Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
#4 in my book challenge for the year was Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. The essays here cover range over the past decade and cover such diverse topics as the AVN awards (like the Oscars of porn), 9/11, Kafka and Dostoyevsky. With his trademark lengthy footnotes adorning every pages, this is not a quick or easy read, though it is rewarding. I especially enjoyed “Authority and American Usage,” ostensibly a review of the new A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, but really a history and analysis of what he terms The Usage Wars. It’s hard not to feel intellectually small after reading DFW, but he counters his extreme intellectualism with a humanity that makes the essays, no matter their topic, extremely engaging. I don’t think, however, that he could ever manage to balance the humanity and the intellectualism–he’s so far gone in the latter that it can only be tempered. Equilibrium would be a long shot.
January 20th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
For what it’s worth, I think he really swings back toward the “humanity” end of the spectrum in the stories in Oblivion–at least, here and there, now and again.
He definitely does both fantastically (in my humble opinion).
January 20th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
My husband read Oblivion and liked it. He pointed out, though, that he thought one of DFWs lines in Lobster’s essay on Dostoyevesky–how some authors focus on character, others on plot and still others eschew both in favor of some meta-aesthetic agenda–was a jab at himself. I’m more of a novel fan than of short stories, and I may well try to tackle Infinite Jest this year if I’m feeling brave.
January 22nd, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Good luck on Jest. I’ve attempted twice, stalling out about halfway through. It took all my attention, and I just couldn’t leave all my other reading be. I’ve left the bookmark in so it can mock me from my book shelf.
January 23rd, 2006 at 3:17 pm
As she mentioned, I liked Oblivion. I also liked Brief Interviews. But I really enjoyed A Supposedly Fun Thing and Consider The Lobster.
That said, I’ve tried Jest twice, and I never got even halfway; I think I made it to page 50. We keep that copy up on the shelf just so it can stare at me reproachfully, exactly like Gravity’s Rainbow.