McSweeney's Issue 31: Vikings, Monks, Philosophers, Whores: old forms, unearthed

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #31

by Dave Eggers (Editor), Douglas Coupland (Contributor), Joy Williams (Contributor)

Barthelme said that "The Novel of the Soil is dead, as are Expressionism, Impressionism, Futurism, Imagism, Vorticism, Regionalism, Realism, the Kitchen Sink School of Drama, the Theatre of the Absurd, the Theatre of Cruelty, Black Humor, and Gongorism." But he left out, pointedly, the Biji, the Nivola, the Graustarkian Romance, the Consuetudinary, the Whore's Dialogue, the Fornaldarsaga, and the eighties, which are not dead; they are all in McSweeney's 31, as rendered by Douglas Coupland, Joy Williams, John Brandon, Shelley Jackson, Mary Miller, and Will Sheff, along with other fugitive genres recaptured by our finest writers, as part of a project to bring them back alive (except for the eighties, there is actually nothing about the eighties). In an oversized format, with annotations, illustrations, and pantoums, Issue 31 aims to introduce you to all the genres you never knew you loved.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Poetry

179 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

[Grant Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another mind blowing issue of McSweeney's. This issue is all about dead forms of stories that aren't used anymore. The issue was inspired by two interns who came up with the idea. Each section included a description of the style, an example and then new stories using that style done by current authors. The new stories have notes in the large margins expanding on themes in the types of stories or giving examples from the original works.

1- Pantoum

My absolute favorites were pantoums, which are poems where lines from each paragraph are repeated in the next paragraph. According to the book it used to be a game about who could most skillfully manipulate these lines in their poems. The more I read the more I liked them. I'm guessing Eggers did too as he both starts and ends the issue with pantoums while every other style only has 1 section.

Jack Davis by Tony Trigilio was an amazing pantoum about the Kennedy assassination. Joel Brouwer's Direct was also stood out among the strong group.

2- Whore Dialog

This was erotic writing in the 16th through 18th centuries that was instructional based graphic dialog between an innocent woman and a more experienced married woman. It was supposed to be instructional as well as pornographic. Mary Miller writes a funny story called A Dialogue Between Two Maids In The Twenty-First Century, One Of Whom Is Skeezer. I think you have to love a story that talks about skeezy as an unwritten rule of nature.

3- Legendary Saga

These stories were from Iceland in the 13th through 15th centuries that were basically tales of war & conquest. While good they kept making me think of world of warcraft for some reason.

4- Biji

I'm a little fuzzy on how Biji truly differentiates itself from other more general storytelling but was written from 220-1912 AD, which is a really long time to just die out. It's characterized in the book as musings, anecdotes, quotations, "believe-it-or-not" fiction, social anthropology. What I do know is that, Survivor by Douglas Coupland is fantastic. It's about a camera man working on a season of Survivor when World War III breaks out. The story was one of the funnier tales I've read in a while.

5- Nivola

These were a series of books written by Miguel de Unamuno between 1914-1930 AD that according to McSweeney's were meandering, plotless & playful. I'm not sure I buy this being a genre. Seems silly to me to call one authors style a complete genre. Wouldn't other authors have to adopt similar styles in order for there to be a larger collective? Dumb. Anyays, Joy Williams wrote a story about a woman named Snow that was certainly plotless and rambling. The best part was a note in the margins from a book of Unamunos called Abel Sanchez where a doctor is jealous of his artist friend. The doctor laments that all he can do is delay death where the painter can capture the person on canvas and make them immortal. Pretty zen and shit.

6- Senryu

These are Japanese poems that are 3 lines long, not rhymed & deal with human nature. I've never read a lot of haiku and there have been so many jokes about them that I wasn't expecting much but these were great.

7- Socratic Dialogue

These are from ancient Greece and Rome and are conversational in tone revolving around philosophical issues. After Citizen Kane by David Thomson was about a conversation in present time between Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Charlie Chaplin, Earnest Hemmingway & Viginia Wolf. They are all drinking at a cafe but they make reference to having died. It's an interesting story.

8- Graustarkian Romance

These romantic stories are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries & are set in an imaginary old fashioned country in Europe. They are described as have this characteristics of Victorian utopianism, swashbuckling & courtly intrigue. Fun, light read but not my favorite.

9- Consuetudinary

These were essentially lists of basic tasks and rituals performed in monasteries between 970-1700 AD. The sample story bored me terribly but Shelly Jackson's story was pure genius and ended up being one of my favorite stories in the issue.

On another note, while the book was a little awkward to read sometime due to its size I loved the cover art with the gold waves on white leather.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

McSweeney's 31 is about bringing back old forms of storytelling by getting contemporary writers to craft stories in that form once more. And it's a success!

The best story was Douglas Coupland's "Survivor" written in the Biji style, a sort of rambling tangential tale, about a cameraman filming the reality show "Survivor" only to find the world outside of the remote island has erupted into full scale nuclear war. Suddenly the remaining humans left on the island have to survive for real. Coupland's narrator is instantly likeable, both jaded and glad of the small things in life, and utterly funny, it's almost worth getting the book for this story alone.

David Thomson's story "After Citizen Kane" written as a Socratic dialogue is a joy to read. He puts Kafka, Hemingway, Woolf, Sontag, and Chaplin into debating the merits of "Citizen Kane" and whether it deserves to constantly win polls that make it the best film of all time. It's clever, witty, and thoroughly enjoyable, it's another great story in this book.

Mary Miller's story is written in the style of the "whore dialogue" with a virgin and an experienced woman talking about sex. It's a medieval approach with 21st century sensibilities and is great fun.

Will Sheff's "Black Metal Circle Saga" is written in the style of the "legendary saga" and reads like it should, vast and epic with vikings killing one another in gruesome ways. Good stuff.

Despite a couple of misfires I won't go into, it's a very strong issue from the guys at McSweeney's. Brilliantly inventive stories presented in a well produced hardback with excellent page design and layouts, if you're thinking about whether it's worth reading or not, it definitely is.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

a treasure, even if only for the pantoun poems! This is an experimental volume examining dead or long-lost forms of literature/poetry, with excerpts of OG examples and fresh takes by current authors.

[Brittany Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the concept behind this issue was fantastic. I particularly liked the Graustarkian Romance, and am tempted to track one down.

[Timons Esaias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the "experimental" editions of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and they can be treasures. I will declare this one to be a treasure.

The back cover sticker has two subtitles: OLD FORMS UNEARTHED and FUGITIVE GENRES RECAPTURED.

It then lists those genres between the subtitles:
pantoums
biji
whore dialogues
Graustarkian romances
nivolas
senryū
Socratic dialogues
consuetudinaries
legendary sagas

The issue consists of an annotated example of each form, and then some bespoke modern versions. Just the annotations of these forms would have made the volume worth the cost. Neither pantoums nor Socratic dialogues are new to me (I just read Lewis Turco's book-length attempted Socratic dialogue on dialogue), but I still enjoyed the examples, and was perhaps pushed toward some experiments there.

I'm also well versed in Icelandic sagas (I do own the complete set), but here, too, enjoyed how the idea was played with.

I took particular note of the section on biji and the one on consuetudinaries, because both could be promising experimental forms for short fiction. I am sad to see that very little of original Chinese biji xiaoshuo has been translated to English, but I intend to play with this form in the near future. (I've just finished reading Denis Johnson's "The Starlight on Idaho" from Largesse of the Sea Maiden, and it might be seen as related to the form.)

Because of the attention to the forms, I now discover that I made no notes on the individual pieces as I went through. I will point out that David Thomson's Socratic dialogue "After Citizen Kane" (a discussion of the film by Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and Charles Chaplin) was a stitch. Orson Welles shows up halfway through.

Literary fictionalists should hunt up a copy of this one, and squirrel it away for repeated consultation.

[A-ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this issues concept: unearthing lost forms of literature and having modern writers create their own take on them. Unfortunately, the idea is stronger than the material, though much of this is borne of the constraints of the genres, not the quality of the writing itself. Oddly enough, I was more taken the by poetry than the stories. Pantoun is a type of poem made from quatrains with two lines from each stanza repeated in the next, either verbatim or slightly modified. The poets clearly had a lot of fun exploring this form, as poets do. The fiction was very hit or miss. The Whore's Dialogue was fun, as was Douglas Coupland's biji which poked fun at the show "Survivor." The nordic saga was interesting, more fun if you know the history of the band Mayhem, yet altogether boring (like most Nordic sagas). My favorite story was the most conventional, the Graustarkian Romance, an adventure story of a courier on his way to a strange Canadian island-state.

Ultimately, the most fun was the historical lesson of how these genres were used in the past to tell a story.

As always with McSweeney's the book itself looked good.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this issue at a used book sale and was intrigued by the premise. This issue explores dead or near-dead forms of writing and juxtaposes samples of the originals with new writing taking on the challenges. You haven't lived till you've read an Icelandic Saga style telling of Swedish death metal blood feuds, let me tell you. The editors included lots of notes to help you understand the context of the originals, and it definitely made me want to try my hand at pantoum poetry.

[Corey Vilhauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excerpt from What I’ve Been Reading - McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 31

"The title page of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 31, promises a lot. Don’t worry. It delivers. Offering a peek into the past, and serving as both a historical overview and a retelling through parody and mimicry, Issue 31 takes long lost literary styles – the Socratic Dialogue, the Whore Dialogue, the Pantoum, the Biji, etc. – and compiles both a classic example and a modern retelling.

It’s this pairing of old and new – and, in turn, the differences and similarities therein – that makes Issue 31 so wonderful. I wouldn’t know a Socratic dialogue from a Shakespeare play if it wasn’t for the example (in this case, THE example: Plato’s Republic). The red text in the margins shows historical references while being unobtrusive enough to ignore in cases of rapt attention."

[Amanda Maregente · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Dave Eggers and have gone out of my way to follow his publications, but sadly I have not kept up-to-date with McSweeney's Quarterly. I intend to resolve this! McSweeney's 31 is dedicated to neglected and deceased forms of literature, one of which is the Pantoum. This happens to be one of my favorite poetic forms. The element I admired most about this publication is the fact that it has notes in the margins that explain facets of the literary forms: elements of the genre, traditional plot structure, and so on. I can see why some reviewers may feel this is distracting if you have to keep looking at the margins, but it's definitely more convenient than end notes. The attempt to revitalize these older forms of literature was well done. The new submissions for Whore Dialogue and Socratic Dialogue were especially entertaining.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting concept---dig up old forms and styles of literature and see what current writers can do with them. Unfortunately by and large the concepts were better than the actual output. In general the poetry came off stronger; maybe this is because poets are used to working under odd constraints, or because they didn't have to carry on the gimmick for quite as long. The strongest narrative pieces to me were Mary Miller's "A Dialogue Between Two Maids in the Twenty-First Century, One of Whom is Skeezy", Douglas Coupland's "Survivor" and Shelley Jackson's "Consuetudinary of the Word Church, or The Church of the Dead Letter" because they used the old forms to tell a new---and good---story with a contemporary spin instead of just imitating the old format.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this volume of McSweeney's. Through McSweeney's I've learned to love short stories because the quality in them is always so high. This volume revives obscure, dead genres of literature. You get a brand new story written in the style of the genre (from whores dialogues to Graustarkian romance). Some of the new stories are brilliant (and there are plenty of high quality writers at work here). But even those that wouldn't hold up on their own (and I'd argue they all have their moments) are interesting. They are all paired with an except of an original work in that form and the new stories are accompanied with notes explaining when something in it is specific to that genre. Fascinating read and there is more than one genre I'd love to track down more of now.

[brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

yeah, so, what i think this vol. made me understand is that my favorite issues of mcswy's are the ones where they find some good stories and put them in an issue with maybe a little interesting artwork or something, and maybe the stories have some interconnected themes and maybe they don't, but they're all pretty->really good stories. my least favorite issues of mcswy's are the ones where they have a great idea for a common bond and they ask authors to write those things. See: the f. scott fitzgerald issue, the fable issue, and some others i'm probably forgetting. There are, as usual, some great moments of writing in here, but by and large, i think i just want to read some stories, man.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

totally freakin sweet. interesting format: they explain a 'dead' form of writing and then a present-day author writes in that form. Some sorta flop but most are totally awesome. I mean, "whore dialogues"! I never knew. I totally want to read shit from the 16th century that is dialogues between nuns talking about how big the priest's wangs are. so good. Some really really good poetry in here too- a form called pantoum that has this awesome droney repetitious structure. There's a sweet socratic dialogue that involves Kafka, Hemingway, Chaplin, Susan Sontag, and Virgina Woolf arguing in heaven about movies. Highly recommended.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite issue of the quarterly so far. It wraps itself around the central conceit of tasking each contributer with reproducing an example of a dead literary style, including simple Japanese poetry, Italian observational novellas, and, most importantly, Viking legendary sagas (I haven't stopped talking about these). What appears in description to be a wanky academic exercise interesting only to book nerds is actually an exciting printed performance piece that comes with the thrill of dusting off past relics and finding that the old things still have quite a bit of shine.

And whore dialogues!

[Kate Cares · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was incredibly excited to read this McSweeney's because of the premise of the issue. Unfortunately, I didn't live up to expectations. As with any issue, there was some good and some bad, with this one more bad then good. The majority of the pantoums were incredible and the updated Socratic Dialogue was really interesting. Shelley Jackson's piece definitely piqued my interest, I'll have to read more of her stuff.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting issue ... it's a look at old literary forms, with examples of them and then modern authors creating new versions of them. To be honest, I didn't love many of the new versions (with the new Socratic dialogue, Gruastarkian romance, and senryus as exceptions) but I really enjoyed learning about old literary forms and there were lots of informative sidenotes with excerpts from old examples of each form..

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better McSweeney's concepts -- revive lost literary formats with new authors -- but because of it these stories are constructed more to fill an order (however competently) than because they absolutely had to be written. And the best stories are all written because they absolutely have to be, of course. A lovely, engaging volume full of esoteric ideas and instructive historical/literary marginalia, just not the most essential of the bunch.

[Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This issue of McSweeney's was devoted to resurrecting forgotten literary forms. Interesting idea in theory, maybe not so great in practice. I can't say that bijis, nivolas or consuetudinaries were particularly fun to read even before they ceased to be written and the modern updates were slogs. On the other hand, some of the poetic forms were nice and I really enjoyed the updates of the legendary saga and socratic dialogue. The brand new Graustarkian romance was my favorite piece in this issue.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the more hit or miss McSweeney's for me, but the hits were real hits. Updated interpretations of forgotten/unused styles is certainly a great concept, but it didn't work for everyone. Some of the stories really felt forced or constrained or, I don't know, just didn't work for me as well as their original counterparts.

And, oddly, the poetry is where it really shined for me.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pantoum! I'm not one for poetry that is overly full of itself. But the very regimented format of pantoum may temporarily reinvigorate my interest. Such is the highlight of this edition of McSweeney's, with a few intriguing diversions between. John Brandon delivers, Shirley Jackson only confuses.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't wait for this issue - the concept: bringing back old forms seems right up my alley. The content though lacks some intellectual weight and veers off into "the land of cuteness" a little too often. I will refer to this for creative writing prompts for class which is why it gets the three stars.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been slowly making my way through this one. Generally, when new issues of McSweeney's come in, they are immediately sent to live in the bathroom -- that's why they live so long on my "Currently Reading" list.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid this ish didn't impress me. The John Brandon story was great, and it's possible that other stories had their moments, but overall this one fell very flat for me.

Can't win 'em all, right? Right.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each section opens with a description of the basic characteristics of a genre, followed by a classic example. Then a modern day example of the genre is presented with sidebars explaining parallels to classical examples. It's really fun.

[David Markwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This McSweeney's didn't do it for me. I like the idea of a quarterly devoted to lost genres but I found most of them to be uninteresting and I found the marginal notes to be non-informative and distracting. The free summer preview that came with the issue was the best part of it.

[Oriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I am now officially in (literary) love with John Brandon.

Uh, and Shelley Jackson scares the shit out of me.

[Roseann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whore dialogues and vikings & monks, Oh My!!!!!!

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue: a revival of old-timeny, rarely-used literary styles. Some are fantastic, some fall flat.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best collection of new short fiction since McSweeney's 30. Michael Cera writes. He's funny. He's not just a line regurgitator.

[Whiskeyb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favourite, but some funny/ interesting bits.