david foster wallace: classic or dud

i would say IJ

The line about the guy footnoting his tattoo is cringeworthy.

seems pertinent to link to http://www.theknowe.net/dfwfiles/pdfs/Wallace-Good_People.pdf - earlier excerpt from the pale king.
this is interesting too (and i am consequently exploring tony hoagland)

the writing, or the fact that he footnoted his tattoo?

i would say IJ

thanks, that was my feeling too, but for my "gah, big book" reaction to it. I'm not so much intimidated by the length though so much as trying to find the time to really dig into it.

Jordan - both, I guess.

my feeling is that if you've read his non-fiction, and are interested in reading some of his previous fiction before The Pale King comes out, you really should just go ahead and invest your time into Infinite Jest, however long it takes...Broom and his short stories really just don't compare imo.

oh come on, the tattoo thing is awesome (would've been less awesome done by anyone else, though)

xkcd, say

now why'd you have to take it there

my feeling is that if you've read his non-fiction, and are interested in reading some of his previous fiction before The Pale King comes out, you really should just go ahead and invest your time into Infinite Jest, however long it takes...Broom and his short stories really just don't compare imo.

― blame it on the HOOS got you steenin' loose (some dude), Tuesday, March 10, 2009 6:35 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think some of his short story work is right up there with Infinite Jest, which i love, and a lot less scary to start.

though i would say that infinite jest, for how long it is in length and reputation, is a very very readable book.

yeah i dunno...i look at his short fiction as porridges each with its own specific fatal flaws, Curious Hair is too this, Brief Interviews is too that, etc. but IJ is, for all its imperfections and challenges, just right.

otm

yeah so otm. and it's really not that hard to read at all, i was expecting a lot worse bcz of its rep

IJ is super readable: for me it was one of those books where you have an early-ish slump and put it aside a bit, but when you pick it back up it catches like a fire and you can't stop reading (except for the bits where you stop to re-read something because it was great).

yeah, before i started reading it someone told me these two things, which i now repeat when i lend it to someone:

1) it doesn't really start picking up momentum until 2-300 pages in

2) it's very readable and entertaining on a page-to-page basis (ie not especially dense or difficult), there's just a lot of it.

i have to admit that i have zero interest in his fiction

I maintain that Girl with Curious Hair is his best collection of work, and better than IJ. But I read it first.

2) it's very readable and entertaining on a page-to-page basis (ie not especially dense or difficult), there's just a lot of it.

Yeah, this. I had to keep reassuring a few friends that I did, in fact, love the book, because I kept on complaining that I would never get through it. I think I loved just about every bit of it, it's just so goddamn long (it took me like two months!).

Is IJ anything like that excerpt from the book that's going to be published posthumously? Because I couldn't even read 10 pages of that let alone 1000 but I like really long novels.

Just started reading Infinite Jest so I can see what all of you are banging on about.

Girl With Curious Hair was what I started with and I loved it, so I'd say if Infinite Jest is too daunting I'd start there

NY'er article was great

many xposts

I tend not to have massive patience with long novels.

Is IJ anything like that excerpt from the book that's going to be published posthumously?

no, not really

weird:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i134/dgoobl/05tiwlarge.jpg

i fall asleep whenever i try to read the gay chapter about television

ha ha--people always talk about how that's the essay that really lays out the DFW aesthetic and it puts me to sleep too

oh no is that what the commencement speech book is going to look like? yikes.

Yeah, apparently it's shipping. Approx. one (1) sentence per page.

was wondering how they were going to stretch it over 144 pages

: (

i was hoping it was so many pages because he had some really really longer form version of it.

yeah i was hoping it was just big type and big margins

13 months later, Infinte Jest has been put down. By the end it truly feels like it stopped a thousand pages short itself.

it does. i was surprised and at a loss when it stopped.

I felt that way the first time.

The second time, I cried.

Usually it goes the other way around, I realize.

i felt that way the first time i finished it and i have to admit i teared up a little. then he killed himself while i was reading it the second time and i just had to put it down. since then i've read everything else by him but still haven't gone back to infinite jest again.

he has three names = his books are poo

lol

Karl, I know what you mean. I've been carrying around one of his essay collections to reread for a long time because I really loved it, but I somehow never get past cracking it open and putting it back on the shelf.

i enjoyed <a href="http://www.coh.arizona.edu/Sonora/";>sonora review</a>'s special issue w/ dfw tribute. he was fiction editor during his time at UA and published one of his first stories in it. it's reprinted and there's an interview with his editor michael pietsch, a thoughtful piece by marshall boswell, and some other good stuff.

dammit

i've been trying to get a copy of that without ordering one online--did you send away for it?

i believe i mailed a check per the directions on their site. dunno where you could even order sonora review online?

not trying to sound snotty, just surprised

oops, no i meant ordering it from them online. i think it's the only way to get this.

I used to be the Poetry editor of Sonora Review. After DFW's time tho.

how much after?

About 6 years I think.

friend of friend who showed me around austin lived with him in college and had just got back from giving a eulogy at his funeral when i was in town.

http://www.observer.com/2009/media/dueling-foster-wallace-two-bios-hit-market-one-sold