I’ve reached out to Levin and asked if he’d be willing to engage with our little Infinite Zombies community somehow, and in fact he is. This is pretty neat, as we’ve always read dead people before, and here we have an opportunity to chat directly with the author.
On July 2 at 8pm Eastern, I’ll host a Zoom call in which Levin will read a selection from Bubblegum and then field questions.
I’ll share the Zoom link in a comment the day of the event on this post, via the @infinitezombies Twitter account, and in an event I’ll create on the IZ Facebook page. So, get Zoom on your phone or computer and I’ll hope to see you at the first ever live IZ event. If you do think you’ll be able to make it, I’d love to hear from you so that I can get an idea of whether it’ll wind up being just me awkwardly asking Levin about the weather after I run out of simpleton questions about punctuation and the anxiety of influence or whether we’ll have a pretty good turnout.
I don’t plan to record the event. I don’t like being recorded myself and don’t feel comfortable asking others to let me record them to memorialize their off-the-cuff comments forever on the internet.
I’m really looking forward to meeting a few IZ folks face-to-face and of course am also curious what selection Levin’ll choose to read and eager to be part of what (if the prior event is any indication) I imagine’ll be a pretty neat conversation.
Infinite Zombies 
I have recently started reading Bubblegum and very much engrossed by it. I am around page 100 for now. I should be able to join the Zoom meeting.
Great, thanks for letting me know. I imagine there might be spoilers, so be prepared plug your ears if any seem imminent and you’re bothered by that sort of thing.
Yeah, I should be able to make that work.
It is socially acceptable to join in an audio-only way? Can I put one of DFW’s videophone dummies in my place or something? (I barely remember that part of Infinite Jest, but I recall something like that.)
You see (Daryl), I’ll call your “don’t like being recorded” and raise you “don’t like video conferencing at all, particularly with strangers”! I mean, I basically would find it fun to listen in.
That’s totally fine, Rob. Bonus points for a videophone dummy mask situation and bonus bonus points if you have the special hook to hang it on, but really, do what’s comfortable, and if that means you’re a black rectangle in the video, I’m good with that and will be glad to have you along in whatever capacity.
This sounds exciting! Still thinking about what I might want to ask, given that I seem to have had the toughest time with this book out of our group… 🙂 But I’ll plan on attending. Thanks for setting this up, Daryl!
I’m really glad you’ll be able to make it. I mean I think it’d be fair game to even ask “what the actual fuck?” about some things that’ve been tough for you.
I’m really excited about this, Daryl Thanks for hooking us up!
Looking forward to meeting you in something approximating real life, Paul. It’s funny, I’ve known you and Jeff as fellow authors on this site for years, but I don’t think any of us have spoken, ever. I’m both excited and nervous, but mostly excited.
Count me in, can’t wait.
Hi Daryl! Can’t wait for tomorrow. You can count me in – looking forward to virtually meeting some of y’all 🙂
Looking forward to it, Ellie! And Rob! And everybody! I’ll drop a Zoom link in the comments probably sometime Thursday morning Eastern time.
Ok, everybody, here’s the info for tonight’s Zoom at 8pm Eastern.
https://zoom.us/j/94002475150?pwd=SWhQdHJCY2N6L2NyL0w0bzJtY0xXQT09
Meeting ID: 940 0247 5150
Password: botimal
One tap mobile
+19292056099,,94002475150#,,,,0#,,8626401# US (New York)
+13017158592,,94002475150#,,,,0#,,8626401# US (Germantown)
Dial by your location
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 940 0247 5150
Password: 8626401
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aeH5oAQCF6
That was amazing, thank you Daryl.
Also, it was my first time using Zoom and I wasn’t expecting it to close immediately – Someone had expressed interest in reading The Instructions and I didn’t write down their reddit username in time. Please contact me at robvandiver@yahoo.com if you are still interested. Also, any other interested parties feel free to contact me, we will be keeping in touch via a subreddit.
Dang it. I wasn’t available…