DFW in Atlantic April 2005 Issue

[Will Layman]

Rich --

I see where you are coming from, but I can't help but wonder too whether our
(I'm assuming here than many of us discovered Thomas Pynchon in college or
shortly before/after) fascination with TRP is also a remnant of that early
time -- a time when "getting" Byron the Bulb was a badge of honor bigger
than our critical judgment about whether GR was truly a great piece of
writing.  The last thing I want to do is to give up on the few things from
those days that I still savor and adore, but the piece shined enough light
on the phenomenon that it really got me thinking.

As for the DFW profile, I took it as a remarkably complete portrait of that
one "host."  I couldn't stop reading it.  Take away the slang and the asides
and, sure, there's not much left, but that's Wallace for you.  The ACTION is
in the conversation between the main story and the asides, between the
apparent journalistic distance and his increasing intrusion into it.  I
realize that's kind of an old po-mo saw for him now, but I'm afraid I'm
still eating it up.  Makes me think about the Lethem piece again -- is it
ALWAYS just a matter of time before we come to see ALL our attachments to
art as vaguely false projections of our own self-image?

-- Will

On 3/9/05 11:40 AM, "richard romeo" <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess my angle to be frank is:  tell me something I don't
> know--maybe I'm older and such dawning recognitions in parallel with a
> writer's musings isn't what it used to be--yes, I too have lost
> interest in DeLillo but, so what? just wondered in the Lethem piece
> what the point of it all was.
> 
> same with DFW radio piece--remove the slang and encyclopedia asides
> and what remains?  not much, IMHO beyond the notion that talk radio is
> poison. (I think air america is just as bad btw)
> 
> rich
> 
> 
>>>> From: Will Layman <WillLayman at comcast.net>
>>> 
>>> I thought the Lethem piece was not so much a list of music/movies as it was
>>> a serious exploration of the way certain young men (count me in) use the
>>> art they encounter when they are young as a convenient crutch (or, as he
>>> calls it, beard) to cover any real search for identity.  The line about
>>> how, looking back on it, he realizes he wanted to wear a Talking Heads
>>> album cover in place of his own head and shout, "Hey, here I am!" really
>>> registered.
>> 
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