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Anachronism is an obvious comic device in The King (1990), Donald Barthelme’s last, posthumously published novel, and as such invariably commands comment. Barthelme places or “transposes” the Arthurian court into the period of Second World War Britain, something in the manner of what’s known today as the allohistorical genre, in which it is imagined how Read more

Here are some more circa 2000 commercial images from Japan. There’s not much difference between Eastern and Western cultures in the way they fabricate mythological/ideological messages via semiotic techniques. But there are cultural idiosyncrasies as well, which feed easily into a global mythological context. 50 cc “naked” Zoomer Let’s kick start this post with the Read more

In the era of the Internet and social media, an awareness of semiotics, also known as the “study of signs,” is useful to have. This article considers some elementary but illuminating ideas in the field. What are signs and how do they convey meaning? What is the message and how should we read it? We Read more

Picaresque novel cum Bildungsroman, Thomas Mann’s Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man (1954; trans. Denver Lindley) resonates with the late modernist psyche. Mann’s novel prefigures a psychiatric epidemic of our day, psychopathic narcissism. In this widespread postmodern condition, the fragile identity implodes in its own process of self-aggrandizement, sucking in those closest around. The Talented Read more

The processes of myth-creation rely on a crossover between reality and imagination. A collective psychological space  exists in which history and myth merge and become indistinguishable from one another.  In the heyday of the television western, for instance, how many young children were aware there was any difference in status between historical characters such as Read more