I have been taking part in Infinite Summer, the big internet-organized group reading of David Foster Wallace’s masterpiece. It’s my second time through the book, the first being something like six years ago, and it’s amazing how much more I get out of the novel now. There’s the Boston-area references that flew straight over my head but I can now appreciate (like gourmet ice cream in Allston), and then there’s just plain life stuff that no high schooler has really been through. And it makes me wonder… how much more would I/will I get out of this book in another 6 (or whatever) years?
Consider me impressed: major military control over Iraq’s major cities has been handed over to Iraqi forces. Seen above is Baghdad from up high, via the NYTimes.
"Last thing: In attempting to convince you to buy this book, or check it out of your library, it’s useful to tell you that the author is a normal person. Dave Wallace — and he is commonly known as such — keeps big sloppy dogs and has never dressed them in taffeta or made them wear raincoats. He has complained often about sweating too much when he gives public readings, so much so that he wears a bandana to keep the perspiration from soaking the pages below him. He was once a nationally ranked tennis player, and he cares about good government. He is from the Midwest—east-central Illinois, to be specific, which is an intensely normal part of the country (not far, in fact, from a city, no joke, named Normal). So he is normal, and regular, and ordinary, and this is his extraordinary, and irregular, and not-normal achievement, a thing that will outlast him and you and me, but will help future people understand us — how we felt, how we lived, what we gave to each other and why."
- Dave Eggers, in the foreword from the latest paperback version of Infinite Jest. I’m currently working through my old paperback version, as a part of Infinite Summer. Justin Hook and Christian Lynch are joining, are you?
I’m a little too young to remember The Tonight Show during the Carson years, but Ed McMahon has certainly remained a cultural icon throughout my life. Of course, Ed was the model for Jeffrey Tambour’s Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show, and you can see a little of that frustration with second banana status slip out in this classic clip of Ed appearing on the show after having a couple too many at lunch. The repartee between those two is really still the gold standard - you’ll see plenty of it in real life, but managing to translate it for the viewing audience is exceptionally difficult, and these guys prove that they’re the real pros.
