vimes

Infinite Jest

Recommended Posts

After a year of putting it off, I am finally FINALLY reading this book. I'm on page 700 and am slowly losing my mind because I'm at work and can't read it right now (which yes, I realize the hilarity of being consumed by a book about people who are consumed by various things: drugs/'media'/other people).

I was really worried that this book wouldn't live up to all the hype that surrounds it, but so far I haven't been disappointed. Everyone keeps telling me that the ending is amazing, but after spending so much time learning about these characters/this fictional universe, I'm a little sad about reaching the end and letting them go.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I know I’m basically replying to myself here, but I just finished Infinite Jest last night and felt a strong urge to talk about it on the internet. My mind is still processing everything that I read, but I can safely say that the book is now one of my favorites.

Did anyone else notice all the Brothers Karamazov references? I know the book more overtly references Hamlet, but there’s a lot of Brothers K in there are well. It didn’t dawn on me how similar BK and IF are until near the end of IF, when there’s a direct textual reference to Ivan’s Grand Inquisitor speech in the Brothers K. There are a lot more subtle connections throughout the book (the parallel between the two sets of brothers is my favorite. Dmitry = Orin, Ivan = Hal, and Alyosha = Mario). To me, IF almost acts as a modern day mirror of the Brothers K, but that might just be the Russian lit. major wanting to see something that’s not there.

Anyway, it was a great book. I'm so glad that I finally finished it and that it lived up to the high praise that everyone gives it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Be sure to go back and read the beginning! There are a few out-of-order scenes there that don't make sense until you've read through to the end.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's exactly what I did when I got to the end! Then I had to stop myself from just completely rereading the whole dang book again.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So I just finished this. Started it in Mid-July, so it's been a long time going, but goddamn if it wasn't worth it. Realizing how important the first 20 or so pages are to the end of the book when for the longest time they had seemed like total non-sequiturs just blew my mind. I really don't know what else to say about it, but am sure that re-reading it when I approach my 30s in another half-decade (don't think I could give it another go before then. My brain is kind of exhausted after this run) will illuminate much more. I feel like I just need to sit down and digest what I've been cramming into my head for the past month and a half, but unfortunately I only have a week before my final year of university, so too bad there.

Weirdly, I only picked it up because my partner had a copy that she had long since given up on. For whatever reason, it never grabbed her. Oddly, her bookmark was right in the middle of

Mme. P's attempted OD

, a point I couldn't imaging stopping in the middle of. Having the copy just sitting on the shelf above her bed and this weird storm of people telling me I should read it added up to me borrowing her copy to see if I liked it. So glad I did. Holy shit. Great, great book.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brief Interviews, in particular, features one of my favorite pieces of writing ever, "A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life":

Oh my, buying next on the strength of that alone.

I read Infinite Jest earlier in the year on the advice of some guys I play Street Fighter with, of all the places to pick up literary recommendations. I'd never heard of Wallace before which struck me as odd roughly two pages in as it started to dawn on me how the humour and tone were so perfectly up my street it seemed absurd that this author had somehow completely escaped my attention for a little over 31 years. I was in no doubt when I finished it that it's the best novel I've ever read, and I stand by it, and this excited/s me because so much of the media that has really changed the way I've thought about things was stuff I grew up with, or watched in my early 20s or whatever. I read so many books and watch so many movies that fall between 1-4 stars these days that it's reassuring to know there's still something out there that can blow me away, to borrow an overused phrase from 2009 or so.

I can't remember much in the way of specific story details but it's been fun to pop into this thread and see the reactions of people who've just finished it, how the length and scope of it just leave you in awe that a writer could somehow fuse so many ludicrous personalities and scenarios, difficult words, huge footnotes and sharp wit into something that works as well as this and is approachable and readable despite the running time. I've enjoyed the rest of the DFW I've read since, too, especially Consider the Lobster and The Pale King although going to The Broom of the System having read Jest first is a very strange experience and I think robs that book of a lot of what probably made it so special back then.

I feel compelled to stick this in here as one of my favourite parts of infinite Jest - the footnote where you discover that Wallace created an entire filmography for James O. Incandenza and he wasn't just making up odd titles as he went along. Taken from here, this raised a genuine laugh and some odd looks on the train:

“Good-Looking Men In Small Clever Rooms That Utilize Every Centimeter Of Available Space With Mind-Boggling Efficiency” - Unfinished due to hospitalization. UNRELEASED

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I feel compelled to stick this in here as one of my favourite parts of infinite Jest - the footnote where you discover that Wallace created an entire filmography for James O. Incandenza and he wasn't just making up odd titles as he went along. Taken from here, this raised a genuine laugh and some odd looks on the train:

God, that whole section was hilarious. I actually had my copy with me when I was at Jake's place during last year's GDC I think, and I ended up reading a bunch of them aloud.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had the stupidest grin on my face when I was reading through those footnotes and suddenly the two words “Infinite Jest (I)”, appear. I sort of feel like that was a moment when I realised I was reading something plotted by a fucking genius.

One of the (many) sections where it comes across how perfectly crafted those footnote are is when Hal's in the viewing room watching a bunch of his dads films, primarily Blood Sister: One Tough Nun, and the legwork that the footnotes did earlier starts to pay off in like a hundred fucking ways at once, they work as this background for Hal's academic relation to his dad, they're this huge information reservoir the reader has that allows for a shift in tone in the book, they can be seen as this detail that you have to highlight what the characters have missed and the course there on, or as you go back through the footnotes it can be read as specifically calling out you and the fact that you've missed a whole load of shit. This and a whole lot more, and probably even more that I'm too stupid to think of.

yeah, book's alright.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This thread sold me. Challenge accepted.

Audio books (two words) are my default reading method these days (allowing roughly three bonus hours a day while driving, exercising and cleaning), but this is an interesting case of text that can probably only work as text.

Turns out there's a lot of drama surrounding the recorded version of Infinite Jest. By all accounts it was a huge labour of love, and fans seem to have nothing but praise for the narration. However, the production team made the difficult compromise of leaving out the endnotes, instead having another voice actor cut in to refer listeners to the accompanying PDF. Probably necessary, but far from practical.

In response to the feedback, endnotes are now being recorded. When they'll see the light of day and what format this will take is anyone's guess, but hats off to them for making the effort.

Physical copy it is, then. And since a book like this is a capital-A Achivement, a paperback or kindle version would feel disingenuous. No, this has to be the heftiest tome of a hardcover available. If only there were a lavish, leather-bound, oversized, illustrated, slipcased edition out there. This needs to be a commitment, damn it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Physical copy it is, then. And since a book like this is a capital-A Achivement, a paperback or kindle version would feel disingenuous. No, this has to be the heftiest tome of a hardcover available. If only there were a lavish, leather-bound, oversized, illustrated, slipcased edition out there. This needs to be a commitment, damn it.

Actually, I'd recommend buying the book in paperback and then physically ripping the book into different sections. I ripped mine into three parts: two parts for the main book and then the entire endnotes section. It definitely makes the book a lot easier to cart around. When you're done reading, you can always buy a nice copy, but I'm kind of fond of my torn up version.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Actually, I'd recommend buying the book in paperback and then physically ripping the book into different sections. I ripped mine into three parts: two parts for the main book and then the entire endnotes section. It definitely makes the book a lot easier to cart around. When you're done reading, you can always buy a nice copy, but I'm kind of fond of my torn up version.

I could never bring myself to do this. I just toted around a bigass hardcover for two months.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I could never bring myself to do this. I just toted around a bigass hardcover for two months.

I can completely understand that, I normally would never do anything to purposefully damage a book (funny story, one time my boyfriend surprised me with a necklace by putting it in a hollowed out copy of a Dostoevsky book, and even though it was a bad translation and a really pretty necklace, I still yelled at him for damaging a classic), but now when I look at my beat up copy of Infinite Jest, I see at as a symbol of all the effort I put into actually reading it and feel weirdly proud of it.

Plus, it was just fun to rip the damn thing in half.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I borrowed my girlfriend's copy, which she'd got about 80 pages into and stopped reading, so the beat-up-ness of her copy is by my doing. I've actually been considering buying her a fresh one and claiming the beat-up one as my own as a symbol of my achievement. HappyBob, I would recommend two bookmarks. One for where you actually are, and one for the footnotes. It made the process so much easier on me when I started doing that after about 150 pages of the book proper.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the advice. I'm settling on a madcap multimedia mix: the hefty hardcover with two bookmarks as a primary source, a kindle edition for outside reading, and the footnote-free audiobook on standby if I ever feel stuck and inclined to push things forward while driving/walking/etc. (though these passages would need to be revisited afterwards). All that remains is to... well, start.

It's the Southern Hemisphere and I have a month off. Infinite Summer, here I come!

In all likelihood, we'd end up reading Infinite Jest before The Pale King, since I think it's the kind of thing a lot of people would like an "excuse" to read.

I'd be very curious to see if and how the Book Club would take this on. (One month for pre-discussion, the other for an episode proper? A standard monthly instalment with earlier warning?) I hope the length isn't too challenging to work around, because it really would do readers a world of good.

but now when I look at my beat up copy of Infinite Jest, I see at as a symbol of all the effort I put into actually reading it and feel weirdly proud of it.

I've also grown to love the idea of worn-out books as trophies, particularly if it's a cheap paperback I've travelled with, where a certain degree of damage is unavoidable. Since filling my bookshelf with oversized hardcover books (each big enough to kill a man), the urge to collect/protect/display has been channelled elsewhere, leaving paperbacks - within reason - as fair game.

But you're still dead to me if you dog-ear a borrowed book, Ian in fourth grade.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Based on the first three pages, this is the whitest book ever written.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

first three pages of this thread, or of the book?

(If you want the complete opposite to the privilege/things talked about in the first 3 pages, try page 377)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Based on the first three pages, this is the whitest book ever written.

Because of the setting or the characters? Personally, I think that's an unfair assessment and as Scipio already mentioned, the book actively does a lot to introduce narratives that don't come from a 'privileged' perspective.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I dunno, I'd say it's a pretty fair assessment of the first three pages, but that privilege is also, you know, the joke. I don't think anyone is taking those characters seriously, with C.T's insane run-on sentences, and this weird kid that won't speak but is detailing everything incessantly. I definitely wasn't reading that and relating to those characters and worrying if Hal was going to get in or not, if I wasn't laughing I was wondering what the fuck is going on here?!?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's a totally unfair opinion, and probably the intention of the scene, which is why it was important to clarify that it's an opinion based on just the first couple of pages.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't even know what the opinion means. Describing things as "white" has become so vague as to be meaningless as far as I'm concerned. It just seems to be some kind of criticism having to do with wealth, or hipsterism, or privilege, or SOMETHING, depending on the context, but at this point I just read it as general snark.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The narration winds up being split between wealthy and not wealthy kids at the fancy tennis academy, but also alcoholic career criminals, so some of the class stuff is mitigated, if that bothers you. also, even the wealthy kids get pretty bogged down with drug habits so like it's not all tennis and art film.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't even know what the opinion means. Describing things as "white" has become so vague as to be meaningless as far as I'm concerned. It just seems to be some kind of criticism having to do with wealth, or hipsterism, or privilege, or SOMETHING, depending on the context, but at this point I just read it as general snark.

Whenever I see this come up on twitter (#whitepeopleproblems), I always interpret at it at as an for easy way for people to excuse their complaining. Usually someone will say something along the lines of, iPhone not working #whitepeopleproblems, because they recognize the ridiculousness of complaining about something so banal and they think that by poking fun at themselves for complaining about something meaningless they are then able to complain, because it's all a big joke. That specific context particularly bothers me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Whenever I see this come up on twitter (#whitepeopleproblems), I always interpret at it at as an for easy way for people to excuse their complaining. Usually someone will say something along the lines of, iPhone not working #whitepeopleproblems, because they recognize the ridiculousness of complaining about something so banal and they think that by poking fun at themselves for complaining about something meaningless they are then able to complain, because it's all a big joke. That specific context particularly bothers me.

I agree. For one thing, it entirely dispenses with issues of class and wealth divisions, which are far more sinister because they are so powerful and yet increasingly ignored by this kind of commentary. The "white people problems" are almost always related to people with a decent amount of disposable income living in metropolitan or suburban areas. They entirely discount, say, affluent non-white people, or the fairly considerably populations of, say, white rural people from economically depressed areas. It's just a lame catch-all, and it's been used so often that it's not even novel anymore.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Agreed. It's an attempt to dismiss white privilege by pretending to own it, which is gross. Tellingly, no one would ever use the tag #richpeopleproblems on their own tweet.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now