The Howling Fantods

Elegant Complexity is out!

Sunday, 02 December 2007 05:44 Critical Analysis

The single best critical text about Infinite Jest has been released! Elegant Complexity, written by Greg Carlisle, is an outstanding resource for both first time readers (there are very little spoliers if you read it along with IJ) or for those people who have read this wonderful novel numerous times. I rarely get this excited about releases (apart from DFW's stuff), this is a seriously good investment.

I was able to read a draft earlier this year and I was surprised by the number of times I discovered something new about IJ. I had the impression I knew the novel pretty well!

Disclosure: I know Greg, and have read a draft, and yes, if you follow the link to amazon I'll get commission through the associates programme. This is the best analysis of IJ, it is a must have.

Elegant Complexity is available now from Amazon.com

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I'm Back, Thanks, Movies, Rumours

Tuesday, 23 October 2007 07:08 General Updates

I'm back after a little holiday and break from the Fantods. Expect updates to be a little more regular now. Thanks to everyone who emailed about the Atlantic piece and the American essays collection, it is great to know you are all out there.

I'm keeping an ear to the ground about the Brief Interviews with Hideous Men movie. Currently the John Krasinski project is set for release (as far as I am aware) early next year. The only news appearing about it regularly is that it is coming. Has anyone out there got anything more detailed?

Rumour, joke, fact? An IJ movie starting shooting in 2008? The name David O. Russell is connected to the one single reference I have been forwarded (along with some pretty interesting cast names). I am loathe to post anything more until I get some sort of semi-believable confirmation (thanks to source of this news asking if I knew anything). Anyone?

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2007 07:11

New DFW in The Atlantic Nov 2007

Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:56 Articles or Essays

The November 2007 issue of The Atlantic is about the 'American Idea'. David Foster Wallace is one of many contributors in this edition in response to the future of the American idea. If you are a subscriber you can read it here.

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Best American Essays 2007 Released

Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:49 Articles or Essays

The Best American Essays 2007, edited and introduced by David Foster Wallace, is now available for purchase. I have not yet received my copy yet but from what I have heard it is, for the most part, a top quality collection.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:50

TBOTS: Index and Chapter Summaries

Sunday, 16 September 2007 19:33 General Updates

Steve Russillo has completed and posted his Broom of the System Index and Chapter Summaries. It is a wonderful new resource and a great companion to his Infinite Jest Utilities page.

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Last Updated on Sunday, 16 September 2007 19:33

Deciderization 2007

Wednesday, 22 August 2007 21:05 Articles or Essays

Deciderization 2007 — a Special Report, David Foster Wallace's introduction for The Best American Essays 2007 (Due in October), is now available to read over at Houghton Mifflin.

Edit: I want to read those essays now! The intro made me realise just how much I am missing some brand new non-fiction from DFW.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 August 2007 21:06

Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

Sunday, 05 August 2007 08:31 Critical Analysis

This is very exciting news! In December last year fellow wallace-l reader, Greg Carlisle, posted me a draft of his study of Infinite Jest to read and comment upon. I'm not sure I provided too much useful feedback, but I did get to read an awe inspiring critical text about Infinite Jest. It is now called Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, due for release on November 30 and is available for pre-order over at amazon.com right now.

Elegant Complexity is wonderful for many reasons (and I'll go into them more as the release approaches), but the two things that struck me most about it were:
a) it functions very well as a guiding text for a first time reader (Greg has managed to keep it pretty much spoiler free as you read along with the novel) and
b) its detail, depth, scope of observations, and conclusions are such that it is quite possible that people who have read Infinite Jest more than once (in my case many more times than that, and much more obsessively than is probably healthy) and feel they have a pretty sound grasp of the complexity will have new horizons of understanding and enjoyment opened to them.

I kid you not, Elegant Complexity is this good. I can't wait until it is released.

You can pre-order it at Amazon now: E.legant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

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