Donald Barthelme's "The School"

Let’s dissect a story. A previous post of mine about Cormac McCarthy’s writing had a bit of a moment. It was also fun. I love dissecting writing. I like rearranging prose in my head, stress-testing paragraphs and story concepts while I’m reading. I learned a little bit of this through my half-completed MFA in creative writing. Some of this is a learned taste after years of reading. It is not, in any way, definitive or academic.

I’m not any sort of literature teacher. I don’t love the sometimes liminal-ness of writing talk. At times I read something, shrug, move on to the next thing. Not everything gets my thoughts. However, sometimes I read something, and I start taking mental notes. My brain tingles.

Let’s jump into a story that at least one person has called the greatest story ever written. It’s Donald Barthelme’s The School. Best part? It’s only 1200 words.

This is not so much a philosophical dive into the meaning of The School. You can figure all that out for yourself. This is a series of notes on a story: things I noticed, “Craft bits” that jumped out at me as worth applying to my own writing. These sorts of things are what I figure other writers and readers find interesting.

Also, this is not a lecture. What do you notice? Leave your two cents! If you want to join the discussion below the paywall, subscribe!

Let’s jump in!