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ITT: great novels with poor endings

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Thread replies: 34
Thread images: 3

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What the fuck, Dave? All we have about Hal, Don, Joelle, and John "N.R." Wayne, traveling into the Concavity to dig up JOI's head is a passing reference in the beginning of the book and Don's hallucinatory, wraith-given premonition of it while in a hospital bed on pain meds (and only a short paragraph at that). And no details about how and why the AFR kills John Wayne? Or how Orin escapes? Fuck you.
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>>8892750
Obviously because the details aren't important to the themes of the book
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>John Wayne dies

really? where does it say that?
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IJ had one of the most beautiful endings I've ever read.

The structure of the book instills a small feeling of disappointment.
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As I Lay Dying
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>>8892750
I remember a theory that the book is deliberately overcomplicated in structure because that would force people to talk to each other in order to build an understanding.
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>>8892750
dude the tide was way out bro, like seriously dude
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>>8893130
the book's ending or the story's?

>>8893383
sounds like bs
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>>8892750
>>8893130
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend

I haven't read it and don't plan on it but this seems to put more coherence to the narrative. From that Alan Moore quote about the book that a few people have dropped it seems to me as though there isn't a proper ending
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>>8892750
The Bible.

Revelations was confusing as fuck.
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>>8893758
Revelations shouldve been Apocrypha desu
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The book's ending is intentionally obscure, just like the entire book is full of obfuscatingly dense prose. It is supposed to be difficult. You also seem to have pieced it together correctly, so what's the issue?
I never really understood why everyone thought John Wayne was dead. He wouldn't be able to play in the Whataburger if he was outed as a Quebecois terrorist, that seems sufficient, unless a line I forgot about specifically said he was dead. And Orin is implied to have escaped by making a deal with the AFR and giving them the master copy of the Entertainment because he gave in to the cockroach torture.
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>>8893836
Why did Orin have the Master Copy?
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>>8894943
He wanted revenge against his father's enemies, taking the Hamlet similarities farther. He sent it to the film snobs in California that shit on his father's work as well as people who the Moms cheated with, like the medical attaché. That's why he's at the post office during a phone conversation with Hal, and when Hal wonders why he's there, he quickly changes the subject. Hal shouted (or attempted to shout) "too late" when they dug up JOI's head because Orin had already taken the tape. There's even a random one-off line about Quebecois burial traditions implying that Orin digging him up may have been what released JOI's wraith.
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why do people assume orin cares about his father? He shows no admiration of him at all throughout the book.
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>>8896702
abused children rarely show love

His mom fucked him, for fuck's sake
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>>8896718
>His mom fucked him, for fuck's sake
did they?

it would certainly make the other instances of parents raping their children in the book seem less random
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>>8892750

It was very much Wallace's MO to merely imply an ending/climax/resolution in his work going back at least to stories in Girl with Curious Hair (haven't read Broom so not sure about that one). To say IJ had a poor ending is to ask something very different from what Wallace was doing with much of his fiction
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>>8893186
No, that ending was great.
>yesyesyesyesyesyesyes
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Hyperion. That fucking ending.
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>>8896853
>instances of parents raping their children

that part with the one guy raping his paralytic deformed vegetable daughter physically made me ill
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>>8893186
That was the perfect ending.
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>>8897208
Jesus, I forgot about that fucking part. That was a nightmare
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Childhood's End
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>>8895138
>>8893836
I haven't read Infinite Jest, but your posts are convincing me more and more that this book is a lot better than /lit/ makes out
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>>8897740
It is. DFW is discarded as a meme but it's mostly by people who didn't read him. He's not a contender with Joyce or anything but IJ is legitimately well done.
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>>8897208
>>8897365
I've always liked how that part is told in the framed narrative of the runaway stripper daughter making excuses for herself.

It really lends context and weight and depth.

IJ's fucking great. /lit/ hated on that shit a lot back when I was posting here a year or two ago, but the community seems to have warmed up with each infinite summer.

It really gets better each time. It's like The Entertainment itself. You find your p terminals stimulated.
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i dont know about you, but id avril
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>>8893747
Wow. I figured some of that. But insightful read. Thanks.
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>>8892750
We don't necesarilly know that John Wayne was killed. He is described in the 1st chapter with "would have been", which given the fact that he was related to, and very likely a spy of, the AFR and as he is also described as wearing a mask it's possible he just defected.

Orin doesn't escape, he is released after handing over the master cartridge that the AFR will use to disseminate the Entertainment.
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>>8898279
Hi yes hello I just need to say please do not speak about my waifu like that. Thanks.
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so was Avril in the AFR?
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>>8899136
*well not AFR, but a terrorist?
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>>8898510
This. Orin's "do it her, do it her!" when the roaches enter is an allusion to Orwell's 1984, when Winston is faced with his greatest fear and calls out "Not me! Julia! Not me!" and betrays Julia.

Orin gives up the master copy to the AFR.
Thread posts: 34
Thread images: 3


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