If you fall into the purple sliver above, then you will probably appreciate this short piece of mine that appeared earlier this week on The Toast (!!!): The Wheeled Assassins: An Infinite Jest-Themed Roller Derby Roster.
Infinite Jest was one of those books I’d kinda sorta felt like I should probably read some day. But for a long time that didn’t translate into actually picking it up. I mean, it’s huge. And I wasn’t sure it’d be my thing at all. Then I read Elissa Bassist’s “Baker’s Dozen Of My Feelings” about the book, and thought you know what? It’s go time.
Happily, it didn’t take long until I was completely enthralled. And for some reason, when the character of Madame Psychosis was introduced I thought that’d make a great roller derby name. I pictured her skating into the arena, face covered with a veil … and of course her number would be 60 +/-.
Things escalated from there.
Completing the roster was like an amazingly fun word game. The most challenging part was finding just the right number to go with each skater name.
I know the audience for this piece is a very select and small group … surely even tinier than my primitive Venn diagram would suggest. But I’m thrilled that it’s out there for those few wonderful freaks who will appreciate it to enjoy!