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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
1) ulysses also works that way. for nabokov it was just a story of a man being cuckolded. it's true the story is not that much viewed like that, but nabokov was probably jealous (or didn't care). still, the details make it come alive in such a massive way it's no way just about that.
2) did you ever read the glass bead game? back in prehistoric times i was enthralled by hesse (demian + steppenwolf + other witings like his essays & beneath the wheel).but the glass bead game didn't work for me so i dropped it a quarter of the way in. i'm asking because i'm curious and at this point i wouldn't mind spoilers ha ha.
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1. I haven't read Ulysses or in fact any Joyce though I am intrigued... for Nabokov I suppose it must be like the absolute opposite of what he is trying to do (and by extension what he liked!). Nabokov is so concise. But I agree, so little of my enjoyment of literature (especially novels!) comes from the story (i look to short stories if i am looking for plot).
2. I did read the glass bead game, it's probably my favourite Hesse!! I would really urge you to try again with it. It's a little sludgy at times but it all comes together beautifully in the last 10% or so. You must also read his 'lives' at the end - vvv. important. The final pages of the story are so poignant too i will never forget the precise moments of reading them down to the quality of light in my room, how i was feeling everything. that is quite schmaltzy i guess but it had a reall effect on me.
I actually resisted the urge to compare Infinite Jest to the glass bead game in my 'review'. But I can't resist now since you brought it up. What I was going to say is that in both cases the world is very much like our own but not quite. Not far enough different to be truly classed as sci fi or fantasy (or at least the book doesn't focus or rely enough on the differences for it to be genred in this way) or even really an 'alternate universe' but just enough that it is unfamiliar and makes you consider the elements of the story/writing a little more closely.
Also the timelessness of the novels (in that they are not anchored certainly in time - both being an unspecified time in the future) and the fact that specificity of time is not important to the aims of the novel is nother parallel.
Just my take on things. I think DFW owes a lot to Herman Hesse.