It's the little things.... my books from Amazon were scheduled to arrive Thursday and they came today, Tuesday.
I work at home, and now I have two books on my desk I want to read, just sitting there. But I have to show some discipline. I'll hole up at Spider House this evening and read David Foster Wallace.
So I got his book Oblivion. I tried to read one of the stories, Good Old Neon when I saw it in a "Best Of" Anthology a couple of years ago and I have to say I couldn't deal with it. I don't think I even finished. I was suffering from ADD that day I bet, and Wallace can be damn hard to follow if you're not in the mood to hang in there with him. I've read a couple of reviews of Oblivion that portray it as the centerpiece of this collection.
I've looked forward to a book of stories by DFW for a long time. I thought Girl With The Curious Hair was silly mostly (altho I was pissed when someone failed to return my autographed first edition). I loved Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, and in fact that book is the one I hold dear of his. I'm a little surprised to hear it described as "experimental" or "transitional", as if the stories in that book were just auditions for this new book. Especially in that Oblivion seems to be losing people, if the reviews and commentary I've read can be believed. I thought Brief Interviews was pretty groundbreaking and really made clear what he was doing. That story where he is transcribing an interview of a guy who is recounting a sex encounter with a hippee girl who told him a story about almost being killed and raped by a highway killer was incredible. I was off center for days after reading that.
I think Wallace, more than any other writer I know, traces the way our minds work as well as can be done in print. Critics think his endless footnoting is some sort of post-modern gimmick, and I suppose it is if you are into labels and gimmicks.
But I think Wallace footnotes as a way of hypertexting thru the associations.
In other words, I say"A", but then there is a footnote explaining that while expressing "A", I cannot fail to be aware that "B". And furthermore, once you concede "B", it would be negligent not to be fully aware that you know how self serving "A" is, and how "B" might make one appear not so, and that there was in fact a third way of thinking that I was considering, "C", and if you say "A" while insisting on not expressing "C" there is a sense in which..."
The mind works like that. At least my mind does. I took Wallace's endless notes and tangents to be very honest and sincere, and not gimmicky at all.
Exhausting too. As a meditator, I watch thoughts unravel and lead to others, which lead to others and others still, and are informed by still more that come seemingly from nowhere... and I calmly let them go (or try to without getting hung up). Wallace chases them down and writes them into his story. In my own writing, I would wear myself down in minutes trying to really do this. A testament to DFW's mathematical brain (He wrote a well informed book about Infinity - way over my head) that he can chase down problems like that, and scan the complicated code printouts of thought and transcribe them.
So, I look forward to the book. I understand there is a story about an artist who takes a shit and it comes out shaped like something. I'm not sure how DFW intends to make that a serious story. But there was a brilliant story in Brief Interviews that all took place in the mind of a man who passed out towels in a bathroom frequented by rich men.
I think his books are rewarding and I'm diving in.
Interesting side... I once read Henry Miller's Books In My Life where he claimed he was influenced by "....all the Elizabethan writers, except Shakespeare". Which I thought immediately was smartass pompous bullshit. That would be like saying I've listened to all the British pop groups of the Sixties, except the Beatles! Yes, you're too smart to get bogged down by the Beatles, but you love all the less talented and less influential nobodies of the era.
It's the equivilent of people wo claim to no longer like a band because they got big, as if that somehow proves how smart they are.
And yet, I am a big fan of Wallace although I have never read Infinite Jest, the book by which almost all readers come to DFW. And I probably never will. At what, 1500 pages of small print.... with my eyes getting worse and worse and my attention span less and less, and my life busier and busier, I doubt I will ever even attempt it.
I do have a copy though. It's very thick. Works well horizontally on my shelf as a weight to hold my other books up.
The other book I ordered? Learning How To Die by Greg Kot, a history of Uncle Tupolo and Wilco. I haven't read a book about a band since I was a teenager, but Wilco fascinates me. In fact, I am more intrigued by Jeff Tweedy than I am by his music. I haven't listened to Ghost Is Born in weeks. It's great, but not something I will listen to on a regular basis apparently. I might be more interested in the idea of this band than in their music.
So despite the childishness of doing so, I will be reading that in the coming days as well. Wallace should take some time. The Wilco book should not.
I work at home, and now I have two books on my desk I want to read, just sitting there. But I have to show some discipline. I'll hole up at Spider House this evening and read David Foster Wallace.
So I got his book Oblivion. I tried to read one of the stories, Good Old Neon when I saw it in a "Best Of" Anthology a couple of years ago and I have to say I couldn't deal with it. I don't think I even finished. I was suffering from ADD that day I bet, and Wallace can be damn hard to follow if you're not in the mood to hang in there with him. I've read a couple of reviews of Oblivion that portray it as the centerpiece of this collection.
I've looked forward to a book of stories by DFW for a long time. I thought Girl With The Curious Hair was silly mostly (altho I was pissed when someone failed to return my autographed first edition). I loved Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, and in fact that book is the one I hold dear of his. I'm a little surprised to hear it described as "experimental" or "transitional", as if the stories in that book were just auditions for this new book. Especially in that Oblivion seems to be losing people, if the reviews and commentary I've read can be believed. I thought Brief Interviews was pretty groundbreaking and really made clear what he was doing. That story where he is transcribing an interview of a guy who is recounting a sex encounter with a hippee girl who told him a story about almost being killed and raped by a highway killer was incredible. I was off center for days after reading that.
I think Wallace, more than any other writer I know, traces the way our minds work as well as can be done in print. Critics think his endless footnoting is some sort of post-modern gimmick, and I suppose it is if you are into labels and gimmicks.
But I think Wallace footnotes as a way of hypertexting thru the associations.
In other words, I say"A", but then there is a footnote explaining that while expressing "A", I cannot fail to be aware that "B". And furthermore, once you concede "B", it would be negligent not to be fully aware that you know how self serving "A" is, and how "B" might make one appear not so, and that there was in fact a third way of thinking that I was considering, "C", and if you say "A" while insisting on not expressing "C" there is a sense in which..."
The mind works like that. At least my mind does. I took Wallace's endless notes and tangents to be very honest and sincere, and not gimmicky at all.
Exhausting too. As a meditator, I watch thoughts unravel and lead to others, which lead to others and others still, and are informed by still more that come seemingly from nowhere... and I calmly let them go (or try to without getting hung up). Wallace chases them down and writes them into his story. In my own writing, I would wear myself down in minutes trying to really do this. A testament to DFW's mathematical brain (He wrote a well informed book about Infinity - way over my head) that he can chase down problems like that, and scan the complicated code printouts of thought and transcribe them.
So, I look forward to the book. I understand there is a story about an artist who takes a shit and it comes out shaped like something. I'm not sure how DFW intends to make that a serious story. But there was a brilliant story in Brief Interviews that all took place in the mind of a man who passed out towels in a bathroom frequented by rich men.
I think his books are rewarding and I'm diving in.
Interesting side... I once read Henry Miller's Books In My Life where he claimed he was influenced by "....all the Elizabethan writers, except Shakespeare". Which I thought immediately was smartass pompous bullshit. That would be like saying I've listened to all the British pop groups of the Sixties, except the Beatles! Yes, you're too smart to get bogged down by the Beatles, but you love all the less talented and less influential nobodies of the era.
It's the equivilent of people wo claim to no longer like a band because they got big, as if that somehow proves how smart they are.
And yet, I am a big fan of Wallace although I have never read Infinite Jest, the book by which almost all readers come to DFW. And I probably never will. At what, 1500 pages of small print.... with my eyes getting worse and worse and my attention span less and less, and my life busier and busier, I doubt I will ever even attempt it.
I do have a copy though. It's very thick. Works well horizontally on my shelf as a weight to hold my other books up.
The other book I ordered? Learning How To Die by Greg Kot, a history of Uncle Tupolo and Wilco. I haven't read a book about a band since I was a teenager, but Wilco fascinates me. In fact, I am more intrigued by Jeff Tweedy than I am by his music. I haven't listened to Ghost Is Born in weeks. It's great, but not something I will listen to on a regular basis apparently. I might be more interested in the idea of this band than in their music.
So despite the childishness of doing so, I will be reading that in the coming days as well. Wallace should take some time. The Wilco book should not.