Theirs was the version handed down. Then critics caught up. But when they had caught up they forgot whence their wisdom came. So, the critic missed the gist and when he finally caught on, he claimed the insight for his own. Writers like Ann Beattie and Raymond Carver are minimalists who revise the old double form-content into a new single format.
Surface is reality.
Reality is code. Disdaining the complexity of perception, they are in thrall to a simplicity-the very clean machine of signifier devoid of resonances. And so these writers take their stand with the external, the rest is left to the reader. Well, red is a response on the eyeball, red and an after-image green. The modernist takes advantage of the red, but he also takes advantage of the green.