pynchon-l-digest V2 #4786

[jporter]

It was not organic. It was intelligent, but it was artificial. It was 
post-
present. It featured the lethality of soft core addiction. It was
excruciatingly bland and as asexual as masturbation without
a good theme.

It was passionately academic, like Columbine, but without the
satisfaction of revenge. It was a Gen X scream that successfully
delimited itself from the suffocating self-indulgence of the Boomers.

It was as American as stock car racing. It ended on a note of self-
reflection, known clinically as I.C.U. psychosis, in which pov is
infused back into the vein of the given character in measured doses.

It was insane.

jody



On May 24, 2006, at 2:46 AM, dchristensen wrote:

> On the great novel: Infinite Jest.
>
> Well, a novel fundamentally about instituted slavery (amongst other 
> things)
> of young sporting prodigies does not get a vote. Even if this is the 
> only
> thing you get from Infinite Jest it is something worthwhile. But this 
> big
> book does not register.
> Too clever of course is Wallace. The footnoting, the extensive film 
> lists
> etc, etc, brushing up on the effects of opiates and alcohol withdrawal.
>  Of course at times it gets out of control and ends rather limply. But 
> it is
> the best book I have read to just get my late 20th century/early 21st
> condition. Its also incredibly funny. Not many laughs coming out of the
> others on the list. Of course we have not seen the follow up to this 
> large
> novel. We have other brilliant essays from Wallace of course. Perhaps 
> the
> exhaustion factor of creating such a book takes time to recover. For 
> me its
> briiliant sections outweigh its ridiculous length and pretensions. Its 
> never
> going to be in a college course. But it is the most dazzling use of the
> english language I have encountered. Always remarkable.
>