What do I need to know before reading this, /lit/? Any specific

Start with the greeks.

Enter with the Egyptians.

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Definitely read Macbeth
""""avant garde cinema"""" there's some lens effect memery
Odyssey, but you already read that because you started with the Greeks like a good lad
Girl with Curious Hair
Broom of the System

probably just read Macbeth

Its mentally draining but v. good.

Started yesterday. @ page 100.

>>8304996

just watch his charlie rose and german interviews, wait at least until page 200-250 to stop reading if you don't like it; that's where the book clicked with me proper. all memery aside it's very emotionally powerful book

Post-structuralism, particularly Jean Baudrillard; I recommend 'Simulacra and Simulation'
DFW's Essay 'E Unibas Pluram'
Macbeth
Television
At least 10 years living in America
His interviews
Blue Velvet (Lynch film)

>>8305018
I strongly advise you to start at the beginning of the book. That way you'll follow the story the way the author intended.

Why is everyone saying Macbeth? I thought it was influenced by/alludes to Hamlet?

Initiate with the chinese

>>8305306
Do you mean 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men', or interviews with DFW?

>>8305306
Who's the author of 'Television'? I'm sorry, but I'm new in /lit/.

>>8305535
The latter, friend. His other books like 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men' are also good; I recommend 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.'

>>8305552
I mean the medium. I recommend 'Friends', 'Seinfeld', 'Frasier', 'Married... With Children', 'Law & Order', 'Cheers', 'ALF', 'Roseanne'. 'M*A*S*H', 'The Simpsons', 'The Love Boat', 'Golden Girls', 'Happy Days', and 'Fraggle Rock.'

>>8304996
Commence with the Kazakhs

nope. just read it

>>8305013
you mean Hamlet?

Shakespeare has really nothing to do with Infinite Jest

>>8304996

http://www.cosmoetica.com/B1349-JH1.htm

It's not worth your time. Terrible book.

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>>8305958
I haven't actually read IJ so I wouldn't know

>>8305005
Continue with the Kangz

>>8304996
The obvious ones are Hamlet and The Brothers Karamazov. You can understand everything without them, but they're referenced and the relationships between most of the main characters are based off of those two works.

His E. Unibus Pluram would also be good but he's pretty explicit about what he's doing in Infinite Jest so I wouldn't consider that necessary.

>>8307493
>WE memeposts
>spells continue with a c and not a k
You had one job

It's very funny, very sad, and very very good.

>>8304996

You need to know it's a piece of shit propped up by marketing, academia, and pseuds. Wallace is a fucking terrible writer who had some really bad ideas.

>>8304996
A lot of previous knowledge is required to read this book. Only tackle it if you've had ample literary experience. I feel sorry for the beginners who come onto /lit/ looking for recommendations and fall for the IJ meme.

>>8307592

Why is it important to get the references? Be specific.

>>8307602
I think he may be pulling your leg, mate.

And if he isn't, he's a pleb.

It's a very long and arduous book and asks a tremendous amount from the reader at times (there are random drug sections written in ebonics and it is constantly going on long tangents) but I would hardly say it's difficult to understand or that it alludes to anything all too obscure.

But the footnotes can be absurdly long and frequent so you may want to use two bookmarks.

Find a printing that doesn't have horrendously small text and tiny borders

>>8308050
big text is for babies and senile people

are you enjoying those picture books?

>>8305018

Update: just read a chapter that was entirely stream-of-consciousness. Why did DFW purposely make his book hard to read?

>>8308050

Just get the version with pic related cover. The text isn't that small.

>>8308063
I just checked my copy and the text isn't as small as I thought. The borders are just v small unlike penguin + wordsworth etc
I have the cover w/ stickynote sorta cover thingo for reference

>>8305306
why blue velvet?

>>8308078
serves you right for not buying the meme edition

>>8308079
cause it changed his life

>>8308090
tfw store doesnt stock meme edition any more

>>8308093
I've read plenty of his interviews desu but missed that one, what exactly did he say about it?

I'm aware he loved Lynch, but how BV specifically?

>>8308105
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wie8uPgQOYE

>>8304996
http://www.cosmoetica.com/B1349-JH1.htm