dagblog - Comments for "Infinite Winter: Hamlet as Baseline"

So far, I am enjoying it

tmccarthy0 — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 01:57:56 +0000

In reply to Infinite Winter: Hamlet as Baseline

So far, I am enjoying it quite a bit.

I thank you, Oxy.

Mike M. — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 23:38:02 +0000

In reply to Nothing this explorative

I thank you, Oxy.

i love six characters but have never seen it!

Richard, I'm glad you brought

Oxy Mora — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 15:04:29 +0000

In reply to Yeah, we live in new times.

Richard, I'm glad you brought this up because I am in a moral predicament. After a week of managing guys out driving trucks for environmental services, trying to maintain a social life, and spending the best part of the week designing and building an awesome hanging light fixture for my barn loft project, I was just too damned tired to pick up a really good book and give it a go so I watched a German language detective series with a damaged, failed, brooding (they always have a dead ex-wife and a gender fluid daughter ) protagonist. But damn, the cathedrals, the darkness, the music, the ambivalence, the heavy sighing beyond human endurance---well, it just made me sleep well and be ready for whatever comes down the road next week. I wish I could isolate myself and read a book.

Nothing this explorative

Oxy Mora — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 14:41:52 +0000

In reply to Infinite Winter: Hamlet as Baseline

Nothing this explorative should go without comment even from someone who has no portfolio to do so. And it goes without saying, being you, it is well written. I have not read Infinite Jest and won't until I finish my thesis on Campbell's "Skeleton Key", a first edition of which has adorned my desk for nearly two decades. (One reason for collecting pristine works is to have a half assed excuse for not reading them)

I don't know about your analogy between Hamlet and tennis (did I miss the reverse spin?), it seems to me that Hamlet as a "Poem Unlimited" is a first serve that's extremely hard to return.

For some reason I thought of your post last night when I heard the quote from Miles Davis, "the important notes are not the ones you play, but the ones you don't play". In the same way, ego driven writing which by intent averts the possibility of leaving something out is different from writing which attempts to convey something important but with the knowledge that exact conveyance to another human being is not possible. The poetry of writing---maybe that is what Infinite Jest is all about, I just don't know.

Wallace and Hamlet (wow, that hurts) may be baseline for leaving nothing out but in definitions of the concept that are as far apart as a suburban tennis court is from a medieval theater.

And you are right. I recall my English seminar trooping to the Big Apple to watch a performance of "Six Actors" and then spending the next two months talking about it. What in mundane life can compete with that?

Yeah, we live in new times.

Richard Day — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 03:38:56 +0000

In reply to Infinite Winter: Hamlet as Baseline

Yeah, we live in new times.

In the olden days the best a citizen could hope for was that some letter to the editor might

be published!

The radio talked to us, the TV presented shows to us. We really could never respond. Even today,

we might wait ten hours to get our phone call answered by some radio maniac, although we surely might

publish out responses on some blog site.

Nowadays we can 'stream' any damn show we wish to view for eight bucks a month.

As far as Hamlet; as an old man the question is:

To pee or not to pee.....

I bet!

Michael Maiello — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:16:39 +0000

In reply to No, it's not that I dislike

I bet!

No, it's not that I dislike

Doctor Cleveland — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:18:00 +0000

In reply to It was a very good paper and

No, it's not that I dislike IJ. It's exactly my kind of thing. I just don't have anything interesting left to say about it that James didn't squeeze out of my head in an office meeting.

It was a very good paper and

Michael Maiello — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:01:34 +0000

In reply to Thanks for giving the shout

It was a very good paper and perfect for my purposes as it helps me understand the book in my own way.

I was pleased to see your name attached.

Infinite Jest wasn't your cup, I guess? I'm not surprised. Our interactions about Shakespeare seem to suggest that we appreciate different aspects of the bard. I've always thought I'd be a decent student in a Doc Cleveland class.

Thanks for giving the shout

Doctor Cleveland — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 00:40:08 +0000

In reply to Infinite Winter: Hamlet as Baseline

Thanks for giving the shout-out to James's thesis. I've been reluctant to jump in on your DFW/Infinite Jest threads exactly because I advised that thesis; I think that process took up all the thinking about IJ that I have in me for a while.

But nothing makes me happier than seeing one of my students getting recognition.