Request

[Michael Bailey]

On 3/16/06, Ghetta Life <ghetta_outta at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Where did you post (snipped below) about IJ before, on the DWF list?
>

no, I was worried about topic drift; not sure if there is a DWF list

> But I've not yet encountered the stretches of complex
> and beautiful prose that  Pynchon offers...

I don't think that DFW is aiming at that particularly - he's got some
worthy effects to offer, which I'm enjoying - his transcriptions of
slang bring old friends' speech patterns to mind (I can see Pemulis
and the other tennis jocks clearly - the Irish and African-Americans
not quite so much)

>
> Does DWF's silliness add up to something, or will it disappoint?
>

I'm finding it rewarding

> >
> >[ WOW!  Does this mean you liked it? ]
>

heck yeah!  I'm working on section II (in my Ultra Low Granularity
read, that will be till about page 750)
I am wondering though about something I read Pynchon said (in
reference to Richard Farina) about reaching the point where one isn't
writing about oneself

Although I think there's an impressive panoply of viewpoint in IJ, I
don't see the preponderant evidence (which I have come to expect and
enjoy in Pynchon) of DFW having refined himself out of existence to
the point of paring his nails (a la Joyce, of course) ---- though,
come to think of it, there's a fun section in IJ that treats
nail-paring (in a footnote)