Sergio De La Pava

I'm giving up. A Naked Singularity is like a slightly more legible Infinite Jest, what with all the nasty digressions (which I actually appreciated in the beginning though they slowly became more and more overwhelming in their irrelevance and underwhelming in their literary merits) and infinite, somewhat-entertaining theorization and larger-than-life (and so fucking irritating) characters, all of whom speak like philosophy pHDs.

There's a point at which I clearly lost momentum, and the digressions had stopped doing it for me, and I started flipping past them to get to the next chunk of likable literature. That's when I knew I had to quit. Also, it's hard not to get annoyed at all the Wallacian ticks that de la Pava is so into, being all clever and ironic and shit. At some point past the 400th page, all of it got on my nerves, and I started being completely turned off even by the good parts.

I especially wanted to burn that weird boxing digression.

I can't give it one star, though, because I really liked the first two or so hundred pages, especially the legal dialogue, which rang true and punched right into my gut. Other than that... fuck man. Literature needs to get over DFW and start sounding authentic.
… (altro)