METTE HERMANN OG STINE KARLSEN
W H E N
L E S S
I S
M O R E
AMERICAN MINIMALIST FICTION
GYLDENDAL
W H E N LE SS IS MO R E – A ME R IC A N MIN IMALIS T FICTION
Af Mette Hermann og Stine Karlsen
1. udgave, 1. oplag 2014
© 2014 Gyldendal A/S, København
Kopiering fra denne bog må kun finde sted på institutioner,
der har indgået aftale med Copydan, og kun inden for de
i aftalen nævnte rammer.
Forlagsredaktion: Katrine Cohen
Ekstern redaktion: Dorthe Hjort Jensen
Grafisk tilrettelæggelse: Karen Christensen Design
Tryk:
ISBN 978-87-02-15334-7
Billedfortegnelse
s. 6 © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/Polfoto, s. 7 Nick Cunard /eyevine/Polfoto, s. 9 © Bob
Adelman/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 13 © Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, s. 16 ©
Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 23 © Bob Adelman/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 24 © Marion Ettlinger/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 28 © Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, s. 30
Gyldendals Mediearkiv, s. 36 Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, s. 37 © Marion
Ettlinger/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 38 © Amy Bennet. Reprinted by permission, s. 39 © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/Polfoto, s. 44 Bridgeman Art Library/Scanpix, s. 52 Time & Life Pictures/Getty
Images, s. 62 © Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, s. 64 © Bob Adelman/Corbis/
Polfoto, s. 69 Edward Hopper, Night Windows (1928). Oil on canvas, 73,7 x 86,4 cm. Gift of
John Hay Whitney. 248. 1940 © 2013. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/
Scala, Florence, s. 70 © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/Polfoto, s. 71 © Bob Adelman/Corbis/
Polfoto, s. 75 © Amy Bennet. Reprinted by permission, s. 78 © Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 80 Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, s. 86 © Marion Ettlinger/Corbis/Polfoto,
s. 91 © Marion Ettlinger/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 96 Bridgeman Art Library/Scanpix, s. 100 Time &
Life Pictures/Getty Images, s. 105 © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/Polfoto, s. 106 © Bob Adelman/
Corbis/Polfoto, s. 109 © Bob Adelman/Corbis/Polfoto, s. 113 © Amy Bennet. Reprinted by
permission, s. 117 Gyldendals Mediearkiv.
www.gyldendal-uddannelse.dk
INDHOLD
E M NE I: FAMILY MATTERS
24
Tekster
Richard Brautigan: Lint
Jayne Anne Phillips: Solo Dance
Raymond Carver: One More Thing
Raymond Carver: Chef’s House
Raymond Carver: Photograph of My Father
on His Twenty-Second Year
Amy Hempel: Celia Is Back
13
28
Billeder
Gregory Crewdson: Untitled
Gregory Crewdson: Untitled
6
7
9
16
23
E M NE II: FEMALE L IVES
30
37
39
44
52
Tekster
Ernest Hemingway: Cat in the Rain
Amy Hempel: Memoir
Richard Brautigan: Greyhound Tragedy
Ann Beattie: Janus
Frederick Barthelme: Domestic
36
38
62
Billeder
Edward Hopper: Room in Brooklyn
Amy Bennett: Throwing Fits
Gregory Crewdson: Untitled
E M NE III: VOYEURISM
64
70
71
78
80
86
91
Tekster
Raymond Carver: The Idea
Richard Brautigan: -2
Raymond Carver: Neighbors
Raymond Carver: The Man Outside
Frederick Barthelme: Harmonic
Amy Hempel: The Annex
Amy Hempel: Beach Town
69
75
Billeder
Edward Hopper: Night Windows
Amy Bennett: Exposure
E M NE IV: EN D IN GS
96
100
105
106
109
117
Tekster
Ann Beattie: Snow
Frederick Barthelme: Galveston
Richard Brautigan: Love Poem
Raymond Carver: Morning, Thinking of Empire
Raymond Carver: Why Don’t You Dance?
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises (excerpt)
113
Billede
Amy Bennett: Coming to Grips
FAMILY MAT TERS
F
M
A
A
M
T
I
T
L
E
Y
R
S
5
6 WHEN LESS IS MORE
Richard Brautigan
LINT
I
5
’m haunted a little this evening by feelings that have no vocabulary and
events that should be explained in dimensions of lint rather than words.
I’ve been examining half-scraps of my childhood. They are pieces of
distant life that have no form or meaning. They are things that just happened like lint.
(1976)
GETTING STARTED
Look at the word cloud below in which the text “Lint” is presented. Discuss in pairs your first impression of the text. Discuss the meaning of
the words that stand out.
DIGGING INTO THE TEXT
Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text and come up
with a paraphrase for each:
PHRASE
PARAPHRASE
“feelings that have no vocabulary”
“events that should be explained in dimensions of lint”
“examining half-scraps”
“no form or meaning”
“things that just happened like lint”
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
1. Summarize the contents of the text in one sentence.
2. Comment on the themes and message of the text.
3. Explain the title.
4.Suggest an alternative title that supports your interpretation of the text.
5. Characterize the literary style of the text.
FAMILY MAT TERS
7
Jayne Anne Phillips
SOLO DANCE
S
5
10
15
20
he hadn’t been home in a long time. Her father had a cancer operation;
she went home. She went to the hospital every other day, sitting for
hours beside his bed. She could see him flickering. He was very thin
and the skin on his legs was soft and pure like fine paper. She remembered
him saying “I give up” when he was angry or exasperated. Sometimes he
said it as a joke, “Jesus Christ, I give up.” She kept hearing his voice in the
words now even though he wasn’t saying them. She read his get-well cards
aloud to him. One was from her mother’s relatives. Well, he said, I don’t
think they had anything to do with it. He was speaking of his divorce two
years before.
She put lather in a hospital cup and he got up to shave in the mirror. He
had to lean on the sink. She combed the back of his head with water and
her fingers. His hair was long after six weeks in the hospital, a gray-silver
full of shadow and smudge. She helped him get slowly into bed and he lay
against the pillows breathing heavily. She sat down again. I can’t wait till I
get some weight on me, he said, so I can knock down that son-of-a-bitch
lawyer right in front of the courthouse.
She sat watching her father. His robe was patterned with tiny horses, sorrels in arabesques. When she was very young, she had started ballet lessons.
At the first class her teacher raised her leg until her foot was flat against the
wall beside her head. He held it there and looked at her. She looked back at
him, thinking to herself it didn’t hurt and willing her eyes dry.
Her father was twisting his hands. How’s your mother? She must be half
crazy by now. She wanted to be by herself and brother that’s what she got.
(1979)
DIGGING INTO THE TEXT I
1. Underline all adjectives in the four paragraphs.
2. Explain what effect is created in the text by using these adjectives.
3.Give each of the four paragraphs a heading that sums up its
contents.
Paragraph 1:
Paragraph 2:
Paragraph 3:
Paragraph 4:
flicker flimre
exasperated ophidset
lather sæbeskum
smudge snavs
robe slåbrok
patterned mønstret
sorrel fuks (rødbrun hest)
arabesque geometrisk
mønster
8 WHEN LESS IS MORE
DIGGING INTO THE TEXT II
1. Pick sentences from the text with information about:
– The father
– The daughter
– The mother
– The parents’ marriage
2. Discuss the themes and message of the text.
3. Explain the title and relate it to the themes and message of the text.
JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS’ WRITING STYLE
In an interview at the New York Writers State Institute from 2009, Jayne
Anne Phillips talks about her writing style:
When I was beginning as a poet and writing very short fictions, I loved the
work of silence. The work that happens between the lines and the work
that happens in the end of a line. I’ve also sort of said that fiction shouldn’t
just be clever little snippets of prose. They really should act … they really
should work as stories. They should have endings that more or less open
up something for the reader, that sort of drop the reader off a cliff so to
speak, and that sort of continue beyond the page. And I love the idea of
sort of making leaps inside a work of prose. And I think the novel form
allows me to do that. My novels were never exactly conventional in the
way that they are put together, and each book seems sort of … you know,
pull me in and teach me how to write it in the same way that I think a good
book teaches the reader how to read it. I mean you get into that book and
you begin to understand what the writer is doing and you then go with it,
and that is certainly the kind of writing that I am most interested in reading
and the kind of writing I am most interested in doing. I want to do writing
that is revelatory to me in some way.
1. Highlight the passages that characterize Phillips’s writing style.
2.Characterize the writing style in “Solo Dance” and apply the
information from the quotation in your characterization.
FAMILY MAT TERS
9
Raymond Carver
ONE MORE THING
L
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
.D.’s wife, Maxine, told him to get out the night she came home from
work and found L.D. drunk again and being abusive to Rae, their
fifteen-year-old. L.D. and Rae were at the kitchen table, arguing.
Maxine didn’t have time to put her purse away or take off her coat.
Rae said, “Tell him, Mom. Tell him what we talked about.”
L.D. turned the glass in his hand, but he didn’t drink from it. Maxine
had him in a fierce and disquieting gaze.
“Keep your nose out of things you don’t know anything about,” L.D.
said. L.D. said, “I can’t take anybody seriously who sits around all day
reading astrology magazines.”
“This has nothing to do with astrology,” Rae said. “You don’t have to
insult me.”
As for Rae, she hadn’t been to school for weeks. She said no one could
make her go. Maxine said it was another tragedy in a long line of low-rent
tragedies.
“Why don’t you both shut up!” Maxine said. “My God, I already have
a headache.”
“Tell him, Mom,” Rae said. “Tell him it’s all in his head. Anybody who
knows anything about it will tell you that’s where it is!”
“How about sugar diabetes?” L.D. said. “What about epilepsy? Can the
brain control that?”
He raised the glass right under Maxine’s eyes and finished his drink.
“Diabetes too,” Rae said. “Epilepsy. Anything! The brain is the most
powerful organ in the body, for your information.”
She picked up his cigarettes and lit one for herself.
“Cancer. What about cancer?” L.D. said.
He thought he might have her there. He looked at Maxine.
“I don’t know how we got started on this,” L.D. said to Maxine.
“Cancer,” Rae said, and shook her head at his simplicity. “Cancer too.
Cancer starts in the brain.”
“That’s crazy!” L.D. said. He hit the table with the flat of his hand. The
ashtray jumped. His glass fell on its side and rolled off. “You’re crazy, Rae!
Do you know that?”
“Shut up!” Maxine said.
She unbuttoned her coat and put her purse down on the counter. She
looked at L.D. and said, “L.D., I’ve had it. So has Rae. So has everyone who
knows you. I’ve been thinking it over. I want you out of here. Tonight. This
minute. Now. Get the hell out of here right now.”
L.D. had no intention of going anywhere. He looked from Maxine to
be abusive tale grimt til
fierce (her) rasende
disquieting foruroligende
low-rent med lav husleje
simplicity enfoldighed
counter køkkenbord
10 W H E N L E S S I S M O R E
jar of pickles glas med
syltede agurker
pitch kaste
to a tee på en prik
Naugahyde suitcase
kuffert af imiteret læder
clasp spænde
brass buckle bæltespænde af messing
dental floss tandtråd
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
the jar of pickles that had been on the table since lunch. He picked up the
jar and pitched it through the kitchen window.
Rae jumped away from her chair. “God! He’s crazy!”
She went to stand next to her mother. She took in little breaths through
her mouth.
“Call the police,” Maxine said. “He’s violent. Get out of the kitchen before he hurts you. Call the police,” Maxine said.
They started backing out of the kitchen.
“I’m going,” L.D. said. “All right, I’m going right now,” he said. “It suits
me to a tee. You’re nuts here, anyway. This is a nuthouse. There’s another
life out there. Believe me, this is no picnic, this nuthouse.”
He could feel air from the hole in the window on his face.
“That’s where I’m going,” he said. “Out there,” he said and pointed.
“Good,” Maxine said.
“All right, I’m going,” L.D. said.
He slammed down his hand on the table. He kicked back his chair. He
stood up.
“You won’t ever see me again,” L.D. said.
“You’ve given me plenty to remember you by,” Maxine said.
“Okay,” L.D. said.
“Go on, get out,” Maxine said. “I’m paying the rent here, and I’m saying
go. Now.”
“I’m going,” he said. “Don’t push me,” he said. “I’m going.”
“Just go,” Maxine said.
“I’m leaving this nuthouse,” L.D. said.
He made his way into the bedroom and took one of her suitcases from
the closet. It was an old white Naugahyde suitcase with a broken clasp.
She’d used to pack it full of sweater sets and carry it with her to college. He
had gone to college too. He threw the suitcase onto the bed and began putting in his underwear, his trousers, his shirts, his sweaters, his old leather
belt with the brass buckle, his socks, and everything else he had. From the
nightstand he took magazines for reading material. He took the ashtray.
He put everything he could into the suitcase, everything it could hold. He
fastened the one good side, secured the strap, and then he remembered
his bathroom things. He found the vinyl shaving bag up on the closet shelf
behind her hats. Into it went his razor and his shaving cream, his talcum
powder and his stick deodorant and his toothbrush. He took the toothpaste too. And then he got the dental floss.
***
He could hear them in the living room talking in their low voices.
He washed his face. He put the soap and towel into the shaving bag.
FAMILY MAT TERS
5
10
15
20
25
Then he put in the soap dish and the glass from over the sink and the fingernail clippers and her eyelash curlers.
He couldn’t get the shaving bag closed, but that was okay. He put on his
coat and picked up the suitcase. He went into the living room.
When she saw him, Maxine put her arm around Rae’s shoulders.
“This is it,” L.D. said. “This is good-bye,” he said. “I don’t know what
else to say except I guess I’ll never see you again. You too,” L.D. said to Rae.
“You and your crackpot ideas.”
“Go,” Maxine said. She took Rae’s hand. “Haven’t you done enough
damage in this house already? Go on, L.D. Get out of here and leave us in
peace.”
“Just remember,” Rae said. “It’s in your head.”
“I’m going, that’s all I can say,” L.D. said. “Anyplace. Away from this
nuthouse,” he said. “That’s the main thing.”
He took a last look around the living room and then he moved the
suitcase from one hand to the other and put the shaving bag under his
arm. “I’ll be in touch, Rae. Maxine, you’re better off out of this nuthouse
yourself.”
“You made it into a nuthouse,” Maxine said. “If it’s a nuthouse, then
that’s what you made it.”
He put the suitcase down and the shaving bag on top of the suitcase.
He drew himself up and faced them.
They moved back.
“Watch it, Mom,” Rae said.
“I’m not afraid of him,” Maxine said.
L.D. put the shaving bag under his arm and picked up the suitcase.
He said, “I just want to say one more thing.”
But then he could not think what it could possibly be.
(1981)
GETTING STARTED
Individually: What is your first impression of the text? Write a brief
summary of the text in no more than 100 words.
In pairs: Find a partner and read your summaries aloud to each other.
Discuss your first impressions of the text and what it is about.
draw oneself up
rette sig op
11
12 W H E N L E S S I S M O R E
DIGGING INTO THE TEXT I: QUOTATIONS
Describe L.D. by analyzing his actions (and inactions) in the story. Read
the quotations below and discuss what they reveal about L.D.
CHARACTERIZATION CLUE
W HAT IT REVEALS ABOUT L.D.
He raised the glass right under Maxine’s eyes and
finished his drink.
L.D. had no intention of going anywhere. He looked
from Maxine to the jar of pickles that had been on
the table since lunch. He picked up the jar and
pitched it through the kitchen window.
“I’m going,” L.D. said. ”All right, I’m going right
now,” he said. “It suits me to a tee. You’re nuts here,
anyway. This is a nuthouse. There’s another life out
there. Believe me, this is no picnic, this nuthouse.”
He threw the suitcase onto the bed and began
putting in his underwear, his trousers, his shirts, his
sweaters, his old leather belt with the brass buckle,
his socks, and everything else he had…
He put the suitcase down and the shaving bag on top
of the suitcase. He drew himself up and faced them.
He said, “I just want to say one more thing.”
But then he could not think what it could possibly be.
DIGGING INTO THE TEXT II: CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Based on your analysis of the clues above, do a character analysis of L.D.
at the beginning and at the end of the story. Discuss the following list of
adjectives and place them into the table. Add 3 adjectives of your own.
inarticulate – aggressive – pathetic – simple-minded – assertive –
uncaring – willful – manipulative – detached – desperate – submissive –
caring – wretched – harmless – passive – ignorant – determined
THE BEGINNING
THE END
FAMILY MAT TERS
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
In pairs: Discuss the possible interpretations of “One More Thing” listed
below and decide which one you find more convincing. Support your
choice with references to the text.
a.“One More Thing” scorns the American lower middle class by
portraying its members as inarticulate, dimwitted and generally
disagreeable people.
b.“One More Thing” is a story about human willpower.
c.“One More Thing” shows us the devastating effects which alcoholism
and unemployment can have on a family.
d.Through its main characters “One More Thing” offers an insight into
the emotional inadequacies of modern-day families.
e.In “One More Thing” we see a typical example of the breakdown of
traditional gender roles.
ANALYZING A PHOTOGRAPH: GREGORY CREWDSON
In pairs: Describe what you see in the photograph and comment on:
– The setting
– The atmosphere
– The style
Compare the photograph to “One More Thing” and discuss whether the
man in the photograph could be a depiction of L.D. after the story has
ended.
Gregory Crewdson:
Untitled, 2002
13
14 W H E N L E S S I S M O R E
ALTERNATE ENDINGS
“One More Thing” first appeared in Raymond Carver’s 1981 short story
collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. However
“One More Thing”, along with several other stories, had been heavily
edited before publishing by Carver’s editor, Gordon Lish. The name of
the daughter in “One More Thing” was changed from Bea to Rae as was
the ending that Carver originally wrote.
Consider the two endings and address the points below.
1.Describe the differences between the two versions in terms of
language and style.
2.In what way does Carver’s original ending alter your understanding
of the three characters? Go back over your characterization of L.D.
and the adjectives you chose. Would you leave some out or add new
ones if presented with the original ending?
3.Discuss to what extent our entire reading of the story would be
influenced if the publisher had chosen to leave the ending the way
Carver originally intended it.
4.Find information on the internet about the various reactions to the
edited versions of Carver’s work.
Lish’s ending as it appears in your text:
L.D. put the shaving bag under his arm again and once more picked up
the suitcase.
He said, “I just want to say one more thing.”
But then could not think what it possibly could be.
[End]
The original Carver ending:
tingle dirre
L.D. put the shaving bag under his arm again and once more picked up
the suitcase. “I just want to say one more thing, Maxine. Listen to me.
Remember this,” he said. “I love you. I love you no matter what happens. I
love you too, Bea. I love you both.” He stood there at the door and felt his
lips begin to tingle as he looked at them for what, he believed, might be
the last time. “Good-bye,” he said.
“You call this love, L.D.?” Maxine said. She let go of Bea’s hand. She
made a fist. Then she shook her head and jammed her hands into her coat
pockets. She stared at him and then dropped her eyes to something on
the floor near his shoes.
FAMILY MAT TERS
It came to him with a shock that he would remember this night and her like
this. He was terrified to think that in the years ahead she might come to
resemble a woman he couldn’t place, a mute figure in a long coat, standing
in the middle of a lighted room with lower eyes.
“Maxine!” he cried. “Maxine!”
“Is this what love is, L.D.?” she said, fixing her eyes on him. Her eyes
were terrible and deep, and he held them as long as he could.
[End]
mute tavs
15