https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0 en-us 2018-02-06 09:34:57 UTC 2025-11-22 15:53:24 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491446 1938-1988]]> 2018-02-06 09:37:09 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491446 https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491575 Raymond Carver was born May 25, 1938, in Clatskanie, Oregon, U.S. and he died Aug. 2, 1988, He was an American short-story writer and poet whose realistic writings about the working poor mirrored his own life. 

Carver was the son of a sawmill worker. He married a year after finishing High School and supported his wife and two children by working as a janitor, gas-station attendant, and delivery man. He became seriously interested in a writing career after taking a creative-writing course at Chico State College in 1958. His short stories began to appear in magazines while he studied at Humboldt State College.
Carver’s first success as a writer came in 1967 with the story “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?,” and he began writing full-time after losing his job as a textbook editor in 1970. 

Carver had a heavy drinking problem, which began in 1967 where he was repeatedly hospitalized for alcoholism in the 1970's. He conquered his drinking problem in the late 1970's, and taught for several years at the University of Texas and The Syracuse University.

He died of lung cancer at age 50.


]]> 2018-02-06 09:37:32 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491575 maria_bjerner_rathsack https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491922 North American literary movement from the 1970-80's

As with minimalism; few words and short descriptions are used to describe and enlighten the dull sides of every-day life.

Themes depict the honest human-feelings of boredom & meaninglessness.

(Other) authors of dirty realism include Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), Tobias Wolff (1945), Richard Ford (1944), Larry Brown (1951-2004), Frederik Barthelme & Juan Guittérez (1950)

 ]]> 2018-02-06 09:38:45 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228491922 https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228492810 Characters and themes
In his short stories he wrote about the everyday lives and problems of the working poor.
His characters were often blue-collar characters whom were crushed by broken marriages, financial problems, alcoholism, and failed careers, but they are often unable to understand their own anguish.

Style
Carver’s stripped-down, minimalist prose style is remarkable for its honesty and power. His style is known for its economical use of words. His first tutor advised him to use fifteen words instead of twentyfive, and then he met his editor at Esquire magazine, Gordon Lish. He advised him to use five words instead of fifteen.


]]> 2018-02-06 09:41:40 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228492810 https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228495477 Good littérature is defined by simplified and precise writing:

"Writers don't need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing - a sunset or an old shoe - in absolute and simple amazement."


There is no need for an author to express his emotions through the narrator; this takes the beauty from the reading experience:

"If the words are heavy with the writer's own unbridled emotions, or if they are imprecise and inaccurate for some other reason - if the words are in any way blurred -the reader's eyes will slide right over them and nothing will be achieved. The reader's own artistic sense will simply not be engaged."]]> 2018-02-06 09:49:44 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228495477 https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228496474 Carver’s first success as a writer came in 1967 with the story “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?,” and he began writing full-time after losing his job as a textbook editor in 1970. The highly successful short-story collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976) established his reputation.

His later short-story collections were What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), Cathedral (1984), and Where I’m
Calling From (1988)

He also wrote realistic poetry -
This collection include At Night the Salmon Move (1976), Where Water Comes Together with Other Water (1985), and Ultramarine (1986). ]]> 2018-02-06 09:52:33 UTC https://padlet.com/maria_bjerner_rathsack/yj0bd6a0ldj0/wish/228496474