Comments on: Brittney Gilbert: You Have Chosen To Be In Here

By: MacD

MacD — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:14:55 +0000

It’s not the book that’s unfocused, it’s clearly me. Here I am, something like 100 pages behind, and I just spent a good 20 minutes looking at that D Listed link. It’s sad, really..

By: Linkdump for July 27th at found_drama

Linkdump for July 27th at found_drama — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:02:52 +0000

[...] Brittney Gilbert: You Have Chosen To Be In Here at Infinite Summer (via PL) (tagged: InfiniteJest DFW literature reading essay todo ) [...]

By: That Was the Week That Formerly Was : Journeyman

That Was the Week That Formerly Was : Journeyman — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:20:16 +0000

[...] Gilbert kicked the week off with a great post about, essentially, mindfulness. I love that she quotes Marathe in her post; I know the A.F.R. are [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:09:38 +0000

I find myself, while reading Infinite Jest, at times reading aloud. It is like poetry that needs to be read aloud, to hear the words, the delicious, big, long, new words, in the big, long sentences of the big, long paragraphs that take you through presentation, development, climax, and denouement in each chapter. Reading aloud lets me enjoy the beauty of his writing more fully and with wonderful delight. I am in here.

By: Wood-Tang.com » Writing on the web: Choosing to be in here

Wood-Tang.com » Writing on the web: Choosing to be in here — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:45:53 +0000

[...] You Have Chosen To Be In Here “I am a blogger by trade. I’m a blogger who blogs about blogs for a living for a local television news station. Part of that job entails monitoring 300, 400, 500 blogs every day (I lost count.), so that I may recommend content written by locals to locals. I’m a human aggregator. I scan and skim and skip big chunks of text so that I can crank out 10, 20, sometimes 25 posts in a single day. I cannot read all the posts made by local bloggers in a single day. It would be impossible. That means I never get to the end of what Google Reader pipes in to me, and I start it all over again the following morning with more scanning, skipping, skimming until some post pegged with bullet points or strategically placed bolded text catches my attention enough to single it out for suggestion. Large, long, thoughtful posts don’t get read in full, so much as passed on to others to read simply due to the length.” [...]

By: Some Things and Stuff — Sparkwood & 21

Some Things and Stuff — Sparkwood & 21 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:22:00 +0000

[...] I wrote a post for Infinite Summer about reading Infinite Jest. I’m proud of it. [...]

By: brittney

brittney — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:00:26 +0000

I am so glad someone else has a personal parallel connection to A Wrinkle in Time in regards to reading this book. I just may find that thing at the library…or better yet, buy my own copy of that to keep forever.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:48:35 +0000

This part of the quote rings especially true:
“As I’m sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now).”

This applies to so many people I know who are so wrapped up in their own lives and thoughts, it makes them miserable (and somewhat boring to talk to) but they can seem to get away from it. I wonder if convincing them to read IJ would help? Or maybe they need to attend an Ennet House for thinking addicts?

By: ozma

ozma — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:51:48 +0000

Some of my comment got cut off:

I mainly wanted to say that I think I see what makes AWT and IJ both these transformative kind of books–where you read them and the world looks differently to you. I think it is because each sets up a moral universe–good, evil, the human condition–all that.

Infinite Jest is a surprise to me. I only read it for the hell of it, to do the Infinite Summer thing. I could not stop reading it but the whole time I was nitpicking every little thing. It seemed compelling but at the same time mediocre or less good than it could have been. I gradually realized while reading the book that I was wrong. But now that I am re-reading it over again, it is like a different book.

Almost like meeting someone who annoys you intensely and then realizing later they are an incredible person.

By: ozma

ozma — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:47:49 +0000

I’m going through this crazy life transformation and the strangest upheaval. Then there is this book. My current experience like some second puberty (well, probably my third or fourth) and you made me see that Infinite Jest is basically my mid-life Wrinkle in Time.

It’s just so weird to have someone mention these two books together because they do prompt that strange novel after-effect. What other novels do that?