Ok, before anyone goes any further, they must take themselves to the bookstore (or their favorite online book-buying thing) and buy anything at all by David Foster Wallace. Last night I finished “Consider the Lobster and Other Essays,” and officially 1) practically died laughing, and 2) was made to feel unbelievably unsmart. This 2) was not reflective of my better self; so I got over it and pretty much broke my brain trying to Totally Get what he was saying. If you haven’t been to grad school or college lately, which I certainly have not, you will find your brain very rusty on some concepts and may need to do some brain stretches as you go. If you’ve never been to grad s./college, then get ready to expand your knowledge in a big way. There is a certain satisfaction to gasping and staggering along intellectually and finally Getting At Least Some of It.
But the really wonderful part is just the exhileration of his madcap prose and hilarity and deadpan/absurdness (I am totally making up words) and the feeling that you are reading an entirely original mind.
He’s the author of Infinite Jest and several other books, tho my favorite are his essays. His “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” (title piece about his kind of bizarre, for Harper’s, assignment to cover a cruise [??], during which he becomes freaked and alarmed and kind of existentially cross and begins going everywhere in his Spiderman stocking cap) is delicious and gives you a whole new perspective on the form (essays).
Next up, a book whose title I am forgetting that my friend Erica sent me and that I am too lazy to go look at to see the title.
Marya
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