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A legendary storyteller and writer who has charmed New York audiences for decades, Holst first evolved his oeuvre in the 1950s-60s milieu of Greenwich Village, influenced as much by sophisticated poets/writers (e.g. Hart Crane, Jorge Luis Borges) as by fairy tales/tall-tales which his writings superficially resemble. Each of his sentences, paragraphs, and very, very short stories is a complete and independent act of narrative that delivers the very essence of narrative fiction. In spite of their brevity, these are works of great variety and complexity, displaying a fine intelligence and an inexhaustible capacity for verbal surprise. Holst breaks the very frame of what a story is and what language can do.

In the 1960s a new generation of European, American and Asian artists began exploring life and art in innovative ways, using film and video. This publication juxtaposes two such artists, Bruce Nauman (born 1941), with his wide-ranging experience in sculpture, installation, works on paper, film and video, and light and sound, and Gary Hill (born 1951), a purely video artist.

The author - Literary career - Style - Themes - Summaries - Questions.