Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

>>9955263
Fuck you, read Proust

>>9955263
Easily the funniest collection I've come across. I can see why he killed himself. All that dark humor has to come from some deep sadness.

>>9955263
I thought the depressed person and adult world were some of the best pieces in the book. That one story, sissee something??, was really tedious though imo, but I couldn't even get two pages into the story so maybe it got better

u should peep the audiobook its read by the author

>>9955338
"The author is dead"

>>9955263
I agree with >>9955336, "The Depressed Person" and "Adult World" were two of the best pieces in the book.

What Wallace does in these stories (ramble on, repeat himself, lose focus occasionally) can be irritating if you aren't invested in the characters, but it's done for a reason — to recreate the paranoid, hyper-self-aware stream-of-consciousness of the women in those stories. If you have trouble getting the right sort of feeling out of it, try speed-reading it (while trying to maintain good comprehension). That "technique" helped me enjoy the stories a lot more, since it helps the reader fall into the rhythm of the thoughts.

Overall, I still think this is Wallace's best book. But Good Old Neon is his best short story.

>>9955336
yeah, I looked up the title. "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko" is the one you are referring to. that was one of the hardest ones to get through. reminded me of the last story in Lost in the Funhouse.

>>9955695
ok yeah, i understand that. I do agree it is affective in that way. i think there were just things about the stories that made me annoyed. mainly it was him constantly referring to the character as "The Depressed Person." It just felt a little overdone.

>>9955338
i actually wasnt aware of that, ill check it out

i remember some of the hideous interviews being pretty great and there were certainly some of wallace's best short stories like "the depressed person" and "adult world". but theres also some real misses and i remember even skipping a few. i think tri stan was one and there was one with a legend and everything that made little to no sense to pleb like me. although those might be the same story.
overall pretty great. way better than girl with curious hair

>>9955263
I read it and I was polarised on it. Some of the stories are great, especially the interviews, but some are insufferable. This was my first read of DFW and it's really put me off. Is Infinite Jest any better?

>>9955263
"The devil is a busy man" are the most underrated DFW stories in my opinion

>>9955319
Seconded. why the fuck I never get the "jokes" while reading a book?

Wallace used his short stories, until Oblivion, to show off how smart he was. That's why they mostly suck. Oblivion was good but Wallace was at his best in his novels, which is obvious to anyone who's read them.