I was really on the fence when I dipped my toe in and read the first chapter.
Initially, my inner critic was rolling his eyes and saying, "why does he have to go so far to make his descriptions a challenge?" I mean "brewster's angle?" Really? Is that necessary? (I know now given his dad's connections to optics that it was indeed necessary.)
He really made me work to follow whom he was talking about. It was already exhausting.
Then IT happened. That turning point right there in the first section. The moment you realize Hal's brilliant repartee is all internal and he's spewing nothing but inhuman blathering. From there I was hooked. He had me. Any expectations I had (which were actually few, since I'd never heard of DFW until I randomly bumped into this project) were out the window.
I've had a gung-ho attitude ever since. I bought in and I'm giving DFW my full trust. I don't skip sections, I don't wait on endnotes, I just READ THE DAMN THING. That's why we're here!
It all kinda goes back to that dead sea blog post. I dive when I want to, but invariably I just keep floating and swimming. I continually feel rewarded for doing it. He has great control over how he's unraveling the details, and I'm enjoying the trip.
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