Further Proof of the Evil Nature of D.F.W.

[David Casseres]

At 9:32 -0800 12/14/98, MalignD at aol.com wrote:
><< so keep your adjectives to yourself. seems like a fair request.  >>
>
>Well, if the shoe fits ...  Maybe you can find some Cliff Notes if actually
>reading a book is too much of an effort.

Too much of an effort, that's about it.  I read Les Fucking Miserables when
I was in eighth grade just because it was the fattest book on my parents'
shelf, and it was not too much of an effort.  I read Moby-Dick on a whim
when I was depressed and stoned, and it was not too much of an effort.  I
read Gravity's Rainbow and immediately re-read it, and it was not too much
of an effort.  I inhaled Mason & Dixon so fast I'll definitely have to
re-read it soon, and it was not too much of an effort.  Und so weiter,
nicht wahr?

And I read maybe 50 or 100 pages of Infinite Jest, and it was way too much
of an effort.  I will not trouble you with my opinions about the quality of
the book, but I will tell you that after 50 or 100 pages I had been greatly
entertained by a lot of it but I had nothing in my belly.  DFW is obviously
very bright and very imaginative and has thought of a whole lot of gags
that I wish I'd thought of myself, but when I put out the effort to even go
back and forth and read all the fuckin footnotes for the luvva gawd, I want
some calories and some minerals and vitamins and who nose, maybe even some
righteous dope.  Infinite Jest offered me none of those things so I moved
on.
Cheers,
David