127
Encyclopedic Novels and the Cruft of Fiction: Infinite Jest's Endnotes
on the endnotes being long, jarring to read, and sometimes needlessly complex and pointless (e.g., jargon about a drug that requires a background in pharmaceutics to understand); basically, cruft. compares to House of Leaves. the reader has to devise their own way to read the book. basically they have to put in work. also on how the mass of data you encounter in endnotes is analogous to our information age (such "information" also being mostly pointless). strikes a balance between cruft and profundity. sometimes the cruft itself contains profundity, like James Incandenza's filmography (mostly jokes tho). on how to handle information overload in a grown-up way (see Deciderization for DFW's thoughts on that). a surprisingly good essay
17
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0
127
Encyclopedic Novels and the Cruft of Fiction: Infinite Jest's Endnotes
on the endnotes being long, jarring to read, and sometimes needlessly complex and pointless (e.g., jargon about a drug that requires a background in pharmaceutics to understand); basically, cruft. compares to House of Leaves. the reader has to devise their own way to read the book. basically they have to put in work. also on how the mass of data you encounter in endnotes is analogous to our information age (such "information" also being mostly pointless). strikes a balance between cruft and profundity. sometimes the cruft itself contains profundity, like James Incandenza's filmography (mostly jokes tho). on how to handle information overload in a grown-up way (see Deciderization for DFW's thoughts on that). a surprisingly good essay
17 / 0