The Soft Machine (literary analysis)
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Jump to navigationJump to searchPorush, David. The Soft Machine. New York: Methuen, 1985.
On the "cybernetic fiction" of K. Vonnegut (esp. Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan), William Burroughs (primarily The Soft Machine and The Ticket that Exploded),[1] T. Pynchon, J. Barth (primarily Giles Goat-Boy), Samuel Becket (The Lost Ones), J. McElroy (primarily Plus), and Donald Barthelme ("The Explanation"); also covers the "positivistic" work of Raymond Roussel (Locus Solus [1914] and its "paving beetle" art machine) and—very usefully—the philosophical, scientific, and general cultural background for postmodern literature. Rev. W. D. Stevens, FR #83 (Sept. 1985): 30.