DFW's: The Brothers Incandenza

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

On Thu, 22 May 1997, jporter wrote:

> I guess I'm just not a fan, but the saddest thing, for me, about IJ was the
> time I had to put into to get all the way through it. If Wallace's mission
> in writing the book was to portray pathos, he could have done it in far
> fewer pages with far fewer contrivances. It was not a classic in my mind.
	
Maybe it's just me, but all this talk about IJ being about nothing's
starting to blur my perceptions about the novel, making me think back to
remember more.  More of what?  I don't know, but the more I think about
it, the less I think it's about nothing.

All of the story lines revolved around addiction-with-a-capital-A
Addiction, whether it be to tennis, drugs, lenses, or any of the various
anonymous groups; and (though I don't know how much sense this'll make in
the morning) the novel itself was a kind of addiction.  It's time
consuming, meandering, and unresolved, which (though I admit ignorance of
the true subject) is what I've always been told addictions are.

Just some thoughts.

Scott Kaufman