Comments | several_bees: Reading Jan to June 2009: non-fiction

several_bees

Reading Jan to June 2009: non-fiction

Aug 06, 2009 12:34

Brief reviews of non-fiction that I remember reading in the first half of the year.

( I enjoy pillows, am ambivalent about scandals, and don't like David Foster Wallace. )

Comments 16

amuchmoreexotic August 6 2009, 18:39:24 UTC

I don't agree that David Foster Wallace is all about detached irony - underneath the overanalysis is his struggle to turn off his hyperverbal brain and connect with people. Check out this speech he gave.

Look what I've been reading lately:

( ... )

several_bees August 6 2009, 23:07:53 UTC

I'm sure you're right that it's not all detached irony, but I don't really like struggles-with-etc either, generally; and can't get anywhere with that speech, either because it's late and I'm tired, or because my brain just doesn't fit the structures of his writing. I've managed to read it through, just, but I don't care. "On one level, we all know this stuff already - it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story": what is that sentence for, why are all those words there?

Lots of people think he's great and I'm not going to embark on some Why David Foster Wallace Is A Bad Writer And An Evil Man rampage or anything, but I'm pretty sure his writing is not for me.

The GAMES book looks pretty spectacular.

amuchmoreexotic August 7 2009, 07:00:42 UTC

Remember Cans Up? And the Spaldeen?

a_llusive August 7 2009, 16:03:06 UTC

I've loved The Pillow Book for years :)