Just picked up Stephen Kings last book of the dark tower series (needed both hands).
Astonishing X-men #5 (by BTVS creator Joss Whedon) comes out tommorow.
The O Henry Awards 2004 should be due out any day.
Guess which Im most exicted about? Guess which Im pretending to be most excited about?
But first (edited to add - no,actually, second) -
Oblivion
by David Foster Wallace
Just when you thought it was no longer cool to talk about consumer alienation and the abandonment of the self in the modern world, a new collection of short stories arrives by David Foster Wallace. (Actually, you werent thinking this, but you were afraid others were, and that it might be about time, as it were, to say it first as a sort of pre-emptive strike).
The following is the most important sentence of this review: Oblivion rivals Infinite Jest as the finest work that celebrated author David Foster Wallace has yet produced. It is also about 700 pages shorter.
[In this portion, most would give a brief description of Wallaces earlier writings.
For no other living author is this as great an exercise in futility. Surely if you are the kind of person who would read this far into a book review, you have at least a passing acquaintance with his works, no? You are at least aware there is a writer named David Foster Wallace who Lewis Lapham simply salivates for (in a completely heterosexual way, of course), and who wrote a book in the 1990s which is so long and so popular that trees everywhere live in fear of a third print run?]
Oblivion is a rarity - a collection of short stories where each one is tremendous (strong enough, even, to wipe out any doubts or recriminations caused by the weaker parts of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men). Wallaces prose is as exacting and as informative as a Universal Price Code bar - and if he ever chose to write a UPC, you would be sure it would be an illuminating glimpse of the human condition.
It is in absolutely no way an easy book to read. This reviewer reads quickly and without an eye for detail (a technique which he makes no bones about and wont apologize for), and is the first to admit he sometimes misses stuff, although he will also huffily declare he always gets an innate grasp of the theme. DFWs paragraphs are long and thick and many, and the term straightforward probably does not even appear in Oblivion (though there may, somewhere in its 329 pages, be a longer synonym). Reviewers are not only coming to different conclusions about what Oblivion is about (ie, thematic intent, deeper meaning) they are coming to different conclusions about what Oblivion is about (ie, actually events described in text of stories). Er, while we are here, in the title story, the stuff about the end reveals that the narrator lusts after his stepdaughter, right? And the giveaway line is the bit about masturbating to saffron scented panties? (see, now you have to read the book).
Buy. Read. Enjoy. Or die. Not literally -perhaps- but in some ephemeral but none the less real way that we do not understand but is part of our core being.
Astonishing X-men #5 (by BTVS creator Joss Whedon) comes out tommorow.
The O Henry Awards 2004 should be due out any day.
Guess which Im most exicted about? Guess which Im pretending to be most excited about?
But first (edited to add - no,actually, second) -
Oblivion
by David Foster Wallace
Just when you thought it was no longer cool to talk about consumer alienation and the abandonment of the self in the modern world, a new collection of short stories arrives by David Foster Wallace. (Actually, you werent thinking this, but you were afraid others were, and that it might be about time, as it were, to say it first as a sort of pre-emptive strike).
The following is the most important sentence of this review: Oblivion rivals Infinite Jest as the finest work that celebrated author David Foster Wallace has yet produced. It is also about 700 pages shorter.
[In this portion, most would give a brief description of Wallaces earlier writings.
For no other living author is this as great an exercise in futility. Surely if you are the kind of person who would read this far into a book review, you have at least a passing acquaintance with his works, no? You are at least aware there is a writer named David Foster Wallace who Lewis Lapham simply salivates for (in a completely heterosexual way, of course), and who wrote a book in the 1990s which is so long and so popular that trees everywhere live in fear of a third print run?]
Oblivion is a rarity - a collection of short stories where each one is tremendous (strong enough, even, to wipe out any doubts or recriminations caused by the weaker parts of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men). Wallaces prose is as exacting and as informative as a Universal Price Code bar - and if he ever chose to write a UPC, you would be sure it would be an illuminating glimpse of the human condition.
It is in absolutely no way an easy book to read. This reviewer reads quickly and without an eye for detail (a technique which he makes no bones about and wont apologize for), and is the first to admit he sometimes misses stuff, although he will also huffily declare he always gets an innate grasp of the theme. DFWs paragraphs are long and thick and many, and the term straightforward probably does not even appear in Oblivion (though there may, somewhere in its 329 pages, be a longer synonym). Reviewers are not only coming to different conclusions about what Oblivion is about (ie, thematic intent, deeper meaning) they are coming to different conclusions about what Oblivion is about (ie, actually events described in text of stories). Er, while we are here, in the title story, the stuff about the end reveals that the narrator lusts after his stepdaughter, right? And the giveaway line is the bit about masturbating to saffron scented panties? (see, now you have to read the book).
Buy. Read. Enjoy. Or die. Not literally -perhaps- but in some ephemeral but none the less real way that we do not understand but is part of our core being.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
I won't commit to out and out liking it (I think the art is often weak and while I recognize Neil Gaiman is talented, I also can't help but suspect that he's overrated), but I am awfully eager to curl up with the books at the end of the night.
So we'll see.
[Edited on Sep 24, 2004 9:54PM]