Who's more autistic -- me for not understanding it, or Markson for writing it?
Why did our meme lord regard this guy as the epitome of modern experimental fiction?
>>7993158
Because he was a scientist I think and I'm pretty sure that he didnt mean that what he said was experimental as in different but more progressive and thinking about fiction.
>>7993158
Note that Wallace specifically said Witgenstein's Mistress -- not Markson in general -- was pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in the US.
Markson is well known for his mixing aphorisms, quotations, and other ephemera by and about famous authors rather than writing in the usual style. However, Witgenstein's Mistress doesn't really do this. There are lots of cultural references, yes, but there's a proper narrator and some sort of obvious progression. I think that book is a much greater accomplishment than the rest of his work.
>>7993158
Because he hadn't read McElroy
>>7993725
McElroy is good but I don't know that I'd call him experimental in the same way that Markson is. He just has a very strange way of writing on the sentence level. Aside from his syntax there's nothing particularly novel, is there?