A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Essays and Arguments

1997 • 353 pages

Ratings49

Average rating4.2

15

DFW is always a delight to read. He has an incredible vocabulary and I always walk away from his novels/essays/short stories in awe of how smart he is. Some of the essays in this book are starting to feel VERY dated - particularly the one about US television consumption. The thesis of which seemed to be: people watch an average of six hours of television per day to feel like voyeurs even though the things they are watching are typically scripted (published in 1990, I believe). With the advent of the internet and reality television, he's absolutely on-theme with general horror that can translate to present-day, but he gets far enough in the weeds that it can feel like a bit much for a topic which is no longer 100% applicable. I didn't like this as much as “Brief Interviews With Hideous Men,” but it could also be that I tend to prefer fiction. Overall, worth my while and incredibly humbling.

February 10, 2018