Connor Graham > Recent Status Updates

Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way: Didn’t finish, barely got halfway through because it’s so long, boring, doesn’t make sense, it annoys me to read. Plus I looked up online that it’s easier to understand if you read Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth, and also it’s a precursor to Infinite Jest. So maybe I’ll go back to it, but after finding that out I see no point in myself trying to read it.

Everything is Green: What? Idk what I just read. I also don’t care. This last long one better be good.

Say Never: Kinda interesting. It was kind of like that couples therapy story where I enjoyed the different perspectives about the same stuff, kinda, but Lenny’s stuff was just so EXCRUCIATING to get through. I mean just too serious and boring and pretentious. Like shit up. And then it didn’t even go anywhere. It’s stories like these that suck because they aren’t stories.

My Appearance: It’s kind of like the first story but not as convoluted. Wallace definitely captured the vibe of Letterman. Rudy and Ron were both annoying and very boring. The part where the girl is actually on the show was very interesting but other than that it was whatever.

Here and There: Another weird and annoying one. I liked the whole therapy technique, took me a little bit to figure out until I realized the therapists lines were with the double quotation marks. What the girl was saying was interesting and made sense. The guy, Bruce, was unbearable to read at some points and his tangents made no real sense until the end kinda. The ending where you learn about his fears was cool.

John Billy: I hated this one frankly. The language, grammar, and the way too detailed and reprove southerny narration was just annoying. The name of the town, Minogue, was annoying. I didn’t really get what was being told, I didn’t understand the purpose of it. Maybe DFW wanted to annoy us by showing us how half the country talks. Idk, it was stupid and a waste of time. Took three days to get through. Blah.

Lyndon: compared to the other stories in this book, this was smoother and easier to read. I really like the way he characterizes Lyndon, it really feels authentic especially when paired up with the quotes from him or from people about him. I also enjoyed the way his relationship with David Boyd grew, and how they only showed them connecting personally and rumored about a physical connection. It was a pleasant read!

Girl With Curious Hair: Huh, didn’t expect… any of that. I liked how weird it was. I liked how each character was gross and annoying in different, vastly different, ways. But there were also times where I was just like, “ alright can they be doing something else besides watching a performance”, got kinda boring.

Also cliffhanger? Interesting choice. I did like learning about Sick Puppy tho.

Luckily The Account Representative Knew CPR: This was really boring, I don’t really get the point of it, it was boring and it ended abruptly. Gave me the same vibes of when you have to stretch a writing assignment out into a couple pages so you just keep repeating the same things over and over again.

Little Expressionless Animals: My first taste of David Foster Wallace, if you don’t count having “Infinite Jest” on my desk for half a year. I really just admired the creativity of this, coming up with a whole elaborate story about a Jeopardy champion’s reign. Lots of “Magnolia” vibes with all the moving pieces and connections between characters. I also just love the very detailed writing style DFW has!