I liked that post. Anyway, I didn't have much trouble with "A Supposedly Fun Thing" (I read it in its Harper's form, but I assume the differences aren't that great). Although one thing he did that bothered me was to: use seemingly unnecessary colons. I'm not sure I have the attention span or desire to read IJ (well, in the abstract I do, but given limited time and energy and lots of reading I'd like to do it's tougher to imagine myself doing). But I think I'm going to read more of his essays. I really liked the one I've done (as well as the KC speech).

probably already posted but what the hell

several pieces he wrote for harper's are here:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/09/hbc-90003557

this one is good: brief interviews with hideous men
http://www.harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/Ha ... 059714.pdf

consider the lobster:
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2 ... he_lobster

incarnations of burned children:
http://www.esquire.com/fiction/fiction/ ... llace-0900

I'm writing a paper that involves Infinite Jest right now (literally this second; I have a stack of papers next to me that need cutting and polish and more paragraphs), and I can't wait for the semester to be over so I can read this again. Even just reading a few passages to excise quotes make me antsy.

little wing awaits your reply

I can't overstate how much I've been coming back to Shipping Out/A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again in my head (and in discussions on a lot social/political/economic topics). The idea of perpetual "homeostasis of terrible dissatisfaction" especially (along with this from Through the Looking Glass: "Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." - "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"). There's a lot of good stuff in that piece.

Hopefully I can dig into some of the rest of his work later in the week.

Re: A Supposedly Fun Thing ... Tina Fey's memoir has a rant about a terrible cruise experience of her own and she gives a little shout out to the DFW essay.

I'm visiting friends in Austin and have set aside a day during my trip to visit the Harry Ransom Center. It's going to be weird.

get cha popcorn

They have DeLillo's papers too, I think.

Yep, I plan on seeing those too.

And some guy named Joyce. Wudevs.

And some guy named Joyce. Wudevs.

Texan hegemony in the world of literary archives. Dudes seriously know no bounds.

If you want to read something totally amazing, look up NYer's article on the Ransom Center.

Hour and a half interview split in 9 parts all on Youtube.

I went to bed at like 2 am last nite because I couldn't stop clicking on the next part once the one I was watching was over.

I've really been meaning to watch that.

You should, bud. There's also an interview he did with Charlie Rose. Great stuff.

I enjoyed reading this:

dscans, what is your quote from?

as a matter of fact, it's paraphrased from that book.