Redpill me on David Foster Wallace /lit/

Okay, but first you should read Infinite Jest for the necessary context.

>>8970089
You have to understand a few things that are very important. When we talk about David Foster Wallace, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. We can’t measure it. When it comes to Wallace-tier geniuses, the standard tests simply don’t apply. You see, Wallace could have entered any field he wanted. He was a real-life Will Hunting. He could’ve been a doctor or a lawyer, or both, if he wanted. He could’ve been a pioneer in physics. He could’ve been a codebreaker for the NSA. But no. He decided to be a writer. He decided to devote his life to aesthetic beauty and to illuminating for us the way to live. That was the beauty and the tragedy of his life. In one way, it’s a blessing to have been born in Wallace’s time, to be able to hear his voice in interviews, to hear him delivering his famous commencement speech, which is already transforming people both intellectually and spiritually. On the other hand, I will surely die before we know even half of the secrets buried within the labyrinth of Infinite Jest. That I consider a curse.
It’s been nineteen years since Infinite Jest was published and scholars have only begun to come to terms with its full implications. This is what you must understand. Wallace reverse-engineered not only the novel, but all of Western literature as well as language itself. Packed within Infinite Jest is Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, and everything else. Hell, it even serves as an overview of human history, from dawn to today. It’s a book you could spend a lifetime studying. A lifetime spent in bliss, no doubt. It would be more worthwhile to spend one’s life reading and rereading Infinite Jest than to achieve being “well-read” in the traditional sense.
I don’t say this to intimidate you, but to encourage you. You must understand that, on your first time through, you will not understand everything Wallace is trying to communicate to you. Don’t worry. He knew things about life that we won’t discover for decades. Your job is merely to get on the road. In the decades to come, we may, if we’re lucky, discover scientific applications for the new ways of thinking Wallace gave us. We may have to throw out science altogether. We simply don’t know. For now, we have to be content with our vanguard roles. We are the ones who will break the ground and loosen the soil for Wallace’s future interpreters. This is not only our pleasure, but our duty. And for that, as Wallace famously said, “I wish you way more than luck.”

>>8970089
Oblivion is his best work as it is his only work where he's honest and not trying to make himself feel better. IJ is a bloated masterpiece with some boring as fuck parts but mostly a great story. Pale King is well regarded here but don't start with that. Dont start with brief interviews either as it's him at his worst in terms of "look everybody im a fiction genius and care about women". Its good and I like it but it can be reduced to that sometimes. His essays are top tier albeit sometimes I dislike his hoky journalism. Like in the Lynch piece he's just trying too hard but still has great insight and knowledge. I guess you can say at his worst he is that way, as in trying too hard but insightful at the same time. His fans are the worst part about him though. He was pretty much right about everything he said about irony though, something his fans misinterpret horribly

>>8970450
Oblivion was one of the first books I actually felt uncomfortable reading

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>>8970089
No discernible talent.

>>8970450
>and care about women

dropped

>>8970602
>being seventeen

>>8970668
I cared about women a lot more at seventeen than I do now.

>>8970670
>being twenty-three
even worse my hombre.

>>8970684
Not the samefag but my women-care peaked at 23 and has been on a downward spiral since.

>>8970684
Depends on your conversation partners prospects and mind set
>women are fine
>women can also be irrelevant

>>8970450
>Dont start with brief interviews either as it's him at his worst in terms of "look everybody im a fiction genius and care about women". Its good and I like it but it can be reduced to that sometimes.
>tfw started with that
What can I do, I read the trampoline one and got hooked.
I'm really into it, the brief interview with the sadomasoquist is top tier

>>8970698
They can also be quite harmful to your well-being.

>>8970396
Not sure if pasta or really good

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>>8970713
>>8970698
>>8970692
>>8970670
I'm >>8970668 >>8970684
Just got out of being burned by a woman pretty fucking hard. Terrible situation. It could honestly be used as a case-study in any PUA/MRA outlook on the world, which made it especially shitty. Since that happened I've taken to writing cheap worldweary potshots at people who seem to espouse that worldview as a way of feeling "above" it, because the alternative, which I came really close to accepting, was pretty much just the outlook of any sexually frustrated adolescent. I've found that opinions like that are absolutely perfidious because they seem to be rooted in reality, but if you take them on yourself you only become more and more laughable and bitter. Not really sure what I'm trying to say here, but everything I've experienced tells me that gender-essentialism just drags you lower down.

>>8970742
Hmm, I think that I have a view of women similar to that of the red-pill community. I don't view myself as "above" it, though. I learned what I needed to from it, and seeing it generally confirmed in reality, I moved along. I think a legitimate response to it is to simply not bother anymore. Trying to manipulate the system to your benefit is fine, but I can't find the motivation or reason to do that. I think that some of the gender essentialism you see, though, is an exaggerated post-ironic joke. At least that's what I intend if I ever make posts of that sort.

>>8970806
I'll be honest, though. It makes me resent women sometimes. Not because they won't fuck me, I don't care about that, but because the thing that I want from them, emotionally, is something that isn't possible (though society wants you to think that it is).

>>8970742
It's easy to adopt the higher road mindset if it only happens to you once, or if you happen to find one of the genuinely rare good ones. But just wait until it happens two or three more times and see how optimistic you still feel.

>>8970879
Indeed

>>8970742

serious question: have you ever considered the possibility that you're emotionally needy in a way that's obvious and unattractive to most people (but not you), and easily preyed upon by women who are emotionally sadistic, causing you to enter relationships where you are emotionally and psychologically bullied, causing you to believe that all women are that way when, in reality, it's just the ones you attract and/or choose to pursue?

>>8970921
>>8970887
>>8970868
>>8970742
you fucking faggots can never stop talking about your feels huh? no wonder none of you can maintain a lasting relationship, i've never even met you losers but you're making me feel suffocated

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>>8970887
I'm honestly not sure how I could continue to exist as a semi-contributive member of society or continue to exist at all, only being partially ironic here if I started to believe all of that dry shit about the way people are. Like I get that if a fucking cheerleader wanted to fuck me I'd fuck her in a heartbeat, but that doesn't necessarily mean that men value the cheerleader-type of girl more than any other. It's shit like that. Like e.g. yes in certain very specific circumstances passively insulting a woman might be an actual way to get laid, but that can't mean that cringey shit like begging or kino or what have you are actual things. The outlook I'm trying to maintain is just that people are fucked on an individual level, not on the level of whatever demographics they happen to be. Idk I just don't want to end up like Sam. He seems like he's embraced this shit despite seeming to start out with a more expansive mentality. It's scary to me that that can happen to someone.

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>>8970940
>tfw you will never feel suffocated by a woman's love

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>>8970954
Yeah I can't say that I feel any reason to be a contributing member of society anymore. There doesn't seem to be a purpose. But I don't want to delude myself into thinking the world is better than it is. I've found a good way to cope is to play some romance visual novel every so often, as they are able to deliver an extreme cathartic experience. I'll be depressed for weeks afterward but the whole thing will eventually make me feel better for a while and be able to enjoy hobbies (like reading) again. I'd use something other than weeb crap but I haven't found anything else that will do the same job.

>>8970954
Women are the way that they are because it's how they evolved. They are inclined towards the behavior that is most conducive to their survival. Men have the same issue, though the inclinations are different; but we seem to have a better ability to constrain ourselves, to the point that many of us simply function on that constrained level (this is a good thing). This doesn't seem to occur with women. I think that is the main difference.

Couldn't go four words without having to reach for a dictionary :(

He's a fancy writer for losers who have spent all their free time learning obscure, long words that have long since lost their relevancy in the common language

>>8971129
I agree with your floccinaucinihilipilification of such words. They should generally only be used when necessary to convey an exact meaning.

>>8971141
Did Godel really say that? Fucking lol

He was actually gay. Infinite Jest is about his repressed homossexuality. Once you have read the book, you also become gay. When you talk about the book and how intelligent you are for "understanding" it, you are actually spreading the gay virus.