperindustrielle.
Paris:Galilee,
Stiegler,
symbolique.
2004.
Bharat.
intheDoll'sHouse."TheTimesLiterary
"Confusion
1 Sept.
Tandon,
Supplement
2001:4-5.
"A TulipandTwoBulbs."London
Review
Turner,
Jenny.
ofBooks22.17.7 Sept.2000.16
2005.<http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/nl7/turn03_.html>.
July
ArtObjects:Essayson Ecstasyand Effrontery.
Jeanette.
London:Vintage,
Winterson,
1996.
ThePowerBook.
London:Vintage,
2001.
"The.Powerbook."
15 July2005. <http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/
10>.
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Wilde:WillSelf'sNewDorianMeetsGrayExpectations."
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This article will examine how a post-realistaesthetics situated withina

World Wide Web of stories,the networkedenvironmentof the internet,

dotingcourtier,a wittyfop or a Cityyuppy"(108). In Furythistragiclack

More thansimple suspensionof disbeliefis now requiredof thereaderof

theseauthorsare all "mimetists,"addictedto imitationand manipulatedby

mirrorsand any pleasure or interestderivedcomes fromwatchingoneself

paradoxicallyungraspable.There are few limitsto thecrimeswhichit will

hidden:themechanicsof language and storyin which thesewritersopenly

tentionon the dynamicsof the reading act in the technologicalage. In a

nostalgia and conviction of latter-dayRomantics,theyare waging a war

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