Not to be hipster or anything….
But I read Infinite Jest before the Decemberists made a music video out of it.
WHAT
Word. This is the new standard.
October 10, 2011
Notes: 2
Tagged: david foster wallace · infinite jest · jeffery eugenides · jonathan franzen · mary karr ·
Link: Just Kids
Ostensibly about Jeffrey Eugenides new book, the article ends up tracking the circle young writers through their intersections with David Foster Wallace.
Infinite Jest Summer Reading Team
Text Message. May 12th, 2011 7:31pm
Me: Just finished the title essay in Consider the Lobster and was nearly certain you wrote the first part of it. I could hear you saying the exact same things.
Dave: Wow. Now I have to go reread that. I wish I could say anything he does
Me: You should and do.
Me: As a side note — I wonder if college professors get just inundated with DWF-affected papers as students start reading him. I bet it’s annoying.
Dave: Ha. I bet you’re right.
Me: Incidentally, the bit I’m reading right now concerns the sort of cruel effect iconification of writers has on people’s ability to understand the humanity of their writing.
Dave: He was slightly self aware!
Me: Just slightly…
Me: I feel like we HAVE to do our book club.
Dave: Agreed
Dave: We should co-author a thing: long form responses to each week.
Dave: With footnotes
Me: I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing.
And THAT is how the Infinite Jest Summer Reading Team was born.
In the spirit of Infinite Summer, me and 4 3 2 (it’s a pretty big commitment…) other people are going to be reading Infinite Jest together from now (actually two weeks ago) until early October.
Any way, between trying to keep up on my reading and getting my thoughts on the book published in a timely manner, my already infrequent posts here might be even less for a bit. On the plus side, you can follow along with our adventure over at the IJSRT blog and watch us stumble through all this from the safety of your own computer.
