We sit, hunched over the words that appear on our smartphone screens, altogether unaware of the story of our lives that is going on around us, even as we focus on the minutiae of our social media "friends'" daily activities. These are the stories that draw our undivided attention, and these are the types of deftly observed, wholly engrossing narratives that make up Stephen Thomas's debut flash-fiction collection, The Jokes.
Presented in the form of a most common present-tense—as a series of moments in a social-media-like 'feed'—this collection of very short stories riffs on the form of 'the joke,' but as this might be understood by the best culture-critical comedians of our time: Andy Kaufman, Stephen Wright, Norm McDonald, Jon Stewart, Richard Pryor. And much like those stand-up artists who sanctified the joke-form, these stories deal with sometimes-intense subjects, yet with a kind of SSRI-like placidity that allows readers to cling to each word as the narratives unfold.
In drawing comparisons to Lydia Davis's creatively detached but inventively curious writing, Thomas's The Jokes is a book for thinkers; sad and funny, hopeful and determined, nostalgic and cerebral, these vignettes offer a very personal, yet amazingly relatable entry-point into big ideas that trouble our times—religion, sexuality, life and death, and ways of being in the world—all while coloured by touches of weird otherworldliness that living in someone else’s social-media feed can bring.
Fans of metafiction and philosophy, 'alt lit,’ artist and academics (particularly students of art history and theory), readers interested in experimental and somewhat cerebral fiction in the vein of Ben Marcus, Lily Hoang, or Maggie Nelson, as well as audiences interested in the uses and abuses of Internet and social media, will connect with Thomas’s particular take on worlds within worlds.
Presented in the form of a most common present-tense—as a series of moments in a social-media-like 'feed'—this collection of very short stories riffs on the form of 'the joke,' but as this might be understood by the best culture-critical comedians of our time: Andy Kaufman, Stephen Wright, Norm McDonald, Jon Stewart, Richard Pryor. And much like those stand-up artists who sanctified the joke-form, these stories deal with sometimes-intense subjects, yet with a kind of SSRI-like placidity that allows readers to cling to each word as the narratives unfold.
In drawing comparisons to Lydia Davis's creatively detached but inventively curious writing, Thomas's The Jokes is a book for thinkers; sad and funny, hopeful and determined, nostalgic and cerebral, these vignettes offer a very personal, yet amazingly relatable entry-point into big ideas that trouble our times—religion, sexuality, life and death, and ways of being in the world—all while coloured by touches of weird otherworldliness that living in someone else’s social-media feed can bring.
Fans of metafiction and philosophy, 'alt lit,’ artist and academics (particularly students of art history and theory), readers interested in experimental and somewhat cerebral fiction in the vein of Ben Marcus, Lily Hoang, or Maggie Nelson, as well as audiences interested in the uses and abuses of Internet and social media, will connect with Thomas’s particular take on worlds within worlds.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Date published
- 2016.
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- C813/.6
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Stories Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781771662062 9781771662086
- LCCN
- PR9199.3.T457
- LCCN Item number
- J65 2016eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (147 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)kck00236792 (OCoLC)941433333 (CaOOCEL)451564
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- One 14
- Taken 16
- The fall 17
- One principle 18
- The snake 20
- Joined a band 21
- Beach sounds 22
- The miracle 24
- Jesus hernandez-browne 25
- Day 26
- A fine balance 28
- Visitation 29
- The fear 30
- A little story 32
- Flowers for grandma 33
- A simple country girl 34
- The balloon 36
- In the hagia sophia 37
- On this day in history 38
- Presidential graves 40
- Two 42
- Two girls 44
- Beer 45
- Ethnic Joke 46
- A hero of a tale 48
- Sandbox 49
- In the company of others 50
- The demon 52
- Very strong men 53
- The pressure at the bottom of the ocean 54
- Edward 56
- The voyage of monsieur ronflé 57
- Weekend 58
- A one and a two 60
- The piercing 62
- Things 63
- The motives 64
- Tree 66
- One path to the Lake 68
- Extraordinary Lives 69
- I can't even remember 70
- The moon 72
- Fishing 73
- Mr. death 74
- The deep 76
- Lost at the zoo 77
- Coming of age 78
- Milestones 80
- The wait 82
- In perpetuity 83
- The liffey 84
- The shiny metal bunny, pt. 1 86
- The shiny metal bunny, pt. 2 87
- The shiney metal bunny, pt. 3 88
- My family 90
- Will 92
- Atlantis 93
- Wendy's 94
- Zombie attack 96
- The crow 97
- Some things are hard to talk about 100
- The ethicists 102
- Unmarried 103
- Somewhere in the world 104
- Scenes 106
- Lovebirds 108
- Metamorphoses 109
- Tsunami 110
- Ikea 112
- The priest and the sex worker 113
- Oasis 114
- Stuart 116
- America's next top model 117
- Afterlife 118
- Baby 120
- Knock knock 121
- Dead baby joke 123
- The end 126
- Murder 128
- Asleep at the wheel 129
- The mural at cowan 130
- The discipline 132
- Art 134
- The jogger's vision 135
- Learning how to live 136
- The angel of mercy 138
- Behind the scenes 139
- The suicide blogger 140
- The director 142
- The thinker 143
- A good place 144
- The dancers 146
- In 147
- Fragile courage 148
- Acknowledgments 151
- Colophon 153
