Chris Via’s Reviews > The Cruft of Fiction: Mega-Novels and the Science of Paying Attention > Status Update

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).