Comments | skwantz: Fountain City

skwantz

Fountain City

Aug 20, 2009 12:15

I

There's this book I love. It's called Wonder Boys, and it's by Michael Chabon. It appeals to my sensibilities in that it's simple--it's the story of a guy with a problem that he needs to overcome in order to move forward and be functional, and it all takes place over the course of a weekend. It has focus. It is tight. And I like it that way, for ( Read more... )

Comments 7

hesited August 20 2009, 20:13:43 UTC

Joe.

You are smart.

Great essay.

zakablade August 20 2009, 20:26:23 UTC

joe ( ... )

zakablade August 20 2009, 20:37:32 UTC

as an endnote to my previous post, i would like to add, that in a way, the loose connections between seemingly tangential subplots and whatnot could just be thought of as producing a meta-narrative; consider it as a underscored thought, the background of a painting, the bass line in a song; even when you're dreaming, your brain is producing more material to be used in the next dream and sometimes they get fused with even more subthoughts and pretty soon you're in 3rd grade staring at your wife that happens to be the teacher and your dog is catching a frisbee thrown by the fat kid (that's you, fatso)... and it doesn't make sense initally and may not later, but the connections overlap, the logic might be found, like a puzzle, and perhaps the next piece, the next story can be predicted or even created by you before you turn the page because you've connected with the mindset of, the actual characterization of the writing itself... yeah...

tomstray August 21 2009, 13:54:23 UTC

blade is the DFW of LJ:)

I am unashamed to have hit a wall VERY early with Infinite Jest and then read the "plot synopsis" on Wikipedia, which kind of explains what happens without the one great pleasure of the book, which is DFW's voice. Which I know well and have read many times before. So I probably won't finish the book. Harumph.

BTW Joe, you sound like I do when I try to justify reading comics to someone who thinks they're for children. WE'RE FRIENDS!

tomstray August 21 2009, 13:57:34 UTC

Also, I suggest that when this "unreadable books" nonsense is over we should start an "eminently readable books" thing. For us literary wimps!

heyitsgogi August 24 2009, 14:01:25 UTC

So First: I don't think anyone should give a fuck whether DFW or MC or whatever is "considered a genius." Who are these considerers anyway? You consider Chabon to be a better writer than Wallace, and you've read enough books to get to have an opinion. Which you back up well, btw. As Kurt Vonnegut said in a much pithier way, just sitting down to read a book makes you smarter than, like 98% of everyone else out there. Doesn't matter if it's Danielle Steele or Derrida. And, whether you're enjoying the book is the most important thing. No way you'll read them all, might as well not waste time on the ones you don't like ( ... )