In the net

B. S. Johnson, the biography and trawl

Rod Mengham

pp. 95-103

in: Philip Tew, Glyn White (eds), Re-reading B. S. Johnson, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Abstract

The main focus of this essay is a close reading of Trawl, conducted partly in response to Jonathan Coe's biography, Like a Fiery Elephant, published in 2004. Coe's text presents a combination of different kinds of information conveyed in different ways in its different sections. The first section consists of critical readings of all the novels, employing fairly traditional kinds of analysis and concentrating on plot summaries. Where the analysis goes beyond this modest scope is in relating Johnson's statements of intent to the evolving narrative strategies of his seven novels. There are no systematic readings of the dominant imagery, or of the rhetorical structure, of the novels; nor should this be expected as a matter of course in biographical writing. What is somewhat odd is that Coe's critical discussions of the novels do not avail themselves of much of the relevant biographical data that he assembles in the rest of the text; they use the biographical evidence much less than one can imagine other critics doing. From a certain angle, this can be seen as part of the overall plan. The large central section of the biography consists of quotations from Johnson's texts and from interviews, all woven together with commentary of a thoroughly postmodern variety, punctuated regularly by metatextual remarks professing lack of evidence, insecurity of point of view, guesswork and self-reflexivity.