Book Club 2025: Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold

Like everybody else this week, I was supposed to read Shadow Ticket. But I’ve come down with yet another virus of some sort, and so I’m comforting myself by re-reading another Vorkosigan book.

This one I’ve only read once before, I think.

And it’s one of those patch-up books — that is, it’s three novellas with a framing story that has Miles in a hospital bed telling these stories.

I skipped the first of the novellas — The Mountains of Mourning — because I think I’ve read that one more times already. Was it also included in some anthology or something? And I remembered it being as something of a downer.

The second novella is a Vorkosigan classic. Lots of fun; just what the doctor would order if the doctor ordered novellas.

The final novella has a very satisfying ending, but is very claustrophobic and grim otherwise. Not ideal for somebody with a bit of a fever.

Now what… perhaps I’ll read another Vorkosigan book? Or perhaps I should nap for the third time today.

Borders of Infinity (1987) by Lois McMaster Bujold (buy used, 4.26 on Goodreads)

Book Club 2025: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

This is a book that’s grown curiously controversial over the years — I guess it’s due to performative bro reading or something.

I’ve always liked David Foster Wallace — especially his short stories and his essays. Very funny, and his writing packs a punch.

I read his first novel, The Broom of the System, while on a beach in Hawaii (must have been twenty years ago), and I liked it fine, but I was underwhelmed. So I never got around to reading this one, but I finally bought it five years ago (my copy is the 31st printing — more than one per year?), and I sat down to read it last week.

And… it starts off really well. It obviously super duper (I mean super super duper) influenced by Thomas Pynchon. Which suits me fine, because I love Pynchon — I read The Crying of Lot 49 as a teenager and Gravity’s Rainbow when I was like 23, and I’m super excited about the new book that’s being published on Tuesday! This Tuesday! (Yes, I’ve read all the other Pynchon books in between.)

Gravity’s Rainbow starts with a common trick with “difficult” books — the first 70s pages are hard on the branes, but then it lets up. Infinite Jest isn’t like that, but worse is that it just doesn’t seem that interesting? It’s mostly about drugs. And tennis. Drugs and tennis.

While there are some beautiful scenes in here (like the locker room conversations), it mostly feels like the author is just doing whatever. He’ll drop in things like the above paragraph at the drop of a hat, and while they’re individually entertaining, the cumulative effect is just deadly.

There’s so many amusing ideas in this book — like the year names are being sponsored by various corporations, so you have years like Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. That’s genius, and it also helps add fun confusion to the chronology, because while sections are marked with what year they happen in, it’s not immediately obvious whether Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar is before or after Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. But then, on page 224, he goes and ruins everything by giving us a list! So it’s just homework for the reader, eh?

There’s also copious footnotes (about a hundred pages), and punchlines to jokes are often to be found here. So I diligently read those, too.

But after about 250 pages in, I found myself not paying attention to whether I started reading from where I left off whenever I sat down again after getting a cup of tea or something, and I know that’s the sign: It’s time to ditch the book, because I really don’t care.

And so I did. Perhaps the last 750 pages are works of genius — it’s not unlikely, I know, but I don’t really care that much.

I mean, when reading (for instance) Ulysses, I was pretty sure that what I was reading was going somewhere, and somewhere interesting — and it turned out that I was correct. I’m not at all sure about Infinite Jest.

I did some quick maffs: My reading speed on this was about 80% slower per page than a median book, so I could be reading nine median books in the time it would take me to read this book. Think if the opportunity cost!

I never read reviews of something until after I’ve read it… So what did the people on Goodreads think? It’s well-liked — 4.25 is a very high median score. However, this is the most-liked review:

His pile-ups of noun-phrases are particularly awkward, the nouns’ plurals’ genitives’ apostrophes so aggressively correct that they actually manage to look wrong.

[…]

WARWICK: This passage also contains three endnotes, which I will not go into for the sake of all our sanity. And don’t even get me started on Wallace’s Latin, which he persistently misunderstands. One footnote reads ‘Q.v. note 304 sub’, which is borderline illiterate – ‘q.v.’ is used after the thing you want to reference, and ‘sub’ is a preposition, not an adverb. What he apparently means is ‘Cf. note 304 infra.’ I couldn’t normally care less about this sort of thing, except that in this book it coexists with a laboured subplot about militant ‘prescriptive grammarians’, for whom DFW clearly has much misguided sympathy.

Ooooh harsh!!!

All through the book there is a profound feeling that David Foster Wallace did not really understand the things he was looking up in order to seem clever.

PROSECUTOR: Need we remind you that this is a work of fiction and not an academic thesis?

WARWICK: Again, it’s about confidence in your author. Mine quickly evaporated.

Yeah, right. This is a good nitpicking review, really.

The one from the London Review of Books is entertaining, too:

I resent the five weeks of my life I gave over to it; I resent every endlessly over-elaborated gag in the book, like the ten-page riff on why video telephones are unviable

I liked that ten-page riff! It turned out to be kinda prescient, although Foster Wallace didn’t foresee real-time filters and imagined rubber masks instead…

I’m not sure that this review is very enlightening, on the whole… I liked this one.

Oh, I didn’t know that:

Infinite Jest was marketed heavily, and Wallace had to adapt to being a public figure. He was interviewed in national magazines and went on a 10-city book tour. Publisher Little, Brown equated the book’s heft with its importance in marketing and sent a series of cryptic teaser postcards to 4,000 people, announcing a novel of “infinite pleasure” and “infinite style”. Rolling Stone sent reporter David Lipsky to follow Wallace on his “triumphant” book tour—the first time the magazine had sent a reporter to profile a young author in 10 years.

I rather assumed that it started off as an obscure book for some reason, but it had a heavy push from the start.

Heh heh:

Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, called it “just awful” and written with “no discernible talent” (in the novel, Bloom’s own work is called “turgid”). In a review of Wallace’s work up to the year 2000, A. O. Scott wrote of Infinite Jest, “[T]he novel’s Pynchonesque elements…feel rather willed and secondhand. They are impressive in the manner of a precocious child’s performance at a dinner party, and, in the same way, ultimately irritating: they seem motivated, mostly, by a desire to show off.”

Anyway… now my schedule is open so that I can read the new Pynchon book on Tuesday! Win/win!

Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace (buy new, buy used, 4.25 on Goodreads)

Book Club 2025: Pet Shop Boys. Annually. 2024 by Chris Heath

This is a part of a series of books published, yes indeed, annually. It basically catches you up on what the Pet Shop Boys have been up to since the previous edition.

So there’s a news section about everything they’ve released…

When there’s a new album, there’s a thorough diary about how they wrote the songs for the album.

Then they go through the album, track by track, and we learn further things about the recording, and also about the lyrics. Bullet for Narcissus, for instance, turns out to be about Trump. Which should perhaps have been obvious with lines like “Oh Narcissus / It’s so delicious / to watch his make-up run”.

(I usually put the album on during this section of the book.)

And finally, there’s usually a longer reportage of something they did, and we get the Neil & Chris comedy routine.

These books are only available for a couple months each year from the Pet Shop Boys shop, and then you have to get them on ebay, which is what I do, because I always forget to buy them.

So, yes, this is very much for people who are extremely into the Pet Shop Boys. It’s very nerdy, but also quite amusing. It’s also striking how little you learn about them — while they’re very chatty, they actually say very little about their private lives. It’s also striking how focused these books are: There are never any articles by third parties talking about how great their music is or anything: It’s very measured, quite distanced and controlled.

These books are written by Chris Heath, who wrote two books about Pet Shop Boys on tour in the early 90s, and the style was established already then.

The Pet Shop Boys are very consistent.

Pet Shop Boys. Annually. 2024 (2024) by Chris Heath (3.80 on Goodreads)

Comics Daze (Special ‘Wet’ Edition)

We’ve got a lil storm here…

And the wind is blowing from just the right direction so that my oldee windows are leaking!

And I’ve got my unread comics on a windowsill!

EEK WATER DAMAGED COMICS THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPPEN EEK

Yeah, the windows are scheduled to be changed next year — they’re not really that old (from the 80s), but they’re bad and the temperature inside here in winter is brrrr. Got offers for new ones, but it’s been a slow process…

Anyway, I guess this means that today’s a day for reading comics? Damp comics? Yes indeed — gotta read them all before paper does that papier maché thing that it does.

Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound

13:23: Roy #1 by Gilbert & Natalia Hernandez (Fantagraphics)

Eep. This book is very moist indeed.

Beto’s story is very associative — it feels like it’s been totally improvised, panel to panel. It’s cool.

Natalia Hernandez’s story is more straightforward — it’s an alien abduction riff. It’s also cool.

13:31: Uckboy #1 by Mathew Calvert

This is elaborately put together — I think it’s (mostly?) screenprinted, and on various paper stocks. The two intertwined stories are told in an original way.

(The story may be illegal to read in some jurisdictions.)

13:38: Ms. Understood at the Menagerie by Juliette Collet

This is very short — it’s the first episode in a longer story, apparently. It’s more pensive than Collet’s stories usually are? I’m intrigued.

Love the colours.

13:43: Record #1-3 by Jason Overby

Man, it’s really blowing outside now… but it’s stopped raining, so I have a break from drying out the windowsills.

These are appealing books.

Overby does kind of ruminative, chatty pieces, but with pretty wild artwork.

It works really well.

Heh heh. That comic artist anxiety…

Paul Davies and Tujiko Noriko: Surge OST

14:01: Sugar Shack by Lucy Knisley (Random House)

Oh, I think I missed a book in this series. I know I’ve read at least the first book, and this is apparently the final one?

I know these books are for small kids, but I like them anyway. But they sure feel like books from a different era: They’re very didactic, and almost every scene feels like it’s there to teach you a lesson. It’s like an editor sat down with Knisley and went “so how can we make this Christmas tree buying scene educational?”, in a very methodical way.

But it’s fine — I can totally see lots of kids finding these books comforting in a cynical world.

Boris: Fangsanalsatan Vol.24: Boris Live at Fever 20241125

14:54: Buff Soul by Moa Romanova (Fantagraphics)

Hm… this looks familiar…

Eeep! I’ve got the Swedish edition of this! *sigh*

Lencinho: Só As Melhores

14:57: Pavil’s Mask by Jeremy Perrodeau (Black Panel Press)

Eh… this art style isn’t very appealing to me. It’s obviously very inspired by American artists (perhaps Ron Rege Jr.?), but it’s just so tablet-ey and lifeless. And the colour scheme is like they pushed a “make it kinda riso” button in whatever programme they’re using.

The story is about a spy from some empire who’s investigating a very spiritual, natural, in-balance society… and is he going to betray them!?!? IS HE!?

It’s all so paint by numbers.

The storytelling is kinda on point, though.

15:40: The Week by Jeff Lok

This is pretty unique little book.

I mean, autobio comics have a history of letting it all hang out, but this crosses a lot of lines people would normally have. It’s really well done, though. (I bought most of these mini comics from Domino Books.)

Cheetah & Nia Archives: Get Loose

15:56: Double Take by Kat Foyle (Fieldmouse Press)

This is a very brief book about meeting a Youtube celebrity.

I’m not sure I really get it? But the artwork is attractive.

ganavya: Nilam

16:00: Acacia Craft: Not Quite a Tall Tale by Olga Volozova

Man, you can really see the difference in the paper absorbance in these comics. Some are perfectly fine, and others are totally soaked. This one is particularly badly damaged.

This is very intriguing. It’s fairy-tale like, but avoids many of the pitfalls of fairy-tales.

I like it.

16:10: The Scene by Juliette Collet

At least I guess it is? I’m not sure I’m going to be able to even open this newspaper thing… it’s so soaked.

It’s pretty cool!

Earth, Wind & Fire: All ‘N All

16:15: A Strong Woman by Valentine Gallardo (Fieldmouse Press)

OK, I have a complaint: Why is Fieldmouse Press doing most (all?) of their comics lately on very shiny paper? It just looks offputting and inappropriate for what they’re publishing. Is shiny paper a lot less expensive than matte paper these days? If so, that’s a reversal from how it was in Ye Oldee Timey Dayes.

This is a collection of stories — most very short.

It’s funny — it’s very 2025.

For instance, it has the first allegory about using LLMs too much that I can remember reading a comic strip about.

Kieran Hebden + William Tyler: 41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s

16:52: Tsunami by Ned Wenlock (Pow Pow Press)

Within the confines of this extremely limited (and frankly, offputting) character design, Wenlock manages to make the characters pretty expressive.

It’s just hard to tell them apart. You have to start memorising “she’s the one with the hair that covers the eye” etc etc, and that’s annoying.

The story is mostly the usual — a nerd protagonist that’s beaten up a lot by the neighbourhood bullies etc. The storyline does take some original turns (nerds are really the worst), but it’s not really, you know, “good”.

17:39: Elated #3 by Marco Pickett (?)

Hey, nice.

This has a distinct 60s underground vibe going on. It’s fun.

17:44: New Dark Tales by Margaret Ashford-Trotter

I got this from here.

This one is almost dripping wet…

Anyway, the artwork’s very attractive — it’s got a 90s indie thing going on. And it’s a proper, actual spooky ghost story, and it works very well.

Nia Archives & CLIPZ: Maia Maia

17:55: How To Quit Smoking Cigarettes by Nick Bunch (Cram Books)

Heh heh. Nice.

Xiu Xiu: Kick Out The Jams

This starts off as being just about quitting smoking, but then it develops into a storyline about finding a printer and stuff. It’s very entertaining. Very striking artwork.

Pere Ubu: Datapanik In The Year Zero (5): Terminal Drive

18:15: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees #1 by Horvath/Otsmane-Elhaou (IDW)

Oh, somebody’s been extremely inspired by Blacksad, I guess? Well, that’s not a bad series to take inspiration from…

And… as these things go, it’s not bad? It’s very one note, though. Which is appropriate for a noir pastiche, really, but if you smear it on too thickly, it can become pretty annoying. But I’m aboard for the series.

Oh, this is a followup from a previous series? I guess this is just going to be six issues or something, then?

18:24: G.O.D.S. #1 by Ryan North/Francesco Mortarino (Marvel Comics)

I’m just reading the North-scripted bits of this crossover, and they’ve been a lot of fun, for the most part.

This one, however… While the artwork is much better than on most Marvel comics these days, the story isn’t all that exciting.

18:37: A Scientific Study of Transsexuality by Oscar Woodiwiss (Fieldmouse Press)

Hey, this is fantastic. It’s funny, but also gripping and horrifying (complimentary).

A really solid little book. Is it going to land on a lot of “best of” lists this year? Possibly?

You can get it from here.

18:46: Lifehole #1 by Mary Moore Dalton

This is very good. Perhaps it should have been printed in newspaper format, though? (Probably difficult to do in small editions, though.)

Anyway, this is perhaps the best talking-about-dreams-and-memory comic book I’ve read — these things have a tendency to be very sleep inducing, but this one isn’t at all. The storytelling totally works. Ace.

Julie Tippetts & Martin Archer: Ghosts of Gold

19:03: Flea by Mara Ramirez (Fieldmouse Press)

I like the storytelling here…

… but I found it a bit hard to get involved with the stories, which seemed somewhat undigested.

19:27: Tif et Tondu: Fort Cigogne by Lapiére & Sikorski (Zoom)

Wow, this is the wettest book. It’s more water than paper.

This is from the mid 90s. It’s much better than 80s Tif et Tondu, that’s for sure.

It’s a classic fun/action French(ey) album — the pacing is very 60s, but it’s been thoroughly updated to the 90s. I don’t quite understand why Zoom waited until now to publish a translated edition — I think they’ve just about done all the albums now, but in random order. And they did a lot of really dreary albums first (which were published originally both before and after this); so bad that I had given up on the series. (But then I forgot that I had, and started buying again.)

19:52: Lava by Annika Linn Verdal Homme (Aschehoug)

Oh, right, she did Picture of a Burning Tesla a few years back. That one was pretty good.

Hm… this is one of those books about parents getting divorced, and neglecting their (teenage) child, but the parents here are hilarously inept and self centred.

It’s both funny and heartbreaking at the same time. It’s great!

And she keeps on upping the parents’ awfulness — ratcheting everything up until…

… we get a fantastic denouement on Tenerife (where everything goes even more pastel, which I didn’t think was possible).

I laughed out loud several times. It’s so good — the pacing is perfect; the length is perfect (not a page too few or too many); and the ending is just absolutely perfect — it makes you want to go “yeah!” out loud.

What a fantastic surprise.

Sade: Love Deluxe

20:32: The End

And I think that’s probably enough (wet) comics for today.