Having just a moment ago finished the section WINTER B.S. 1960 — TUCSON AZ, all I can say is this: Holy. Cow.
Brando, tennis, father-son relationships, and a smattering of mysticism all wrapped up in the slow slide into drunk, done in twelve and a half dense pages.
He knew what the Beats know and what the great tennis player knows, son: learn to do nothing, with your whole head and body, and everything will be done by what’s around you. (p.158)
This mention of the Beats, like the scene with the yogi in the locker room, makes the pervasive Zen/yogic/Tao references more overt than usual.
Section 63 of the Tao te Ching seems appropriate:
See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.In the universe the difficult things are done as if they are easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
And thus achieved greatness.Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the sage always confronts difficulties,
He never experiences them.
As true mysticism is a kind of altered state of consciousness, I wonder if the “slow slide into drunk” doesn’t aid and abet the observation. Wallace’s was a tortured soul who could see and read and write the beauty and power of the Tao without understanding how it might help him. Yet, he left us beauty and hilarity, which doesn’t bring him back to life, but keeps his short life alive for us.
Do you know our local Border’s doesn’t carry this book in stock?!?
They don’t ever have it in stock, or just now they’re out? I’ve heard reports of folks having a hard time finding the book, because so many of us are reading it right now. Seems a shame, though, if they don’t ever carry it. I’ll have to look at the area chains, next time I’m near one, just out of curiosity. Got my copy at an indie.
As for the other, do you have an interview or writing of DFW’s that you could point to to shore up your statement about his lack of understanding of how the Tao might have helped him? I’m not familiar enough will all of his writing to know this off the top of my head.
My initial impulse, though, is to think that understanding happens on many levels. An intellectual understanding does not necessarily equate to a gut understanding, or to action.
You’re speaking English, right??
Well, some version thereof.
::Blinks:: Good. Grief.
pg 158?
Didn’t even make it to the gag with the microwave.
Really not much point to reading this book, beyond mentioning you did.
But, man, that sucker could sure write. One of my favorites. Pick em right, a 150 of his pages will give you things you damn rarely find in books, and never find outside em.