I read the first three sentences, and came back here to comment. Each is a fabulous joke, and I had 3 lol moments, and I wonder if anybody else laughed like I did?
I am a big fan of DFW on the basis of reading "The Pale King" alone, and haven't read this before.
1. "... the nerve stem of Maine's lobster industry." I full expect him to exploit this imagery later :-)
2. "... runs from Owl’s Head" Oh, God, already.
3. "... whose summer traffic is, as you can imagine, unimaginable."
4. "... Harbor Park, right along the water." Redundancy from an author concerned with economy of expression... oh, this is deliberate! He's making fun of the absurdity of town called Rockland. It's by the sea. Some sense of absurdity is subtle.
5. "... Camden by the sea, Rockland by the smell.” Economic status of Rockland explained.
That's in the first 3 sentences... I hate to "spell it out" but hopefully I can encourage people to read other stuff by DFW in so doing. The themes in the Pale King could certainly help some people in technical communities make sense of what it is they are doing.
OK, enough proselytizing, and literary-criticism-ism-ing back to reading now... I won't be back.
If you started with Pale King and already love him youre in for a real treat. Not that Pale King is bad, just obviously incomplete (which it necessarily was, unfortunately).
I am a big fan of DFW on the basis of reading "The Pale King" alone, and haven't read this before.
1. "... the nerve stem of Maine's lobster industry." I full expect him to exploit this imagery later :-)
2. "... runs from Owl’s Head" Oh, God, already.
3. "... whose summer traffic is, as you can imagine, unimaginable."
4. "... Harbor Park, right along the water." Redundancy from an author concerned with economy of expression... oh, this is deliberate! He's making fun of the absurdity of town called Rockland. It's by the sea. Some sense of absurdity is subtle.
5. "... Camden by the sea, Rockland by the smell.” Economic status of Rockland explained.
That's in the first 3 sentences... I hate to "spell it out" but hopefully I can encourage people to read other stuff by DFW in so doing. The themes in the Pale King could certainly help some people in technical communities make sense of what it is they are doing.
OK, enough proselytizing, and literary-criticism-ism-ing back to reading now... I won't be back.