Man, everyone is doing this Infinite Summer thing. Here is a still from this week’s episode of Weeds.
“I’ll do that delivery for mom after I finish my chapter.
I’m sure this Erdedy guy won’t mind waiting ten minutes.”
(Thanks to Ed for sending us the screenshot.)
Matt of Wood-Tang is on page 700 of the novel. Jazz is also ahead. Mo Pie finished, as have a whole host of people on Twitter.
Recent posts from the folks on our blogroll:
- Repat Blues: Both to die and to live in Paris
- Naptime Writing: IJ quote of the day 45
- Gerry Canavan: A Brief Comment on the Narcissism of Grad Students and My Own Arrested Adolescence
- I Just Read About That: Infinite Jest Week 9
- Infinite Zombies: Underground
- Infinite Detox: Tramadol Tales, Brought to You by AOL
- A Supposedly Fun Blog: Expectation and Ecstasy
- Infinite Tasks: Scorn of Death
- Love, Your Copyeditor: Got Semicolon?
- Sarah’s Books: Infinite Summer Week 9
- That Sounds Cool: Infinite Jestation: A Blogthrough (p. 562-619)
Earlier this week, the NPR program To the Best of Our Knowledge devoted an entire episode to David Foster Wallace. In it they speak with (among many others) Michael Pietsch, Rolling Stone contributing editor David Lipsky, and David’s sister Amy Wallace-Haven.
And Dennis Cooper discovered something magical about the “statistically improbable phrases” that Amazon.com provides for its books. “What Amazon doesn’t tell you is that, in the case of fiction, their SIP feature does not merely hint at important plot elements but MAGICALLY DISTILLS THE ESSENCE OF THE WORK.” He then lists 69 books in SIP form. At #1:
medical attaché, annular fusion, entertainment cartridge, improbably deformed, howling fantods, feral hamsters, dawn drills, tough nun, professional conversationalist, new bong, ceiling bulged, metro boston, tennis academy, red leather coat, soupe aux pois, red beanie, addicted man, magnetic video, littler kids, little rotter, technical interview, police lock, oral narcotics, sober time, veiled girl
I just saw this episode of weeds last night and squealed out loud when I saw Silas with the book. My friends with whom I was watching, were not impressed by my literary prowess. I wish they had mentioned the book instead of just showing it.
Thanks for the shout-out, as always. New post went up today, my first one on Hal, actually. Thanks to everyone for the great conversation on “Scorn of Death” these past few days!
It’s apparent from the whiteness of the pages and the crispness of the corners that that kid has read none of it. Nice try, weeds.
The wear on my copy was something that bothered me at first but now it feels like a point of pride. One cannot tote that giant book around for weeks and not have the cover get folded, the corners curly and the pages discolored.
I used clear packaging tape to reinforce the covers’ edges, since they were peeling and ripping. That was only at about page 300!
As always, thanks for the shout out!
Speaking of IJ-related (albeit tangentially)items. The new New Yorker (August 31 issue) has an article about twins in doubles tennis (full-text is not available online) but there is a fantastic comment about identical twins playing tennis.
And, it’s written by the made-up-by-DFW-sounding Burkhart Bilger.
There’s a comment in the article that is not meant to be a joke but which comes across as a IJ-relaetd joke, and I’ve written a little thing about it here.