Barthelme's Time Machine

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Time Machine

A Look at Barthelme’s “Sentence”

A brief glance at Barthelme’s “Sentence” might lead one to the conclusion that the story is simple and pure non-sense; completely devoid of all meaning and value in every respect. With such a glance one might even go so far as to call it gibberish � a total waste of the writer’s time and resources and then most definetely a waste of mine. However, a deeper and closer examination would without a doubt lead one to an entirely diffirent, more rewarding conclusion � there are in fact (at least) two highly important “factors of sense” to be found in Barthelme’s “Sentence.” One concerns the deceptive nature of literature as such and the other, to put it as simply as possible, tackles a question of time. I will discuss both of these here � however, for reasons soon to be known, my main emphasis is going to be on that second factor regarding time.




There is a strong deconstructive element in the “Sentence” and it’s deconstruction is primarily aimed, in a broad sense via literature, at language. Barthelme’s story has an important twist though in that it’s deconstructing does not take place solely on an aesthetic level or a theoretical one. In a sense it launches its attacks from both of these standpoints. If we were to break this argument up into smaller units we could say that on the aesthetic level attacker number one is the story itself. “Sentence” is essentially a work of art and as such dismantles itself to reveal what “makes it tick” so to speak and one might then define those shorter stories within the story as subsequent (smaller) attackers from the same army, for example the story about the married couple or the description of Robert Houdin’s Fantastic Orange Tree. This latter example becomes in fact a rather well accomplished flirt with the deception in Barthelme’s “Sentence” - being so completely shameless in it’s lying. On the other hand we have the theoretical side of the “Sentence” � it’s strong awareness of reader-response criticism and it’s somewhat scientific or at least methodical approach to dissecting itself.

thus, considering everything carefully, in the sweet light of the

ceremonial axes, in the run-mad skimble-skamble of information

sickness, we must make a decision as to wether we should proceed,

or go back, in the latter case enjoying the pathos of eradication, in

the former case reading an erotic advertisment

Here we have a perfect example of the forementioned reader-response criticism awareness. In this the “Sentence” not only assumes a reader (which can of course be said of many other and much older literary works) but also assumes that this reader can be a somewhat “unstable” or perhaps fleeting phenomenon. This concluding segment of the story can be viewed as a fair example of the latter

and Ludwig falls through the Tugendhat House into the history

of man-made objects; a disappointment, to be sure, but it reminds

us that the sentence itself is a man-made object, not the one we

wanted of course, but still a construction of man, a structure to be

valued for its weakness, as opposed to the strength of stones

And here we have the bottom line; the “Sentence” or any sentence for that matter (and both literature and language as such along with them) is weak and nobody should try to define it in any other way. Language is a “man-made object” and is therefore subject to the same completely unavoidable human flaws as man himself. However, we are still supposed to treasure the sentence for what its worth, even though it does not posess “the strength of stones” so Barthelme’s story shouldn’t be considered as pessimistic. Language has value; just simply not the value man is normally inclined to grant it.

Turning then to the above mentioned question of time. Barthelme’s “Sentence” is in fact primarily concerned with time and furthermore one could say that it deals with this issue mostly on a philosophical level rather than a literary one. In this respect one could even go so far as to call the story’s literary value a nice but never the less unavoidable by-product. There are a number of allusions to time itself to be found in the “Sentence” � some of whom are quite obvious but there are also a few (in a sense) hidden and more complex allusions.

Or a long sentence moving at a certain pace down the page aiming

for the bottom […] where it can rest, or stop for a moment to think

about the questions raised by its own (temporary) existance, which

ends when the page is turned, or the sentence falls out of the mind

that holds it (temporarily) in some kind of an embrace

It is clear that one understands this opening segment of the “Sentence” more fully when one has read the story through to its end although both “opening segment” and “end” don’t do justice to the story’s logic so to speak � the “Sentence” in fact does not begin nor end anywhere. Furthermore it is not supposed to begin nor end, it is supposed to take place beyond time so to speak, since its main subject matter is time itself. What Barthelme attempts is a sort of neutralization of time, and thus tries to create some, although small and vulnerable, room to say what is in fact impossible to say about time. Regarding this, one can for example mention his use of brackets around the direct allusions to time, thereby giving these allusions a sort of “beside the point” feeling. I think this is absolutely necessary � to receive the story’s full impact the reader must be fairly unaware of its hidden agenda so to speak. The “Sentence” points the reader to where the beast lies but never goes so near as to wake it up beacause then it would most certainly be ripped to pieces before the reader had even had a chance to figure out what was being pointed at.

In this respect Barthelme fails and of course can not but fail (the neutralization of time already presupposes its existance) but his “Sentence” is highly successful in other ways. It does say a certain “something” although nobody could ever explain in detail what that certain “something” is. It manages to raise questions concerning the nature of time - questions a reader might not have contemplated until reading Barthelme’s “Sentence” � questions that may or may not lead one to conclude that time is in itself a cold and even brutal phenomenon. Time doesn’t fly. Time never flies. This conception of time, like language “is a man-made object” and furthermore it is perhaps a conception that man can not live without. It is perhaps absolutely essential for human beings to feel that they have some sort of control where time is concerned even though this control is for the most part fabricated by man himself. A fabrication needed to prevent “a condition so damaging to real-time social intercourse of any kind.” It is clear that this discussion of Barthelme’s “Sentence” has been drifting (somewhat aimlessly I’ll admit) from its original deconstructive reasoning to a more existential one. However, I think this shift in theoretical emphasis is a logical one. Realizing that language is essentially without meaning and that time is simply there and constant may be the quickest way to experience, first-hand, existential anxiety and despair.

Gertrude Stein is an ideal example of an author who values the weakness of language in this “Barthelmenian” sense. Her Tender Buttons are well aware of the flaws that inevitably taint all “man-made” objects and in this particular work she is also quite often concerned with questions of time. True, she doesn’t answer these questions, like Barthelme, on a somewhat theoretical basis but then again theory aims toward meaning - Tender Buttons on the other hand, and in a sense, denies its existance. A look at Stein



A WAIST

[…]

A piece of crystal. A change, in a change that is remarkable there

is no reason to say that there was a time.

[…]

ROASTBEEF

[…]

All the time that there is use there is use and any time there is a

surface there is a surface, and every time there is an exception

there is an exception and every time there is a division there is a

dividing. Any time there is a surface there is a surface and every

time there is a suggestion there is a suggestion and every time

there is silence there is silence and every time that is languid there

is that there then and not oftener, not always, not particular, tender

and changing and external and central and surrounded and singular

and simple and the same and the surface and the circle and the

shine and the succor and the white and the same and the better and

the red and the same and the centre and the yellow and the tender

and the better, and altogether.

[…]

Barthelme’s “Sentence” and this latter example from Stein’s Tender Buttons may of course be considered as somewhat similar projects. In the second sentence of this latter example Stein “breaks the rules” in two important ways. Firstly, this said sentence is far from coherent and, perhaps more importantly, it also refuses to be concluded but goes on and on via endless “and’s” and is in that respect very similar to Barthelme’s story. Stein lacks Barthelme’s theoretical or scientific support (for reasons already known) and the “Sentence” is of course considerably longer but I think the basic thought is still the same. We can say then (for the purposes of this discussion) that Stein, with her Tender Buttons, provides the interior decorations for Barthelme’s Time Machine half a century before it was built.

Sources

Barthelme, Donald. 170. “Sentence” - Postmodern American Fiction (ed. Paula Geyh, Fred G. Leebron, Andrew Levy.) W.W. Norton & Company. 18. New York.

Stein, Gertrude. 114. Tender Buttons, http//www.bartleby.com/140





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