NP - Infinite Jest

[Mark Kohut]

C'mon, Laura, that sentence was HILARIOUS.....for we too-literrary types...

--- On Wed, 9/23/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: NP - Infinite Jest
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 3:25 PM
> I've been lurking more than posting
> lately, but I agree with whoever said that ATD's size
> allowed Pynchon to make up for the IV-like flaws contained
> therein (i.e. less subtext, more on-the-nose writing) with
> sparks of layered insight and good writing.  But it did
> contain that strong candidate for his Worst Sentence
> Ever:  "Reader, she bit him."
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> >Sent: Sep 23, 2009 2:59 PM
> >To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Re: NP - Infinite Jest
> >
> >I like Matthew, too and I am one who stopped out of
> reading some BIG novels due to work overload and life
> pressures (including GR back in the dark ages)------BUT I am
> firmly of the camp that we should take the time with (the
> right) big books.......The world is hugely hard to get
> right....
> >So, size matters. 
> >
> >Here's one major problem as I see it: How do we feel
> the big books relatively whole, positive or less than? 
> We have to have some sense of the cumulative themes as they
> come together---or don't. (see the plisters
> >on whether Aginst the Day works as a whole or doesn't.
> I had more time than when I first tried to read GR (or
> Proust for that matter) and/but I did feel it build to its
> ending(s).....
> >
> >Others feel there is much that is extraneous in Atd, as
> I did about IJ, say. 
> >
> >Just sayin'...
> >
> >--- On Wed, 9/23/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: NP - Infinite Jest
> >> To: "P-list" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >> Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 2:37 PM
> >> Matthew Yglesias, one of my favorite
> >> political bloggers just finished IJ:
> >> 
> >> http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/09/infinite-jest.php
> >> 
> >> After working at it on-and-off all summer long,
> I’m
> >> finally done with
> >> Infinite Jest and I feel . . . well, I don’t
> quite know
> >> how I feel. I
> >> was determined not to let reading this difficult
> book
> >> become a
> >> “difficult” process and just resolved to read
> a page
> >> then turn the
> >> page then read the next page (modified, as
> necessary, for
> >> footnotes
> >> and such) and not spend too much time worrying
> about
> >> whether or not I
> >> was understanding everything that’s going on.
> >> Consequently, I enjoyed
> >> myself reading the book—it’s funny, clever,
> etc., has
> >> some great set
> >> pieces, blah blah. Also some weak points. But by
> the end
> >> this has
> >> added up to . . . what, exactly? I don’t really
> know. A
> >> sprawling
> >> meditation on addiction and the over-entertained
> American,
> >> I guess.
> >> 
> >> But in a fundamental sense it struck me as very
> >> unsatisfying. Not just
> >> in terms of the weird ending, but in terms of
> definitely
> >> not feeling
> >> like I got more out of reading it than I could
> have gotten
> >> out of
> >> reading three books that were one third the
> length. That in
> >> turn is
> >> really making me glad that I was made to read Anna
> Karenina
> >> and Moby
> >> Dick in high school. I really loved both those
> giant
> >> honking books,
> >> but does it really make sense for a busy person in
> the
> >> modern world
> >> who maybe doesn’t care to dedicate all that much
> time to
> >> classic
> >> novels to read them? Seems like it might make more
> sense to
> >> read some
> >> short Tolstoy like “Family Happiness” and
> “Hadji
> >> Murat” and then move
> >> on to other things.
> >> 
> >> Adding new possible ways to entertain ourselves
> naturally
> >> starts to
> >> squeeze out the viability of some old ways. And
> maybe the
> >> long novel
> >> is among the squeezed. Which seems in some ways
> regrettable
> >> (which I
> >> take it is part of the point of Infinite Jest) but
> at the
> >> same time to
> >> really be a feature of the world.
> >> 
> >> 
> >
> >
> >      
> >
> 
> 
>