Head in Flames is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published by Chiasmus Press in 2009.
 First edition | |
| Author | Lance Olsen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Postmodern novel, Historiographic metafiction |
| Publisher | Chiasmus Press |
Publication date | October 1, 2009 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 200 |
| ISBN | 098150275X |
Plot & Structure
editHead in Flames is a collage novel built on a triadic structure. First Vincent van Gogh speaks briefly (sometimes only a sentence, sometimes a handful) in the first person in a Times font. Next Theo van Gogh does the same in the third person in Times bold. Last Mohammed Bouyeri speaks in the second person in a Courier font. This pattern repeats for the length of the text. The effect is more musical than narrative in a conventional sense.
Van Gogh finds himself standing in a field in Auvers-sur-Oise in July 1890, debating whether or not to commit suicide. Theo finds himself riding to work on the day he was assassinated in Amsterdam in November 2004 by Mohammed, an extremist outraged by the filmmaker's collaboration with controversial politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a 10-minute experimental short critiquing Muslim subjugation and abuse of women.
The consequence of such a structure is a complex investigation into art's multiplicity of purpose, religion's increasingly dominant role as engine of politics and extremism in the contemporary world, the complexities involved in foreignness/assimilation, and the limits of cultural tolerance.
Reception
editRain Taxi wrote that Head in Flames is "distinguished both by its inventive, playful form and its evocative content,"[1] while Review of Contemporary Fiction called Olsen's novel "an important book" whose "structure is a tour de force of formal innovation calling to mind Pinget's That Voice, Rulfo's Pedro Páramo, and Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch.... Olsen's real success lies not in his critique of the many forms of intolerance but rather in his affirmation of art as salvation."[2]
External links
edit- Interview (2010) with Lance Olsen about Head in Flames in Rain Taxi
- Interview (2010) with Lance Olsen about Head in Flames in The Quarterly Conversation
- Extended review (2010) of Head in Flames in Experimental Fiction/Poetry
- Extended review (2009) of Head in Flames in FlashPoint
- Part One of film (2009) based on Ayaan Hirsi Ali's, with Lance Olsen reading from Head in Flames
- Part Two of film (2009) based on Ayaan Hirsi Ali's, with Lance Olsen reading from Head in Flames
References
edit- ^ "O Muse of Fire..." Rain Taxi. Summer 2010. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
- ^ "Head in Flames". Review of Contemporary Fiction. 31 August 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2012.