Listen to what Hal says to the administrators who are questioning his academic suitability for their program:
"I am not just a boy who plays tennis. I have an intricate history. Experiences and feelings. I'm complex."
I see now where Hal and I (or DFW and I) have something in common. I used to say sh*it like this too when I was an upandcoming soccerfootball player; When I played the beautiful game; when I was a beautifulgamer: Coaches hated to hear shi*t like that. They said, "V- you think too much. You'd be a great player if you didn't think so much..."
I love the passage where Hal says (page 12): "I believe the influence of Kierkrgaard on Camus is underestimated..."
This book - or collection of pages - is getting interesting now.
I feel for you buddy. Please have fun. It's a good read.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, this already tops the last book I followed as a liveblog.
Here's a survey of my bookshelves and the various Moby Dicks harpooned, but not killed off:
Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon. 272 of 1085 pages read.
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson -- 445 of 1472 pages read.
The Recognitions, William Gaddis -- 57 of 939 pages read. (Ouch!)
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil -- 361 of 2400 pages read.
Rememberance of Things Past, Proust -- 1528 pages of 3500 pages read.
Rising Up and Rising Down, William Vollman -- 250 of 733 pages read (and this is the abridged edition!)
I suspect your Abbot is goading you -- just a little bit -- because he finished Jest, and when one does finish a monster book, one never misses the chance to let others know. (Oh, hey, did I mention that I finished Infinite Jest in the summer of 1996?)
Keep on trucking, brother. Me, I'm waiting for my Amazon order of Roberto Bolano's 2666 (op. cit.). It's this year's Infinite Jest. And if the past is any indication, I'm going to love the first 20% of it.
P.S. I'm loving the book destruction. Please no preciousness with books. Grip 'n rip.
BTW, the next book to be discussed on Slate's Audio Book Club is IJ. Should be posted any day now. It's a good show, in an eggheady way.
ReplyDeleteMr. Ashdale - a virtuoso post. How are you managing to use html within the comments box? That's a hillarious accounting of Thick Books Partially Read. Somebody should set up a site to track things like that for people. Could be fun. Could be like a game.
ReplyDeleteYou've reminded me that I need to finish Proust! Damn, I'd completely forgotten about that. Is that the next book I dismember? We'll see. The road I'm on right now is exciting but I've got many miles to go before I sleep.
Thanks for the Slate recommend. Though I don't know if I want to read too much analysis yet of a book I haven't really even started to read. I think I'm going to pass and save it for future reference. Since I've really put my life on the line with this reading of a book, I want it to be as pure and painful as possible - just like the playing of the beautiful game.