Were his other works reading?
No memes please
if you like IJ, yes. if not, no probably not.
I really like TPK. It's consistently a little worse and more boring than IJ, but there are occasional parts that are better than amything in IJ, like Toni Ware's upbringing, the renegade president theorycraft etc. It's also funnier.
I've forgotten the name of his non IJ novel even though I own it and read half of it. Pomo drudgery.
>>8209428
I haven't heard of anybody that disliked his essays. A Supposedly Funny Thing especially is pretty great.
Consider the Lobster is good
>>8209428
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is his best work overall.
>>8209768
You are very full of shit.
I liked Oblivion. Broom of the System and Infinite Jest were both pretty mediocre. Consider The Lobster and Pale King were garbage. Threw out the last two and decided not to read him any more.
>>8209428
>Were his other works reading?
DFW readers, everyone.
>>8209752
>>8209768
Both good. Haven't read the rest, other than Infinite Jest.
>>8209428
>Were his other works reading?
No, they are writing.
>>8209938
lel
Girl With Curious Hair is worth reading. There's some pretty good stories in there. The last story (novella really) is a little bit of a mess but it comes together really well and has some good laughs.
>>8209938
haha
>>8209449
>>8209926
I'm seeing little love for The Pale King. I just bought it a while back on a whim cause I saw it at a bookshop at a cheap price and there were no other books by him. Is it a terrible place to start with DFW? Worth reading at all?
>>8209449
>more boring than IJ
Good LORD.
>>8210912
>terrible place to start
Not terrible, but not representative of his output.
>worth reading
Oh yes. However, keep in mind, TPK is about 400 pages (right? I read it when it first came out) of DFW's draft. In writing IJ, he wrote about 2500 pages and whittled it down to an eventual 1079. These 400 would probably be diminished to about 250-300. You're not, by any means, reading anything resembling a finished work.
But there are amazing scenes. §3 may be the best banter he ever wrote. The incredibly repetitive scene was amazing. The fucking kid's upbringing and the licking part were out of this world. I even enjoyed the meta-author bits, and those are usually the worst parts of any pomo novel.
>>8210963
>2500... whittled it down... 1079
You got a source for that, bucko? I just read an essay(?) by one of the guys who read a manuscript for DFW to suggest cuts, and says that he ended up cutting about 40 pages from it in the end. He ended up writing an additional 200 pages that wound up in the book, so there could be more cuts there.. but over 1000 reduced to 200 pages.. after the manuscript was complete.. I doubt it.
Article:
http://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/the-first-draft-version-of-infinite-jest.html
>That is, Wallace added at least 200 pages of material, plus expanded many of the previously written episodes, and yet it’s been said the publisher cut 300-400 pages, which puzzles me. (I suppose it’s possible that, after revising and expanding the original manuscript, then adding some 200 pages of new material, Wallace went on to write an additional 300 pages, all while teaching at ISU, but that seems a bit much even for a prodigy like him.) At any rate, it’s to his editor’s credit that, instead of insisting on further reductions, Pietsch decided to market the novel’s gargantuan size as part of its appeal.
>>8211571
read D.T. Max's book on Wallace
>>8209428
A RADICALLY CONDENSED HISTORY OF POSTINDUSTRIAL LIFE
When they were introduced, he made a witticism, hoping to be liked. She laughed extremely hard, hoping to be liked. Then each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same twist to their faces.
The man who'd introduced them didn't much like either of them, though he acted as he did, anxious as he was to preserve good relations at all times. One ever knew, after all, now did one now did now did one.
>>8211628
Christ, this reads like parody
>>8211642
no our lifes is the parody
>>8211657
>our lifes is
never write again
>>8211665
you sound like lots of fun
>>8209768
It's pretty solid stuff.
I really liked Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
>>8209428
Read only Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and it had an interesting style and some very good stories. Didn't feel like reading more of him after that though.
