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My personal favorite thing he's ever written is an article about the AVN Adult Video Awards in Las Vegas called Big Red Son. It's really funny and interesting and unlike so many writers he makes me feel like I'm really there seeing everything that he's describing. You can read the start of the article here- http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=6U4VyTvCgK&btob=Y&ean=9780316156110&displayonly=CHP#CHP The full thing is included in the excellent essay collection 'Consider the Lobster'
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May 4, 2010 23:35
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Kill Your Friends posted:My personal favorite thing he's ever written is an article about the AVN Adult Video Awards in Las Vegas called Big Red Son. It's really funny and interesting and unlike so many writers he makes me feel like I'm really there seeing everything that he's describing. The best about that peace is that you really somehow care for all the people. It seem like it would have been really easy to write about Max Hardcore and have him seem like an evil villain, perhaps it would have been hard not to do that to him. But the way its written he comes off as a person that you can decide how to feel about, rather than being told how to feel about. also: anything about him being burdened by his genius is crap, its painfully clear that he was crippled by self doubt and depression
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May 5, 2010 01:33
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300 pages through infinite jest (and I sorta knew what I was getting into because i read both of his books of essays (yes even the essay about prescriptive vs. descriptive usage which is way wonky)), and I have to say I'm really enjoying it. It's a bit of a rough start simply out of not quite knowing what the hell is going on, but once it settles into things a little more it is amazingly well written and also very funny. I'm trying to read 52 books this year, so this is obviously throwing a bit of a wrench into that plan, but poo poo I'll read some novellas later on, this is well worth it.
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May 19, 2010 00:48
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I almost suggested it in the "I'm gonna read 52 books" thread but i didnt want to that much of a dick. I know some people had a blog going and were trying to read it in 30 days. I think they missed by 2 days. It certainly takes a while for all the different parts to be introduced, and then start to fit together as a story. Somethings purposefully never really do.
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May 19, 2010 04:48
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I was actually on schedule for the 52 until I started this, but since I'm unemployed atm (ps it rules) I should be able to catch up. Also if any of yall do goodreads I'm alexmreed at geemail so let's get some book comparing going on. I'd rather any of you than dudes in the ice and fire thread, I think we'd get along better.
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May 19, 2010 06:06
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Not having a job and slaying significant reading is second in awesome only to being in a foreign country (with beaches) and skipping some obligation just so you can read on or near the beach (see why the beaches were necessary?).
Le Sean fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Oct 6, 2010 |
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May 19, 2010 08:16
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I work at a university, so during the summer my job is a joke, because it entirely related to how many students are here. My first summer I read all of Harry Potter. I've read a few stories from Girl with the Curious Hair and Oblivion some I'm going to try and finish one of those up. Probabaly Hair because gently caress, Oblivion is depressing and a little daugnting for summer time reading - tiny rear end print, razor thing margins and no paragraph breaks for miles. So many pages are unforgiving walls of text.
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May 19, 2010 16:53
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aricoarena posted:I work at a university, so during the summer my job is a joke, because it entirely related to how many students are here. My first summer I read all of Harry Potter. I've read a few stories from Girl with the Curious Hair and Oblivion some I'm going to try and finish one of those up. Probabaly Hair because gently caress, Oblivion is depressing and a little daugnting for summer time reading - tiny rear end print, razor thing margins and no paragraph breaks for miles. So many pages are unforgiving walls of text. Oblivion can get pretty dark (even for DFW). I don't remember Girl all that well but I think it's probably better summer reading. Infinite Jest is an excellent summer project, FWIW, if you haven't gotten there yet.
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May 20, 2010 04:21
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Can anyone direct me to some good discussion on Oblivion? It's beautifully written and all, but the endings of every story so far have zipped over my head - especially the title story, what the hell?
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May 20, 2010 04:49
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DFW ruined books for me. I don't think I've read a book as consuming and heartbreaking since IJ and i long for a novel with as much depth, oddity and determination. Doubt I'll find it.
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May 20, 2010 13:21
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I wish David were still with us. I want him to witness a legless, wheelchair-bound man planting a bomb on a subway and the Gulf of Mexico actually turning into a Great Concavity/Convexity situation. Eerily, the majority of IJ takes place in 2009 (YDAU).
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May 20, 2010 17:45
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Edged Hymn posted:Can anyone direct me to some good discussion on Oblivion? It's beautifully written and all, but the endings of every story so far have zipped over my head - especially the title story, what the hell? There isnt much out there, if you have a university or library with JSTOR or something similar there is a review/critic of it in - The Hudson Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 2005).
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May 20, 2010 19:03
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I've been working through the Lipsky book. It's a great read, and totally brings Wallace back to life. I want to blaze through it, but I'm taking it slowly, knowing there's a finite amount of DFW's work for the future. Edged Hymn posted:Can anyone direct me to some good discussion on Oblivion? It's beautifully written and all, but the endings of every story so far have zipped over my head - especially the title story, what the hell? Here's a review that travels some interesting avenues about the stories: http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/ressentiment
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May 22, 2010 03:55
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ProperCoochie posted:I've been working through the Lipsky book. It's a great read, and totally brings Wallace back to life. I want to blaze through it, but I'm taking it slowly, knowing there's a finite amount of DFW's work for the future. Yea, i bought that as soon as i read about it here and its stellar, though understandably erratic at times. I keep matching the dialouge with the person in the charlie rose interview and becoming incredibly sad; all those winces are really tough to see from such an interesting person. His premonitions about the state of america in the coming few decades is depressingly spot on.
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May 22, 2010 21:28
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This has been out for a couple months now, but I don't see a thread mention of it. An interesting biographical article on his writing in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/09/090309fa_fact_max?currentPage=all
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May 24, 2010 00:02
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Some of DFWs essays are driving me insane. They have a strange exhibitionist quality that goes beyond the requisite demonstrations of talent and ability or even gettingthepointism; I honestly feel like I'm locked in a room with someone who is maybe preforming a magic trick, telling me how knotty the trick is to preform, then preforming it again and again from different angles just so that we're clear who is preforming the trick, that this trick has no tricks, and all the credit goes to DFW and his magic deck of cards. Does this make any sense to anybody? I havent read any novels yet, and I do (on the whole) enjoy some of his essays, but there is something about most of them that puts me on guard, a deceptive quality I guess?
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May 24, 2010 01:03
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i watched the john krasinski movie. it was bad.
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May 31, 2010 03:46
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I just started reading A Supposedly Fun Thing... the other day and I'm really enjoying it. I almost don't want to compare it to Consider the Lobster, since his style changed so much over his career. This isn't loaded with sideways tangents and footnotes, but it's still mesmerizing. And it's neat to see where some of the little flourishes in Infinite Jest came from, too.
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May 31, 2010 05:32
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One of my favorite things DFW does in his essay is really look into how the hell certain things sustain themselves. Stuff like how cruise lines make money, or how the Illinois State Fair goes on every year, or how David Lynch can keep making movies. His essays read like someone genuinely compelled to find answers to even the most mundane logistical questions, which is something I find very compelling. I also adore how he'll just get incredibly offensive out of no where, like the whole K-Mart people thing in the essay on the state fair; there's this viciousness in the way he judges people I find just hysterical. As you can guess, I've been reading A Supposedly Fun Thing...
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Jun 2, 2010 02:14
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If you're following http://thehowlingfantods.com/dfw (and you should!) then you probably already know this, but for those of you who don't: The original audio recording of This Is Water, the commencement speech DFW gave at Kenyon College, is now available from audible.com (you can also get it on iTunes).
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Jun 10, 2010 14:32
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Has this interview been posted? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9TWD5QaRY I like it quiet a bit.
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Jun 10, 2010 16:33
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meanolmrcloud posted:Has this interview been posted? I do too. It's a bit heartbreaking watching it though, especially when the director tries to make a joke about DFW going out of frame as he thinks about the questions (he was bit of a dick, but he was totally joking) and you can just see DFW just sink into himself. I just want to give him a big hug. 
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Jun 10, 2010 18:09
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The ZDF interview is really fantastic! He's just so... real, for lack of a better word.
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Jun 10, 2010 18:12
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An unabridged audiobook version of the Broom of the System just came out a few days ago. How long until Infinite Jest?
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Jun 10, 2010 18:37
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inferis posted:An unabridged audiobook version of the Broom of the System just came out a few days ago. How long until Infinite Jest? Oh man. How long would that audiobook be, and god with all the footnotes 
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Jun 10, 2010 18:45
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meanolmrcloud posted:Has this interview been posted? Just got around to watching this, thanks for posting it. Really incredible, I love the way DFW's mind works and his analysis of all of life's goings on. Edit: VVVVVVV Here ya go ArgaWarga fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jun 26, 2010 |
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Jun 25, 2010 06:17
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meanolmrcloud posted:Has this interview been posted? Is this down for anyone else besides me? Could someone post another link to it?
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Jun 26, 2010 00:38
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Edged Hymn posted:Is this down for anyone else besides me? Could someone post another link to it?
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Jun 26, 2010 01:31
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Yeah, I don't know why the uploader decided to remove all of the videos. Dick move if you ask me. Here's the entire unedited interview in one glorious 80 minute video. EDIT: Wow, we literally posted that at the same time. clown shoes fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jun 26, 2010 |
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Jun 26, 2010 01:31
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"There's a lot of narcissism in self-hatred." That's such a great quote 
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Jul 1, 2010 14:21
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Tim Takdon posted:i watched the john krasinski movie. it was bad. I think it did a fine job, really as good as could be expected.
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Jul 4, 2010 02:51
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Does anyone have a copy of David Lipsky's "The Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace," the really excellent piece on DFW's death? Rolling Stone pulled it and I can't seem to find it anywhere... perhaps someone can come up with a link or post it in this thread. Here's DFW's "100 Word Statement On the Millennium" for Rolling Stone: quote:We're all—especially those of us who are educated and have read a lot and have watched TV critically—in a very self-conscious and sort of worldly and sophisticated time, but also a time when we seem terribly afraid of other people's reactions to us and very desperate to control how people in- terpret us. Everyone is extremely conscious of manipulating how they come off in the media; they want to structure what they say so that the reader or audience will interpret it in the way that is most favorable to them. What's interesting to me is that this isn't all that new. This was the project of the Sophists in Athens, and this is what Socrates and Plato thought was so completely evil. The Sophists had this idea: Forget this idea of what's true or not—what you want to do is rhetoric; you want to be able to persuade the audience and have the audience think you're smart and cool. And Socrates and Plato, basically their whole idea is, "Bullshit. There is such a thing as truth, and it's not all just how to say what you say so that you get a good job or get laid, or whatever it is people think they want.
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Jul 24, 2010 03:16
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Maxistentialist posted:Does anyone have a copy of David Lipsky's "The Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace," the really excellent piece on DFW's death? Rolling Stone pulled it and I can't seem to find it anywhere... perhaps someone can come up with a link or post it in this thread. WoG fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Jul 24, 2010 |
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Jul 24, 2010 07:37
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For anyone that has read THE GIRL WITH THE CURIOUS HAIR and didn't know, or didn't bother to look up Kieth Jarrett he is real and he does just improvise entire concerts; like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqK1JJOFxw I kept meaning to see if he was a real person and then i saw him in a NMD thread.
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Jul 26, 2010 01:55
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I got between 150-200 pages into Infinite Jest before dropping it. I didn't like any of the characters (didn't quite dislike them either, just had no attachment), the plot didn't seem to be going anywhere, and while the writing was pretty clever, I kept getting pissed off at DFW for appearing to really enjoy his own cleverness at the expense of something I would want to bother reading. Nothing seemed genuine. It was a bit like having a high-functioning but severely distracted autist tell you about his friends but screwing up all the stories and finishing them off with a nervous laugh and a 'welp.' I was in a bad mood at the time so maybe I'll try it again, but there are a lot of fantastic authors out there and I'm not very sold on the suicide-depresso's rear end in a top hat Tome. PRI Caulk fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jul 27, 2010 |
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Jul 27, 2010 16:24
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Tell me about some more books you don't like!
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Jul 27, 2010 16:32
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inferis posted:Tell me about some more books you don't like! That wouldn't really be appropriate for the thread unless they were DFW books, which I now know to steer clear of, strips of flypaper that they are.
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Jul 27, 2010 16:34
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PRI Caulk posted:and while the writing was pretty clever, I kept getting pissed off at DFW for appearing to really enjoy his own cleverness at the expense of something I would want to bother reading. Nothing seemed genuine. I honestly would like to know what you mean by this because I've heard other people and critics talk about it and don't know what they mean. At 150pages in I would mostly agree with you about the characters and plot, though I think you are completly wrong about things being genuine.
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Jul 27, 2010 16:56
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I just got into DFW recently and am completely in love. I haven't tried any of his fiction yet, but his essays are awesome. "Authority and American Usage", from Consider the Lobster, is one of my favorites so far because it articulates what I've been too dumb to put into words about why I hate grammar nazis but still am one. Fun DFW-related story: I was just involved with a local theatre's production of a play written by a former friend of David. There's a scene in the play that is essentially the State Fair from "Getting Away From Pretty Much Already Being Away From It All" but told from the perspective of the Native Companion. From that scene I found the corresponding DFW essay, and that's how I got into his writing. I have a couple lovely fantasy novels next on my list, but Infinite Jest is coming up soon and I am so pumped.
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Jul 27, 2010 17:46
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BusError posted:I just got into DFW recently and am completely in love. I haven't tried any of his fiction yet, but his essays are awesome. "Authority and American Usage", from Consider the Lobster, is one of my favorites so far because it articulates what I've been too dumb to put into words about why I hate grammar nazis but still am one. Just wait until you get to Avril Incandenza and the Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts. Also, that play sounds awesome.
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Jul 27, 2010 18:30
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