What is DFW's best short story? And why is it Good Old Neon?

>>9354491
"The whole my whole life flashed before me phenomenon at the end is more like being a whitecap on the surface of the ocean, meaning that it's only at the moment you subside and start sliding back in that you're really even aware there's an ocean at all. When you're up and out there as a whitecap you might talk and act as if you know you're just a whitecap on the ocean, but deep down you don't think there's really an ocean at all. It's almost impossible."

>>9354491
It was a couple of years ago, and I was 19, and getting ready to move out of my folks’ house, and get out on my own, and one day as I was getting ready, I suddenly get this memory of my father waggling his dick in my face one time when I was a little kid. The memory comes up out of nowhere, but it is so detailed and solid-seeming, I know it is totally true. I suddenly know it really happened, and was not a dream, even though it had the same kind of bizarre weirdness to it dreams have. Here is the sudden memory. I was around 8 or 9, and I was down in the rec room by myself, after school, watching TV. My father came down and came into the rec room, and was standing in front of me, like between me and the TV, not saying anything, and I didn’t say anything. And, without saying anything, he took his dick out, and started kind of waggling it in my face.

I really like Another Pioneer, although I think it would have been better without the postmodern gimmick (the narrator listening to the story being told by someone in the seat in front of him on a plane, so he can't quite hear it properly). Maybe that means DFW isn't for me. But I really liked the idea of exploring the origins of a "consultant class" in a primitive society. This story doesn't seem to be as well-liked or commented on as some others in the collection (Mr Squishy, Good Old Neon, Oblivion), how does /lit/ see it?

>>9354491
Why are you everywhere

>>9354580
I haven't read this one. I'll give it a whirl.

>>9354491

I've been reading through Oblivion this week and it's honestly an insufferable collection of stories (GON aside).

The notion that DFW was in any way sincere comes across as extremely laughable given the extent he's so obviously researched the topics he writes about to death. Words too - the man must have slept with a thesaurus for a pillow.

Unless he genuinely was just THAT autistic.

>>9354491
Does anyone know where I can read some of his short stories for free? I'd like to give him a shot but I don't want to waste money on some short story collection. Also I don't really like the idea of paying for a dead artist's work who can't receive the money himself

>>9355769
The entire audiobook of Brief Interviews read by DFW himself is available on Youtube. Not sure about ebooks tho but considering how popular he is any given database will likely have his whole output

>>9354491
Either octet or brief interviews with hideous men. Mr Squishy was the best one from Oblivion.

>>9355809
Thanks dude. I'll check out his audiobooks when I'm working one of these days. Also, I already found this Good Old Neon online so I'll be getting to that soon enough.

>>9355690
He was already gearing up to an hero in those last few years so all the most insufferable aspects of his writing bubbled to the surface in a lot of those stories. His earlier ones are less aggressively autismal.

>>9355841

Perhaps that's true. I read Brief Interviews and The Broom of the System and enjoyed them so much more.

>>9355831
I'm pretty sure the brief interviews one leaves out like half the stories from the book.

i really like church not made with hands.

Good Old Neon is the only thing by him that was readable. I tried to read Infinite Jest, but had to stop myself after a few pages. His writing was insufferable.

>>9356092
I've always found his technical writing to be very interesting. It's not beautiful but it's impressive and precise; it makes the reading experience an enjoyable one for me.

Forever Overhead is absolutely gorgeous and is the first thing I point people towards when I hear them say DFW is just a po-mo formalist or a pure prose stylist like Gass who doesn't give a shit about his characters. That story is pure humanity and it's fucking great.

>>9355690
You might just not be autistic, or at least have a different variety. I know it's really gaggy to say but his self consciousness and anxiety is extremely familiar to me, I dont think he's being insincere for one second (in Oblivion, Infinite Jest is another story...) Maybe he's just not for you. It would interesting to hear what you think about DeLillo

>>9356265
That's a retarded thing to say about Gass too because he does a lot of stream of consciousness stuff where you're pretty much in the character's head the whole time.

>>9356348
not that guy but the most common criticism of Gass is that he is a cold theoretician who doesn't view his characters as real people, nor even the language he writes in. Remember his background is hardcore analytic philosophy, his thesis adviser was Max Black

>>9356334

I love Delillo and I do see the similarities in the way they write about people living within systems. I think my issue with Oblivion is that too many stories are character-less which is what marks is as different to Delillo's best work and also The Broom of the System (the only actual DFW novel I've read). The experience of reading many of those stories was like reading through the ingredients list on the back of a chocolate bar. Good Old Neon is fucking excellent though.

>>9354491
Mister Squishy is his best piece technically imo. Good Old Neon is most visceral. Octet is stylistically his best. The Depressed Person is his most neurotic and "funny".

Yep, it's Good Old Neon, because it's so insanely ruthless and relatable (4 me to be h)

>>9356369
Hm. I read Omensetter's Luck and The Tunnel, and was acquainted with this view of Gass as mostly caring about prose and theory instead of characters, and was pretty surprised. Furber and Kohler seem to me like very real, intricately portrayed characters. In fact, wonderfully well done. They feel like real characters to me still.