DFW

[Paul Kedrosky]

On 16 Jun 96 at 15:10, Steelhead wrote:

> What the Broom of the System is to CoL49; and, Infinite Jest is to JR; so,
> too, is the awful, footnote clotted Esquire essay on tennis to Don Delillo's
> Players and Mailer's The Fight-- cheap, self-aggrandizing imitations.

Yup. The Esquire essay had infrequent moments when DFW stood back from
"literary phenom" and just wrote about what he saw and thought, but so much of
that article was just unadulterated schtick. If you have read his Harper's
essays (two, I think -- one on the Illinois State Fair and one on sea-cruises)
and now this essay, the game begins to get more than a little stale. And worse
than stale, it seems cute, coy, self-conscious, and patronizing, patronizing,
patronizing.  

BTW, forgive me if this has already been discussed, but what parallels did you
see between Delillo's "The Players" and this essay? I read the aforementioned
novel some time back, but the Delillo connection didn't spring to mind when I
read DFW's essay. 

Paul
pkedrosk at sms.ivey.uwo.ca
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