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OK, I finished this book and I wanted to get other opinions on it. I enjoyed it overall but I don't understand all of the love that it gets from critics. I get that DFW was trying to fracture the narrative, to better represent what life is actually like for humans, and I think that he did that beautifully. My problem is that I think it could have been done with much less pages. Something as a reader and a writer that I am always thinking about is whether or not the text earns its length and I think that Infinite Jest fails in this regard.
I saw an interview with DFW and he said that one of his biggest fears was not making himself clearly understood and so he would keep repeating his point over and over. I think this is very apparent in Infinite Jest and, once you grasped what DFW was trying to accomplish the entire text seemed very meandering and pointless. I appreciate what he did and, in the context of accomplishing what he set out to do, DFW was successful but I still don't get all of the praise that the book receives.
I found the dialogue to be particularly bad and unrealistic and that the prose itself wasn't much better. I kind of took the entire book as a sort of gimmick that wasn't very enjoyable once you figured out that I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT
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I got the distinct impression that he hates the reader. He gets a pass since he also infuriates grammar nazis.
I do have to agree with you on the dialogue. Ain't no 14 year olds have deep conversations about Kant and higher level mathematics. These are the kinds of conversations a smart person must have in his own head. He does do a good job of superficially grasping what people sound like, evidently implying that he has left the house at least once, possibly to buy drugs or attend AA.
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>>9414977
He was making fun of the smart child trope in American entertainment. Like most of Infinite Jest, this element was stolen from DeLillo, in this case Ratner's Star. I hope you didn't waste 1000 pages of your life thinking Hal was a self insert. Hal, and the Hamlet reference, in my opinion, was more of a commentary on the fact that America behaves like a child with a lost father who desperately wants/needs one.
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>>9415004
>thinking hal was a self insert
But the opening chapter is a fuck you to the staff at University of Arizona, is it not?
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>>9414951
Why the fuck didn't he just stick to writing essays. Interesting commentator but absolute shit at fiction.
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>>9415056
Yea probably. You can do that in fiction. I wouldn't even deny that most of IJ was written to impress karr and bitch about his mom. I would also argue that writers like him dont hate the reader but rather just don't really think about them. IJ is masturbation but it's pretty impressive masturbation at that.
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>>9415070
Why do you think he was absolute shit at fiction?
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>>9414951
you wouldnt get the wide range of emotion in less pages. all the humor and sadness is from these interconnected characters caught in detailed descriptions. you wouldnt get the same impact in less pages and when you're setting up a narrative as complex as infinite jest, more pages are better. youre argument might be valid if he wasnt as good of a writer as he is, but his writing is impeccable. imho
also, another advantage of it being so long is that you tend to forget most of what happened or just dont see how it connects with the later chapters. so when you finish it, going back to the beginning is like reading a whole new story with characters you understand and can connect with.
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>>9414951
Fine damned troll-thread, OP
10/10
Bravo.
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