- [Review of Gold Bug Variations].
Kirkus Reviews 59 (June 1, 1991): 689. Review of GBV.
- Steinberg, Sybil S. "Forecasts:
Fiction." Publishers Weekly 238.26 (June 14, 1991): 44.
Review of GBV.
- Michaud, Charles. "[Review of Gold Bug
Variations]." Library Journal 116 (June 15, 1991): 106.
Review of GBV.
- Batchelor, John Calvin. "Cracking the
Code of Life." Chicago Tribune (August 4, 1991): Sec. 14,
page 6. Review of GBV.
- Cryer, Dan. "The Enigma of Stymied
Genius." Newsday (August 11, 1991): 35+. Rev. of GBV.
- [Review of Gold Bug Variations].
Publishers Weekly 238 (August 16, 1991): 37. Review of GBV.
- Jones, L. B. "Bach Would'Ve Liked This
Molecule." New York Times Book Review 140 (August 25,
1991): 9-10. Review of Gold Bug Variations.
- Suplee, Curt. "Lost in the Strands of
Time." Washington Post Book World 21.34 (August 25, 1991):
WBK5. Review of GBV.
- Dodd, David. "Bach in the Key of DNA."
San Francisco Chronicle Review (September 1, 1991) Review
of GBV.
- Gray, Paul. "What Is the Meaning of
Life?" Time 138.9 (September 2, 1991): 68.
- Locke, Richard. "Music and Molecules."
Wall Street Journal (September 3, 1991): A16 (E); A12 (W).
Review of GBV.
- Romano, Carlin. "Brainiest Young Star
of Fiction." Philadelphia Inquirer (September 6, 1991):
1D+. Interview with Powers on appearance of GBV.
- Romano, Carlin. "Brain-Crunching Epic
of Love in the Age of DNA." Philadelphia Inquirer
(September 8, 1991): 3J. Rev. of GBV.
- Varmus, Harold. "Breaking the Code of
Creation Itself." San Jose Mercury News (September 8, 1991)
Review of GBV.
- Neilson, James. "Imaginative Novel
Shows Powers' Genius." Greensboro News and Record
(September 15, 1991): B5. Rev. of GBV.
- Harris, Michael. "Take the DNA Train."
Los Angeles Times (September 29, 1991): BR2. Review of GBV.
- Roe, Jon. "Powers Wanders From His
Symbols in 'Gold Bug Variations'." Wichita Eagle (October
13, 1991) Review of GBV.
- LaRocque, Paula. "Variations of
Several Brilliant Themes." Dalls Morning News (October 20,
1991): 6J+. Rev. of GBV.
- Shuman, R. Baird. "[Review of GBV]"
Magill's Literary Annual, Pasadena, CA: Salem Press (1992).
pp. 252-255.
- DeJong, Mels. "Het Geheimschrift Van
Het Leven." Vrij Nederland (January 4, 1992): 75.
- Otterspeer, Willem. "Het Leven Moet
Worden Uitgevoerd." NRC Handelsblad. Date unknown.
- Best of 1991 Books Fiction. Time
139 (January 6, 1992): 74. Includes Gold Bug Variations as the
best novel of the year.
- Anonymous. "Books: The Gold Bug
Variations by Richard Powers." New Yorker 67.49 (January
27, 1992): 84. Review of GBV.
- Bell, Pearl. "Fiction Chronicle."
Partisan Review 59.2 (Spring, 1992): 282-295. Presents a
review of a number of books including 'The Gold bug Variations,' by
Richard Powers; 'The Tax Inspector,' by Peter Carey; 'Time's Arrow,' by
Martin Amis; 'High Cotton,'Peter Carey; 'Time's Arrow,' by Martin Amis;
'High Cotton,' by Darryl Pinckney; 'Mating,' by Norman Rush; 'Outerbridge
Reach,' by Robert Stone.
- Birkerts, Sven. "American Fictions:
Mapping the New Reality." Wilson Quarterly 16.2 (Spring,
1992): 102-110. Birkerts considers a number of American novelists,
Powers among them. He writes briefly about GBV on p. 110.
- Tabbi, Joseph. "Book Reviews: The
Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers." Review of Contemporary
Fiction 12.1 (Spring, 1992): 145. Review of GBV.
- Matthews, Peter. "Sigh-Fi in the Gene
Pool." Observer (April 26, 1992): 26. Rev. of GBV.
- Lernhout, Geert. "Variaties Naar J. S.
Bach." Muziek & Woord (Mei, 1993): 3-4. Analysis of GBV,
also broadcast on Belgium Radio 3, May 11, 1993.
- Porter, Roy. "Data for Data's Sake."
TLS .4649 (May 8, 1992): 20. Review of GBV.
- Davidson, Max. "Love Among the
Molecules: Max Davidson Enjoys a Cerebral and Witty Romance." The
Sunday Telegraph. (May 10, 1992): 110. Review of GBV.
- Michie, Jake. "[Rev. of Gold Bug
Variations]." Daily Telegraph (May 16, 1992): 5. Rev. of
GBV.
- Labinger, Jay. "The Gold Bug
Variations by Richard Powers." Engineering and Science LV.4
(Summer, 1992): 39-41. Review of GBV.
- McGonigle, Thomas. "Going Dutch."
Newsday (July 28, 1992): 28. Interview with Powers and rev.
of GBV.
- Fulford, Robert. "Ladies and
Gentlemen...Glenn Gould Has Left the Building." Saturday Night
107 (September, 1992): 46-50+. Discusses GBV in the context of examining
Glenn Gould's following.
- Levy, Steven. "Evolution & Artificial
Life -- The Gold Bug Variations by Richard POwers." Whole Earth
Review .76 (Fall, 1992): 47. Review of Gold Bug Variations.
- White, Patti. "You Find Yourself Here:
Posted Information in Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations."
Paper presented at the Indiana College English Association, Ball State
University, October 1994.
- Labinger, Jay. "Encoding an Infinite
Message: Richard Powers's Gold Bug Variations." Configurations
1 (1995): 79-93.
- Werner, Craig,
Gold Bugs and the
Powers of Blackness: Re-reading Poe, E. A. Poe Society
(Baltimore: 1995): ISBN
0-9616449-3-1, 29pp. Bound chapbook essay on Powers, Leon Forrest,
and Poe.
- Fitz, Peter.
A Gold Bug
Companion. World Wide Web. 1996. . Includes: 1) Fitz, Peter.
"Why Read The
Gold Bug Variations?" "The Gold Bug Companion originated as a
project of Language as Technology at the University of Baltimore in the
Spring of 1996."
- White, Patti.
"Delivering the
Mail in Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations."
Paper, delivered at the Conference on 20th Century Literature,
University of Louisville, February 1996. Available on the web at .
- Lantos, John D. "Stories of Biology
and Medicine: the Novels of Richard Powers." Hastings Center
Report 26.3 (May, 1996-June 30, 1996): 17-20.
- Hermanson, Scott. "Chaos and
Complexity in Richard Powers's The Gold Bug Variations." Critique
38 (Fall, 1996): 38-51. Includes bibliography.
- Amato, Joe.
"Richard Powers after Louis
Zukofsky: A Prospectus of the Sky."
Electronic Book Review. 5
(Spring 1997). Available on the web at .
- White, Patti. "Textual Genetics in
Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations." Paper delivered
at the Society for Literature and Science's Annual Conference, October
30 - November 2, 1997. Abstract:
- In Richard Powers' 1991 novel THE
GOLD BUG VARIATIONS, a peculiar barrenness proliferates across the
time span of the story: two of the three female characters are sterile
and the central male is deliberately celibate. Only textual forms of
genetic transmission succeed: Jan's autodidactic genetics project and
journal; Franklin's aborted dissertation and subsequent biography of
the scientist Ressler. These texts might be said to have been
generated as responses to prolonged frustration with blocked
communication. Like textual cancers (or in vitro fetuses), these
projects are mutant progeny: they remain self-organized and
self-contextualized, operating outside any system of communication
until they are united in the novel as a narrative founded on the
musical structure of the GOLDBERG VARIATIONS. Drawing upon notions of
translation, mutation, and variation, this paper considers parallel
transmissions of coded material and suggests that textuality may be
the only hope for these characters, that textuality permits a virtual
reproduction which encodes narrative replication as the characters'
collective genetic stake in the future.
- Dewey, Joseph. "Hooking the Nose of
the Leviathan: Information, Knowledge, and the Mysteries of Bonding in
The Gold Bug Variations." Review of Contemporary Fiction
18.3 (Fall 1998): 51-66.
- Herman, Luc. and Geert Lernout.
"Genetic Coding and Aesthetic Clues: Richard Powers's Gold Bug
Variations." Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of
Literature. 31.4 (December 1998): 151-164.
- Van Hulle, Dirk. "Het archief van het
toeval: Richard Powers: The goldbug variations." De Morgen.
(December 8, 1999): 23.
- Cundiff, Greg. "The Gold Bug
Variations." Available on the web at . Still trying to figure out
exactly what this is. Seems to be an effort to use hypertext to comment
on and elucidate The Gold Bug Variations. Includes three
essays so far (May 2001), including
- "DIE GOLD BUG VARIATIONEN: Richard
Powers, Johann Sebastian Bach und die DNA." A series of essays in
Schreibheft, Zeitschrift für Literatur. 56 (Mai 2001).
Includes the following exerpts and essays:
- Powers, Richard. "Arie: Der Ewige
Kalendar." excerpt from GBV.
- Graf, Guido. "The Finger on the
Trigger for the Years to Come: Richard Powers’ ’The Gold Bug
Variations'."
- Powers, Richard. "Kapitel IX,
Auszuge."
- Powers, Richard and Bradford Morrow.
"Das neu erfundene Buch: Ein Dialog."
- Powers, Richard. "Kapitel XXI,
Auszuge."
- Schmitt, Michael. "Richard
Powers: Ein Portrat." p. 89-92.
- Powers, Richard. "Sein und Schein:
Zur Technologie der Darstellung."
- Hitchens, Christopher, in ""Pack Up
Your Novels..." The Observer (London). (July 15, 2001). Hitchens
writes: "The decision [to read The Gold Bug Variations] has
greatly simplified my life: I am now going to absorb all his other
novels as well."
- Clayton, Jay, Charles Dickens in
Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern
Culture (Oxford, 2003). Extensive discussion of Powers's The Gold
Bug Variations (pp. 179-186 and passim).
Bibliography of editions for The Gold Bug Variations |
