Saturday Show #74: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

Summary: Live recording of the Austin Writing Workshop, a grad-level fiction writing meet-up held in Austin, TX. Approximate timestamps and topics are below.<br> 0:00 Excerpt from “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline” written by George Saunders, performed by Frank Marcopolos<br> 1:56 Frank’s introduction to the podcast<br> 5:21 Workshop analysis of a draft of the short story, “Eroticoffica” by Frank Marcopolos, including the theme of Rules, rules of storytelling and postmodern literary fiction, comedy of the story, accuracy of the sound of the dialogue, coffee rules, Austin’s coffee culture, the cult of the Castle, rules of the writing cult, erotica, pure enjoyment derived from the story, purpose of the footnotes (Track Changes), “hawt,” funny elements of the story, David Foster Wallace, “Infinite Jest,” explanation of words via Track Changes, options for using Track Changes, “The Place,” definitions of postmodernism, flatness, blending together of the two main characters, dialogue accuracy, writing in the style of an erotica story, sidebars, teasers of really good things, need for more conflict, white eyeshadow and lipstick, facility of the author with a change in writing style, understanding the narrator, enjoyable style, re-writing, sentence clarity and readability, flow, self-indulgence, winning over a non-postmodern audience, “trite” as an unfair criticism, gimmicks, surface theme, constriction of rules, the creative freedom, length of the piece, developing the right details of the story, the guy with his dick in the board, sex in the 1960s, side-notes as real stories, lack of clarity about setting, sci-fi, Kindle Millionaires, Joe Konrath, Amanda Hocking, characters with opposing characteristics, the intro, setting up a bunch of mistakes, experimental techniques, genre of postmodernism, relativism, flippy language, dry realism professors, Richard Ford, theme, Ernest Hemingway, pop and literary genre, George Saunders, short story classes in college, accepted academic stories and ones that are not, hating the story less the second time through, the thing that stands out being the dick in the board, story lacking hope or emotion, alt lit, Tao Lin, traditional techniques, blanching of the story, defending Frank as opposed to tearing him down, “trite” dialogue, gangster dialogue, “Whatevs,” story being easier to critique, unnecessary dialogue, being the bearer of good news, Michael Ward, Frank’s other stories, adventure stories, tarboosh, Track Changes coming in late, setting up expectations and then upsetting expectations, anything goes for postmodernism, the carrot of the marsh mallow at the end, discursiveness, rules for reasons, researching the origins of marsh mallows, Egypt, socially-enforced rules, juxtaposing two different positions, subtlety, foil for the marsh mallow, throw-away thoughts, the masculine principle and the feminine principle, subconscious ideas, authentic dialogue, too-authentic dialogue, fictional dialogue, and talking noises.<br> 43:08 Workshop analysis of another member’s story, including huffing, Bukowski, Huffington Post, brain cells, enjoyment of the story, theme of class warfare, isolation and loneliness, understanding the era of the story, 1963, narrator ages, obsession with old money, Hawaii, the Hamptons, character empathy, shadows of grief, religion, hula shows, Nancy Drew quotes, Sherlock Holmes, gatekeepers, depth of the story, plot summary, boredom, getting felt up, variation of sentence length, confusing syntax, MLA Style Guide, fragments, The Elements of Style, Strunk and White, Chicago Manual of Style, editors, grade school in the 1800s, baronnesses, Hawaii as a state, Tahiti, rich people, old-money islanders, 1960’s airline-flight clothing, pilots, wearing wings, cookies, stale peanuts, and comedians on the P.A.<br> 1:02:41 Workshop analysis of “CivilWarLand ...