Infinite Summer

[elihoughton]

I am on 830. I don't quite feel like we are in the home stretch, but I could be wrong. The end notes are definitely winding down.

Speaking of end notes, any thoughts why the two longer Pemulis sections were end notes instead of body text?

Lately I have been thinking about how those characters with the interesting introductory vignettes (Clenette, Erdedy, Emil Minty, Kate Glompert) are almost non-existent at this point. Maybe they will come into play later.

I would be interested in the Tunnel Club. It really depends on what they choose to read. Some of us here have been discussing reading Gravity's Rainbow over Winter. That interests me very much. The idea of reading The Sum of All Fears or re-reading The Stand, not so much.

[JeffKamin]

I'm in for If on a Winter's Night if that is what you might be reading next.

I doubt I will finish I.J. anytime soon.

I won't attempt G.R. anytime soon. Later, much later.

[Beth]

I think we're set on Gravity's Rainbow being our book for winter. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is much less intensive read than IJ or GR, so I don't know that it's the sort of thing we'd pick for Endurance Book Club. But Jeff, if having someone reading it at the same time would motivate you to get through IoaWNaT, I would gladly re-read it sometime this fall. Just let me know.

Actually, I don't mind having invested the time and energy into those in-depth introductions to characters like Kate Grompert, Emil Minty, etc., even though they wind up (at least as of right now) playing a more minor role. When things do happen that involve those characters--such as the Kate Grompert/Ruth van Cleve/Poor Tony incident--it makes me more interested in them than I would have been if we hadn't gotten so much background on them in the beginning. There are so many secondary (tertiary?) characters in this book that I think they'd all blend together without those earlier scenes.

I got a big kick out of the footnote pointing out that, although it's extremely unlikely, one of the characters may possibly have been making a Hamlet reference. As if DFW weren't of course making an overt Hamlet reference.

[Andrew]

I haven't been reading with you but I think the Endurance Book Club idea sounds interesting, and wanted to offer a recommendation. If books that can double as doorstops are what you're looking for, I'd recommend Roberto Bolano's 2666. It's not quite as cryptic as some of the titles you've been discussing, but very long and emotionally draining

Perhaps this has been posted already, but if you've got your heart set on GR, I'd highly recommend this website with, among other things, a guide for the first-time reader, and (for when you get really lost) a link to a summary of what actually happens on every page. Plus crosslinks to other endurance novels like Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_gr.html

[doubtful guest]

Just Because...

http://infinitesummer.org/archives/1723
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Te Occidere Possunt Sed Te Edere Non Possunt Nefas Est

[Beth]

Holy crow.

I finished.

'...'

[JeffKamin]

and that was your 100th post, congrats...was it worth it? the IJ read?
I know all 100 posts counted.

what about Dracula - are you guys going to do that one?

[Beth]

Yeah, I'd say it was worth it. It's weighing on my mind pretty heavily this evening. And although I initially scoffed at the people who said that they finished the book and then flipped right back to the beginning and started over, I did just find myself skimming the first chapter. I picked up on some things that couldn't possibly make sense the first time around, so I do now understand the appeal of starting over from the beginning. I can just about guarantee that this book is better with subsequent readings, although I can't really bring myself to plow back through 1100 pages again at the moment.

As for Dracula, I don't know about anyone else, but I've decided I'm doing it. I was probably 12 when I read that book, and something tells me I didn't get as much out of it as it has to offer. Plus, I'm curious to see how the format carries over into such a drastically different type of book. No guarantees that I'll follow wherever they lead, but for October I'm along for the ride.

[elihoughton]

I just finished. Anyone out there still reading or finished? Should we have some sort of get-together for those of us who stuck with it?

[elihoughton]

I may also do Dracula, depending on my fatherhood status.

[Girl Detective]

I finished, also, and still am thinking about IJ weeks later, and in fact did just re-read the first seventeen pages after someone's post at InfSum about how the book is like an infinity loop.

I don't think I"m in for Dracula. I'm going to give Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a try and see if I can join you for B & B in October.

[JeffKamin]

Girl Detective, that's the spirit. Meet us for real on Oct 13th. I am more than half way through TGwtDT and loving it.

[Beth the knitter]

I just finished IJ - I got to the last sentence, slammed the book shut, and said "WHAT?! THAT'S IT???" I was pretty pissed at DFW for introducing new characters and plots into the book 20 pages from the end when all I wanted to see was something that happened between the end of the book and the first chapter. And then I realized that wasn't the point - the whole point of the end, the whole point of the BOOK, was to take literary convention and turn it on its head. Once I came to terms with the fact that the plot was merely there to advance character development, and not the other way around, I felt much more at peace with the end, and the book as a whole.

I also went back and reread the beginning pages again, but that was more to cleanse my mind after reading the disturbing last few pages describing Fackelmann's demise.

I don't think I can do another endurance book for a while - this one took a lot out of me. But I am gearing up for TGwaDT for October. I'm on page 40 - the simplicity is like a salve after the density of IJ. But I hope it picks up soon.

[marymargaret]

STILL chugging along. I think this is going to turn into the infinite Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring... This book feels like really big plates of food from Kinh Do where you eat until you're stuffed but your plate looks like you didn't touch it.
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I did a radio interview and the DJ's first question was "who are you?" I had to think: is this guy really deep, or did I drive to the wrong station?
Mitch Hedberg

[joel]

I've got less than 150 pages left. As soon as I finish TGwtDT, I'm taking IJ down. I've come too far to not finish now.