laurelinwonder's review against another edition
4.0
In these 41 fictions, most less than a page, Marcus takes us on a postmodern ride through the mess of our homes and social customs. Deformed structures, using a form pioneered by Gertrude Stein. Coining new terms as necessary, this sensuous realism full of disjointed action, where Marcus is the editor. it reads like a technical manual and like lyric poetry, Marcus's clear eye for the suburban sublime allows his definitions, of the structures and categories we impose on ourselves to take hold, to unhinge what we think we know.
neveractuallyreading's review against another edition
I was assigned this book for class so I had to read it but honestly, you can get the gist of what the book is trying to do after the first few pages so it was unnecessary for me to finish it.
gjpeace's review against another edition
2.0
I (think I) get what Marcus was going for with this book. I respect it, even enjoy it, at least in theory. But The Age of Wire and String did almost nothing for me, and I never really caught the inclination to dig deeper (although I did anyways, I.e. I tried to). Sorry, I guess, but this just wasn't for me.
screen_memory's review against another edition
5.0
This is a codex of history and guidelines for a reality that is other than the one we know. The Age of Wire and String is completely divorced from this world; devoid of sense. The signifiers are all familiar, but what is signified cannot be understood until the reader, having first reviewed an incomprehensible diagram, studies the following glossary of terms (pictured). The language in this book (titled as a collection of stories; a misleading subtitle) is all Marcus' own; it corresponds to a world we are not familiar with, a world into which only a glimpse is allowed through a (no doubt perplexing) reading of the book.
I first caught wind of Marcus through some excerpts of the Flame Alphabet posted by another user and, some time later, in a moment of blind serendipity, thumbed through an old issue of The White Review to find it contained an interview with Marcus, but I settled for Wire and String since the bookstore I visited didn't have The Flame Alphabet.
This is a damn strange book which at first glance presents itself as mere stories or perhaps essays on certain apparently hum-drum themes: sleep, God, food, the house, animal, weather, persons, etc. Also pictured is one of my favorite chapters (Brian, Treated to a Delicate Meal; second picture) which is so absurd it nearly made me laugh out loud.
I haven't read through anything like this. It was a fascinating and quick read (the pages are full of all sorts of arcane sketches and diagrams), and I had only read through twenty or so pages before I made a trip to another local bookstore that stocked The Flame Alphabet to read once I was finished with this. What a trip.
I first caught wind of Marcus through some excerpts of the Flame Alphabet posted by another user and, some time later, in a moment of blind serendipity, thumbed through an old issue of The White Review to find it contained an interview with Marcus, but I settled for Wire and String since the bookstore I visited didn't have The Flame Alphabet.
This is a damn strange book which at first glance presents itself as mere stories or perhaps essays on certain apparently hum-drum themes: sleep, God, food, the house, animal, weather, persons, etc. Also pictured is one of my favorite chapters (Brian, Treated to a Delicate Meal; second picture) which is so absurd it nearly made me laugh out loud.
I haven't read through anything like this. It was a fascinating and quick read (the pages are full of all sorts of arcane sketches and diagrams), and I had only read through twenty or so pages before I made a trip to another local bookstore that stocked The Flame Alphabet to read once I was finished with this. What a trip.
matthewcpeck's review against another edition
4.0
A really odd book to which it's difficult to assign a star rating, 'The Age Of Wire And String' is a technically a book of short stories in the way that 'Revolution 9' is technically a Beatles song. It's written like an almanac or encyclopedia of the rituals, history, and jargon of an America in a parallel dimension. The idea of a normal sentence or image is tossed out into the abyss as one reads clinical descriptions of musical legs and angels in the grass. (I read the 2013 Granta version with abstract illustrations by Catrin Morgan that make everything that much more disorienting.)
In between the short, encyclopedia-entry-like works are 2 longer pieces that are more recognizable stories, albeit really weird stories. 'The Weather Killer' recounts an apocalypse-cum-origin myth in spare, Biblical prose that heightens the hallucinatory madness of the events described. And 'The Animal Husband' is a distorted, seemingly personal account of childhood that maybe is a key to understanding the whole of the book, in which nighttime is when the 'bird eats black air' and writing is 'scratching away the white'.
'Wire And String' is hard to describe - at times it reminded me of the playful Irish genius triptych of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, and Flann O'Brien. At other times it reminded me of LSD-fueled 60s rock lyrics. But one of Marcus's greatest feats is making this book a lot of fun to read, from start to finish. I even laughed out loud at times, simply at the surprise of a word or name used in a unorthodox way. I can only hope that a thousand years from now, after some kind of cataclysm has erased all traces of our society, an archaeologist will dig up 'The Age Of Wire And String' and believe it to be a historical document.
In between the short, encyclopedia-entry-like works are 2 longer pieces that are more recognizable stories, albeit really weird stories. 'The Weather Killer' recounts an apocalypse-cum-origin myth in spare, Biblical prose that heightens the hallucinatory madness of the events described. And 'The Animal Husband' is a distorted, seemingly personal account of childhood that maybe is a key to understanding the whole of the book, in which nighttime is when the 'bird eats black air' and writing is 'scratching away the white'.
'Wire And String' is hard to describe - at times it reminded me of the playful Irish genius triptych of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, and Flann O'Brien. At other times it reminded me of LSD-fueled 60s rock lyrics. But one of Marcus's greatest feats is making this book a lot of fun to read, from start to finish. I even laughed out loud at times, simply at the surprise of a word or name used in a unorthodox way. I can only hope that a thousand years from now, after some kind of cataclysm has erased all traces of our society, an archaeologist will dig up 'The Age Of Wire And String' and believe it to be a historical document.
i_masad's review against another edition
I AM FINALLY FINISHED WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL THING OF STRANGE LANGUAGE.