DFW Debate

[Derek C. Maus]

On Mon, 14 Dec 1998, Richard Romeo wrote:

> I would only add to the discussion that a big test for DFW will be his 
> next effort.  Reading IJ is like reading Beckett's trilogy:  you gotta 
> really dig to find those worthwhile nuggets.  Maybe, when we're older 
> and wiser, we can then look back on the career and make a better 
> judgement.

Wait, wait. Let me pre-emptively do it for you, MalignD...

"Might have known you'd be weighing in."

That about right?

Anyway, Richard, in regard to your comment, I'm more than willing to give
Wallace the benefit of the doubt as far as future works go. Right now, he
strikes me as a writer who may have some talent, but very little to say
that is particularly new. As such, he's not really a writer that interests
me a great deal. Does that mean he's condemned forever to the scrap-heap?
No, of course not. I'd like to think that he could rise above what I've
read of his so far. Like Jeanette Winterson, I think he has a hard time
excising his urge to preach from his urge to write. In both cases, this is
simply an approach that I don't particularly enjoy reading and, therefore,
don't. However, if Wallace releases a book that looks like it may be
different from what I've read so far, I'd probably give it a try. I do
think the re-evaluation of Wallace from a temporal distance could,
frankly, go in either direction, though.

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Derek C. Maus               |   "Don't go around saying the world
dmaus at email.unc.edu         |      the world owes you a living.
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http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |          It was here first."
                            |                  --Mark Twain
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