A Thousand Eyes of Curiosity With Alberto Manguel
“Now open in my eyes a thousand eyes of curiosity.” Virginia Woolf, The Waves ALBERTO MANGUEL (BORN 1948) Alberto Manguel is a proliferate writer and reader. His world travels both in and out of books converge in everything he writes. His writings explore an intimate love of reading that is arguably unparalleled by anyone alive. […]
David Foster Wallace and the Utter Hell of Solipsism
Keywords David Foster Wallace, Solipsism, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Infinite Jest “One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible that solipsism.” David Foster Wallace The wildly ambitious American writer, David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), offers a complicated account of what it […]
Mark Z. Danielewski on Changing the Way We Read
“My interest is in how meaning is communicated via language, and I believe the shape, positioning, even the color of the language has an effect on meaning.” Mark Z. Danielewski In an interview with Google, Mark Z. Danielewski comments on the didactic way he writes his novels. This might come as a surprise if you […]
Himalayas of Literature: From Wallace to Joyce
“The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.” –Reinhold Messner Himalayas of Literature is one of Book Oblivion’s newest ongoing course series. Participants reside all over the world and read through some of the most intense literature on the planet. Stephen L. Russell is our guide and chooses […]
Authors Similar to Haruki Murakami in Mind-Bending Contemporary Fiction
Authors like Haruki Murakami and Italo Calvino have redefined contemporary fiction to teach readers everywhere the overwhelming power of language.
I Consume Libraries – Infinite Jest Inspiration
‘I read,’ I say. ‘I study and read. I bet I’ve read everything you’ve read. Don’t think I haven’t. I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.” When Hal tells the administration of the Enfield Tennis Academy, “I […]
Infinite Jest on Teaching
Everyone teaches. Whether you are a mother teaching your child, a professor teaching your students, or a coach teaching your athletes, you are teaching. Hal from the pages of Infinite Jest is a Big B, or Big Brother, to one of the 13-15s (13-15 year olds) at the Elite Tennis Academy. He rather enjoys this […]
Winter is Coming
“That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness. That it is possible to fall asleep during an […]