SOURCE: Joris, Pierre. “Coover's Apoplectic Apocalypse or ‘Purviews of Cunning Abstractions.’” Critique 34, no. 4 (summer 1993): 220–31.

In the following essay, Joris examines Coover's metafictional approach to literature and his affinity for cinematic technique, as demonstrated by the title story of A Night at the Movies.

I tend to think of tragedy as a kind of adolescent response to the universe—the higher truth is a comic response.

—Robert Coover in an interview with Leo J. Hertzel cited in Critique II, 3 (1969)

I work with language because paper is cheaper than filmstock … Probably, if I had absolute freedom to do what I want, I'd prefer film.

—Robert Coover in interview with Larry McCaffery (1979)

A Night at the Movies opens with the acknowledgment of the impending apocalypse: “We are doomed Professor! The planet is rushing madly towards Earth and no human power can stop it!” Is this the beginning of the end or...