What is it about?
Ring Lardner was enormously popular in his own day, and remains popular still today--but is considered a "minor writer," and therefore doesn't receive much attention from "major literary critics." This book explores the reasons for that--and celebrates the actual complexity of Lardner's best work.
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Why is it important?
Most studies of Lardner before this was published in 1992 were New Critical studies of "the text." This book draws on Lacan's Schema L (especially the bridge game metaphor) and Deleuze and Guattari on minoritarian writing, which "sends the major language racing," to study the complexity of both Lardner's writing and his critical reception.
Perspectives
This book began in the experience of teaching Lardner's "Who Dealt?" to sophomores for years, and NEVER feeling like I could get at the secret of its brilliance--until I read Lacan's Schema L, which he compares to a bridge game, where the Other-capital-O is "the dummy"--and Lardner's story is narrated by the dummy, who knows nothing and reveals everything. Then it all began to make sense!
Professor Douglas J. Robinson
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ring Lardner and the Other, February 1993, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195076004.001.0001.
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