Degenerescence Author:James Chapman A novel made of incantation and hymn, in outright preference to storytelling, Degenerescence is about the creation and destruction of the world--both creation and destruction being caused by language, the human urge to name things and make stories. In the novel, a goddess named WOE creates a world and bears seven daughters, then witne... more »sses the death of all her creation. An homage to ancient Near East writings of 4000 years ago, Degenerescence shares with Sumerian literature a drumming repetition and a sense of devotional terror that inhabits every human's relationship with the natural world. Written at a time when its author's own relationship to the literary arts is in question, its more hidden topic is his private world and what he himself may have destroyed and created.« less