DFW Debate

[Derek C. Maus]

On Mon, 14 Dec 1998 MalignD at aol.com wrote:

> What you wrote earlier, which I found puerile, was -- 
> 
> <...because he writes really long books that seem really intellectual to a
> general reading public that thinks Wally Lamb is an existentialist. Sorry if
> it offends the sensibility of anyone, but there was no way in hell I was going
> on for another 900 pages after 100 pages of blather like the opening .10 of
> _INFINITE JEST_.>>  
> 
> It seems so still upon re-reading.  You're offering opinions about a
> writer whose latest, most ambitious fiction you haven't read.  It
> doesn't seem asking too much (except to you, apparently) to expect one
> to read an author's work before sending post after post filled with
> one's opinion of him, particularly in discussion with people who have. 

Are you fucking blind or just not reading my posts? Let me put them in
caps for you so that you can perhaps read them better...

I HAVE READ DAVID FOSTER WALLACE'S WORK (see below)

> A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments 
> by David Foster Wallace 
> Paperback - 368 pages (February 1998)

I AM NOT REFERRING SOLELY TO _INFINITE JEST_ IN MY OPINION OF HIS WRITING.

Jesus H. Christ, I'm tired of this shit. 

Fine. You win. David Foster Wallace is the greatest writer since time
began. _INFINTIE JEST_ is the single most intelligent novel that any
specimen of life in the universe has created. MalignD is the most
insightful and rational literary critic since time began. The P-List
should be renamed the MalignD-List and we can all write posts for you to
critique and set us straight in our stupidity. 

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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.
UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |       The world owes you nothing.
http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |          It was here first."
                            |                  --Mark Twain
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