Hi /lit/, what is your opinion about Infinite Jest? I'm

post-ironic meme

>>9323588

Although it might be disliked on /lit/, i listened to Infinite Jest audiobook, simply enjoyed David Foster Wallace style of writing and looked up some story details on internet. I wonder why it's considered "meme" along with Ulysses and Gravity Rainbow and if i can i would recommend you "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Consider the Lobster" as well. I would say "meme" and misleading "facts"/opinions are kind of staple of 4chan so don't let it bother you, people are just attracted to such behavior for some reason.

>>9323677
Infinite Jest seems like a horrible book to listen to on audio book, no offense. How did they do the footnotes? How could you keep up with acronyms and character names and references?

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>>9323588

I read 100 pages of it and I couldn't wait to drop it. DFW is a posturing pseud that couldn't write to save his life.

>>9323588
I got about 200 pages in, and enjoyed them, but not nearly enough to read 800-odd more pages of it. the only really good bits up until then were Edredy or whatever he's called near the beginning and then the father and son in the garage.

this was after reading all his short stories and most of his essays, which I really liked, although I don't think they'd seem as good now I've read more and better lit.

I just finished IJ this week so I guess I'm just going to type my thoughts about it.

It's a really good book. People who dispute that fact seem like they are just annoyed by its fanbase which is fair. It's definitely really long however unlike other people I think it had to be this long to do what it needed to DFW wanted to do. It's not necessarily fun the whole time you read it though.

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How could the guy who wrote IJ have written this clusterfuck of near John Green tier babbling?

>>9323588
Haven't read it but I think it's terrible

How do you write in the style of the chapter that describes the underground tunnels at the academy? I tried writing a similar chapter once and everyone said it was boring and pointless, even when I told them it was relevant.

It's a good book...
but muddled by the people who read it now.

That fucking movie and DFW's suicide attracted tumblr retards who believe they're smart, but speak in that whiny white person tone that sounds like they're speaking in questions.

>>9323588
It's my favorite book ever but at the same time I have not read enough

>>9324963

that was his undergraduate thesis

It was ok but i was changing personally while reading coincidentally and ended up taking a short break. when i came back i found that i didn't really enjoy it . Maybe i'll take a crack at it in the future but i feel like i'm past the point where it would have been the perfect read for me. As a sidenote DFW saying in an interview that Pynchon was outdated only for Pynchon to come out with M&D a few years later which is better than anything DFW ever wrote will never fail to make me laugh

>>9324214
Who cares? Audio books are for morons.

As someone who has attempted suicide the depiction of the lead up in The Sound And The Fury runs laps around the IJ version and all that fucking overly sentimental whining

>>9325396
>everyone who commutes or walks or goes to the gym is a moron
The brain power on this board is staggering

>>9325449
>attempt
Pathetic. No conviction.

Continue!

Really, it's one of the best literare experiences of all time. DFW plays with the concept of what makes a novel and it's brilliant.

And after you finish it, go read the Aaron Swartz interpretation of the ending. It's pure gold.

And about being a meme, really I think that it's because people don't appreciate DFW writing, and that plus the book size makes people angry for not being able to see the awesomeness of the whole thing other than the ones that went until the end.

Just don't give up and thank me later.

>>9325121
It's supposed to be boring and pointless. That's the point. The book is like meditations. Wallace said it's supposed to leave you feeling some sort of aura after you finish, in other words. It's like a trance, just like the Entetainment intself.

>>9325449
THANK YOU

>>9327276
I think that's ignoring some of the content of the book. For example, the descriptions of people's experience with drug use would be a complete waste to just glaze over because "it's boring and pointless."

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>>9323588

I've read it twice
I love the maximalism and getting engrossed in its world
The characters are fascinating; Mario is my favorite
Wallace was very perceptive about little details of human nature

>>9324214

I agree that IJ would be a bad way to go; so would an ebook. In the audiobook edition I'm familiar with (haven't listened), the endnotes are done with an echo effect to distinguish them from the main text and are inserted into the text. I can't even imagine; a couple of those notes must take over an hour to listen to. At least when reading a paper copy you can mitigate the intentional disruption by looking back and reviewing when you're done with a long endnote.

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>>9323588
>let's try not to use words like "meme" and "post-ironic"

Why not? There's actually a good deal of literature tackling the post-ironic and new sincere elements of Infinite Jest. Pic related is one example.

>>9327276
>It's supposed to be boring and pointless.

this is why IJ isn't literature. instead it's a kind of concept or performance art piece about contemporary society, in the form of a book.

>>9329103
t. someone who has not read IJ

>>9330445
I've read enough to know there was no point finishing it. the ratio of pages to useful insight is just far too high.

It's really shit.

It's really good

>>9323635
/thread

>>9327276
What? The part with the tunnels? And the tunnelclub and looking for rats? That was boring?

>>9323677
Meme only means it's repeated ad nauseam, it doesn't have to have peyorative connotations.

>>9324967
This

>>9330520
obviously, that's not true, I was able to tell that you hadn't read it based on your incorrect commentary on the book. you're allowed to not read it, just don't comment on it anymore.

>>9331017
who are you to say someones commentary on the book is "incorrect"? other than a pompous asshole. Even DFW himself couldn't claim that insight in the book would be valuable to everyone

>>9331082
He didn't read the book... I'm just saying that it's a little unfair to present like you've read the book when you haven't.

>>9331338
You can't have a discussion or debate about the book if you just accuse someone with a different interpretation of the book of having not read it. I can see where he's coming from having read it myself, but i don't necessarily agree with it. What he said can apply to post modern literature and beyond which IJ is considered in a broad sense. That kind of experimentation with form and structure comes off to a lot of people as something other than literature or a novel, i wouldn't say that's true but i also wouldn't say they aren't allowed to have that opinion because i disagree with it

>>9331380
Well, I can agree with that sentiment, but there's a lot of people who pick up IJ, read a bit, and say too long, and then shitpost it as a bad book. And that's a bit worse than me calling them out on it. But w/e

>>9331452
Length is a legitimate criticism if you feel that what's being offered has little value. If the hunger games was 1000 pages and took potentially weeks to get through and at 500 pages you feel that none of insight being offered so far is valuable or that the book as a whole isn't engaging you have every right to stop and say that you didn't like it. No one is obligated to finish a work in a medium like literature or film if they don't like it and in a lot of cases their criticism doesn't lose value for not finishing it. Quality of the work is subjective which should go without saying so there's no use holding it on a pedestal where it is more importance than most books. If he had really not read it all then it would be fine to say he can't really complain about it but that doesn't seem to be the case

>>9324252
>>9324563
The story doesn't start until p4-500 though...

>>9331908
You can not tell me that 500 pages of this book are irrelevant to the story as if that is a defense in any way. The whole point is bullshit really, i've read the book and i can guarantee that the first half is as relevant to the story as anything in the back half

>>9324563
You make a great point at the end there, the more i read the less i like IJ in retrospect. It's really only impressive to people who read it before they read anything else really significant

>>9332136
>It's really only impressive to people who read it before they read anything else really significant
I'm not sure how it could be impressive to anyone over fifteen. I think the book is a really fucking fun read, but insightful to anyone who has been alive for a while it is not.

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>>9332129
Sure, maybe I should have said the _plot_ doesn't start until ~p500. Obviously the first half is relevant to the story, but there's pretty much no dramatic motion until after Eschaton. I thought that much was common knowledge about the book (as in, most people blogging or trying to get other people to read IJ say you have to get past halfway before you can make an honest judgement).

As a bonus, if you get through the whole thing you'll realize that the maximalist descriptions and world-building in the first half is a function of wraith-time, which you couldn't possibly infer earlier on.

>>9332175
>are
I'm illiterate.

>>9332175
>I thought that much was common knowledge about the book
That's nice, it's just apocryphal.

>>9324963
Cmon, the first hundred pages are entertaining.

really want to read it but i should probably at least finish ulysses before starting another big ass meme book

>>9332175
>As a bonus, if you get through the whole thing you'll realize that the maximalist descriptions and world-building in the first half is a function of wraith-time, which you couldn't possibly infer earlier on.

Mhm. Also a statement on boredom and entertainment, which is really what the whole book boils down to. Honestly though I think a lot of Infinite Jest's thematic elements are done better in the Pale King.

>>9332772
>if you get through the whole thing you'll realize that the maximalist descriptions and world-building in the first half is a function of wraith-time
Major kek. Wallace just gave himself an excuse to be a pomo faggot. There's no real content in this. It's a non-observation.

I really like it. It's a attempt at making something which understands depression, happiness, unhappiness, addiction, and self-conciusness (DFW is probably the most self-consc writer I have ever read, it even gets sick at times), while having funny and more insteresting ideas in between. It's a really ambitious book. It has really interesting mysteries and characters, like Lyle. And I like a lot how he writes. I even wanted to read 500 more pages when I ended it.

>>9332780
you clearly haven't read it.

>>9332797
I have. You're naive. You got tricked by Saint Dave. It's an excuse to do something that was already done better. The reasons for it are older than Dave and very uninteresting at the point at which he did it.

>>9332772
>Honestly though I think a lot of Infinite Jest's thematic elements are done better in the Pale King
Yeah? How so? It's been on the outer ring of my list.