FREE FLOATING OPERA / THE END OF THE ROAD PDF

John Barth | 188 pages | 11 Mar 1997 | Bantam Dell Publishing Group Inc | 9780385240895 | English | New York, United States The Floating Opera - Wikipedia

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. The Floating Opera The End of the Road I believe they're both written at almost the same time, tell the same story with different characters, and have different outcomes. They're fabulous. In Floating Opera / the End of the Road old age, I've taken to reading books a second time -- something I never did nor understand before. I hope to stumble upon these soon in a used book store; the only place I do any serious book shopping. Having come across him through one of my favorite authors David Foster Wallace and his story "Westward the Course of Empire Takes it's Way," which was a response to Barth's short story from which the prior collection derived it's name, I needed to get more! This was not a disappointment! It is never easy to tell if a writer of short stories which was how I became introduced to him would be a good novelist. Nevertheless I found these two stories just as spellbinding. As his first two attempts at becoming an author, they of course have their juvenile aspects to them and conventions that seemed forced - but I personally feel every author should be forgiven that in their early career when attempting to Floating Opera / the End of the Road their voice. His ability to develop a protagonist of solid depth though is incredible. During a time when other authors were writing about the active individual in a rapidly individualizing time in American , Barth was able Floating Opera / the End of the Road create two characters of non-action; a progenitor to future meta-fiction. Although the anti-climax had already begun to emerge in literature, these two stories have the courage to force it upon the reader whereas others had only really had a dwindling down without exploiting the fact that the modern text need not satisfy, in fact must not satisfy, in a unsatisfactory world. The book is nihilistic and maybe that's a natural reaction. Quotes: "I needn't explain that that's how much of life works: our friends float past; we become involved with them; they float on, and we must rely on hearsay or lose track of them completely; they float back again, and we either renew our friendship - catch up to date - or find that they and we don't comprehend each other any more. A gesture of temporality, a gesture of eternity. It is in the tension between these two gestures that I have lived my adult life. The End of the Road. The Floating Opera. Home Groups Talk More Zeitgeist. I Agree This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and if not signed in for advertising. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms. Members Reviews Popularity Average rating Mentions 4 23, 3. Their relationship to each other is evident not only in their ribald subject matter but in the eccentric characters and bitterly humorous tone of the narratives. Both concern strange, consuming love triangles and the destructive effect of an overactive intellect on the emotions. Separately they give two very different views of a universal human drama. Together they illustrate the beginnings of an illustrious career. Recently added by mrsmith9thenwhathappenedprivate library, tmphjahdubdjlWisJohnsonpinaxceguiliorvibinu. No current Talk conversations about this book. Rick's review of John Irving made me think of this writer and these two books. PhilSroka Apr 12, I liked "The Floating Opera" a lot when I read it in high school, but not so much when I re-read it later in life. The End of the Road by . You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data. My books tend to come in pairs, as did their author; I am half of a set of opposite-sex twins. The Floating Opera was written in the first three months of ; its companion piece, The End of the Roadin the last three months of the same year. Prefatory Note. To someone like myself, who literary activities have been confined since mainly to legal briefs and Inquiry -writing, the hardest thing about the task at hand- viz. In a sense, I am Jacob Horner. Truth to tell, I knew that all along. The Floating Opera remains the very first of a very young Floating Opera / the End of the Road, but I'm pleased that it will sink or float now in its original design. This clear, I made a note to intercept my note to Jimmy Andrews, stubbed out after all my cigar, undressed, went to bed in enormous soothing solitude, and slept fairly well despite the absurd thunderstorm that soon afterwards broke all around. References to this work on external resources. No library descriptions found. Book description. Haiku summary. Add to Your books. Add to wishlist. Quick Links Amazon. Amazon Kindle 0 editions. Audible 0 editions. CD Audiobook 0 editions. Project Gutenberg 0 editions. Google Books — Loading Local Book Search. Swap 22 want. Popular covers See all 8 covers. Rating Average: 3. Is this you? Become a LibraryThing Author. Recently added by. For more help Floating Opera / the End of the Road the Common Knowledge help page. Original publication date. Foreword The Floating Opera was written Floating Opera / the End of the Road the first three months of ; its companion piece, The End of the Roadin the last three months of the same year. Prefatory Note To someone like myself, who literary activities have been confined since mainly to legal briefs and Inquiry -writing, the hardest thing about the task at hand- viz. Foreword Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers. Prefatory Note Click to show. The Floating Opera Click Floating Opera / the End of the Road show. Add to Your books Add to wishlist Quick Links. The Floating Opera and The End of the Road by John Barth

The first edition of the novel was published inand was written by John Barth. The book was published in multiple languages including English, consists of pages and is available in Paperback format. The main characters of this fiction, literature story are. The book has been awarded withand many others. Please note that the tricks or techniques listed in this pdf are either fictional or claimed to work by its creator. We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you. Some of the techniques listed in The Floating Opera and The End of the Road may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url. If you see a Google Drive link instead Floating Opera / the End of the Road source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to fiction, literature lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Weisbecker by Allan C. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth. by John Barth. by John Barth. The Golden Age Floating Opera / the End of the Road John C. John Dies at the End by David Wong. Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi. The Last Colony by John Scalzi. The Floating Opera | novel by Barth | Britannica

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The End of the Road by John Barth. Its first-person protagonist, Jacob Horner, suffers from nihilistic paralysis: an inability to choose a course of action. As part of a schedule of unorthodox therapies, Horner's nameless Doctor has him take a teaching job at a local teachers college. There Horner befriends the super-rational existentialist Joe Morgan and his wife Rennie, with whom he becomes entangled in a Its first-person protagonist, Jacob Horner, suffers from nihilistic paralysis: an inability to choose a course of action. There Horner befriends the super-rational existentialist Joe Morgan and his wife Rennie, with whom he becomes entangled in a love triangle, with tragic results. The book deals with several issues that were controversial at the time, including racial segregation and abortion. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published October 28th by Bantam Books first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The End of the Roadplease sign up. Does Floating Opera / the End of the Road have an idea for good philosophical discussion questions about "The End of the Road? Aysegul Baran I do: what does the doctor want to do? See 2 questions about The End of the Road…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The End of the Road. Jun 30, Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it really liked it Shelves: sartrereadreviewsstarswittgensteinbarth. Floating Opera / the End of the Road the introduction to the package, Barth gives the impression that "TEOTR" is the lesser of the two, and that both are inferior to his later, more metafictional works. It's a deeply philosophical novel. However, what appeals to me is Barth's ability to examine profound philosophical issues within what is ostensibly a realist fictional construction, even if it betrays an occasional black sense of humour or sense of the absurdity of the cosmos. Yet, Barth pulls all of these together into a novel that is both thought-provoking and entertaining. Sometimes I wondered whether he was supposed to be Little Jack Horner. Others, at a glance, "Horner" looked like "Homer". His therapist, perhaps an alter ego, remains anonymous, and is known only as "the Doctor". An English teacher grammarJake describes himself as a "placid-depressive" : "My lows were low, but my highs were middle-register. It's as if he is Floating Opera / the End of the Road standing at the abyss, suspecting that it's all absurd. A Rational Being In contrast, Joe's life is driven by logic and what is rationally justifiable: "I can always explain what I do or say. While he purports to be objective, he is still essentially subjective: "In my ethics the most a man can ever do is be right from his point of view However, his thought processes are so Floating Opera / the End of the Road that they almost seem irrational from a personal or social point of view. Joe sees no inconsistency in his predicament: " And when you say good-bye to objective values, you really have to flex your muscles and keep your eyes open, because you're on your own. Yet all those around her seem to regard her with condescension and disdain. She comes across as devoid of an ego, " All of the characters in the novel are, or are treated like, beings on the edge of nothingness. Apart from the Doctor, Rennie has the greatest insight into Jake's condition: "I think you don't exist at all. There's too many of you. It's more than just masks that you put on and take off - we all have masks. But you You're like somebody in a dream. You're not strong and you're not weak. You're nothing. He demonstrates his approach by asking how many seats there are in the Cleveland Municipal Stadium: "Logic will never give you the answer to my question. Only Knowledge Floating Opera / the End of the Road the World will answer it The world is everything that is the case, and what the case is, is not a matter of logic Now, everything we do must be oriented toward choice and action. It doesn't matter whether this action is more or less reasonable than inaction; the point is that it is its opposite [i. Join things Say something! Take a role! The second involves an adulterous relationship with Rennie. In a way, the two males present her with a choice between Reason and Unreason. However, it's equally possible that Joe is just another double or alter ego that allows Jake to learn about himself. Rennie is the least satisfactorily drawn of the characters. She seems to be just a board upon which the metaphysical forces play out their game of cause and effect. Yet, she is the one who suffers most from the clash of these pseudo-titans. Towards a Therapeutic Mythopoesis If there is any flaw in the novel, it is that, for Jake, Rennie is just a minor character, a bit part in the film of his life. However, once again, the Doctor might have an explanation: "Not only are we the heroes of our own life stories - we're the ones who conceive the story, and give other people the essences of minor characters. But since no man's life story as a rule is ever one story with a coherent plot, we're always reconceiving just the sort of hero we are, Floating Opera / the End of the Road consequently just the sort of minor roles that other people are supposed to play The first task is to heal your Self, then you can take care of the Other s. His destination? Attractatus Floating Opera / the End of the Road Medico-Logico-Philosophicus 1. View all 4 comments. The End of the Road is a one way ticket to the blind alley of life. Now, not only are we the heroes of our own life stories — we're the ones who conceive the story, and give other people the essences of minor characters. But since no man's life story as a rule is ever one story with a coherent plot, we're always reconceiving just the sort of hero we are, and consequently just the sort of minor roles that other people are supposed to play. Every man is a centre of his own world and the entire unive The End of the Road is a one way ticket to the blind alley of life. Every man is a centre of his own world and the entire universe is turning around him. All the other personages, including God, are the secondary figures just serving as an entourage. View all 5 comments. Jan 29, Paul Bryant rated it did not like it Shelves: . Result : wretched. But, you know, it has its fans. There they say : This fiction explores what would happen if certain philosophical positions were worked out in reality. Well, I think I was reading this wrong. What he gives to us as a plot is either stupid, on the one hand, or really stupid, on the other. But I did see a fair bit of sloshing around, which I tried to ignore. The two guys pontificate for pages about their philosophical positions and about the wife. We note with no surprise that the wife does not get to pontificate.