The table of contents of David Markson’s copy of A History of Latin Literature by Moses Hadas:
On which Markson wrote next to the chapter on “SATIRE”:
“—Juvenal, Martial”
—-
Speaking of Latin satire, let us glance at something Françoise Palleau-Papin wrote about Markson’s one novel that is no longer in print: Miss Doll, Go Home:
“Markson chose the killer for a literary mouthpiece because, ironically enough, the man who eventually murders all his accomplices is a free spirit like no other. His iconoclastic love for literature as well as people turns into hatred and destruction taken with the same pleasure, both love and hate being the proverbial two sides of the coin. The gangster’s favorite reading gives the key to the composition of the crime novel, which is akin to Latin satire, etymologically ‘a satire in the modern sense of the word, but also in the original Latin sense of a medley, a composite genre that mixes prose, verse, tragedy and comedy into a delightful motley of tones and genres.’ That satire takes delight in the grotesque mixing of tones, in incongruous borrowings and a well-crafted off-hand manner. In the Satyricon, Eumolpus, a serious-minded character, defines the work of a poet in such terms: ‘not can a mind, unless unricht with learning, be deliver’d of a birth of poetry.’ (p. 190). Miss Doll is so ‘enriched with learning’ that the delivery is a hilarious mixture of genres.”
From Pg. 36 of This Is Not A Tragedy by Françoise Palleau-Papin.
All Markson’s novels in some sense a satire?
Lanx satura.
“An assemblage.” – Reader’s Block, pg. 140.
“Bricolage.” – Reader’s Block, pg. 141.
Lanx satura.
As in: “A full dish of various kinds of fruits.”
“A hilarious mixture of genres.”