Okay, it’s great and all that this review for “Consider the Lobster” is more or less glowing, but if David Foster Wallace’s last two story collections are throwaways, I never ever ever want to know what mine are.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I wouldn't have used the term "throwaway", but...forgive me, mea culpa, and may grace be given to the truly ignorant...I thought that some of "Brief Interviews" was a bit forced and transitional to who knows what. Granted, DFW at his worst is still better than 99% of what is on the market at any given time. Yet, when you write one the best books of the last ten years with "Infinite Jest", the mark gets set a bit higher than most.
/hates that I create an "expectation game" with my favorite writers
// it's even worse with older writers that I like when comparing earlier works with more recent outings
Matt, I had no idea you were such a big reader! My cousins both long lost and not so long lost are awesome! Tell me more! Starting with: I am too old to be knowing what it means when you add a slash mark before a final thought or two. Explain.
Fark is also notable for "slashies" in user comments. Tangential / Post-script(P.S.) comments are often added to the end of a user's post in the forums with a slash ("/") preceding it. Sometimes these comments are an attempt at a one-liner joke. The comment following a slash is almost always a single line. Users who would wish to make a second tangential / Post-script comment after the first one will do so in a new line, preceded by one more slash then was used in the prior line. In this fasion, double ("//") and triple ("///") slashes are not uncommon (denoting a post-post-script (P.P.S) and post-post-post-script (P.P.P.S)). This has been taken to somewhat of an competition by certain users, who attempt to use as many of these as possible. 3 or 4 slashes seems to be the upper limit for most users, while the very rare comment attempting to maximize them might reach 9 or 10. The origins of the "slashies" fad / phenomena remain unclear.
I would add that the slashie is very popular in the text-based messaging realm as well, important if you ever plan to communicate with someone under the age of 15 or plan on visiting Tokyo.
4 comments:
I wouldn't have used the term "throwaway", but...forgive me, mea culpa, and may grace be given to the truly ignorant...I thought that some of "Brief Interviews" was a bit forced and transitional to who knows what. Granted, DFW at his worst is still better than 99% of what is on the market at any given time. Yet, when you write one the best books of the last ten years with "Infinite Jest", the mark gets set a bit higher than most.
/hates that I create an "expectation game" with my favorite writers
// it's even worse with older writers that I like when comparing earlier works with more recent outings
Matt, I had no idea you were such a big reader! My cousins both long lost and not so long lost are awesome! Tell me more!
Starting with:
I am too old to be knowing what it means when you add a slash mark before a final thought or two. Explain.
How's this for being DFWesque...
From the Wikipedia article on Fark.com
Fark is also notable for "slashies" in user comments. Tangential / Post-script(P.S.) comments are often added to the end of a user's post in the forums with a slash ("/") preceding it. Sometimes these comments are an attempt at a one-liner joke. The comment following a slash is almost always a single line. Users who would wish to make a second tangential / Post-script comment after the first one will do so in a new line, preceded by one more slash then was used in the prior line. In this fasion, double ("//") and triple ("///") slashes are not uncommon (denoting a post-post-script (P.P.S) and post-post-post-script (P.P.P.S)). This has been taken to somewhat of an competition by certain users, who attempt to use as many of these as possible. 3 or 4 slashes seems to be the upper limit for most users, while the very rare comment attempting to maximize them might reach 9 or 10. The origins of the "slashies" fad / phenomena remain unclear.
I would add that the slashie is very popular in the text-based messaging realm as well, important if you ever plan to communicate with someone under the age of 15 or plan on visiting Tokyo.
WOW. Thanks Matt. This is going to be VERY useful in a story someday.
/that last paragraph cracked me up.
Debra - aw, thanks!
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