Alt-X[cerpts]: Twilight of the Bums

Twilight of the Bums is an excerpt from Federman's book of the same name, a collaborative collection of 85 microfictions.

"George Chambers & Raymond Federman are the Abbot and Costello of postmodernism. You never know who's on first or who's at bat but the result is always a home run. GC's most famous book is The Bonnyclabber or maybe The Last Man Standing and RF's is Double or Nothing or maybe Take It Or Leave It.

Though this is the first publication of The Twilight of the Bums in America, the book has already appeared in a German translation under the title Penner Rap [we, the bums, would have preferred the Bum Rap] -- and the book is currently being translated into French.

'In The Twilight of the Bums Raymond Federman and George Chambers re-map the territory of laughterature, a term Federman had coined to name his own style of writing. In this brilliantly written book Federman and Chambers collaborate to even further transcend the limits of laughterature in order to demonstrate the effects of a cutting edge narration. The result is a reassuring end to the mechanics of reference from sign to world, and a manifestation of the general metaphor of meaning independent of the conditions of the strategy of representation. Federman and Chambers succeed in performing their fiction as a game within language, and set out to launch play as an exhaustion of transcendental signifieds. In this visually and thematically self-reflexive 'microfiction' (an aptly definitive term for this text) a postmodern wormhole is created in which the authors both weave and disperse the fragmentary narrative of the two old bums who exhibit their digressive skills and explosive linguistic virtuosity. . . .' -- Serpil Opermann . . .

Since our inception in 1993, Alt-X's primary mission has been to challenge the art and literary publishing establishments by supporting some of the most iconoclastic voices and visions in contemporary art and writing. Our Alt-X Virtual Imprint brings to web readers a must have library of uncategorizable writing being produced by some of the most provocative artists in contemporary new media culture. As eclectic writing makes its footprint into the electrosphere, we no longer ask 'What is literature?' but, more importantly, 'What is literature's exitstrategy?'" -- from Alt-X