Comments on: Cause I Got the Real Love, The Kind That You Need

By: Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » Hollow Man

Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » Hollow Man — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:34:37 +0000

[...] Paradoxes: As Kevin and others have noted, Wallace said he structure the novel “like something called a [...]

By: Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » I’ve Seen the Future Brother, It Is Murder

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:50:06 +0000

[...] deliberately tempting as Wallace makes it to quit reading this book, you have to figure, in the long run, that everyone [...]

By: Infinite Summer – Week 6 « Sarah’s Books

Infinite Summer – Week 6 « Sarah’s Books — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:11:37 +0000

[...] was also the week when I read that DFW structured this novel in the likeness of the fractally characterised Sierpinski Gasket. I can only stand back and say “whoa!” Did I notice the fractal nature of the novel? [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:34:38 +0000

I too instantaneously adored Wallace’s writing, beginning with the first paragraph. And with every page, I am delighted over and over again. It’s wonderful to know there are others who are in love also. The delight on each page drives me as if each page is a p-terminal and I don’t ever want to stop thrilling from Wallace’s genius.

By: Joanna

Joanna — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:51:37 +0000

Yes! Thank you for articulating what I’ve felt about this book for years. And I wonder what DFW would have felt about this way of reading the book, that we’re all in this together without actually being together — that it’s a virtual community. That, unlike the AA group, we never see each other, yet we’re all in this together.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:53:29 +0000

Great post! I love the thought of the seductive lure of other books, TV, etc. as being Out There. Telling myself, don’t worry, I can skip tonight and get caught up later is just the sort of thing Gately might warn me about. Very well done.

By: whitney

whitney — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:15:54 +0000

My mind was pretty well blown looking at that diagram of the gasket-whatever.

I am head over heels in love with this book. It was a little slow going at first, and sometimes I look longingly at the books I could be reading instead, but I would never in a million years be able to put this down. I don’t care if there’s no big plot-driven pay off at the end or even if I never know what happens to Hal. I’m just happy to spend time in his world everyday.

(I also agree with the AA-ness of the keep coming back every day, just do it, aspect that leads to further appreciation of the work.)

By: kevin

kevin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:36:41 +0000

That’s fair, Robert. I only used the phrase because it was important for my point to make a distinction: That all of us have a goal of finishing the book (having read it) and that DFW deliberately made the means to that goal (the reading) more difficult than it had to be. I didn’t mean to imply that the reading wasn’t often pleasurable by itself.

I could have just said “finishing.” I suppose I just liked the parallel construction.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:07:59 +0000

I think those quotes about "wanting to have read" imply too much pretension for what we (most of us) are feeling about the book. I for one enjoying reading the book as an act itself. Like several people tweeting at #infsum, I'll miss these characters when they're "gone", it's like a bereavement. Perhaps i'm just an old crocodile who likes going to meetings.

By: Ike

Ike — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:49:08 +0000

regarding the ‘tense’ discussion, there’s a relevant quote to be mentioned here, attributed to Mark Twain: “A classic is a book everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read.”

so we’re on the right track…