Infinite Jest Observation

I feel like this book, more than other books, makes me feel a little bit self-conscious about passages or sentences I underline/star/bracket. Like: if somehow my poetry blows up and I become Poet Laureate of the at that point possibly nonexistent United States and some university acquires all my archival materials and beat-up books—or if, more likely, my husband writes 20 award-winning movies and we retire to Provence in 2045 and I donate all of my books to charity because our new house has only white linen curtains and empty space and breeze inside it—whoever reads this copy after me and scrutinizes my marginalia will think “Well, that really says something, doesn’t it,” and shake his/her head and smile a little bit with the relief that they do not have the neurotic impulse to underline/star/bracket those same very telling words.

43 Notes/ Hide

  1. beenthinking said: Your anxieties are an art form. And that’s a compliment coming from a fellow neurotic. Please attempt to get a book deal for them!
  2. marketfresh reblogged this from ecantwell and added:
    I do worry about this, especially now that a solid 1/4 of my notes in Ulysses are just the word “boner.”
  3. amywhipple said: This is why I don’t lend annotated books to people.
  4. sometimesagreatnotion said: Or you can do what I did and underline basically the entire book and then nobody can figure out your secret anxieties!
  5. lebkuchens said: You make me want to try reading this again. After I finish Anna Karenina.
  6. thewaterorthewave reblogged this from ecantwell
  7. billyxransom said: welp.
  8. ecantwell posted this