Though the internet has made forking paths, non-sequiturs, and getting lost familiar reading experiences, most fiction still takes a linear course. But nonlinearity has a long history in literature. We will be reading books that make a virtue of taking the long and bumpy way around. Expect digressions, leaps, labyrinths, gaps, scraps and patchworks. Readings will include most of the below, with minor changes TBA: Jorge Luis Borges, ""The Garden of Forking Paths"" Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire Djuna Barnes, Ryder William Burroughs, Naked Lunch Severo Sarduy, Cobra Rosmarie Waldrop, A Form/ of Taking/ it All David Markson, Wittgenstein’s Mistress Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Alain Robbe-Grillet, La Maison de Rendezvous Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch Fran Ross, Oreo