IJ

>>>/REDDIT/

>>7582281
You pseudos are the trash killing this board.

>>7582276
The Cossacks - Leo Tolstoy (Maudes Translation)
The Nigger of the Narcissus - Conrad
Soul - Platonov

>>7582292
Thanks, I'll check them out.

>>7582276
specifically working your way towards infinite jest? try: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

but first: http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-01-0059425.pdf

if you don't like this style or don't have the patience for it then forget infinite jest. stick to camus, maybe evolve to hemingway

>>7582276

if you have the means, go to school. reading books can make you better at reading but it isn't guaranteed to. you don't get good at fishing by learning about marlin, you have to learn from fishermen. read books on literary analysis etc.

>>7582941
>read books on literary analysis
this will kill any potential enjoyment in reading fiction. Stay based and read books you enjoy OP

>>7582276
> uncultured
just aim for books/editions with explanatory end notes

Both of those are good but IJ requires a good foundation in contemporary reading as well

>>7582998

i guess so. might as well just read it then if understanding isn't really the goal. i'm sure it will be at least mildly enjoyable even if you have no clue what's going on.

>>7583045
>foundation
recommendations please

Don't gas this shit up like you going to fucking war nigga. It's a book. in English. Just fucking read it. Authors write this shit to be read, you ain't gonna be fucking deciphering nazi ciphers bruh

>>7583073
any lit fic in english after ww2, it doesn't really matter what

but this is true too >>7583107 there is something to take away if you tackle it now as well, he does provide ample footnotes

IJ is a lot easier than you think, like 10x more comprehensible than aild, gr, ulysses etc...

>>7583161
going off the theme in this thread, i was wondering if any of you could give me a suggestion real quick regarding Ulysses.

I'm more or less doing what OP is doing. I'm trying to work my way up to it. I've already read many of the "classics," Moby dick, walden, iliad / odyssey, and have also read some Joyce (A portrait of the artist + dubliners)

Would I be in a good position to tackle Ulysses soon or is there anything else I should read before? Thanks

>>7583183
nah you're good m8

>>7583183
Finnegan's Wake - fucking leagues and beyond above Ulysses

>>7583183
throw the bible in there
also bone up on irish mythol, know your Tuatha Dé Danann iconography
and more modernism, TS Eliot etc

then take a swing

>>7582276
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_Mn-qRKjA

>>7583311
great ending, great show

>>7582276
Infinite Jest is like babby's first literature. Any reasonably intelligent bozo can understand it. That's why it's so popular.

>>7582276
infinite jest is literally a YA novel. you will have no issue reading it.

>>7583373
does this mean it shouldn't be allowed to be discussed here?

>>7583369
glad i'm not the only one who noticed that its general appeal is sourced by its lack of difficulty, but gives the appearance that upon completion, one has successfully bested a dragon.

>>7583379
it could easily be argued that Infinite Jest has no place on this board. IJ has turned post modernism into genre fiction.

>>7582925
>A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Is this considered a "hard" read?

>>7582276
This book is honestly very easy to read. It's written to be entertaining, not boring, and it's only real difficulty is its length, not its content.

If you've taken a lower-level calculus class and read a bit of contemporary literature along with maybe The Brothers Karamazov, you will whiz right through it. If you haven't, that's okay too. You might not catch absolutely everything but you can still enjoy the book and understand its intent.

it might be a bit more experimental than you're used to, but it's honestly not that bad. there isn't really anything you ought to do to prepare. if anything infinite jest itself is a preparation for other, more challenging novels.

just keep the wallace wiki/google at hand + use a 2nd bookmark for the endnotes and you'll be fine.

>>7583399
"very easy" is an exaggeration.
Hemingway is "very easy".
No one here will dispute that the general understanding of IJ's difficulty is way overblown, but it is not "very easy".

>>7583413
if you can understand vonnegut, you can understand wallace. i'd consider vonnegut very easy, so that's what i'm going on. you're perfectly entitled to disagree.

>>7583424
So why is Vonnegut more popular among high school kids?

>>7583465
his books were shorter and had more memes.

"so it goes" etc

>>7583465
Because he not only wrote shorter books, but he wrote many more of them. He's also an older and thus more established and well-known literary figure.

>>7583183
Guy who posted this. Thanks for those who answered. Appreciate it

>>7583465
because he's reddit: the author

>>7583465
Vonnegut is actually bit easier in terms of vocab, length and the ideas presented, but not by much.

OP, I actually read IJ when I was an uncultured bozo. It was a blast. There are times where it will be boring (mostly towards the beginning of the book), and times where he'll use words that you'll have to look up, but if you're reasonably intelligent and reasonably focused it should be no problem.

Good luck and use two bookmarks!

>>7583483
P.S. Don't read Virginia Woolf if you are just starting reading again.

>>7583483
how do you mean use two bookmarks?

>>7583503
One for the footnotes.

>>7583503
He means one for the endnotes and one for the real meat of the book. Personally, I dogear paperbacks

>>7583393
If you've literally only ever read YA then I'll go ahead and say yes but give this a shot.

http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

c'est my favorite section

>>7583515
>based dogearing

>>7583503
get some sticker-type place holder also.
have fun!

>>7583547
what's the difference between the book version and the harper's article?

the book's version is like 100 pages so there must have been a ton that was cut out

>>7583638
no difference, just layout/formatting
if you like the article then i recommend the book

>>7583642

me>>7583638

nah I just finished the book 3 days ago, it's definitely way shorter in this article.

I just checked and the book version has 134 endnotes and the essay has 33.

the book version is well worth it

>>7583652
>>7583642 gah sorry bout that, the link was only meant as a 'taster'

>>7582276

It's shit. It tries too hard to be unique and it's something that was probably created on acid.

>>7582276
Trick is, the book isn't actually that complicated. There's enough to take away from it that you don't have to worry about "missing things" on the first read (you will). The style is pretty easy to unravel it's just a matter of endurance. All you need is the attention span to stay focused during any long novel.

>>7582321
My advice OP - read these books, underline passages in them you find interesting then WRITE about them. If your really worried you're not thinking about lit the right way, writing helps you crystallize some ideas that you can affirm, alter, refine, etc... Over time and just gets you paying attention to the books in greater detail.

>>7585731
*you're