eɪtʃ-tuː-əʊ-ɪtrɪ

h2oetry:

Happy would’ve-been 50th birthday, David Foster Wallace.

His short story ‘Forever Overhead’ begins with the words, “Happy Birthday.”

It also reads, “It is a big day, big as the roof of the whole southwest sky” & “You have grown into a new fragility” & “You have decided being scared is caused mostly by thinking” & “It seems impossible that everybody could really be this bored” & “Look out past it. Look across. You can see so well” & “Hold on tight” & “Now that you’re overhead you can see the whole thing” & “The ground wants you back” & “It may, after all, be all right to do something scary without thinking, but not when the scariness is the not thinking itself” & “Holding on takes time and alters the rhythm of the machine” & “No time is passing outside you at all. It is amazing” & “If you really wanted you could stay here forever, vibrating inside so fast you float motionless in time, like a bee over something sweet” & “Where you are now is still and quiet” & “From overhead it is more real than anything” & “Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still” & “Now that there is time there is no time” & “Did you think it over” & “So which is the lie?” & “A still, floating bee is moving faster than it can think. From overhead the sweetness drives it crazy” & “That is forever” & “Step into the skin and disappear.”

“Hello.”

“Happy Birthday”

Rest in peace.

Happy 51st year since DFW’s birth. #RIPDFW

Go download Mitt Romney’s app “I’m With Mitt” before the fix the misspelling: “Amercia.” Then don’t ever update the app.

Excellent finds at the book sale. DFW’s Infinite Jest hardcover($1) & Don DeLillo End Zone hardcover($1) among others.

Tomorrow & Friday: DFW Symposium in Austin, Texas. Cannot wait.

Last night I met comedian Rob Delaney (his twitter feed is incredible: @robdelaney); he noticed my Enfield Tennis Academy shirt. David Foster Wallace/Infinite Jest fans unite!

After the show he was talking w/ fans and taking pics, so I went over and he immediately said “Great shirt!” — it registered to me that I had my Infinite Jest-inspired Enfield Tennis Academy shirt. So we geeked out for a few minutes talking DFW. He read selections of his latest novel ‘The Pale King’ at a reading in LA last year, etc. I told him I was heading to Austin for the DFW Symposium later this week, etc.

It was a fun, unexpected turn of events, because I didn’t even realize he was in SLC until 15 minutes before the show, when my friend Jennie tweeted about the first show of the day. Luckily I live a mere 2 blocks away from Wise Guys at Trolley Square.

Reading = a sport; a sprint; an Everestian climb w/o oxygen; calibrating the target for neural arrows flung from afar. Commencing a marathon (re-)reading of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

@h2oetry: Rockstar + C18H21NO3 = trying to blaze through Infinite Jest between now and Thursday. #PuttingThePossibleInImpossible

Happy would’ve-been 50th birthday, David Foster Wallace.

His short story ‘Forever Overhead’ begins with the words, “Happy Birthday.”

It also reads, “It is a big day, big as the roof of the whole southwest sky” & “You have grown into a new fragility” & “You have decided being scared is caused mostly by thinking” & “It seems impossible that everybody could really be this bored” & “Look out past it. Look across. You can see so well” & “Hold on tight” & “Now that you’re overhead you can see the whole thing” & “The ground wants you back” & “It may, after all, be all right to do something scary without thinking, but not when the scariness is the not thinking itself” & “Holding on takes time and alters the rhythm of the machine” & “No time is passing outside you at all. It is amazing” & “If you really wanted you could stay here forever, vibrating inside so fast you float motionless in time, like a bee over something sweet” & “Where you are now is still and quiet” & “From overhead it is more real than anything” & “Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still” & “Now that there is time there is no time” & “Did you think it over” & “So which is the lie?” & “A still, floating bee is moving faster than it can think. From overhead the sweetness drives it crazy” & “That is forever” & “Step into the skin and disappear.”

“Hello.”

“Happy Birthday”

Rest in peace.