Have we talked about Oblivion, the new David Foster Wallace, at all?

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(I couldn't get past page 50 of the maths book either, even though someone explained Cantor's diagonal proof to me at a party this weekend and I thought it was beautiful and cool, so I increasingly think it's just not very well written, at least in terms of being a maths textbook)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Ooh: I have not opened that LRB yet, naturally.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

(The infinity book was almost intolerable. I finished it but all the excitement I'd felt on anticipating reading DFW on Cantor/infinity was sapped. In addition to copious footnotage, he goes to town with non-alphanumeric characters and all his other tics.)

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:43 (nineteen years ago) link

i don't understand what's so horrifying about that ending. postmodern fiction is bollocks.

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 20:25 (nineteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

i just finished reading this.

[POTENTIAL SPOILaGe of Suffering Channel]

Q: so is mrs. moltke an evil mastermind?

Q: what's in the other duplex-half?!

i know i'm going to have nightmares tonight.

― gabe (gabe), Friday, 22 July 2005 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link

i can't remember enough to answer those two questions, but i did think the suffering channel was my least favorite thing there, like the last thing in his other collection of stories (i mean, not 'interviews', which isn't really a collection of stories as such), because it seemed distended in similar ways. also "a 9/11 story" and "humour based on the mockery of obese people" are both on my list of Things David Foster Wallace Ought To Do Better Than.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 22 July 2005 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't know if i even made it halfway thru suffering channel.

another reason wallace is a douche: cuz he left ISU to for rich socal preps at pomona. not that i blame him.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 22 July 2005 18:13 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't understand your last line there.

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 23 July 2005 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link

eleven years pass...

tried revisiting Good Old Neon today but couldn't do it. too brutal. so sorely missed. after trying for 9 years to get through Infinite Jest i finished it last night. took four months. re-read the first chapter immediately and my brain is still dripping out my ear

― flappy bird, Monday, 12 September 2016 23:31 (seven years ago) link

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