This morning, The Rumpus linked to a literary challenge and collective enterprise: to read and comment on David Foster Wallace's tome Infinite Jest--a sort of online book club, initiative, and support group. Info here. The 'rules' aren't up yet but the basic idea is to start June 21st, reading 75 pages per week (+ endnotes) until September 22nd, discussing on various global forums. Neat! I'm a sucker for a bookish gimmick.
A co-worker at the KU Writing Center spent a significant portion of our slow hours together last summer urging me to get into DFW, but I never got around to it. I'm not sure if this monster is the best way to dip my toes. There's an Infinite Jest wikipedia to assist readers. Knowing me, I will have to read all the endnotes and the whole damn wiki or I'll feel like I exercised one side of my body and not the other. It will consume me.
Plus, I was planning my own challenge: to read 20 books by the end of August, knocking out the unread purchases on my bookshelf (including The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, Joe Meno's shorts Demons in the Spring, the copy of The Things They Carried my dad sent me for my birthday, some stray Murakami novel, etc.) I usually think of things in my own definition of personal 'productivity'...but I may never read this if I don't do it now. It's like in college, when I wanted to read Joyce's Ulysses, but only if I could really read it, with a group and an expert and outside sources, not confused on my bed, falling asleep. And of course, as soon as I graduated there was some semester long Joyce class. Maybe I should see if there's an online one of those, actually...
A co-worker at the KU Writing Center spent a significant portion of our slow hours together last summer urging me to get into DFW, but I never got around to it. I'm not sure if this monster is the best way to dip my toes. There's an Infinite Jest wikipedia to assist readers. Knowing me, I will have to read all the endnotes and the whole damn wiki or I'll feel like I exercised one side of my body and not the other. It will consume me.
Plus, I was planning my own challenge: to read 20 books by the end of August, knocking out the unread purchases on my bookshelf (including The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, Joe Meno's shorts Demons in the Spring, the copy of The Things They Carried my dad sent me for my birthday, some stray Murakami novel, etc.) I usually think of things in my own definition of personal 'productivity'...but I may never read this if I don't do it now. It's like in college, when I wanted to read Joyce's Ulysses, but only if I could really read it, with a group and an expert and outside sources, not confused on my bed, falling asleep. And of course, as soon as I graduated there was some semester long Joyce class. Maybe I should see if there's an online one of those, actually...
Look at it! Could squash a cat! I'm awaiting reply from Writing Center Ben to advise me if it's worth it, or if I should just spend a week or so on a different DFW.
chris read that
ReplyDeletewhat did he think? make him leave me a comment too
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