Is it worth reading Infinite Jest for a non - American (non -

>>9400669
Frankly no, it is a meme, and consumed ironically by a post-hipster nu-male """""intelligentsia"""". I had always thought the phrase "no discernible talent" was a meme itself until I read this book, and realized that it had neither prose nor plot merit.

most references are explained in the footnotes. it is a good book. you should read it.

these 2 haven't read it
>>9400676
>>9400793

>>9400669
it is the atlas shrugged of /lit/

>>9400669
>Is it worth reading Infinite Jest
no

>>9400676
>Anon reads for the plot.
My sides

>>9400808
what board is atlas shrugged the atlas shrugged of

>>9400813
atlas shrugged is the atlas shrugged of frequently discussed literature
infinite jest is the atlas shrugged of frequently discussed literature on /lit/

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I never heard of this book until I visited /lit/, and Bret Easton Ellis stated that David Foster Wallace is the most overrated author of the 90s - I'll take his coked up opinion as truth.

>>9400904
I've heard about it on many other chans and boards, and it seems to have a reputation of the ultimate hipster meme book. I asked one philologist acquaintance of mine whether I should read it and he told me I shouldn't because I'm not immersed in the US pop-culture since childhood and therfore won't get all the references. That guy is not an American as well, and I forgot to ask whether he read it himself. Though he's quite knowledgeable in postmodernist literature and I value his opinion.

>>9400945
There's less pop-culture references in IJ than in Pynchon, but there's some. Honestly there's a lot more general literature references that you might miss, but it's not a big deal if you do

>>9400945
I don't even know anything remotely about the content of Infinite Jest, but the title alone doesn't appeal to me. Titles like The Idiot, Moby-Dick or: The Whale, American Psycho, Demons or Starship Troopers are simple but impactful titles, and give me a good idea about what the book is about and are to be taken, uhm, seriously.

>>9400971
Infinite Jest is a line from Hamlet, but also the name of the thing the entire story revolves around (a videotape, basically)

>>9400904
Funnily enough dfw hated Bret Easton Ellis, and the Brat Pack as a whole for their moral nihilism

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i think anyone who has had problems with drugs, regardless of their upbringing, will be able to find some worth to the gately sections.

the hal parts definitely are written towards upper-middle class americans.

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Read anything you want, just don't be like this guy.

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>>9401036

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>>9400904
If there ever was an overrated author it's bret easton.

>>9401079
Well, I only read American Psycho so far, but I gotta say your statement has no merit.

>>9401138
>muh endless descriptions of expensive suits

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>all the burgers ITT don't realise IJ is filled with pop-culture references because they don't even see them, for such references are the very fabric of their thoughts

>>9401156
White suburbanites don't have anything else. That's their culture.

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>>9401147
>muh illiteracy

Book should be about 600 pages. For whatever reason DFW really wanted to keep talking about addiction and depression and there's way too fucking much Don Gately.

>>9401794
He talked about them so much because they're fundamental to the book's overall summation of American culture.

>>9401814
Woah! Nice, cool. Six hundred pages of addiction and depression aren't enough, we need to drive it home. BUT THATS THE POINT. No, it's onanism.