So, what is actually the point of Infinite Jest? Is it that American

>>9827179
>Is it that American society (and possibly a big part of western society) is so obscene and violent that the only way out is addiction and violent behaviours in general?

I recommend you read his tv essay.

It's about art and postmodern listlessness. DFW is too knowledgeable to put America on a pedestal and attack it like you claim

Damn, in this picture he looks kind of happy, or really a mix between happy and smug of sorts. The other pictures I've seen of him. Well... they seem more angrier, or disgusted. And then I remember how he would talk about irony and how it is destroying culture. Maybe that's why he is never so happy and usually disgusted or angry, or something in between. I don't know it seems as if in this picture he isn't thinking about the destructive power of irony. I like to imagine here he thinks: yes, I finally did it, I killed everyone last of that ironic scum, no longer can irony persist, and now finally, after all this bloodshed we can enter the new age of New Sincerity.
Well, that's what I think anyway.

>>9827179
> trying to analyze a poorly edited sci-fi novel
Looks like the jest is on you, boyo.

>>9828181
irony has gotten much worse since he's written anything. In fact any attempt at being sincere is an unconscious act of the self-conscious irony he wanted to get rid of. You need irony to defeat it, that's the problem

>>9828181
it looks like he was trying to be a frowny shitlord but the sun was in his eyes so he had to squint but he didn't want his eye wrinkles to seem as though he was smiling so he also crinkled up his lips to disguise it as disgust.

It's about the functioning of entertainment in our society.

>>9827179
It's about how nihilism, anhedonia and irony will make people accept a bunch of scary shit (DFW specifically said fascism) because they just don't care. And how it's better to be pathetic and feeling than unfeeling and anhedonic. And there are large parts with people's feelings. Feelings of being attachment, not being heard, feelings of depression, feelings of hopelessness, feelings of love (how it hurts) etc. I also feel that it criticises people in how everybody stays at home getting high and watching TV or TP in their case.

>>9828364
Feelings of attachment*

>>9828244
I always think of the early 2000's as the peak of his new sincerity. I think back at the movies, the music, the shows. It stood for itself. No matter how silly it might be, it existed to be itself. Always remember that All Star was written seriously. I think this attitude peaked in 2008 for two reasons. The first was the suicide of David Foster Wallace, who though unbeknownst to much of America was the spiritual father of the entire culture and the second was the election of Barack Obama a couple of months later.
Really think back to the election of 2008. Honestly, think back to how the people around you felt. Compare it to 2016 and just remember how happy people were and how much they actually believed that they were making a difference. I remember finding it so stupid nine years ago, but now I have a sort of longing for this feeling.
But nothing did change. The happiness eroded as people realized that nobody was going to get in trouble for destroying the economy and that there would be no overhaul of the social safety net of our country. Eventually this boiled over into the riots of 2011: Occupy Wall Street. An entire generation of people was had to come to terms with the fact that sincerity got us nothing and they were angry, but it was still sincere anger. They had their great cultural moment shitting on each other in city centers across the US.
However, the younger generation, who you can call the younger millennials or older Generation Z kids who are in college now, witnessed this at a critical age. They realized it was pathetic. They came to age under Obama and witnessed the disillusionment of the entire generation above them. They briefly remember things being better under George W Bush but can't remember why. All they remember of Bush is that he's a punchline. This memory carries with them.
Another thing happened in the summer of 2011. In one of history's great moments of an idiot being in the right place at the right time, Toby Keith releases "Red Solo Cup". This silly little song, in my opinion, brought down New Sincerity. It was stupid like say My Chemical Romance was stupid, but it was different, because it didn't believe in itself at all. It was a joke. And many of the older millennials derided it for its lack of character, but the younger ones didn't. They listened to it often, refusing to claim they liked it on any basis of merit, but ironically.
So these kids who witnessed their older cousins and brothers looking like goddamn morons for believing in something and tired of the shackles of sincerity, that in their minds had only prevented them from enjoying themselves the way they wanted to, began to reject the whole system. Post-sincere Irony would not take over for a few more years, primarily in my mind because of the swan song of the 2012 election, but it was on the decline until it finally died sometime around 2013. Fast-forward a few years and we ironically elected a meme to the highest power in the land.

>>9828412
Thank you for this

>>9827179
>hint:
It's in the title

>>9828412
2008 was the turning point, but the real event was the financial crisis. Everyone senses that the hurt is coming, that the next crisis will be The Big One. Our kidneys are failing, but we can't bring ourselves to come off the SSRIs, which we only started taking to deal with the vacuousness and the irony. We know that if we even attempted to face the situation we are in that we would find ourselves like DFW, tying the noose around our necks to escape it.

>>9828412

Good post, but I think sincerity is still alive. It's just framed through politics and gender identity instead.

That younger generation you speak about are much more sympathetic towards others. Generally speaking, they also tend to really enjoy and have belief in what they're doing.

The real world isn't as misanthropic as 4chan. We're different because we value literature and media, which is completely bereft of sincerity right now compared to the mid-2000s.

>>9827179

The book is a advertisement, focused at the new york literary scene. I'm sorry but the book is simply a waste of time.

>>9828412
Posts like this make me laugh because as I read them I can actually imagine someone taking the retarded analysis seriously.

>>9830573

Posts like this make me laugh because as I read them I can actually imagine somebody being so autistic as to not consider the thoughts of other people.

>>9830495
I agree. I'm 21 now and now a lot of people very passionate in their beliefs regarding gender/orientation equality, mental health issues acceptance, etc. But there are also tons of us who don't even know what we're doing or going to do, let alone have belief and satisfaction in it. One of the most defining moments we can understand and remember was the Trump election, which has caused many millenials to realize their voices didn't matter. Instead of acting as a catalyst to radicalize their beliefs it was proof that they shouldn't care so much because it doesn't matter.

>>9827179
Why do you always have to look for hidden messages in what you're reading? There are no messages, messages are shit. You read what you read, and whatever the guy who wrote it wanted to tell you is nobody but his business. You can try to have a guess, even say it out loud if the message is clear, but there's no point in looking for it

>>9830584
i dont think so. it's not so much that millenial voices don't matter as that there was a larger untapped populist sentiment that suddenly enfranchised middle america