Forever Overhead — to be noted that this story doesn’t seem to end in quite the same spirit with which it begins. The spirit it begins with seems autobiographical and exhibits an incredible descriptive power, bringing together in a very small space pretty much all the sensations one will ever have at a public swimming pool. The spirit it concludes with seems philosophical and perhaps more reaching and abstruse in what it says…. Not uninteresting but I can’t decide on the extent to which it follows from what’s come before. The scenario it most suggests for me is one in which Wallace “found an end” for an interesting fragment, and the end serves, but imperfectly.
Stupid thing: I noticed in this story the phrase “coins of light” which he also uses in the beautiful opening to The Pale King. Also, Infinite Jest.
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 