Comments on: Where Everything Was as Fresh as the Bright Blue Sky

By: Ariel

Ariel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:57:10 +0000

Whether or not Joelle is disfigured is one of my favorite IJ discussions. My personal opinion has always been that she isn’t. I’m on my second time through, around page 315, and I was nearly positive of it! But now I just read Kevin’s page 940 and I feel certain, for the first time since I started rereading, that DFW left this up in the air. Thanks for the great discussion, all.

By: Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » I Got This Fire In My Heart, Won’t Let Me Sleep, Can’t Concentrate…

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:09:51 +0000

[...] lays it all out pretty explicitly in his discussion111 with 11-year-old LaMont Chu, who still might be young enough to have never questioned his own personal right to happiness ever-af…: ‘You burn to have your photograph in a magazine.’ ‘I’m afraid so.’ [...]

By: itzadrag

itzadrag — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:13:14 +0000

Kevin, I really must thank you for your contributions to IS. This post is an enlightening looking glass for IJ. The happy-sad axis of childhood/ adulthood indeed: Alice’s “eat me,” “drink this;” bigger, smaller, falling down the rabbit hole inversions.

I happen to have been reading “Afternoon of the Sex Children” in 2007 Best American Essays (“deciderized” by guest Editor, DFW) when the above was first posted. You may appreciate reading it. Pure serendipity. Thanks again.

By: Doubtful Geste

Doubtful Geste — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:15:06 +0000

Beautiful post. One of the best of the summer. And great and very appropriate post title (And Matt Evans, thank you for giving props where props are due — a real strange world it would be where everybody instantly recognizes the Berryman references but lets the GNR reference pass in silence — I mean, its not the like author of the book shared a penchant for long hair held back by bandanas with Axl Rose or anything)

By: Kevin Guilfoile

Kevin Guilfoile — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:15:43 +0000

Reading on, I actually think there’s a pretty definite answer to this question on p. 940, or at least something approaching a preponderance of the evidence. Maybe not everyone would find it completely conclusive, but I’m convinced, barring some other revelation.

By: Dan Summers

Dan Summers — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:57:21 +0000

“At what point does the axis tip, and for what reasons?”

I would guess around about puberty, accompanied by such realizations that your parents are flawed, you’re eventually going to die, you want to sleep with people but can’t, and you will eventually have to get a job and work for a living, with very little recess time.

By: Matt Evans

Matt Evans — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:45:53 +0000

GNR ruleth the land.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:27:04 +0000

No biggie Kevin – I didn’t mean to come across so harsh. Keeping my IJ reading on schedule has been motivating and rewarding, with a good part of that reward having been to visit here every single day to check the forums and commentary, spoiler-free. To have that go off the rails with two weeks to go bummed me out. I guess I’m one of the quiet minority who hasn’t posted much but has thoroughly enjoyed this project. My apologies again for my tone.

By: Motley Fool

Motley Fool — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:13:36 +0000

After I read the above excerpt, the observation suddenly struck me as entirely self-evident yet nevertheless still profoundly insightful.

Todeswalzer: This observation really gets to the essence of what I’ve felt in reading Wallace’s works. The feeling as I read that his observations are something I’ve known all along but never have been able to fully bring to the surface or articulate.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:31:52 +0000

It seems to me that Medusa vs the Odalisque is a parallel for Joelle…it doesnt matter whether she is hideously deformed or beautiful beyond comprehension doesn’t matter. The result is the same.