[JOINED: October 15, 2013] Wittgenstein’s Halloween
Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a largely unknown book. However, fans of David Foster Wallace should know of it as it was one of the books that DFW often recommended. He even wrote a formal book review about it (which you can read here).
The book has sounded challenging if not difficult, and while I can’t say I was chomping at the bit to read it (even in my post about DFW’s review of the book I said I wasn’t compelled to read it), but I have always sort of assumed I would.
It felt daunting although when I saw that it was only 240 pages, some of that daunt went away (I don’t mind reading a big book, but a big dense daunting book is another thing, at least at this time–because I have just started John Sayles 900+ page book A Moment in the Sun). So when I saw that this group read was starting up and I decided it was pretty much now or never.
This read is far less formal that the other ones I’ve participated in (and it occurs on Facebook!). The general feeling seems to be that we should have it half-finished (there are no chapters or section breaks of any kind) by Halloween and finished entirely two weeks after that. That seems nicely manageable.
As I’ve done with previous reads, i’ll do a weekly post here with this basic schedule:
- October 24: pages 1-60
- October 31: pages 61-120
- November 7: pages 121-180
- November 14: pages 181-240
I have already started the book and I fear there may not be a ton to say about it just yet. But we’ll see by next week. If you’re intrigued (I can’t even say what it is about as I don’t really know myself), why not join us?
I Just Read About That... 
You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Then again, probably not, since you’d have no way of knowing about my recent Wittgenstein obsession.
About three weeks ago, all three Coursera classes I was taking – math, philosophy, poetry – referred to Wittgenstein in the same week. It was downright scary. I thought I was entering a new interrelational vortex – seeing as I’d been regularly running into Norway for a couple of months at that point and was eager to move on to something else – when I watched the Wittgenstein movie and discovered he’d spent some time sulking in Norway.
From the description, it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with Wittgenstein, anyway, but oh, that title…
It’s just as well my library doesn’t have a copy of this book, since I don’t have time right now to read a “dense, daunting” novel (oh, lord, a DFW pick? I’m doomed), even very slowly. But I’ll catch up with you in December, when things ease up a bit. This sounds really good.
Not on purpose, I promise. However, I have noticed that many things tend to converge like that. For a time I was keeping a list of them because I thought it was fun. So I’m glad to be part of a convergence.
As for daunting, this book is not, at least not really. Without spoiling anything, it is basically a series of statements by a woman who may or may not be the last person on earth. So far it’s not hard to read, just puzzling in the details. Not trying to encourage you to squeeze another book into your schedule, but it’s pretty short and a pretty quick read. So far I suspect the connection to Wittgenstein is about the difficultly of being accurate with language (as that ugly sentence shows).
I don’t take much encouragement to read a book 😉 It will take a few days to get here through MaineCAT, probably middle of next week, but I’ll try to catch up. Just what I need right now that I’m drowning in math and science is some fiction I can’t follow. This is the Autumn of Mental Masochism for me.
The book sort of baffled me. I did read it in airports and on planes while kind of exhausted, but I’m not sure I would have grokked it even under better circumstances. Will be eager to follow along and see what you think.
So far I think it’s fun, but not much more. I like the conceit and am very curious to see how it will play out.
Nice to hear from you by the way. Hope all is well.