Raymond Carver, 4/18 (Thursday)

Hey.  What's up?

     I'm presenting Thursday on the work of Raymond Carver, an author who has been on my brain for the better part of a year now (his work was the subject of a thesis I had been writing up until about two weeks ago).  I think it'll be nice to discuss him in a less idiosyncratic way for a change, perhaps trying to see some broader problems his work brings up.
     Carver is best known for his short fiction (although he wrote fine poetry and essays as well).  He published a few (3) collections of short stories in a span of about a decade (~1975-1985), collections which became critically and somewhat commercially successful.  I guess you could argue about the validity of his success, but one thing I think you could say with some surety is that Carver became a key figure in the historiography of the short story and is, therefore, worthy of our time and attention.  People have called him a minimalist, a blue-collar writer, a k-mart fictionist, along with a lot of other names, pejorative or otherwise.  He's controversial for a number of reasons but I'll give you a more thorough going-over of his work and life in class if it seems necessary or you feel like being talked at.  I don't think it's too important to get all this extra stuff right now...everything you need to come up with what I think would be a valid and constructed view of his work is provided here (at least enough to get going).
     I've spent a good chunk of time in my research going through the Lilly's Carver-related documents, of which there is plenty.  Out of all this stuff (letters, drafts, etc.) I've found these two to be (maybe) the most striking/heart-wrenching/interesting out of the bunch.  They're always what I think of when I have in my head the Carver material.  Moreover, they get at some key aspects and questions related to Carver's writing and the process of documentation in general...this idea of the ethical bounds involved with a deceased author is interesting to me and is certainly in there, so is a hearty discussion of editorship, authorial intent, and how the writing market affects all this (I think).  We could go a couple of ways with it of course, and probably will.
     I hope you'll go over "Fat" closely and get the chance to read both the edited version and the published one.   Something which is often overlooked in Carver's work is the intensity which he puts into every line, every word.  This nuancing gets lost sometimes by the sheer objectivity of his characters and plots (the dread one might feel, the menace of the situation, etc.).  There are of course many differences between the draft and the final version.  It should be noted the edited draft is marked up by Gordon Lish who we have discussed in class before. Also on reserve is the box which that draft came from, full of others, interesting on their own right.  Maybe some of you have read Carver's "Cathedral," an often anthologized story.  You can find the edited versions of that in there as well.  This is, of course, going beyond what's asked: I simply would like you to read the tagged sections from two folders on reserve but if you find yourself curious, I have read over everything in there and could sum things up for the rest of the class.  Extra work wouldn't go unappreciated is what I'm saying.  I'd love to have someone to talk to about this stuff.
     As for the other document...Maryann Burk-Carver was Ray's first wife.The letter you are to read was her last to him.  Carver, a notorious and ferocious smoker, died of lung cancer in 1988.  Although their relationship was often nothing but turmoil, this letter says a lot about Carver and does so in what I think is a haunting, interesting way.

See you all tomorrow.

-a

(hope those links work...)