Kris’s Comments (group member since Aug 06, 2012)

Kris’s comments from the Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace group.

Ali wrote: "Marieke wrote: "i think possibly A Suitable Boy might challenge IJ on the wrist breakage. i'll get back to y'all on that."

I think the largest book in a single volume I have is a collection of wei..."

Eesh - does it come with a magnifying glass, like those old 2-volume sets of the OED did?

FYI: I just added this to the first comment in the IJ Music Thread:
ETA: Jason has created a collaborative playlist on spotify, so that group members who are Spotify users can help to create and listen to an Infinite Jest group playlist. Here's the link:
http://open.spotify.com/user/ancatdub...
Thanks Jason - great idea!

Jason wrote: "Here is the link in its entirety:
http://open.spotify.com/user/ancatdub..."

Great - link posted!

Perfect - will do!

Jason wrote: "If people use Spotify, you could create a collaborative playlist of IJ songs. Or I could create it and just provide the link to it if people want me to."

I think that's a great idea - I am a user too. Perhaps we should post something on the music thread to check about whether we have other users around?

Marieke wrote: "in scrolling through all my favorited tweets, i have yet to find the article. booo (i'll keep looking for it in other ways). but i did find this brownie recipe."

Good substitute.... :)

Moira wrote: "That's it, yes! Surely you have seen the hilarious Frustrated Monk Footnotes, yes? ....bah, can't find it right now. I imagine DFW would have gotten a kick out of that one.

There are also some bo..."

I don't think I've seen Frustrated Monk Footnotes - sounds enticing. :)

I did find this just now: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
When I was reading 15th-century ecclesiastical court records for diss research, I could tell from the handwriting when scribes were getting tired - and some of them doodled in the margins when bored (including sketching a woman). It humanized all those sexual misconduct and marriage cases!

Thanks Christine and Moira for more great resources! Yes, I thought the music thread was an inspired addition, so I will now add one to any group I moderate. That flavorwire playlist is very creative and eclectic. I'm interested to see what our group members come up with once we get going.

Moira wrote: "That's it, yes! Surely you have seen the hilarious Frustrated Monk Footnotes, yes? ....bah, can't find it right now. I imagine DFW would have gotten a kick out of that one.

There are also some bo..."

Ooh - these both look like fun. More to add to tbr. :)

Marieke wrote: "Kris--you probably already saw this article I'm now thinking about... I can't remember the title of the article or who wrote it or who it was about or who published or who tweeted it, but I remembe..."

Ooh - I'd be very interested in the citation if you can dig it up.

Moira wrote: "Kris wrote: "You are both feeding my footnote addiction. My dissertation is just filled with them, and I now gravitate to literary fiction that includes them as well."

I looooooove footnotes, absu..."

Ooh - I have The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes on tbr list - considering something like that for my class on Academic Writing and Research Design. I also want to read The Footnote: A Curious History and Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books. I love some of the scholarship on readers' marks in Early Modern books, and what that tells us about how they approached reading and understood information.

Moira wrote: "Kris wrote: "perhaps one for a December start and one for a January start. "

Oh, I like that idea. Dividing threads up into chronological sections helps prevent spoiling for people who haven't rea..."

Yes - I think it's essential for a book of this length, especially with so many people in the group. We can have a good balance of structure and flexibility.

Moira wrote: "Nathan "N.R." wrote: "I'll be reading the hd, because I'm too cheap to buy a pb. "

Oh wow. It could be like an exercise ball. An exercise book.

One thing that really helped me during the Anna Kar..."

Yes, I think we need to have a schedule or two - perhaps one for a December start and one for a January start. People can read ahead or fall behind (in other words, read at a pace that works for them), but it's useful to have some goals in mind when you are reading a work like this. It also will make it easier to divide up the discussion threads into sections. I anticipate that the discussion could well continue past March, depending on the interest of the group. We'll just have to see how it goes.

And Moira, I love the idea of the DFW exercise plan. :)

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Moira wrote: "Wordsmith wrote: "John Updike I think talks about one old Boswell biography where there were like two lines of regular-sized text and then the whole rest of the page was taken up by a..."
That would be reason enough to read Boswell."

You are both feeding my footnote addiction. My dissertation is just filled with them, and I now gravitate to literary fiction that includes them as well.

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Jason wrote: "According to my kindle, Atlas Shrugged is even longer than Infinite Jest"

For shame. This is supposed to be a friendly forum. Keep it clean, please."

Laughing here.

I'm not sure that I can read it in a month (although winter break helps), but I do think I can get a good head start by beginning in December. I think Nathan said earlier in this thread that he thought 3 months would be a good estimate. We'll keep discussing the schedule and timing.

Wordsmith wrote: "That being said, there are a few books I do find intimidating. A few of these are not long paged books at all, one is - definitely, and one is five volumes, not to mention written and drawn about 5 centuries ago. A different mindset altogether. I also shiver at the thought of discussing amongst the more learned folk, books written by those so esoteric, so extreme in their European arty exclusive underground nature not even The Literary Review, The NY Times or The New Yorker has deigned to speak their name. "

I know exactly what you mean - over the summer, when I was focusing on Classical Greece and Rome and Medieval Europe in my history of sexuality class, it took a lot of time and work on the part of the students to be able to understand a very different culture and mindset. Part of the challenge and the joy of studying history, but it can be off-putting and intimidating if you haven't yet developed some familiarity with context.

And as for elitists of any kind - well, I tend to get frustrated and feel like throwing heavy objects after a while. Many of my students enter my classes really intimidated by academic snobs, and it takes some time and effort to help them to feel empowered to develop and articulate their own views.

Once again, I am shamelessly borrowing Ian Graye's excellent idea of adding a music thread to a book discussion group. Group members have excellent taste in music as well as literature, and I am looking forward to some creative links here!

ETA: Jason has created a collaborative playlist on spotify, so that group members who are Spotify users can help to create and listen to an Infinite Jest group playlist. Here's the link:
http://open.spotify.com/user/ancatdub...
Thanks Jason - great idea!

Wordsmith wrote: "Moira wrote: "Jason wrote: "Also, where is Moira's kindle status? I have IJ on the Kindle and it totally includes endnotes."

I don't think I dloaded it onto the Kindle yet (connecting the wireless..."

I love it that we are discussing the physiology and logistics of reading IJ. We have resources, suggestions, etc. I think it's great that even aspects of reading that we usually don't think about require planning and attention when it comes to IJ.

I have an e-book and a paperback, so I think I may try to find a way to read both to handle the text/endnote problem. I've been doing something kind of like that during my read of Ulysses with Gifford's Annotations, and it is working fairly well.

Jason wrote: "oh, we are nerds. this is us considering how to manage the reading commitment of both groups."

Yes, Jason and Marieke - proud nerds. Let our geek flag fly. :)