So, what did everyone think of Infinite Jest by David Foster

>>9559944
Haven't read it yet. Should I?

made me glad dfw killed himself desu

>>9559944
Just awful
Can't think can't write
No discernable talent

>>9560004
I'm halfway through it now. I go from really liking it to dreading picking it up for the day. Some of the descriptions are really perfect. Like for example there is a character that was saved by a gust of wind while trying to jump off a building to her death. The book says this caused her to become "rabidly religious". Another example is he describes a characters anxious beating heart by comparing it to shoes an a drier. Stuff like that really appeals to me.

I also have had a rough patch with drugs and so a lot of the books themes are relatable. Some of the tennis stuff gets to be too much, but I see the point. The book explores what we put our highest value in. In the setting it is always in happiness. The drug users obviously do this but the idea that the intensely dedicated athletes are working incredibly hard for their portion of happiness shows how exhausting it can be. Like the pursuit is a burden.

It is really hard to aim up the idea without being reductive and sounding whiny. I guess that's why the book is so big. It really taps into what is going on in America nowadays. In the 90s it was set twenty years in the future and while some things are silly like the cartridges, the cultural predictions are downright prophetic.

Anyone who says this book is merely pretentious wankery has probably not read it. The writing WILL captivate you even if you are a jaded desensitized materialist corporate puppet. A lot of this book reads like a world with interconnected short stories. Maybe you won't get the plot for 500 pages, but you still will have been through a lot.

>>9560004
Yes, but don't expect it to be an "efficient" read, meaning some concise, easy-to-follow (which doesn't mean books that are like that are in any way bad, they're probably better than PoMo stuff) read. It's fun and inventive though

>>9560101
>muh tennis
>muh drukks
>muh footnotes
>muh thesaurus
>muh cringe ebonics
>muh encyclopedic knowledge
>muh over-the-top descriptions
>muh scary capitalism spookery
>muh self-description as misunderstood genius
The book is a load of retarded wank. Classical case of being skilled at expressing yourself, but having virtually nothing of value to say.

File: 5i7eg37z1emy.png (146KB, 1236x519px) Image search: [Google]

146KB, 1236x519px

>>9560101
You are picrelated by the way.

>>9559944
It was 1000 pages of "I'm smart guys, really, please love me, I can make incorrect references to pharmacology, Wittgenstein, and mathematics"

>>9560009
Nice meme.

>>9559944
I thought it would have been a lot better if he had just written two separate novels; one about Hal and the other about Gately. A lot of IJ is obviously about the connections between the two but it is honestly a bit much, although the excessiveness is part of the point I guess too.

>>9560101
>while some things are silly like the cartridges
I thought the cartridges could of been realistic if only we'd gone down a different path with dvds, netlfix and whatnot. Also if our films were less complex. (But still well made)

>>9560160

>I've not read IJ

>>9560160
>muh surface level understanding of a work I've not read but want to criticize to look cool for my only friends
Good job bud