In movies, one never just gets good news. There is always good news and bad news. Moreover, there is always a choice as to which comes first. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?” So my question to you is that: Do you want the good news or the bad news?THE BAD NEWS:
[This one comes first because, in movies, everyone chooses the bad news first. Feel free to skip this section and come back to it after the good news, or skip it entirely if you like.]
Last Friday, author David Foster Wallace died. While not a prolific writer nor a household name, the books Wallace wrote left an impression on the reader (or to the very least, gave them a bad back- Infinite Jest weighed in at over a thousand pages. It was also recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best novels… since 1923… in the English language. It is really much more prestigious a prize than it sounds.)
His unique voice and aesthetics* will be missed.
THE GOOD NEWS:
Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, will be speaking in San Jose on Saturday. Considering the event is free and his book was, like, kind of popular, you may want to get there early. I can almost assure you there will be an odd section in the evening’s Q and A where a question about former Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo will be followed up by someone asking what level wizard Diaz is in Dungeons and Dragons.
*His use of footnotes to carry on a tangent of the story was epic. Even his audiobooks employ efforts to use footnotes. Other writers have used this technique as well, but not with the same effect as Wallace.
posted by -jw-
Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, will be speaking in San Jose on Saturday. Considering the event is free and his book was, like, kind of popular, you may want to get there early. I can almost assure you there will be an odd section in the evening’s Q and A where a question about former Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo will be followed up by someone asking what level wizard Diaz is in Dungeons and Dragons.
*His use of footnotes to carry on a tangent of the story was epic. Even his audiobooks employ efforts to use footnotes. Other writers have used this technique as well, but not with the same effect as Wallace.
posted by -jw-
