Comments on: INFINITE JEST Readalong pp 575-619

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 23:48:59 +0000

Caught up to p. 619 and holy cats, poor Don Gately!

Favorite phrasings:

“It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know.” (589)

“Residents on mess responded to the sound of the meds locker the way a cat responds to the sound of a can-opener.” (593)

Also, nice comparison to ULYSSES, Steven and Kristin!

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 23:48:57 +0000

Caught up to p. 619 and holy cats, poor Don Gately!

Favorite phrasings:

“It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know.” (589)

“Residents on mess responded to the sound of the meds locker the way a cat responds to the sound of a can-opener.” (593)

Also, nice comparison to ULYSSES, Steven and Kristin!

By: girldetective

girldetective — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 15:05:10 +0000

As my 9yo would correct, I’ve read a couple: Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by DT Max, and Although of Course You End up Being Yourself by Lipsky. Both are worthwhile and expand my understanding of IJ and DFW. I’ve only read IJ, Consider the Lobster, and This is Water of his, so I want to read them all. Lit by Karr also gives us a window into DFW at the time of his recovery, which is interesting given it’s what he’s portraying somewhat fictionally in IJ.

The Max is worthwhile because it’s an exhaustively researched bio, with lots of quotes from letters he wrote, and gives the long view of his life and work. The Lipsky is good because it’s like spending three days with DFW in the direct aftermath of the DFW IJ hype. It is a quick read.

Further DFW bio stuff that relates to this week’s reading. It is dedicated to a relative (paternal grandfather, I think?) and the RIP was a dig, as if to say, good riddance. Also, he and his mother were long estranged after the pub of IJ. I think there’s a lot of Sally Foster Wallace in Avril.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 13:05:22 +0000

Kristin, you’ve read several books about DFW now. Which do you recommend and why?

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 16:54:50 +0000

The Charlie Brown structure of Q followed by answer is pretty much the structure of Lipsky’s book–he often erases himself from it.

By: V

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 06:46:25 +0000

I’ve cringed at most of the long endnotes, but I enjoyed 234, if only for its Charlie Brown adult to kid nature.

I’ve assumed any mystery narrator portions to be Hugh, or Helen, Steeply. That’s who is in the green car before/around the Eschaton portions, n’est-ce pas?

By: Heidi

Heidi — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 17:34:30 +0000

SO agree. I’m reminded of how I feel about other privileged white male authors, who write the brilliant prose I enjoy reading, but kinda such at being good humans (Franzen, Amis (fils et pÃ¨re), Barnes, Joyce, Chatwin, etc.).

Remind me who Minty is again? ðŸ˜‰ Man, if you thought Joyce’s characters were hard to keep track of, for IJ I really could use a good character map (HA!) / tree to keep all the relationships straight. Anyone come across a good one?

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 14:38:07 +0000

I think it’s important to keep in mind, and you had noticed this early on, DFW was kind of a dick. He was somewhat sometimes aware of it, sometimes trying to address it, but he was a super privileged, ultra educated, extraordinarily intelligent white guy. There’s very little in what I have read about him and by him that makes me believe he was aware enough of his white male rich privilege. He was no saint, and merits no pedestal. Yet, he was also a damn good writer, and IJ, like other works of great literature, makes me think, and want to be a better person.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 02:36:06 +0000

“Hinkiness” is a great word.

Yeah, as I mentioned in an earlier comment, I know authors of fiction plumb their own real lives for details of their writing. Like you though, I feel queasy abt DFW lifting characters and stories â€“ in a way where ppl can clearly ID themselves â€“ from a program which strives to honor anonymity. Kind of a dick move.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 02:13:47 +0000

No, yrstruly is Minty, I forget where it became clear. But the inmates are all picking up on stuff from each other, and Lenz must’ve picked up calling himself yrstruly from Minty.

Having read Every Love Story is a Ghost Story and the Lipsky book, DFW has a history of putting too much fact in his fiction, and too much fiction in his essays. The fact that Joelle is from Kentucky, not TX, and has strawberry hair, not brunette, is probably a testament to his being convinced to change some things. But the drug dealer with harelip and snakes–that guy was real. He appears in one of Karrs memoirs. Don is based on Big Craig a guy from the real house, but how to figure out whose details are real and whose made up–well, isn’t that part of fiction? Dani Shapiro, an author who wrote a novel about her life, then a memoir, said that she should’ve written the memoir first, because the stuff people complained about in the novel as unbelievable was true, and the stuff they said was boring was what she’d made up.

Aside from the general hinkiness of stealing people’s stories and using them as fodder for fiction, though, DFW was stealing from people in a supposedly anonymous program. Not cool, dude. That said, some of it has to be exaggerated, unless my experience in DC recovery was way tamer than Boston. But maybe because I was in NW, and not other parts of DC. And yet, now that I think about it, I’ve heard some pretty out there stuff.