NP - Infinite Jest

[rich]

Tore:
I think Wallace was the only worthy heir to Pynchon, and
now he's gone. IJ, fortunately, isn't. If I had to pick the best novel
to come out of the 90s, I wouldn't know whether to choose IJ or M&D.
__________
Tho I love M&D, IJ was the book of the 1990s IMHO--I think it captured
the absurd and sad undercurrent to modern American life than most
novels. Underworld is a great overview of post-WW2 American paranoia
but its very diffuse and sorta loses steam as the yrs go by (i.e. he's
great on 50s and 60s, not so  much the 70s and the 80s-90s lack almost
any warmth whatsoever--not so much a critique as an acknowledgment of
Delillo's dourness (a strength of his)
There are lots of overblown scenes in IJ (too much tennis minutie, the
eschaton bit is way too long (tho funny) and the diminishing mystery
about characters like Madam Psychosis is a bit of a letdown but its
balanced by some scenes equal to any of Pynchon's powerful scenes
(innumerable)--such as the scene on the T with the drugged out mother
& child; Gately's hospital hallucinations, etc. Beyond that the many
different styles of writing, slang, from street thugs to clinical
depression, all sauted in a quite compassionate stew is worth at least
one full reading tho the thickets of verbiage get pretty well thick
again and again

fwiw.. couldn't finish BOTS but agree A supposedly fun thing... and
other essays are wonderful. truly sad at his passing
not expecting another IJ from the unfinished Pale King but hopefully
there will be something special there to remember him by even more

rich

On 9/24/09, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> David Morris:
>
>> I've not read IJ, and probably never will, because I read DFW's Broom
>> of the System and thought it juvenile crap. I know some people think IJ
>> is great. Do those same people like BOTS?
>
> Even Wallace himself tended to regard The Broom of the System as
> juvenile crap and later tried to distance himself from it. (I've even
> heard that at one point he refused to sign it). But hey, the guy was in
> his early twenties when he wrote it. I also happen to think V. contains
> its moments of juvenile crap (even though it's a much better book than
> BOTS).
>
> But your dislike of BOTS shouldn't scare you away from IJ, which is a
> whole 'nother kettle of fish. I read it for the fourth time this summer,
> and I am more and more amazed at that novel - funny, intelligent, and
> deeply moving. I think Wallace was the only worthy heir to Pynchon, and
> now he's gone. IJ, fortunately, isn't. If I had to pick the best novel
> to come out of the 90s, I wouldn't know whether to choose IJ or M&D.
>
> IJ is not for everyone, but it does seem to inspire something of the same
> near-religious fervour as GR does (and novels like Underworld, M&D and ATD
> don't):
>
> http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r61/jnickerson27/wallacefinished2.jpg
>
>
> (Disclaimer: That's not my tattoo. I'm not really into tats, but if I
> were, y'all know which novel my tattoo would come from, right?) 		 	   		
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