Comments on: Infinite Jesting at Skylight Books September 22

By: cancerman

cancerman — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:03:28 +0000

please write a book queequeg. you would make us all very happy readers, especially if it were a very very long book (period. unamended declarative statement. no footnote, no qualifiers, no nothing, please thank you.)

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:00:09 +0000

“Infinite Jest” has been sitting on my shelf for some time, but I have not even cracked it open. Damn you, blue ray. Damn you, movies and reruns that I keep watching over and over on cable. Damn you, Internet and blogs!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:23:49 +0000

Shantaram is a surprisingly quick read – I highly, highly recommend it. Another one is Crimson Petal and the White. Long, but VERY enjoyable. I think I read that one in a week – couldn’t put it down. Have fun!

By: Queequeg

Queequeg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:19:13 +0000

Thanks for the nice words, guys! Lynn, I haven’t read Shantaram – it’s also one of those books that looks at me sadly from its post on the book shelf. Maybe I’ll do the Fall of War and Peace followed by the Shantaram Spring.

Great story, Evan. I forgot to mention that DFW did a number of readings at Skylight.

By: Roberta

Roberta — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:03:44 +0000

Very creative post! I attempted to read IJ this summer, doubt I will finish reading it by next week, but will probably try to attend for cake and I am a fan of John.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:19:30 +0000

I read IJ for most of my senior year in high school. I stayed up really late the night before graduation so I could finish it while I was still in high school (care to guess how popular I was?).

I saw DFW at Skylight when he was promoting Brief Interviews. In line for the booksigning, I got to talking to two students who were also UCLA students like I was, and they were reading IJ for an English class (I remember this well, because I worked in the bookstore, and saw the booklist for that class…there were only 3 books assigned–Infinite Jest, Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, and DeLillo’s Underworld. All 3 brilliant books, but I think impossible to read those in a 10-week quarter). Somehow, they started wondering why 13 was considered to be an unlucky number. I said they should ask Wallace, that he might know. Sure enough, they did, and while Wallace didn’t know, he suggested that De Lillo’s Ratner’s Star dealt with math and numbers, and he said it might be talked about in there, and even if it wasn’t, it was a great novel. DFW was humble, very kind, and of course, extremely intelligent. I treasure my signed copy of Brief Interviews, and I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t bring my tattered copy of IJ (with my embarrassing notes written in the margins) for him to sign.

By: Burns!

Burns! — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:31:43 +0000

I am duly impressed. I have never read Infinite Jest (and, honestly, probably never will,) because I just don’t have the patience for it. This post, on the other hand? Love it.

By: marshall

marshall — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:16:59 +0000

I devoured Infinite Jest while I was staying at Fort Mason in 1999, and I’m the kind of jackass that read the book with two bookmarks, one for the book proper and one for the footnotes. I think I’ve tried to read it again on several occasions and failed miserably. You’ve just got to be in the right frame of mind, I guess.

Nice meta-footnotes in this post. If a post can be a thing of literary beauty, you’ve hit that nail on the head.

By: lucindamichele

lucindamichele — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:16:52 +0000

Noting the presence of cake, I feel some sort of “Cake? or Death?” overtone vibrating, unspoken and sugary, in the air.

By: lucindamichele

lucindamichele — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:15:04 +0000

Have I mentioned how happy I am that you write for us? Keep raising the game, Queequeg Who Was Not Eaten By A Crocodile.