Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ted Gioia's Brilliant Posthumous Riff on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

A heartbreakingly joyous assessment of stun-wondrous gorgeosity to the Nth degree which doesn't once deploy the word "genius," FWIW, except in reffing the title of a work by another Wallace admirer: Ted Gioia's Latest True-Blue "New Canon" Entry: David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

"By any definition, and not just word count, Infinite Jest is a big novel. Big in its aspirations, big in its scope, big in what it delivers," observes Mr. Gioia. "Yet," he astutely continues, "this flamboyant novel is also one of the most down-to-earth books you will ever read. At its very core, this book is a critique of flashiness and attitude, and argues for a healthy distrust of irony and intellectualising."

Whoa . . . Standing Oh! It is to live for :) . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment