david foster wallace: classic or dud

Yeah, the fake memoir parts were really off-putting, every time i got to it i was like "really dude? you thought this was a good idea?" But overall I liked TPK way more than I expected to (since I wasn't really on board with Oblivion and Brief Interviews). Knowing it wasn't 'complete' kind of freed me up to just enjoy that handful of really meaty, engrossing chapters more as things unto themselves.

y'know the more i think about that NYT screed, the more dumb it seems. "you know, my problem with this revered novelist is that he made BLOGS worse." like those blogs would be so well written if not for him.

I don't think she's worried so much about the quality of the writing as much as she's worried about people hedging on their opinions, being squirrely, trying really hard to be likeable, and not being direct, instead of making a persuasive stand.

the more i think about that NYT screed, the more dumb it seems

yeah she shoulda softened it up a lil

i felt the same way about the memoir bits: my heart sank.

they read like an obsessive-compulsive dave eggers.

'm one of those rare weirdos who thinks oblivion is among his best work and was looking forward to where, if anywhere, he might take that direction.

agreed. i think mr. squishy is among his best stuff, especially the way something big is about to happen, but never actually does. from what i've read about the pale king, he was hoping for something similar--i think he even mentioned as much in the notes to the book. but yeah, i think that book is his best collection of stories.

one wonders whether those were found integrated with the rest of the novel, actually; whether it's an artifact of the editing process that those sections show up like they're part of the same draft, the same angle of attack as the rest of the stuff in the book

like i can't remember whether 'David Wallace' shows up in the non-memoir segments, actually. maybe he did.

i think he might Turn A Page but maybe not.

especially the way something big is about to happen,

the way he builds the tension in this story should be taught in classrooms, and he has enough interesting things going on in the story to hold the reader's interest. whereas the pale king has lots of tension, but not much of interest (for me at least) going on in the background.

but there's also some stuff in there that i think is among the best writing, strictly from a prose standpoint, he's ever done.

yeah, totally! i forgot about this point, though, because the last half of the book was such a drag.

I'm in the homestretch of Infinite Jest as we speak, my first real attempt at DFW beyond a couple of his essays. I'm back to really enjoying it again, after a period of really hating the slog for a couple hundred pages or so. I'm afraid its not ultimately not going to be fulfilling, but there were enough entertaining moments that I won't regret reading it. I like how detailed he's made this world and I think I had as much fun reading some of the tangents as DFW must have had writing them, like Himself's filmography and Gately's back-story.

the filmography has all these nifty little compressed short stories. really like the giant eyeball one.

may have said this before but the moment the book finally locks in for me is the scene where gately is parking cars. i read that scene in a sweat and the rest of the book in a rush.

(granted that's on like page 700 or something)

Yeah, I think that is right around the time where I snapped out of the funk of reading just to read it and really felt connected with it again.

so should I read IJ or TPK first? nb I have IJ on kindle and TPK in hardcover. also I am in champaign/urbana.

i vote for IJ

When I was flicking back and forth between the footnotes and the main text in IJ, I was so thrilled to have it on my Nook and not trying to lug it around.

I'm weirdly jealous of you being in Champaign/Urbana. Going through one of my random nostalgiac phases for that area.

oh god

I don't know, it sounds like the potential to be awful is sky high, but there's a small part of me that thinks of visualization of Estachon could be pretty cool.

watching it with the sound off is probably the best way to watch it

also it's supposed to be snowing

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/380313196_ae45c9463b_o.jpg

I was at least hoping to see Otis P. Lord's head get stuck in the computer!

yeah, i was kind of disappointed when they wheeled on the flatscreen

yeah ending really fizzled.

that was one twee-ass game of eschaton.

uh

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/an-imagined-gchat-between-david-foster-wallace-and-cormac-mccarthy-on-a-recent-party-they-both-attended/

. . .

i think that guy is a tao lin flunky

eschaton is one of my least-favorite parts of IJ

ha i was just thinking i should reread IJ on the kindle and then realized what a mess it would be due to the kindle's inability to handle footnotes.

Are footnotes a pain on the Kindle? When I was test-driving a Kindle that was one feature I never tried out, they are a breeze with the Nook.

Well world, you have successfully ruined every aspect of DFW for me forever, I hope you're fucking happy.

I mean, he's basically the literary equiv. of a Wes Anderson movie, right?

eschaton is one of my least-favorite parts of IJ
yeah, i agree, i found it pretty tedious. loved most of IJ though.
as for ruining every aspect of DFW, yes, I find that it's better if I don't read people's IMPORTANT OPINIONS about his stuff.

ugh, sorry, it's just, I just, that decemberists video, I can't

the way he builds the tension in this story should be taught in classrooms

this, absolutely. the whole thing is so obscenely dense with that kind of dry technicalese/marketing speak that it should deflate the momentum of the narrative but somehow it makes it even more tense. he's the only guy i know who could fill made-up sales reports for a fake cupcake company with the same dread as a horror movie.

que, did you happen to read that looooooooooong essay/appreciation of "mr. squishy" blake butler did on htmlg a while back? (i thought i remembered you positively mentioning scorch atlas on that old "why kant shakey mo read" thread.) apparently there were supposed to be more "elizabeth klemm" stories in the manner of "mr. squishy." i kinda wish he'd pursued that instead of tpk sometimes.

Finished Infinite Jest on the train this morning, absolutely loved it. I know I mentioned it being a slog at one point, still a valid criticism, but the entertainment I got from the other 7/8ths of it more than made up for it. What should I read next?

all the essays except for "greatly exaggerated", then oblivion.

if you get bored amidst the tv essay just drop it.

Are footnotes a pain on the Kindle? When I was test-driving a Kindle that was one feature I never tried out, they are a breeze with the Nook.

Yeah they're a pain.

Anyone read the infinity book? I have it, somewhere.

That sucks, I can't imagine trying to read a book like IJ without the Nook's use of footnotes.

i think the infinity book is the one thing by him i haven't read--it would be wayyyyyyyy over my head

que, did you happen to read that looooooooooong essay/appreciation of "mr. squishy" blake butler did on htmlg a while back? (i thought i remembered you positively mentioning scorch atlas on that old "why kant shakey mo read" thread.) apparently there were supposed to be more "elizabeth klemm" stories in the manner of "mr. squishy." i kinda wish he'd pursued that instead of tpk sometimes.

i saw it, meant to read it, never did. i will go back and read. a whole bunch of klemm stories would have been a real gas.

That sucks, I can't imagine trying to read a book like IJ without the Nook's use of footnotes.

i can't help but feel that reading IJ without having to lug it around and use two bookmarks is somehow cheating, or at least missing part of the experience

i don't use bookmarks ever for some reason so sometimes when i was following cross-references i had like three fingers slipped into the book separated by hundreds of pages; it is a sensual reading experience

pale fire, too

i'd read "a supposedly fun thing i'll never do again" after infinite jest

I've read that one already, that was actually the first DFW I read.

ah oops what other ones have you read?

Just that one and IJ for sure. I've read a couple of his other essays a long time ago, but its been long enough that I can't recall which ones.