The Modifications to Fiction

John Barth, American novelist, in his piece "On Minimalist Fiction" gives us the new modifications to fiction. He entitles these type of works as minimalist fiction. He states the minimalist fiction is the most simple type of fiction. He says that minimalist fiction is stripped-down of all of its elements: vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric, and non-emotive tone. Also minimalist fiction has minimal material: characters, exposition, action, and plot.

When reading this piece it was hard to tell if Barth was towards or against minimalist fiction. Yet he is somewhat defending it when he quotes Hemingway, " You could omit anything if you knew that you omitted, and the omitted part would strength the story and make people feel something more than they understood..." I think he used to line to say that even though minimalist fiction can be lacking in many elements that you still get the whole perception of a piece. As well as, missing a part can mean that the reader can interpret or put the missing piece however they feel like.