Blue Guide to Indiana (explanation: This book is not actually part of the "blue guides" series.) - Softcover

Martone, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573660957 ISBN 13: 9781573660952

Publisher: Fiction Collective 2, 2001

Synopsis

The master of the nearly true is back with The Blue Guide to Indiana, an ersatz travel book for the Hoosier State. Michael Martone, whose trademark is the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction, has created an Indiana that almost is, a landscape marked by Lover's Lane franchises and pharmaceutical drug theme parks. Visit the Trans-Indiana Mayonnaise Pipeline and the Field of Lightbulbs. Learn about Our Lady of the Big Hair and Feet or the history of the License Plate Insurrection of 1979. Let Martone guide you through every inch of the amazing state that is home to the Hoosier Infidelity Resort Area, the National Monument for Those Killed by Tornadoes in Trailer Parks and Mobile Home Courts, and the Annual Eyeless Fish Fry. All your questions will be answered, including many you never thought to ask (like: "What's a good recipe for Pork Cake?").

About this title

From the Back Cover

Michael Martone, whose trademark is the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction, has created an Indiana that almost is, a landscape marked by Lover's Lane franchises and pharmaceutical drug theme parks. Passages from this book have been published in Indiana newspapers as feature articles on what to do this weekend or as suggestions for family vacations. Tourists have been directed to visit the Trans-Indiana Mayonnaise Pipeline and the Field of Lightbulbs. They have been told about Our Lady of the Big Hair and Feet and taught the history of the License Plate Insurrection of 1979. The Blue Guide has it all, everything one would ever want to know about the home of the Hoosier Infidelity Resort Area, and much we'd never imagine (including a recipe for Pork Cake). The book opens with a letter from the Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, inviting visitors to sample "refreshing paw paw canapes and free glasses of buttermilk cider drawn from our state's native bison herds" at state rest areas, and to considering working toward a PhD within the state's picturesque borders: The state, recognizing the value of your visit, now offers the only PhD in tourism in the country at its Bloomington campus of Indiana University where out-of-state tuition is less than that paid for those in-state. The degree can easily be obtained during your two-week jaunt through the state if you utilize the regional campuses and distant learning facilities. Revenue from the tourism industry, according to the 1990 census, contributes nearly two-thirds of our state's gross income (coming in ahead of agriculture and hard currency derived from out-of-state relatives sending checks and money orders to their locally domesticated kin). The book closes with a chilling Author's Note that epitomizes Martone's work: It is untrue but nearly believable; and it renders the mundane horrific and the tragic hilarious. The Blue Guide to Indiana is an extension of Martone's previous work, in which he often composed fake essays in the voices of real celebrities. Like Borges and Flann O'Brien, Martone uses parody to reveal the deeper truths about our culture. Within the frame of satire he works to add to the unease of the moment, bombarding our perceptions with strange juxtaposed data, always calling us to ask, "Is this real or not?"

About the Author

Michael Martone is a Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Alabama. He is the author of several books including The Blue Guide to Indiana and Michael Martone., ,

Edition details

• Publisher: Fiction Collective 2
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1573660957
• ISBN 13: 9781573660952
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 120