Commentary

Each Thursday I post a brief article on some metafictional/metanonfictional/metamusical/metajournalistic text.  Since meta is such a broad topic and can be difficult to categorize, here’s a list of texts in alphabetical order to better aid you in finding what you’re looking for!

"Drawing Hands" by Escher

C:

• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

D:

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Don Quixote (prologue and preceding verses) by Miguel de Cervantes

F:

• Fall Out Boy: Infinity on High

H:

• Harry Potter, Years 1 – 3
• Hip Pockets Guide to Alternative Guitar Tunings

L:

• Lost

M:

• The Men Who Stare at Goats, directed by Grant Heslov

N:

• National Novel Writing Month (fan fiction)
• National Novel Writing Month (participating)

O:

• Official Book Club Selection (cover) by Kathy Griffin

P:

• Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan (author interview)

S:

• Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O’Malley
• The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris by Leila Marouane
• The Simpsons (opening)
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman
• Star Lee Magazine, Issue 2 (cover)

T:

• Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

W:

• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

General essays:

• The argument for fiction that knows it’s fiction
• Can art change the world?
• How metajournalism can save the news media (maybe)
• But it was true for me: Genre bending in metafiction
• Meta-mercial gimmicks
• ‘Meta’ defined
• Why the ‘story-within-the-story construction is inherently metafictional
• Writers writing about writing