Kmart realism

Kmart realism, also termed dirty realism, is a form of minimalist literature found in American short fiction.[1] It is defined as "a literary genre characterized by a spare, terse style that features struggling, working-class characters in sterile, bleak environments".[2] These short stories "represent and reproduce the disintegration of public life [and] the colonization of private life by consumer capitalism".[3] A related definition describes the genre as American fiction that is characterized, among other things, by a fascination with consumption venues and brand names.[4] John Gardner, in critical works such as On Moral Fiction, criticized this style using the term "brand-name fiction writers."

The precursors of Kmart realism include the so-called trailer park fiction, Diet-Pepsi minimalism, and hick chic.[5]

Notable authors

Frederick Barthelme, brother of postmodern novelist Donald Barthelme, is noted for his use of Kmart realism in stories such as "Safeway" (The New Yorker, 1981).[6] In addition, Rachel Page, sister of noted postmodern poet Allen Page, has written works that follow the genre of "dirty realism".[7]

Other writers noted for this style also include Ann Beattie, Eric Bogosian, Richard Ford, Kevin Sterne, Bobbie Ann Mason, Mary Robison, Joy Williams, and Tobias Wolff.[5] Mason, for instance, often writes about working-class characters in rural Kentucky who do their laundry at laundromats, a subject matter that is similar to those favored by the aforementioned writers such as Dairy Queens, grocery stores, and third-rate motels, among others.[8]

gollark: If you configured it wrong during setup of whatever this is somehow, then it won't match. PotatOS has the law enforcement access mechanism (PS#7D7499AB) which also currently doubles as "forgot password" handling, but not every OS does that.
gollark: How do you know your password is the right one?
gollark: I should assign unique IDs to the other sandbox escape bugs.
gollark: My "fix" is this:```lua--[["Fix" for bug PS#E9DCC81BSummary: `pcall(getfenv, -1)` seemingly returned the environment outside the sandbox.Based on some testing, this seems like some bizarre optimization-type feature gone wrong.It seems that something is simplifying `pcall(getfenv)` to just directly calling `getfenv` and ignoring the environment... as well as, *somehow*, `function() return getfenv() end` and such.The initial attempt at making this work did `return (fn(...))` instead of `return fn(...)` in an attempt to make it not do this, but of course that somehow broke horribly. I don't know what's going on at this point.This is probably a bit of a performance hit, and more problematically liable to go away if this is actually some bizarre interpreter feature and the fix gets optimized away.Unfortunately I don't have any better ideas. Also, I haven't tried this with xpcall, but it's probably possible, so I'm attempting to fix that too.]]local real_pcall = pcallfunction _G.pcall(fn, ...) return real_pcall(function(...) local ret = {fn(...)} return unpack(ret) end, ...)end local real_xpcall = xpcallfunction _G.xpcall(fn, handler) return real_xpcall(function() local ret = {fn()} return unpack(ret) end, handler)end```which appears to work at least?
gollark: Fixed, but I don't really know how or why.

References
  1. Sodowsky, Roland. Studies in Short Fiction; Fall96, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p529, 529-540
  2. Kmart Realism. Wordspy. http://www.wordspy.com/words/Kmartrealism.asp
  3. Clark, Miriam Marty. Studies in Short Fiction; Spring95, Vol. 32 Issue 2, 147-159.
  4. Murphy, Patrick; Sherry Jr., John (2014). Marketing and the Common Good: Essays from Notre Dame on Societal Impact. Oxon: Routledge. p. 48. ISBN 9780415828826.
  5. McFedries, Paul (2004-02-17). Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 9780767918077.
  6. http://www.southernscribe.com/zine/authors/Barthelme_Frederick.htm
  7. Twitchell, James (2000). Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231115193.
  8. Fisher, Vernon; Auping, Michael (2010). Vernon Fisher. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780292723238.


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