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This is a personal project by @dellsystem. I built this to help me retain information from the books I'm reading.

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91

Specially Marked Packages

9
terms
2
notes

this was sooo good. very DFW. reminded me a bit of Why Bother too

Sorrentino, C. (1996). Specially Marked Packages. In ? The Future of Fiction. Dalkey Archive Press, pp. 91-99

(noun) a condition of weariness or debility; fatigue / (noun) a condition of listlessness; languor

91

the moribund progress of their gross intellectual lassitude

—p.91 by Christopher Sorrentino
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7 years, 2 months ago

the moribund progress of their gross intellectual lassitude

—p.91 by Christopher Sorrentino
confirm
7 years, 2 months ago

(noun) a long parley usually between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication / (noun) conference discussion / (noun) idle talk / (noun) misleading or beguiling speech / (verb) to talk profusely or idly / (verb) parley / (verb) to use palaver to; cajole

91

all that stupid palaver about "untapped potential"

—p.91 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

all that stupid palaver about "untapped potential"

—p.91 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago
92

There's also the possibility that in a society as deracinated and stripped of tradition and continuity [...] as our own, the void that emptily exists where common experience would ordinarily repose is filled by elements of popular culture so anchored to a specific time that they become part of the lingua franca, staples of the manufactured conversation, endlessly in medias res, that takes the place of shared heritage. In effect, trends in television, movies and popular music and fake nostalgia for their various incarnations are our shared conscious heritage (in other words, Nick at Nite is not kidding), in a way that literature can never be, since fiction blasts aside most temporal restrictions with its persistent availability, as opposed to the unavoidability of popular culture [...]

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino 7 years, 2 months ago

There's also the possibility that in a society as deracinated and stripped of tradition and continuity [...] as our own, the void that emptily exists where common experience would ordinarily repose is filled by elements of popular culture so anchored to a specific time that they become part of the lingua franca, staples of the manufactured conversation, endlessly in medias res, that takes the place of shared heritage. In effect, trends in television, movies and popular music and fake nostalgia for their various incarnations are our shared conscious heritage (in other words, Nick at Nite is not kidding), in a way that literature can never be, since fiction blasts aside most temporal restrictions with its persistent availability, as opposed to the unavoidability of popular culture [...]

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino 7 years, 2 months ago

(adjective) difficult knotty / (adjective) ; rough to the touch; as / (adjective) having small raised dots, scales, or points / (adjective) covered with raised, roughened, or unwholesome patches / (adjective) dealing with suggestive, indecent, or scandalous themes; salacious / (adjective) squalid

92

sneak such scabrousness in through the back door

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino
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7 years, 2 months ago

sneak such scabrousness in through the back door

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino
confirm
7 years, 2 months ago

(verb) uproot / (verb) to remove or separate from a native environment or culture / (verb) to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from

92

in a society as deracinated and stripped of tradition and continuity

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

in a society as deracinated and stripped of tradition and continuity

—p.92 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

(adjective) being less dense / (adjective) of, relating to, or interesting to a select group; esoteric / (adjective) very high / (verb) to make rare, thin, porous, or less dense; to expand without the addition of matter / (verb) to make more spiritual, refined, or abstruse / (verb) to become less dense

93

this is an increasingly irrelevant and rarefied end, consigned to the specialists

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

this is an increasingly irrelevant and rarefied end, consigned to the specialists

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

(noun) asp / (noun) a clear savory jelly (as of fish or meat stock) used as a garnish or to make a meat, fish, or vegetable mold

93

without any uniformity as to time and place of dissemination to serve as communal aspic

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

without any uniformity as to time and place of dissemination to serve as communal aspic

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

(adjective) playing lightly on or over a surface; flickering / (adjective) softly bright or radiant / (adjective) marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression

93

They spend lambent, warm afternoons sequestered in quiet rooms.

on writers. god i love this word

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

They spend lambent, warm afternoons sequestered in quiet rooms.

on writers. god i love this word

—p.93 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago
95

[...] Many of the books currently being manufactured as part of a "Generation X" "movement" have at their dead cold centers the vacillating heart of the advertising executive. Kept aloft--that is, "relevant"--by a constant barrage of moronic platitudes concerning the meaninglessness of life (as if this were a new discovery), the emptiness of the sexual relationship (the latter-day democratization of whose romantic aspects is a dwindling luxury afforded by high capitalism's temporary redistribution of wealth), the absence of God [...] the narrator immediately reveals that what the second-person protagonist--implicitly the reader--really desires is re-entry into the world of middlebrow pleasures: a Ralph Lauren Sunday brunch of croissants, the Times, and a nice clean girl. [...]

—p.95 by Christopher Sorrentino 7 years, 2 months ago

[...] Many of the books currently being manufactured as part of a "Generation X" "movement" have at their dead cold centers the vacillating heart of the advertising executive. Kept aloft--that is, "relevant"--by a constant barrage of moronic platitudes concerning the meaninglessness of life (as if this were a new discovery), the emptiness of the sexual relationship (the latter-day democratization of whose romantic aspects is a dwindling luxury afforded by high capitalism's temporary redistribution of wealth), the absence of God [...] the narrator immediately reveals that what the second-person protagonist--implicitly the reader--really desires is re-entry into the world of middlebrow pleasures: a Ralph Lauren Sunday brunch of croissants, the Times, and a nice clean girl. [...]

—p.95 by Christopher Sorrentino 7 years, 2 months ago

(noun) divination from auspices or omens / noun) omen, portent

95

ultimately serves as an augury of the way out

—p.95 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

ultimately serves as an augury of the way out

—p.95 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

(adjective) keen, sharp / (adjective) vigorously effective and articulate / (adjective) caustic / (adjective) sharply perceptive; penetrating / (adjective) clear-cut, distinct

98

its trenchant edge is somewhat blunted by the passage of time

—p.98 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago

its trenchant edge is somewhat blunted by the passage of time

—p.98 by Christopher Sorrentino
notable
7 years, 2 months ago