This book

>>8870609

Infinite Jest transcends the good/bad dichotomy.

read it and find out you stupid fucking sheep

>>8870629
Impossible, everything partakes in the idea of good and bad. You can't transcend what is final and objective.

Its kinda boring if you are expecting real literature.

>>8870609
if you accept the fact that it's bad it's actually pretty good, and I mean that unironically

>>8870636
You need some Zen in your life, m8.

It really is a matter of taste, but generally people who didn't like it either weren't fond of the humor or weren't able to relate to the things depicted in it.
Read up to page 60.
If you can't stand that, you'll hate the rest. If you like it, read the rest.

>>8870636
I'll be the judge of that.

its good!!

*holds up both arms at 90 degree angles*

All I really know is that I like it a lot. The book is sort of what you make of it. A lot of people hate it because they were told it was a great novel, and it turned out instead to be a series of essays about fame and addiction, interspersed with stories about DFW's friends' childhoods. The "plot" is confusing and unimportant, all but twenty-six of the characters are mechanical, and the whole thing gets kind of self-indulgent. I think it's worth it, but I couldn't really tell you why. Have you read it?

>>8870609
I'm reading it right now (on page 460ish) because I tend to indulge in all of 4chan's finest. i.e. /fit/ told me to squat, /mu/ told me to listen to IATOS, /gif/ told me to fap to ladybois, etc.

So, in the natural order of things I'm reading Infinite Jest and definitely getting the sqautting, IAOTS, ladyboi vibe from it. A little bit hard to get into and understand at first, but once you've indulged enough to recognize it's merits you will absolutely love it.

>>8871145
Here I was thinking I was the only one. I have linux and a chinkphone because of /g/, I bought Starting Strength because of /fit/, my first gun was a nugget because of /k/, I majored in engineering because of /sci/...

Should I kms?

>>8871577
Yes you pathetic fucking robot. Kill yourself, its the biggest meme there is.

>>8870636
Lmao
Are rocks good or bad?
Is the ocean good or bad?
Is life good or bad?

>>8871145
itaots>squatting>infinite jest

I don't understand the chapter of the ghetto people and the beating with a coat hanger or whatever. What was the point of that, it was so intentionally incoherent, was that the joke?

>>8872109
It mostly confused me because that's not even how ghetto-ass black people actually talk.
If you spend enough time around them you figure out the patterns and understand them really well. I live in Atlanta, I hear it every single day. There are grammatical rules that are followed as strictly as regular english speakers follow their own in conversation.
DFW either didn't spend enough time around black people to pick up on that, was intentionally fucking it up for some reason, or just didn't care. Whatever the reason it was very jarring to read. "Wardine be cry" would never be said by an actual black girl. "Wardine be crying" might.

>>8871644
Rocks are good because we need them to support ourselves physically

The ocean is good because lots of fish and shit live there and we eat them and we can go surfing and shit

Life is good because without life the concept of good and bad couldn't exist, and that's bad

>>8872135
Besides everything you just said about ebonics, what the FUCK was the point of it.

>>8870609
I dunno but the movie about DFW was nothing but self-indulgent fedora philosophy, so I'm going to assume the book is as well.

>>8872144
Yeah I just realized I kinda went off on a tangent there
Incoherence aside I remember wondering why it was there too. It very slightly mentioned one or two characters that show up again 100 pages later but doesn't even provide much about them or anything that factors into the story, at least from what I recall. Looking back it may have been DFW trying to show off how he could put a wide variety of voices into the book or something, but he honestly kinda fucked that one up.

>>8872157
I also have a question about when Hal was being interviewed by the deans for the university. He didn't really have a seizure did he? Why did he get tackled? I interpreted it as they had never heard something so profound from an applicant before and panicked.

>>8872160
Oh no, he was actually literally yelling and flailing around.
The DMZ is administered to Hal on his toothbrush in the last chapter, you can see how his friends all react very strangely to him when he seems to be acting normal to the reader. The wraith put it on his toothbrush. There are a few other subtle hints, I remember his dad's wraith had moved some ceiling tiles around to find it, he gets lost in time laying on the floor of the TP viewing room, he is preparing to play against The Darkness (who is implied to have been posessed by JOI). And remember the flashback to the mold Hal ate as a child? That was also DMZ, it perfectly fits the description of it given by Pemulis. There were more details I mostly forgot about DMZ being the cure to the Entertainment or something, but exposure to DMZ permanently fucked Hal up. He can't communicate anymore in the Year of Glad, which is torture because his mental faculties are fine. He can only communicate with JOI's wraith via tennis.
But I missed a lot on my first readthrough too, so don't worry. The mostly-implied ending of IJ is one of my favorite parts of the book because it's legitimately challenging to figure out.

>>8872190
Wait, correction. I'm remembering a lot more as I look back at the book.
The mold he ate as a child was some kind of anti-DMZ that made him good at communicating, but a fucking autist (no "feeling"). JOI was the only one who noticed this and his entertainment was an experiment specifically for Hal to try and fix this. DMZ is described as mold that grows on other mold -- it negates the mold Hal ate. JOI sees in Hal a mirror of himself and is desperate to give him the opportunity to feel. When the wraith can't get him the entertainment, he just gives him the DMZ instead, and by possessing The Darkness and playing him in tennis he finally gets to have a real "conversation" with Hal.

>>8872135
Thats funny because he wrote in depth about ebonics in his essay/review of that dictionary

>>8870609
heh *cackles* hey *snickers* heh heh heh, well, *wind blows from the suspense* get this kid. It's a.. never-ending joke. *raucous laughter* well see you round kid. *walks away while slapping knees*

>>8872278
Then he had to have been intentinally writing outside of the rules of ebonics, which makes the chapter even more confusing. It basically didn't factor into the narrative at all, even less than some of the seemingly random tangents thrown in.
Why?

>>8871644
Of course you brainlet, what a stupid fucking question

>>8870609
>postmodernism

into the trash it goes

>>8870685
hahah

>>8871577
hahaha i did all of these things (except ladybois lol).

4chan shaped us, huh..

>>8870609
It's mediocre. It's the same tier as Underworld by Don DeLillo but with a lot more undeserved hype.

and but so

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>>8870636
WEEEEW LAD
this is some fine tuned bait right here, very good, have a nice christmas anon

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>>8872665
>WEEEEW LAD

>>8872667
>Frogposter
>>/pol/

>>8872714
How new are you

>>8870609
read it if you have literally nothing else to read/ if you want to act like a pseudo intellect to get pussy