DFW Memorial, Part IV

I've been reading the many tributes, memorials and critiques of David Foster Wallace since his death, and one of my favorite things so far is a map created by the Boston Globe that shows the city of Boston as portrayed in the novel Infinite Jest. It's just cool. It also would be a great starting point for someone coming to the novel for the first time ... Infinte Jest is like Joyces' Ulysses, in that it has a very interesting plot, but said plot is not easily apprehended at first look. So reading guides and tipsheets help immensely, if you like that sort of thing. (Which I do.)
Anyway, check out the Boston Globe's map. It really made me want to pick up IJ and read it again. Such a wonderful, mapcap, harrowing trip to an alternate universe where we begin our study of depression, loneliness, addiction and humor.

My intellectual Rays

I love baseball, which is very odd to my old high school friends who remember me as being very anti-sports. "I see you as the cool goth girl under the bleachers, smoking cloves, and making fun of the cheerleaders," my friend RF recently messaged me.
Well, yes. But I would submit that that image and being a baseball fan are not as incompatible as it might seem. There's a lot of diversity in baseball among its fans and its players. Which brings us to today's New York Times story on Fernando Perez, who plays in the outfield for my most beloved team the Tampa Bay Rays. (For you non-baseball fans, the Rays have made it to the play-offs this year for the first time after ten straight losing seasons.)

While classmates at his New Jersey prep school back in 2000 listened to the Dandy Warhols and watched “Survivor,” Fernando Perez had his own idols.

“I was big into Hermann Hesse,” he remembered proudly.

This would be less remarkable if Perez, who went on to major in American Studies with an emphasis on creative writing at Columbia University, had followed his dream to write short narrative prose for a living. But that plan has been shelved while he helps craft a fairy tale otherwise known as the Tampa Bay Rays.

Perez, a switch-hitting outfielder with wit as quick as his lightning legs, has emerged as a surprising contributor to the no-longer-surprising Rays. ...

Then it goes into his development through the Rays minor league system before coming back around to his writing.

He is committed to pursuing this career [baseball], but just in case, he keeps his writing skills sharp by working on short prose and some personal essays on his laptop. He does not care about being published, and if he ever is he will do so under a pseudonym.

“So that it’s taken on its own merits, not because I’m a baseball player,” Perez said. Meanwhile, he will gladly collaborate with 24 other Rays on baseball’s story of the year.