Like a lot of long books that have a reputation for being super difficult (Ulysses, for example) I think the best advice is to just go for it, enjoy it and not worry about 'getting' everything.

I think I read a interview (or it could be in this book actually) where he said basically that. He enjoyed the anonymity and would dislike (and deliberately alienate) students who made a big deal out of knowing who he was.

I kind of love that about the book - Lipsky is this upstart who admires Wallace and wants to prove that he's super intellectual too, but Wallace a) runs rings around him in every conversation and, more importantly, b) really doesn't care about any 'battle of minds' and is just trying to get through the book tour. It…

Even in HIMYM he had a number of dramatic scenes that required a level of melancholy and he completely knocked them out of the park. He was definitely the best actor in that cast.

The Goldfinch was good, but not great. The problem I had was that it never rose above 'really well-written' so it felt like a fantastic writer stuck on cruise control.

As great as they are (and they are) a lot of his stories are beholden to a particular one of his literary ticks (parody, grotesque, literary theory, maximalism) - Infinite Jest I think is where all of these ticks come together into this brilliant whole.

I think that's the story I've reread the most. You're right, beautiful is the best word I can think of to describe it.

Got to love* folks that deliberately misinterpret a work in order to post a hit-piece on it.

Well, the author of that obviously wanted to prove how cooler they were (see the shock at the idea that he could unironically listen to Huey Lewis)

What's this guy's problem, seriously. At least the other post was attempting to come up with some kind of critique, a really dumb one, granted, but at least it wasn't just vicious name-calling.

I assume Franzen is to busy with his new book to comment here.

True, this format is rather terrible for the visual comedian.

You know, for the Funny Baratheon Brother, you're not all that funny.

That article reminded me of that one from the Melvin's singer a few week back after Montage of Heck was released. It mostly amounted to humblebragging about knowing Wallace and taking fault with the fact that Segal doesn't conform to his memories of Wallace.

What do you call a mysogynist that want to destroy the Thundercats?

I was trying to pin down why I was generally down on this song despite it not being 'bad' and that's it. There's something so sterile about it. Like someone input a bunch of studies on pop music into a computer and ran a program to make a summer pop hit.

I think that it's kinda funny that 'Everything is Awesome' which was, in context, essentially an empty pop song made to keep everyone in line and unquestioning in a dystopian world became an unironic pop smash.

I see Michael Bay as more Nabin territory, he'll have fun with it - Scott guns for critical darlings, Bay is too easy.

Well, for one he is very noticeably playing the lead guitar line on '(Nothing But) Flowers'…

Oh, I think you can tell which is Marr - that's what I mean. he's distinctive as hell. He's not flashy, but you can just tell when he's on a song (like Billy Bragg's 'Sexuality')