At least be civilized enough to supply the correct ending to the story.

Paul Allman, a post-modern author himself, struck gold with this article about an assault on Dan Rather in 1986 on Park Avenue. Essentially, he accuses (then deceased) author Don Barthelme of orchestrating the crime. He uses quotes and facts from Barthelme’s life and work to somehow, someway, make a nightmare-logic case that Don manufactured the bizarre situation of two men asking Dan Rather “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?  REM even wrote a song about the incident.  Here is a taste:

There is Dan Rather, up in his tower, a prisoner of perplexity. He doesn’t want to be saved, and yet, and yet . . . he gazes out, and the look on his face speaks volumes. His lips move and we hear the news, but if you read his lips you might see the words of Snow White, from Barthelme’s novel of the same name, as she gazes out from her own tower:

There is something wrong with all those people standing there, gaping and gawking. And with all those who did not come and at least try to climb up. To fill the role. And with the very world itself, for not being able to supply a prince. For not being able to at least be civilized enough to supply the correct ending to the story.