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The Pale King
by David Foster Wallace, Michael Pietsch
by David Foster Wallace, Michael Pietsch
Ian Graye's review
bookshelves: reviews, read-2011, exert-yourself, reviews-5-stars, dfw
Feb 23, 12
bookshelves: reviews, read-2011, exert-yourself, reviews-5-stars, dfw
Read from April 20 to May 06, 2011
Original review: May 10, 2011
100 Words in Search of a Precis (For Those of Us Who Prefer the Short Form of Stimulation)
DFW is calling on us to become Heroes or Pale Kings.
There is something Proustian at work in “The Pale King”.
DFW isn’t so much in search of lost time or even perceptions; he is in search of a lost ability to “perceive” or to “sense” or to make things “interesting”.
In a time when there is so much boredom, DFW is offering us a way of seeing and engaging with the parts of the world within our gaze perceptively, sensuously and appreciatively.
“The Pale King” might be the culmination of both his literary and philosophical endeavours.
Review
Because of the length of my review, I have placed it here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
It is chapter 11, in case you get lost in the My Writings page.
Earlier Fictitious Review
Here is an earlier fictitious, more light-hearted review I wrote before finishing the novel:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Reading Notes
I made copious notes while I was reading the novel.
There are many issues that I have omitted from my final review, because the review would have just got too long.
I have put my reading notes here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Extract
Below is an extract from the first section of my review:
Some Perceptions in and about the Structure
The Pale King (TPK) is not a conventional linear narrative.
It’s not really even a narrative or a story, in the sense that a number of events are described in a way that aggregates into something meaningful, once they are absorbed by the reader.
So DFW did not really use the structure of the novel to play with time.
However, I think there is a sense in which he uses the novel to explore and play with our perceptions or, at least, the way we perceive.
There are 50 chapters, some of which are less than a page, others anywhere between 50 and 100 pages.
It would be tempting to say that the longer chapters are more important, because of their length.
However, ultimately, the importance of each chapter derives from its subject matter, no matter how long or how short.
I don’t think it would be correct to speak of the chapters as short stories.
They are definitely part of the one creative enterprise.
Each chapter derives meaning from some or all of the other chapters.
Individually, they are discrete. Collectively, they influence each other.
They form a society that creates meaning.
Individually, the chapters are verbal portraits.
Collectively, they constitute pictures at an exhibition about 20th and 21st century life.
Click here to read the rest of the review:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
100 Words in Search of a Precis (For Those of Us Who Prefer the Short Form of Stimulation)
DFW is calling on us to become Heroes or Pale Kings.
There is something Proustian at work in “The Pale King”.
DFW isn’t so much in search of lost time or even perceptions; he is in search of a lost ability to “perceive” or to “sense” or to make things “interesting”.
In a time when there is so much boredom, DFW is offering us a way of seeing and engaging with the parts of the world within our gaze perceptively, sensuously and appreciatively.
“The Pale King” might be the culmination of both his literary and philosophical endeavours.
Review
Because of the length of my review, I have placed it here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
It is chapter 11, in case you get lost in the My Writings page.
Earlier Fictitious Review
Here is an earlier fictitious, more light-hearted review I wrote before finishing the novel:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Reading Notes
I made copious notes while I was reading the novel.
There are many issues that I have omitted from my final review, because the review would have just got too long.
I have put my reading notes here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Extract
Below is an extract from the first section of my review:
Some Perceptions in and about the Structure
The Pale King (TPK) is not a conventional linear narrative.
It’s not really even a narrative or a story, in the sense that a number of events are described in a way that aggregates into something meaningful, once they are absorbed by the reader.
So DFW did not really use the structure of the novel to play with time.
However, I think there is a sense in which he uses the novel to explore and play with our perceptions or, at least, the way we perceive.
There are 50 chapters, some of which are less than a page, others anywhere between 50 and 100 pages.
It would be tempting to say that the longer chapters are more important, because of their length.
However, ultimately, the importance of each chapter derives from its subject matter, no matter how long or how short.
I don’t think it would be correct to speak of the chapters as short stories.
They are definitely part of the one creative enterprise.
Each chapter derives meaning from some or all of the other chapters.
Individually, they are discrete. Collectively, they influence each other.
They form a society that creates meaning.
Individually, the chapters are verbal portraits.
Collectively, they constitute pictures at an exhibition about 20th and 21st century life.
Click here to read the rest of the review:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
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Reading Progress
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Here is a link to an essay by Dr. Robert F. Banagan (the interviewee in the above podcast): http://wheelercentre.com/dailies/tag/...
This comment on the Guardian interview with Karen Green conducted by Tim Adams made me laugh:Jamie Davidson
10 April 2011 3:04AM
"The standard criticism of Wallace's work is that for all its peerless pyrotechnics, it lacked heart."
In the words of one Withnail, unemployed actor and professional drunk, "what fucker said that?"
[End of comment by Jamie Davidson]
Kathrina wrote: "Ian, why aren't you reading this yet?"Good question, K.
I am really tempted to, but I've only read Broom and I haven't read IJ.
So my question is: should I read (or do I need to read) IJ first?
You should definitely read IJ at some point, but I don't think you need to read it first. And if you do, you'll just be putting off the reading of Pale King by at least a month. You cannot and should not read either of them quickly. So far, DFW's style is consistently alike in both -- that is to say, they are both meaty and technically brilliant and thoughtful and unpredictable and in a voice like no other author, living or dead. The only trick is that Pale King was cobbled at the end by an outsider; I haven't gotten there yet, but I understand the editor did an admirable job, but who knows what the book would look like if DFW had finished the job. It doesn't matter -- one page of Pale King satisfies as much as whole backlists of other authors. READ IT.
Kathrina wrote: "READ IT."Sounds like good advice to me!
I was conscious that the longer I left it to read it, the less involved I would be in the first wave of responses to it.
Here is a link to a NYT article about the cobbling process:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/boo...
will have to check out these links when I get some time (bogged down with essays) - I've loved the sound of other people's reviews of DFW - not read any actual DFW yet so I guess I have no right to say anything yet... but not sure how engaging a book about the IRS is? or is that just the setting for a broader story?
Kwesi 章英狮 wrote: "I like your idea of posting your notes online, maybe I'll try to post mine soon, starting on May 1."That's great. I might slow down around then, because I have to go away for the weekend, so we might end up finishing at the same time.
I ducked into my local Borders today in the hope of finding Wallace. ;((( not a copy - the shelves look forlorn
Kathrina wrote: "B&N has a super-cheap ship to home price."V and I are both from Australia.
I joined the B&N Club in 2010 when we had a holiday in New York, but they don't extend the cheap or nil freight deals to Australians, so I let my membership lapse.
I tried to support them, but they just haven't kept up with other online suppliers like Book Depository and Better World Books.
Kwesi 章英狮 wrote: "Sorry if I butt in but I really agree to what Ian said."Kwesi, you know you're welcome in my threads any time.
Ian, I wasn't thinking. You're right, B&N is no good for international purchases. I buy a lot from half.com and most sellers do ship internationally...How's Pale King going for you?
Kathrina wrote: "Ian, I wasn't thinking. You're right, B&N is no good for international purchases. I buy a lot from half.com and most sellers do ship internationally...How's Pale King going for you?"
Loving it, but am in a slow part. Just about to start a two hour flight, so might nearly finish. How are you going?
Page 391. Sometimes I have to persuade myself to pick it up, but once I'm in, I don't want to leave. My biggest issue is feeling uncomfortable with trusting DFW. He's made a lot of stuff up, and even when he says he's writing as himself and this is his memoir, well, it's not, so I feel...edgy.
Ian, you are going to leave your notes there even after you've finished the book aren't you? I don't have time to read TPK now, but would love to be able to access your thoughts later on when I get to read it....
Lisa wrote: "Ian, you are going to leave your notes there even after you've finished the book aren't you?"Hi, Lisa, yes, I'll leave them up, I'm even thinking of throwing my notes for the review up there, so any one who's interested can see the evolution of the review.
BTW, I haven't finished the notes yet, I still have to finish chapter 46, get a better feel for some of the characters and finish the Notes and Asides.
My current feeling is that chapter 46 might be one of the most important or at least most meaningful conversations in a novel ever, if that doesn't sound like too grandiose a claim.
I'm trying to do all this in between the girls' netball games.
Also, I'm flying to Melbourne in the morning for three days.
*chuckle* I'm glad those days of ferrying The Kid around are over.*pause* Tho' tomorrow I'm off to Darebin (where's that, I wonder) to watch him coach his junior cycle squad. Big Mother's Day treat, huh?
Lisa, you're lucky, mine's 21 and I'm still ferrying her around. Ian; glad you are going to leave your notes here, it might be sometime before I get a copy to read yet so will be handy for me.
If there were no DFW, there would be no notes? If there were no DFW, there would be no PK? But the notes somehow stand on their own too -in that they have their own voice, humor, introspection. Ian, what you've put here is unique in and of itself. Thanks.
Thanks, Natalie, you're too kind.I was worried that TPK mightn't be read widely enough or closely enough.
The novel describes a wealth of experiences, the least I could do was to pay attention and describe what I experienced.
I'm glad I didn't get bored, and thank you for not getting bored by me.
I hope others will make a similar effort to pay attention and describe their own unique experiences.
In particular, I feel embarrassed that I just ran out of time to think more about Toni Ware and her mother.
There's an interesting article by Jonah Lehrer about "Attention and Intelligence" here;http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/0...
He suggests that "intelligence is really about the ability to control the spotlight of attention".
He draws some inferences about "difficult novels" from the research he is reviewing:
"So how can we bolster our selective attention abilities?
"This is pure speculation, but I see research like this as an important defense of difficult novels.
"When we read a complex narrative - say, Proust or Woolf or DFW - we're forced to constantly exert our attentional muscles just to follow along.
"On a deeper level, however, we're also being asked to switch between different kinds of informational streams.
"We need to pay attention to the sentence, and to the subtleties of language and character and plot, but we need to also remain aware of the larger themes unfolding in the work.
"Is this Marcel the narrator? Or Marcel the author? What is Proust telling us about memory and Paris and jealousy?
"Unpacking the text, in other words, is an extreme form of cognitive exercise, as we must alternate for hundreds of pages between local comprehension (the sentence and the mechanics of plot) and global understanding (the larger meaning of the novel)."
Ian wrote: "Some people feel that way about Murakami."I had Infinite Jest on my wish list but heard an interview that discouraged me. But this sounds really good though, so I added it. I though I was the only one that took notes on the books I read - you should see my database. I'm thinking you have something similar.
I will probably have a crack at IJ next year, if you'd like to read it at the same time.I have taken notes for a few books that I wanted to review more thoroughly.
I will probably start a notes section on 1Q84 in My Writings soon.
That would be very cool. Let me know when you want to start. Maybe others would like to join.I have to admit I'm obsessed with the note taking thing. It's not so much that my notes are good, but they do look pretty. Maybe it's an OCD thing.
always avoided DFW, don't really know why, but maybe 'Chapter 46' has something to do with it. How many fucking chapters are there? And this is half the size of IJ...
There are 50 chapters, some of which are less than a page, others anywhere between 50 and 100 pages.Chapter 46 is one of my favourites.
Why don't you read my reading notes on each chapter and see if you like the sound of any of it:http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
My full review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
It's long, but shorter than the book.
Hopefully, it will reveal why I think it's worth reading.
Another great review Ian! Your chapter notes were very helpful.Regarding chapter 46, you might consider the Shane Drinion – Meredith Rand conversation in the context of the book’s storyline of the IRS operating more like a corporation, i.e., moving from providing a service to generating revenue. Drinion’s approach to Rand parallels the way corporations (and soon also the new PR minded IRS) develop relationships with their stakeholders. Drinion’s lack of empathy enables him to stay completely focused and use his unencumbered (pathological) mind to clearly see and express Rand’s issues.
Rand feels understood and connected, but Drinion does not really care. He is simply solving a problem as he does every day in his work. Drinion is an example of the new IRS. In the end Rand will be disappointed just as individuals are with modern institutions when they read too much into their seemingly caring façade. Wallace pointed this out in his 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address.
Did Wallace intend this conversation as a reflection of a larger issue? Note the second unpublished scene in the paperback version. “Revenue Agent Shane Drinion, GS-13….a man of ‘action’”, p.6. “All bureaucracies are microcosms of the world. As such they are composed of the world’s two types, devourers and food. Abstract people vs. men of action.”, p.7.
With serendipitous timing my October 2012 Scientific American recently arrived with an article, “The Wisdom of Psychopaths”. It ties right in citing a study finding that “psychopathic attributes were actually more common in business leaders than in so-called disturbed criminals – attributes such as superficial charm, egocentricity, persuasiveness, independence and focus.” Wallace was right on target.
Thanks, Max. I was really interested in these issues, too.I'm not sure whether you read my notes on chapter 46 or my full review.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
See the headings "IRS as a Microcosmic Place to Work" and "You Never Give Me Enough of Your Money".
I am fascinated by Meredith Rand and wanted to write more about her and the Ware women:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Read your review and all the chapter notes Ian with great care as always because I get so many ideas from you. I particularly enjoyed your take on chapter 19 where you aptly highlight some of DFW’s best writing. Chapter 19 is also uncannily timely for its relevance to the politics in the current American Presidential election.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/sto...
Caution: one of the comments on the website says this:
I am feeling uncomfortable listening to this - it feels that Ramona is being aggressive and rude - interrupting and making the one point over and over - far from saying, yes,it is a difficult decision, with moral and perhaps literary considerations and then leaving it, Romona keeps coming back to it. I got a very strong sense that she disapproves of the publication of Pale King and no sense that she can respect different choices and the possible reasons behind them. Not good for a critic, I think.