Saturday, September 27, 2008

On Host

While sitting here finishing up my paper I think about the piece we read called host by David Foster Wallace. This had to be the most interesting piece I have ever read. Not due to the content but the way it was wrote and the format in which it was wrote. Unlike most author's who would put the footnotes at the bottom of the page, DFW decided to put them in boxes in the middle of the page, sporadically placed, with arrows leading from the word or sentence he wanted to comment on. Another event that happened while reading the piece I had become victim of the "Wikipedia effect" and it seems to be an occurrence that others have noticed too while reading it.

( short description of the wikipedia effect can be found here )
Which oddly enough had just happened while finding that link, and its also known as wifling. just an fyi.

But as for the piece, i found my self after a while just reading the main text and skipping the boxes completely.

Till I think of more stuff to ramble about...

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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mehtarootvik said...

hey..
i agree with your thoughts.. At first I too, had a hard time figuring out what the crazy arrows and boxes are trying to say..
Not one of my favorite reads.