Linked List: June 21, 2009

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Kottke’s ‘Forward’ for Infinite Summer ★

Jason Kottke on Infinite Summer, a group guided tour to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest over the course of the next three months:

But what I am qualified to tell you — as a two-time reader and lover of Infinite Jest — is that you don’t need to be an expert in much of anything to read and enjoy this novel. It isn’t just for English majors or people who love fiction or tennis players or recovering drug addicts or those with astronomical IQs. Don’t sweat all the Hamlet stuff; you can worry about those references on the second time through if you actually like it enough to read it a second time. Leave your dictionary at home; let Wallace’s grammatical gymnastics and extensive vocabulary wash right over you; you’ll get the gist and the gist is more than enough. Is the novel postmodern or not? Who f’ing cares… the story stands on its own. You’re likely to miss at least 50% of what’s going on in IJ the first time though and it doesn’t matter.

I’ll simply state that Infinite Jest is my favorite novel ever.

CNBC: ‘Jobs Had Liver Transplant’ ★

CNBC:

Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, received a liver transplant about two months ago in Tennessee but is expected to return to work later this month. Two sources confirmed to CNBC that Jobs had the surgery and another confirmed that his plane flew from San Jose to Memphis in late March.

This is the first report to cite sources other than the WSJ report. (“Late March” is about three months ago, not two, but it’s possible he was there for a month before having the procedure.)

This, though, is odd:

Apple’s stock had tanked in January, falling as low as $78.20, when Jobs said he had a hormone imbalance and the company announced that its founder would be taking a six-month medical leave. It has since made a choppy comeback as concerns about his health persist.

I’m looking at the six-month AAPL chart right now, and it doesn’t look “choppy” to me.

Update: Funny how the news regarding Steve Jobs’s six-month medical leave caused the entire stock market to dive in January. I don’t think Apple could stand another six months like that previous six.