Dave Eggers returns

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (114 of them)
It's the footnotes that drove me nuts! Maybe I will try it again, since it gets such high praise from MW and certainly I got used to dealing with footnotes during the nonsense that was school.

Allyzay is a town of people, people who DIED, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Take the 2 bookmark approach. It helps.

The first 100 pages are rough(the Canadian spies bored me senseless). But now I can't stop reading it, to be honest.

molly (molly d), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link

x-post -- You have to use footnotes there. It's required by law.

Ned Raggett is doing a little practice firing at the clouds (Ned), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link

The problem is that they're not even footnotes most of the time: they're endnotes. Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine is like half composed of footnotes, but they're easy to digest because they're on the same page as the regular text. No flipping.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link

(Also: Baker's novella was written in like 1989 or something, and everyone acts like DFW invented footnotes seven years later.)

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

The footnotes get fun after awhile. I had two bookmarks, one for my footnotes, one for the book. Keep in mind that DFW would probably be the first to admit that he is a rat bastard for using all those footnotes--he's intentionally manipulating you and probably cackling as he does. And seriously, possibly one of the funniest books ever.

Mr. Que, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

my university library does not have a copy of Infinite Jest.


waht

grbchv! (gbx), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Interlibrary Loan to the rescue.

xpost- As for footnotes, the Filmography of James O. Incandenza is the best thing ever.

molly (molly d), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

DUDE Molly yes. The Canadian spy sections are THE WORST. Apparently he wrote them last? He should have cut them.

yeah jaymc, I hear you. Poor Nicholson Baker.

Mr. Que, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Interlibrary Loan to the rescue.

I was going to say. (The desk is right behind me to the left.)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Molly once again I can't agree with you more. The filmography is the greatest thing EVER.

Mr. Que, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

DFW is a masterful writer whom some consider to be fatally flawed. But Eggers is just a hack.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

JACKPOT

I read somewhere that John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) is trying to put out a film version of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

molly (molly d), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Fun with Teeth!

Mr. Que, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Poultry in Motion!

molly (molly d), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:54 (seventeen years ago) link

These are all band names waiting to happen.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 22:55 (seventeen years ago) link

test

jed_, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 23:28 (seventeen years ago) link

sterlclover, of course it's your right to read anyway you choose, but I can't help but think that going through a book worrying about things like Why did they run "toward the school, screaming" instead of saying they "ran, screaming, toward the school". really has to ruin the reading experience.

In everyday conversation,I could say "She walked confidently down the street", "Confidently, she walked down the street", or "She walked down the street confidently". I'm sure one of those is more gramatically proper than another, but in the end, they all get the meaning across, they each have different rhythms that might sound more attractive at the moment of writing or saying it, so who cares?

It's like listening to music for notes that are out of the key instead of just letting yourself feel the emotion of it.

Zachary Scott, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 23:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Keep in mind that DFW would probably be the first to admit that he is a rat bastard for using all those footnotes--he's intentionally manipulating you and probably cackling as he does.

Reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaallly? How deliciously perverse! (Sort of an essential part of the turn-off, personally.)

literalisp, Thursday, 30 November 2006 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Ahahah, if we needed to reprint INFINITE JEST, we would just do that. It'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than a whole new jacket and increased page count, that's for fuckin' sure.

Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 30 November 2006 01:45 (seventeen years ago) link

"She walked confidently down the street", "Confidently, she walked down the street", or "She walked down the street confidently". I'm sure one of those is more gramatically proper than another

they all suck with the word 'confidently' in there

jergins (jergins), Thursday, 30 November 2006 02:02 (seventeen years ago) link

It's like listening to music for notes that are out of the key instead of just letting yourself feel the emotion of it.

Yeah, but out of key notes jump out at you, and so does bad writing. That's the whole point.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Thursday, 30 November 2006 02:30 (seventeen years ago) link

even back when little sterl read ij right when it came out i was somewhat dubious about its reread value even tho there were, as i recall, some very well executed passages. haven't followed his work since as much as i should. the essays i found for the most part pretty irritating in a sort of making-things-more-complicated-than-necessary way with the exception of the lynch one, which was v. sharp.

ij, the thing is, always felt as sprawly and adolescent as its main character, and i guess read as a book being about that its pretty good, but when ppl. try to read more into it is when i go batty and get more turned off dfw qua dfw than i should.

always liked that "westward path of the empire" short story tho, as well as some of the other material in "girl with the curious hair."

now onto the thing about eggers putting adverbs at the end of sentences, repeatedly, delimited by a comma. doing so adds finality, firmly. it's as though the thought is complete and then as a coda, there's the afterthought, dangling. doing so interrupts the flow in the middle of paragraphs, jarringly, pointlessly. also, it implies that the closing adverb isn't central to the thought which isn't the case in the screaming sentence, irritatingly.

sterlclover, Thursday, 30 November 2006 03:36 (seventeen years ago) link

It sounds like trash-novel writing, verily.

Hurting (A-Ron Hubbard), Thursday, 30 November 2006 03:39 (seventeen years ago) link

ok i note sometimes its the adverb and sometimes an adjective or even a clause, clarifying.

sterlclover, Thursday, 30 November 2006 03:41 (seventeen years ago) link

there are no design credits on "the children's hospital" so I don't know if stanley donwood did it or not.

akm (akmonday), Thursday, 30 November 2006 03:54 (seventeen years ago) link

it would be nice if it turned out the children from the hospital did it.

hank s1ockli (hanks1ockli), Thursday, 30 November 2006 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link

"(Am I the only one to have read all the books in the Canopus in Argos series?)"

maria has. like ten times. but she's a freak. she tried to get me to read them and i looked at her like she was made out of the funny papers.

scott seward (121212), Thursday, 30 November 2006 04:36 (seventeen years ago) link

:-D

Ten times, I'm impressed. There are passages I still remember from when I read them as a teen.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 30 November 2006 04:37 (seventeen years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.