Nathan "N.R."’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2012)

Nathan "N.R."’s comments from the Completists' Club group.

Traveller wrote: "If we're going to include diaries, why don't we just read their grocery lists..."

; )

I think that was the question of Foucault's essay "What is an Author?" Or one of his somethings somewhere. Where does Kafka's body of literary work end? But regarding some authors, such as Kafka or Dostoevsky or Joyce, their letters and diaries have become part of their canonical works. Or Nin. Some were written, perhaps, with the knowledge that there would be posthumous publication. Never underestimate the vanity of our favorite authors. Or the salivating voraciousness of us completists!

I think I'm on my own here. Having been thoroughly licked by Women & Men, I think I'm in the final stretch of completing his works despite what the numbers may appear to say.

Have-Read
Letter Left to Me
Women and Men
A Smuggler's Bible
The RCF McElroy Number (it counts!)
Actress in the House
Cannonball
Plus
Night Soul
Lookout Cartridge
Ancient History

Will-Have-Read
Preparations for Search (excised chapter of W&M)
Hind's Kidnap
Exponential (Essays; Italian only)

Well, yes, but I only began last summer and I *do* have the 1200 pages of W&M read (twice), so there's that.

What my shelf will look like one day:
http://quarterlyconversation.com/cons...

I've got myself committed. Against my will.

I just want to take this opportunity to say that Blue Pastoral was simply amazing. From the very first sentence the reader just gets pulled in and mesmerized by the gorgeous, flowing, flowery porse.

My Have-Read:
Blue Pastoral
Aberration of Starlight
Mulligan Stew

Shelved and Ready-to-Read:
The Abyss of Human Illusion
Crystal Vision
Odd Number
Read the Fiend

I have a long way to go.

Nick wrote: "although the companion piece includes eleven additional letters not found in House of Leaves. "

Yep. That's what I recall. Thanks. And since the Letters was perhaps the most dull part of HoL's I suspect I'll never bother with the companion publication until it shows up used for $0.68US. I will forever and anon be happy without those eleven letters, methinks.

Despite having only two novels published to date--the addictive pop-metafictional House of Leaves and the universally hated Only Revolutions (for which reason I've just gotta read)--his projected project is The Familiar, projected at 27 volumes. As of two years ago, The Familiar is designed as a serial novel of some kind with installments published monthly or along some such schedule. It's a bout a kitten. We'll see how voluminous this money-making project turns out.

I suspect that The Familiar is either hugely delayed or will begin publication very soon: The Fifty Year Sword is scheduled for republication next month. And The Whalestoe Letters--isn't that an exact reproduction of what's in HoL's, or is it an expanded collection?

Sean wrote: "A foolhardy endeavor. Abandon all hope, etc."

Well, again, here's hope:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

But Adrian is a ridiculously talented reader.

Adrian wrote: "I was hoping you would bring this up, Nathan. (unironic use of smilie follows) :)

I think I'm just missing a few of the assorted essays and journalism now - although I'm not sure how much of those..."

I've got a lot missing from my shelves, but they'll all show up in due time. My impression is that all of his journalistic work makes its way into a book publication in some form at some time. I'd have to do more bibliographic research be confirm that, however. And Into the Zone is e-pub only, so that one will have to wait until I break-down and join the herds.

Sean--Not so much a matter of hope as uncontrolled compulsion. I do not aspire to completism, I will will only be expired by it.

Nate wrote: "Yes, but are you taking into account how many additional books he'll be adding to your pile in those same 16 years?"

I haven't done the math, but at four books a year inclusive or not of each year's new book, I thought 16 years might be a reasonable approximation. I think I've knocked out 8 this past year.

I've got CG and Frolic pending. His letters are being published early next year.

Completed.

Nate wrote: "I demand an itemized list to back up your claim. (and to alert me to anything weird I've been overlooking.)"

Err, uh, Everything existent in book form? It doesn't strike me as there being anything weird. Indeed, a fairly short list:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Stephen--stop that whinging! Take, read. All of it! It all makes IJ better for when you return to it.

Eddie wrote: "Pynchon is too easy!"

Quantity-wise, yes. Quality-wise he's a bit bigger feather-in-the-cap. Which is why I've a hard time crediting myself when I was thoroughly licked by three of his novels.

Nate wrote: "Have you both read Slow Learner, then? I think I'm down to just that and Vineland, but then, Pynchon makes things a little easier by taking eons to produce new material."

Yep. Slow Learner check. It is clearly to be left for the end of Pynchonianism. Perhaps most useful from it is Tom's intro; a rare occasion of self-criticism. I wasn't so disappointed in Vineland as the hardcore were, but then I also didn't wait 18(?) years for its appearance.

MJ wrote: "Signifying Rappers may come back into print. I'm weary of completing the DFW canon since this includes his math book and his philosophy thesis, which I don't ever see myself slogging through."

Skip the philo piece. The Math book has some skim-worth writing, DFW riffing. I made it about half-way before I totally started losing the thread. But, yes, perhaps a dozen or 13 paragraphs in there that won't be wince-producing.

DFW Books

Novels
The Broom of the System (1987)
Infinite Jest (1996)
The Pale King (2011) [Paperback with extra chapters]

Short story collections
Girl with Curious Hair (1989)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999)
Oblivion: Stories (2004)
Uncollected Fiction (20??)

Non-fiction
Signifying Rappers (1990)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (1997)
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity (2003)
Consider the Lobster (2005)
This is Water (2009)
Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (2010)
Both Flesh and Not (2012)

Interviews
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace (2010)
Conversations with David Foster Wallace (2012)
The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2012)

Secondary Materials (for when you gets around to it)
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (2003)
Understanding David Foster Wallace (2003)
Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays (2012)
Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (2012)
The Legacy of David Foster Wallace (2012)
A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies (2013)


For additional, non-book material see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fo...
http://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/...
http://theknowe.net/dfw

Anyone technologically capable enough to persuade goodreads to somehow keep score of the completist endeavor? Some kind of %%% bar which would be more perspicacious than the author's book list. What am I asking? Like the page count widget on the status update thingy? "MJ is 91% completionist of Herr Vonnegut's oeuvre." Widget-ville.

Say something about yourself:

I don't read an author whose work I have not already decided to read to completion. This is simply insane. I survive only by way of book-by-cover judgements and severe exercise of prejudice.

Novels & Collections
You Bright and Risen Angels (1987)
The Rainbow Stories (1989) (collection)
13 Stories and 13 Epitaphs (1991) (collection)
The Atlas (1996) (collection)
Europe Central (2005)
Last Stories (2014) (collection)

Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes (series)
The Ice-Shirt (1990) (Volume One)
Fathers and Crows (1992) (Volume Two)
Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (2001) (Volume Three)
The Rifles (1994) (Volume Six)
The Dying Grass (2015) (Volume Five)

The "Prostitution Trilogy"
Whores for Gloria (1991)
Butterfly Stories: A Novel (1993)
The Royal Family (2000)

Non-fiction
An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World (1992)
Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means (2003)
Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (2006)
Poor People (2007)
Riding Toward Everywhere (2008)
Imperial (2009)
Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater (2010)
Into the Forbidden Zone: A Trip Through Hell and High Water in Post-Earthquake Japan (2011) (eBook)
The Book of Dolores (2013)

Unpublished and Rare Works
The Song of Heaven: Grammar and Rhetoric in Literature and Political Action (1981)
Welcome to the Memoirs (autobiography, later reworked as An Afghanistan Picture Show) (1983)[16]
The Convict Bird: A Children’s Poem (1988) (bound with steel plates)
The Happy Girls (1990) (hand-painted and bound with metal plates, later included in 13 Stories and 13 Epitaphs)[17]
The Grave of Lost Stories (1993) (bound in steel and marble box, originally included in 13 Stories and 13 Epitaphs)
Wordcraft: Hints and Notes (circa 2000)[18] (writer's handbook)
Burning Songs (circa 2000) (poems)
The Book of Candles (1995-2008) (ten poems, in wooden box)[19]

The "Unpublished and Rare Works" are included only for their curiosity. You will never ever read them, own them, and most likely will never see them. I believe there are more of them.

Am I missing something? How not? But I believe I lack only the final third of GR. But I'm only counting "have passed eyeballs over every word." I owe V, GR, and M&D all an intelligent, literate rereading. I think there are some linear notes Pynchy's written that I've not read.