Small Boo is away looking at dinosaurs, leaving me alone in the house for the weekend. I suppose it’s a sign of my advancing decrepitude that instead of staging a wild and destructive party, my immediate instinct was to go to YouTube in search of that Yellow Pages advert about wild and destructive parties. Oh, and to start a new blog as well. Ha! That caught you out, didn’t it? Or maybe not. Anyway, this one’s about the novel Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. It’s over here, although it hasn’t really started yet.
Older readers may recall that I tried something similar a few years ago, but I’m hoping that this will be a bit more satisfying. Chasms of the Earth was an attempt to work out why such a badly written book was so successful. Actually reading the bloody thing was easy enough, like gorging on cheap chocolate, but finding something worthwhile to say about it was a tougher call and I gave up at about the halfway point. (To be fair, I had by then answered my initial question; lots of short sentences.) Infinite Jest, on the other hand is rather longer and – according to those who have attempted it – better and more difficult. Even if Bret Easton Ellis begs to differ.
Anyway, we shall see how this one goes. Normal Cultural Snow business will be maintained as per usual, although I suspect there may be one or two blog posts about blog posts appearing. And now I’d better go and start reading the bloody thing...
6 comments:
I gave up. Just saying.
I approve. It saves me having to read it.
(I wish big fat books would be published in two paperbacks. At the last count, I have given up on Wolf Hall and the Crimson Petal and the White, they're too bloody heavy.)
Hey Tim! I've enjoyed both parts of this, so get reading! I must confess I don't like thick books, even those with big print. I'm struggling with EAST OF EDEN, and that's not even that thick. I keep wishing it were THE GRAPES OF WRATH, which was marvellous and evocative. Indigo
Ooh, can I join in? I was planning to have a go at IJ after reading a think about DFW in Newsweek or something recently. He sounds like he was a bit of a dick.
Mind you, I failed miserably when I tried to follow a blog/book thing with that bloody Pyncheon doorstop. Will try harder this time.
I probably will as well, Vicus. In which case we'll have another online document of plucky, doomed heroism.
Yes, Annie, I should have got the three-volume version of 1Q84. But that is the advantage of the Kindle - big books weigh the same.
Indigo: The thickest book I've conquered in recent years was The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro - and this is more than twice the size. Ulp.
Join in, Spinny, please. I'll be Hillary, you can be Tenzing. Or vice versa.
Frankly, I'm of a mind that one can never have too many blogs. (Says she, commenting from another bloody blog.)
Have followed etc.
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