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The Pale King
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Wednesday, 30 March 2011 |
It's late. I've done it. I knew I wouldn't be getting to bed tonight until I finished The Pale King. You know the feeling... close enough to the end and suddenly swept up in a flurry of words that makes it near impossible for one to stop reading. I don't want to ruin anything. All I'll say is that the more familiar you are with David Foster Wallace's body of work, the more I think you'll get out of this unfinished novel. It's part of an arc that I thought ended with his death and has miraculously been extended beyond it. I wrote previously about my initial thoughts / first impressions and they haven't changed now that I'm done. In fact the maturity of emotion and refined (even muted) style delivers some of the best writing of DFW's career. The Pale King is a catalyst for reflection and celebration, not mourning. We all have much to learn from the contents of this book. David Foster Wallace, thank you.
(And now it's time for bed)
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The Pale King
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Wednesday, 30 March 2011 |
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If there are past participants who would like to use the site as a venue for discussion of The Pale King in the coming weeks, I’ll be happy to set up user accounts and try really hard to look the other way so as to avoid the discussion (which, I’ll admit, will be hard to do). Speak up if you’re game (especially if you want to write for the blog; I’ll decide more or less arbitrarily when to stop adding new bloggers, probably somewhere around the half-dozen-participants-in-all mark). If there seems to be interest, I’ll set things up and let those who wish to drive the read run with it.
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The Pale King
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Wednesday, 30 March 2011 |
If you've had your ear to the ground you may have heard that many people who have pre-ordered The Pale King from Amazon have received emails that their copy is on the way. Some have already arrived! Great news! Might be worth asking your local bookstore if they've got any copies as there are reports that it is starting to arrive in stores...
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The Pale King
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Monday, 28 March 2011 |
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You can't get more glowing than this final paragraph of the review... and I couldn't agree more: But I have gone on longer than planned. I hope I haven't spoiled anything, though I also don't believe this book is even remotely spoilable. I began this review wanting badly to tell you how the genius of The Pale King is less literary than personal. I wanted to explain the experience of reading it, which I understand now is very hard, like trying to describe the color green. I have used far too many words to make a simple point: this book marks an extremely important moment in American literature, when David Foster Wallace—who we know was Dave to students and friends and everyone but the vast majority of us who could only love his writing, not the man, though some claimed to—published a book that moves, as he had always hoped, beyond metafiction, into an artistic mode transcendent and truly shared, call it what you will. Because you, of course, could have a totally different perspective on all of this. If so, I will try very hard to understand.
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Competitions
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Thursday, 24 March 2011 |
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A couple of comps have popped up:
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