Post-Exoticism in 10 Lessons, Lesson 11

Volodine's books (Minor Angels, Naming the Jungle) aren't so much novels as bizarre games of alternate reality, chronicling the lives and works of the fictitious "Post-Exotic" writers, whose complex and challenging novels and poems have led to their being imprisoned, persecuted, or assassinated outright. This book begins with an account of the death of Lutz Bassmann, last of the Post-Exotics, then explores the origins of the movement in "revolutionary shamanism" and lays out a wonderfully baffling catalog of sub-genres that only vaguely resemble any real existing literature. Volodine introduces stalwart underground "mercenaries of speech" like the mad poet Ellen Dawkes, and provides excerpts from Post-Exotic romances, novellas, and critiques of titles like Mirrors of the Cadaver; there is also a list of invented techniques such as "narrative scansion" and the "under narrator," as well as an appendix listing all 343 known Post-Exotic works%E2%80%94several of which "Volodine" has actually published under a variety of pseudonyms. Taken as the sum of its parts, this book isn't much more than a curiosity, but as a primer for Volodine's fascinating career project, it's required reading. By redefining the role of writers in society and building a fantasy universe where they are both revered mystics and enemies of the state, Volodine carries literature into a realm that only the likes of Borges and Calvino could have anticipated. (May)