This was by far Dave's best work. It's like he finally

i think the pale king is slightly better because most of these stories aren't very unfulfilling in the end, but it's definitely his best story collection that's for sure.

>>9434874
i really do think that all of David's work pre-hideous men (and even that you can tell was rushed with some of the meaningless pretentious stories) was sort of premature. He didn't really grow up until he was 40 it seemed, which is ironic because he often spoke of his regret at being published at 25.

Broom is a shitshow of bad plotting, Girl with curious hair is mostly just pretentious, and Infinite Jest is just trying so hard to be more serious than it was.

>>9434867
I agree. Some parts of the Pale King are better, but Oblivion is complete. I think the Suffering Channel is the best story. He is really good at making modern life seem really depressing

>>9434888
I'd say The pale king is complete in a way.
It ultimately just became his memoir, a fragmented and surreal images of life as he had lived it. I think most people kinda don't get it.
It's the most impressive and affecting in that way, it became what it was trying to be in his death.

>>9434867
Ultimately, you can tell that he really, really did want to bring something important to the world, and not just to serve his own ego (even if that did play a big part). And I think he succeeded just a little bit.

>>9434867
Can someone redpill me on his general ideas? Don't tell me to just read them, for I am busy and will be continuously for the next few months (studying).

>>9434911
Irony leaves you cold and dead on the inside, and you should always be compassionate and genuine (wink wink). Also, let's watch some TV.

>>9434911
basically god/the-spirit is real, but he's really busy and true spirituality is attainable only in really focusing on the things that seem the most resistant to the idea.

that and that you're a hungry animal who lives to consume, driven by psychotic desires oppressed on you by a society that counts on you to think that way for it's own gain, a process in which our society is feeding on itself in a recursive loop of pain and lust.

the big gap is between you and other minds, but particularly between man and woman.

>>9434898
While that's a romantic idea, it's not one that I can really get behind. It's no where near as polished as his other work and I doubt that he would like himself represented in that way. I do get what you mean though, that in a way it represents his struggles with completing anything and how his real self constantly conflicted with his writing self. For a time I believed that it was possible that the Pale King was kind of a sick joke played by him. That it actually was the book he intended to release, the ultimate statement about his ideas on the novel. But the more I read of it the more I realized just how unfinished it was and therefore not what he wanted.

>>9434966
oooh.. you didn't get it.
It was a joke.
"the last thing this book is is some kind of metafictional titty-twister"
...get it? the /last/ thing.
each chapter is basically telling you something indirectly about his life/what the book is trying to achieve, it may not have had everything he would've liked, but it was good enough.
i could break it down on a section-by-section basis but it would take all day.

he knew what it was, he saw the opportunity.

>>9434911
Imagine if Kafka had memorized the dictionary, grew up in the midwest, and wasn't as dogmatic in his opinions on the misery of being a human.

>>9434978
and also had a higher IQ but a worse artistic touch

>>9434978
>DFW = Kafka

How fucking dare you, delete your post immediately, he was nothing like Kafka