Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Tackle

I decided last week that I'm going to make another run at Infinite Jest. I tried last year, and made it about 100 pages in before I lost momentum. 

The books that have defeated me are a short list: Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, and Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. I've abandoned many books because they were bad or boring, but these are the three (four including IJ) that I abandoned because I wasn't capable of finishing them.  And, maybe no surprise that all three are experimental in their way, simultaneously messing with expectations of narrative, form, and language.  Which is a challenge for my logical, (cough, rigid, cough) concrete brain.

I justified my abandonment by scoffingly dismissing the white-boy-blogger-love of IJ and DFW... but that's not really honest, or accurate.  I was just defeated.  But I will persevere, and will also refrain from making footnoted commentary for the next several weeks (months?) while I'm in process.

I keep a twitter list of other books that I've read/am reading here.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Potatoes in Aroostook County, October 1940

These color photos of the Great Depression are captivating. Look at the whole series if you can.

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 – Plog Photo Blog: "
Color America
4: Children gathering potatoes on a large farm. Vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress




Color America
5: Trucks outside of a starch factory. Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress


(via boingboing)

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