Status Updates From Oblivion: Stories

Incarnations of burned children: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Sometimes David really does just go hard with some long ass sentences. Like ones that actually do take your breath away.

The Soul Is Not a Smithy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Not gonna lie we are absolutely rolling. I LOVED the turn at the end where he starts talking about dreading adulthood as a child and missing out on things. Really excited for the rest of the collection.

Another Pioneer and Good Old Neon: Pioneer has strange parallels to search engines and LLMs. Good Old Neon is classic Wallace, incredibly anxious and inevitably self-referential. but sometimes I feel like I finish Wallace’s stories more impressed by his intellect than his storytelling ability

The Soul is Not a Smithy: this story and the previous are stuffed with non-sequiturs that make them hard to finish. still held my interest tho.

Incarnations of Burned Children: Can I have more of these? All killer no filler?

Mister Squishy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Can only be described as the most David Foster Wallace thing ever written.

I had to stop reading early during my break at work as to not cry. This story is what I am imagining Infinite Jest brings into in regard to how hollow and deep these feelings and emotions are. Some might think this story is self-deprecation but jesus christ I'm getting hit like a truck reading this. Story 5: 5/5

Mister Squishy: Comment on advertising or no don’t, discuss men and their inevitable creepiness, or wait is this about spectacle and the malleability of public opinion? there was all that stuff about crowds. I’m confused tbh.