Why are DFW and Infinite Jest memes?

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>>9339357
DFW stood apart, and yet mediated. Communicating to society something as essential as water, and yet being able to do so only from a position of insulation, of disaffection.

He accepted the contrary experience, and drank, with Socrates, the deadly cup.

>>9339357
He had a retarded personality. He stalked women. He threw a coffee table at his gf. He's a fucking nut job. He hung himself. Why wouldn't he be a meme?

>>9339392
please show me your fedora collection

>>9339357
Because IJ isn't nearly as well written or insightful as it's fans would lead you to believe. With DFW, all of the themes in his work are expressed in a more concise and organic way in his short fiction.

>>9339411
I'm going to have to agree with this. IJ became a meme because of it's length, and but so, and end-notes.

>>9339392
I like the water analogy.

>>9339418
And but so the end notes also***

>>9339418

Let's not forget the completely unwarranted marketing campaign. IJ is (among other things) a slick publishing industry product that we would not be discussing today if it weren't for the money involved.

>>9339357
Pseud or actually intelligent???

>>9339357
I have it on very good authority that he had "no discernible talent"

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Can we talk about how David Foster Wallace was basically a conservative at heart?

>>9340658
Well talk about it then you son of a bitch

>>9340820
Okay. The central problem of Infinite Jest, and one which goes unspoken (at least explicitly), is the erosion of traditional values. Religion is, of course, sought after - but its attempted through a post-enlightenment mindset, which is doomed to fail. (Boston AA) Of course, the members succeed in the book, but we only have to look to DFW's suicide to see that it fails in practice. I call him conservative (with a small c) largely because he lays the blame at the foot of the deconstructive postmodern critique. Values are challenged, eroded, but no alternative is offered

The prevalence of hard science over faith reduces man to an automaton. A series of neurochemical reactions. See: the first chapter on J.O. Incandena and his father, as well as the short movie by Mario made on Hal where he describes his actions in such a deliberate way that he becomes simply "no-one". There is no room for the soul here.

I remember where I was the day my ex girlfriend told me he had killed himself. I was eating a veal sandwich in this coffee shop in tribeca and she offhandedly mentioned that the author of that one book she once saw me reading had died. I gritted my teeth and silently got up to go to the bathroom. No sooner had I locked the door than the laughter rolled forth from my mouth like a mighty stream. I'm not gonna deny I was hard. I finished my veal parm and then grabbed my girlfriend by the arm in a hurry

"let's go." I said dragging her through traffic back to our apartment. we made love on the living room rug and it was the best sex of my life.

from that day forth I lived my life as ironically as I wanted to. The death of DFW was my rebirth and I thank god for it every day.

>>9339469
this

I took a creative nonfiction course with him at Ponoma back in '94. We weren't allowed to show anyone our essays outside of the class for some reason. He seemed naturally intelligent, didnt need to look at any notes or textbooks or prepare for any lectures, he just knew his stuff and was super casual.

I saw him talking to a girl on campus one day. He uncharacteristically wore a Fila sweatsuit, the kind that looks like it's made from the same material as parachutes, and trainer sneakers with a matching bandana. That was his pussy hunt outfit apparently. Several times a week, same outfit, I'd see him hitting on women in it. I once saw him wearing it while carrying an identical outfit from the dry cleaners, he had like 4 sets of same Fila sweatsuit.

I asked him about it in class and he said we aren't allowed to discuss anything unrelated to class while inside class, the same way we can't show anyone outside of class our essays. A student called out "but Dostoevsky isn't in this class and last week you talked about replicating his black tea obsession to test its affects on your own writing". Wallace stared blankly at the student with dead eyes for 30 seconds in dead silence then said "you just got knocked down a full letter grade. Any other smart asses? Didn't think so." and pushed up his glasses with his index finger.

I remember telling myself this guy will either be super successful or kill himself.

>>9341102

Cool story bro

>>9340876
It's kind of crazy how many people miss how central this is to IJ. I think the theme really is expressed in the book. Hal is "unfeeling" and JOI desperately tries to connect with him, and eventually Hal feels emotions again after having the DMZ, but he loses the ability to connect with others. More generally, the questions about the Entertainment Marathe and Steeply have: is it a good life to be Entertained forever if you aren't doing anything else? You're pushing the buttons to make yourself happy, isn't that the best you can do anyways?

DFW's solution was New Sincerity, but that idea is doomed to fail. Sincerity for the sake of sincerity can't be sincere.

>>9341169
>DFW's solution was New Sincerity, but that idea is doomed to fail. Sincerity for the sake of sincerity can't be sincere.

I'm asking myself whether or not this is true. DFW identifies the problem so well, but I'm not sure I can buy his solution. If an attempted return to more traditional modes of belief isn't the answer, then what is?

>>9341102
You're still spelling Pomona wrong senpai

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>>9340876
>Values are challenged, eroded, but no alternative is offered
This consumer mentality is why we can't have nice things.

>>9341253
Well, that's part and parcel of the problem I was addressing, isn't it?

>>9340917

lmao

>>9340658
Fighting postmodernism is by definition conservative because it fights for objectivity in a world of subjectivity, which is essentially regression.

>>9341216
That's the thing, with postmodernism we've killed off any alternative. We have to embrace the absurdity and live with it, and hope to find real meaning and feeling in it for ourselves.

>>9341262
I have not read Infinite Jest, I don't know. I was only stressing the point that expecting to be offered an alternative after a critique is a peculiar attitude.

>>9341320
You think it peculiar that someone would wish to fill the space which meaning once occupied with something else?

>>9341329
I think it's consumer mentality, like trying to find a replacement product. Meaning to fill space is a waste of meaning.

>>9341345
yeah. I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and while this may be a thought a lot of people have, if there were actually a meaning to life, wouldn't it feel meaningless? like, if you found out that the purpose of your life was to have kids to carry on your genes, or be good and go to heaven, or colonize other planets, there still wouldn't be a POINT. the fact that it's ambiguous is the only thing that gives it meaning

>>9341169
Has anyone ever noticed that JOI also means "Jerk off instructions" in porno industry slang? A subtle hint that postmodernism is one big wank fest that leads to isolation and the erosion of the froup in favor of passive relief. Why connect with another human being when you can avoid the awkward phase and just go straight to the pleasure?

>>9342271
***group

he was basically a proto-millenial

Was DFW autistic, seriously?

I saw an interview with him and he made a grimacing face several times for no reason.

>>9340649
kek

>>9342371
https://youtu.be/drLEdNmbvsA?t=148

Okay I know that trying to have an honest dialogue about IJ on this sub is like trying to have an honest conversation about BLM on /pol/, but I read the book a while ago and genuinely enjoyed it for what it was, and also have a few questions. (Forgive me if I'm a bit hazy, it really has been a while)

Towards the end, after Don Gately is stabbed, he begs the doctors not to give him morphine, correct? And then the pain he's experiencing forces him in and out of consciousness. My question is whether this plot-line parallels the ideal modern man in DFW's eyes--someone who rejects pleasure in order to experience reality, no matter how painful or ugly it may be, even in the face of death (the absurd). And then, wouldn't the fact that morphine is eventually distributed to Gately represent the failure of man to ascend beyond pleasure?

>>9342429
fuck I said "sub" but I meant "board", rip rip rip it's all rip

>>9341280
>in a world of subjectivity
this is where you are wrong

>>9342429
>>9342435
>admitting you're from reddit
I don't have a problem but you'll need to hide it better.

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FUCK THIS OVERRATED MEME BOOK

IF I SEE ONE MORE BOOKSHELF WITH AN UNREAD BLUE AND YELLOW SPINE


REEEEEE

>>9342511
>Read Books page-by-page at a perfect 90 degree angle
>Never breaks the spine
>Posts meme stacks on /lit/ featuring perfect looking novels

or

>reads every meme book as an ebook
>purchases brand new copies of each book and places them on a shelf to be ostentatious.