The true face of evil
This is why I'm afraid of gnomes.
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Uploaded on Jun 27, 2009
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And so it begins
I'm about crawl into bed and reacquaint myself with an old, erm, acquaintance.
Like hundreds (thousands, tens of thousands?) of others across the web, I'm taking part in Infinite Summer.
Over the next three months, I'll reread Infinite Jest.
The last time was over then years ago.
Let's be clear. Unlike many of the people participating in Infinite Summer, I don't list Infinite Jest among my favorite books. I could pretend that I do, but I have a feeling that someone would quickly point out that I was lying.
Nor is David Foster Wallace one of my favorite authors. I enjoy much of his work. Many of his essays are simply extraordinary, but I found Brief Interviews With Hideous Men almost unbearable. In fact, if the bookmark that's still in the book is anything to go by, I stopped reading it around page 217.
So why am I rereading Infinite Jest?
It wasn't because it simultaneously embraced and mocked the post modern theories and affectations that I was studying at the time.(1)
It wasn't because I identified with the characters.(2)
It wasn't because I loved the way David Foster Wallace wrote.(3)
The best answer I can come up with is that the fist time I read it, I experienced a shock of recognition.(4)
What the hell do I mean by that?
That's what I'm trying to figure out. That's why I'm rereading Infinite Jest.
(1) But I did find his overuse of footnotes pretty damn funny.
(2) Actually, I did, and with more than one.
(3) In fact, I've often unfairly lumped him in with a writing style that I privately refer to as American Pyrotechnic: verbal Wowie-goshus for the sake of it. Style over substance. Yes, it's an unfair criticism. There is substance there, though it is sometimes hard to see for the multi-chromatic verbiage ceaselessly exploding overhead. And I still prefer the plain-spoken style of the likes of Twain, Orwell and Vonnegut.
(4) And yes, that kind of contradicts my whole character identification argument (see footnote (2)).
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Uploaded on Jun 22, 2009
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Look again?
The clock at Bertie & Boo's runs backward. I used to have a Goofy watch that did that.
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Uploaded on Jun 21, 2009
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E Unibus Plurum
I love this black poplar hybrid on Tooting Bec Common. It's fallen over and the branches have become trunks.
It grows in a grove of hybrid black poplars (Populus x canadensis ). So far, it's my favorite place on the Common. You can sit and listen to the wind in the poplar leaves, which look and sounds a lot like cottonwood leaves back home. Not surprising since the other half of the hybrid is none other than eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides).
As for the title, Infinite Summer is about to start, and I'm in a David Foster Wallace mood.
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Uploaded on Jun 21, 2009
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Amnesty Book Sale Purchases
Yesterday, we went to Greenwich. We climbed up the hill through Greenwich Park to Blackheath. While Joanne and her parents explored Blackheath, I went to the Amnesty International Book Sale.
It was well worth it. For around £10, I bought six books. Three of which I've been wanting to read for some time, the other three of which look pretty damn interesting.
The books are:
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell
Payback by Margaret Atwood
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
Seeing by Jose Saramago
Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
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Uploaded on Jun 20, 2009
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