12 Comments

1. September 29th, 2009 / 7:16 pm Blake Butler—

   i got a rule for F. Barthelme: “We can’t care about more than one book about old white dudes fucking young weird white women in apartments; if you think they do, or do yourself, I don’t know, think about something else?”

2. September 29th, 2009 / 3:16 pm Blake Butler—

   i got a rule for F. Barthelme: “We can’t care about more than one book about old white dudes fucking young weird white women in apartments; if you think they do, or do yourself, I don’t know, think about something else?”

3. September 29th, 2009 / 7:22 pm Richard—

   or kill yourself

4. September 29th, 2009 / 3:22 pm Richard—

   or kill yourself

5. September 29th, 2009 / 7:56 pm Nathan Tyree—

   I might be able to care about sand mutants. Once I cared about a very old man with enormous wings

6. September 29th, 2009 / 3:56 pm Nathan Tyree—

   I might be able to care about sand mutants. Once I cared about a very old man with enormous wings

7. September 29th, 2009 / 8:24 pm Sam Pink—

   i think that, provided i get a good plot and characterization of the sand mutant, that i would care about the sand mutant, especially if he also didn’t like his job, or maybe had a rough romantic relationship with someone, maybe even another sand mutant.

8. September 29th, 2009 / 4:24 pm Sam Pink—

   i think that, provided i get a good plot and characterization of the sand mutant, that i would care about the sand mutant, especially if he also didn’t like his job, or maybe had a rough romantic relationship with someone, maybe even another sand mutant.

9. September 29th, 2009 / 11:46 pm Jack Boettcher—

   Isn’t a sand mutant just what happens to a normal person after the cataclysmic combo of climate change drought and long-term industrial pollution in a populated area? Hasn’t George Saunders written about mutants (not sand, but still) in a way that would probably be okay with Frederick Barthelme?

   Also, NO. 40: 39 rules is too many rules for fiction-writers, or any writers. I say this even as I could probably keep a few of his in mind when I’m getting carried away trying to ignore the idea of there being rules. And I realize that these 39 rules really just make up Barthelme’s aesthetic viewpoint, but he’s the one calling it a primer (primers generally being intended for the non-participant or person with new interest).

   I think I would like to have seen this list revised or annotated by Donald Barthelme.

10. September 29th, 2009 / 7:46 pm Jack Boettcher—

    Isn’t a sand mutant just what happens to a normal person after the cataclysmic combo of climate change drought and long-term industrial pollution in a populated area? Hasn’t George Saunders written about mutants (not sand, but still) in a way that would probably be okay with Frederick Barthelme?

    Also, NO. 40: 39 rules is too many rules for fiction-writers, or any writers. I say this even as I could probably keep a few of his in mind when I’m getting carried away trying to ignore the idea of there being rules. And I realize that these 39 rules really just make up Barthelme’s aesthetic viewpoint, but he’s the one calling it a primer (primers generally being intended for the non-participant or person with new interest).

    I think I would like to have seen this list revised or annotated by Donald Barthelme.

11. September 29th, 2009 / 11:57 pm Blake Butler—

    I second that emotion

12. September 29th, 2009 / 7:57 pm Blake Butler—

    I second that emotion