Postmodernism Isn't Scary: Donald Barthelme's Snow White

The first in a series of video lectures exploring concepts, lessons, and pleasures I've absorbed from some of postmodernism's greatest works

In an attempt to destigmatize some of the doodoo surrounding postmodernism as a bowl of tropes designed for bros with taped glasses, I’m going to be recording a series of video lectures describing and unpacking some of my favorite and most personally influential postmodernist works.

It’s video so I don’t have to write all the time and you don’t have to read all the time, which I hear is something that critics of pomo seem to take a task to, when people do that, without good reason. Because everything that exists should be for good reason.

To kick things off, we have Donald Barthelme’s Snow White (1967), which I believe is the novel I’ve read more times than any other, and early enough on in my development that it made a major impact on how I think about writing and the world.

This is the cover of the copy of SW I own:

But here are some other rather weird ones from the past:

Personally I prefer the weird ones by a country mile.

These vids will be paywall only to protect me from myself. This one runs at right around 45 minutes. Enjoy!