Status Updates From Oblivion

Oblivion: best one so far

Another Pioneer: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I couldn’t really find a sense of dread in this one in terms of the negative events but it definitely has something to do with running things through a game of telephone which can be pretty scary I suppose.

Incarnations of burned children: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Sometimes David really does just go hard with some long ass sentences. Like ones that actually do take your breath away.

The Soul Is Not a Smithy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Not gonna lie we are absolutely rolling. I LOVED the turn at the end where he starts talking about dreading adulthood as a child and missing out on things. Really excited for the rest of the collection.

Another Pioneer and Good Old Neon: Pioneer has strange parallels to search engines and LLMs. Good Old Neon is classic Wallace, incredibly anxious and inevitably self-referential. but sometimes I feel like I finish Wallace’s stories more impressed by his intellect than his storytelling ability

The Soul is Not a Smithy: this story and the previous are stuffed with non-sequiturs that make them hard to finish. still held my interest tho.

Incarnations of Burned Children: Can I have more of these? All killer no filler?

Mister Squishy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Can only be described as the most David Foster Wallace thing ever written.