Chris Via > Recent Status Updates

Only had time on lunch break to dip into the first chapter, but--this is a Czech novel whose main character/narrator is an obsessive reader!

What a great opening to the Gravity's Rainbow discussion (which Letzler has saved for last): "...it [GR] has that rare property shared by only the greatest books: it turns us all into hypocrites."

Ah, OK, now he’s taking on the role of humor in the mega-novel’s cruft. Excellent.

Letzler seems incapable of allowing that some "cruft" is simply the author stepping away from plot to have some fun (e.g. some of DFW's Incandenza filmography footnote gags). There's also a line of thought that minimizes the human element from the reading experience and tends towards something like search engine optimization. But, for all my gripes, this is mostly very solid criticism (except the Flaubert piece).

Thanks to David Letzler, I now know that I am an "insane reader": "It's hard to imagine any sane reader processing more than the first few entries of any of these lists [from a collage page in MZD's House of Leaves]" (8).

NEW VIDEO! 2020 Retrospective & 2021 Prospective. https://youtu.be/duQaX3uF7bk

Excellent reading of Hamlet--that "poem unlimited" as Bloom calls it!

First book of 2021!

NEW VIDEO! Bookshelf tour of my poetry section. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L5khGft...

Introducing my daughter to E. Nesbit.

That graveyard scene still hits as hard as the late scene in The Recognitions with Wyatt tucked away and scraping at the painting. Twenty pages left! (Deep breath, crack knuckles, roll neck, settle in.)

“Rémy, it is time for many drinks.”

NEW VIDEO! 3 Books on Proust: Albaret, Beckett, & Czapski. https://youtu.be/MXC-X-u78Wg

That whole episode concerning Gately’s duties as House Staff, the 0000h re-parking madness, and the violent altercation is the perfect standalone introduction to the literary world of DFW.

My map's kertwanged by the fantods' howls' relentlessness.

Assessment so far: I appreciate all the obvious work that went into this, and I am thankful to have a DFW biography, but there are many things I just personally don't really think I need to know. That's the best way I can put it. But: onward...

That hillside discussion between A.F.R. agent Marathe and the distaffly-incognito Hugh Steeply about the p-terminals is one passage I never forgot since I first read it.

The uncut @kcrw Bookworm episode with Michael Silverblatt and Steven Moore from 2017. Moore and Silverblatt gave me permission to post this. Hope you enjoy! https://youtu.be/gsVLlWpbHZM

I talked to @kcrw Bookworm’s Michael Silverblatt on the phone yesterday! Utterly surreal. His “persona” on the show is in no way an act. There’s not much more on my bucket list. #kcrw #bookworm #michaelsilverblatt #booktwitter

NEW VIDEO! Exclusive offers for Leaf by Leaf viewers + a giveaway of the @nyrbclassics reissue of The Recognitions!
https://youtu.be/yFEYNim3Rhc