/lit/ - Literature

>>7269593
>>7269659
found it in the archive fags

Pale King is brilliant and highly recommended if you liked Infinite Jest. In one sense it's more of the same, but it's also a lot maturer, and builds on some of his later ideas, particularly those in the 'This is Water' speech about day to day adulthood. Main themes imo are responsibility, boredom, the flaw of individuality, and disappointment.
The structure is a little odd, only partially because the book was unfinished. It seems it was meant to be a bit of a lopsided story even if it had of been finished. It's more like a collection of short stories unified under similar themes than a conventional novel. Things start to fall in line the later you go in the book, but there's never really a "plot." The few items of intrigue are revealed in endnotes (actual endnotes not DFW's in-world ones) to be more or less shaggy dog stories. Mostly, it's glints of backstory and days at the office from a whole bunch of different characters, punctuated by 3 or 4 really long chapters following individual characters/events.
It seems to me DFW struggled with writing a book about boredom, without making it too fun, but without being too too boring either. It's definitely rough, but overall worth the read. Incredibly easy, surprisingly brief, (take you maybe a week) and it feels more modest, like Infinite Jest without the ego.

Broom of The System is a whole different story. Not as recommended, but I actually really enjoyed it at parts. Probably DFW's most outrightly funny book, Broom is the opposite end of the spectrum from Pale King, trying very hard to be big, and important. It's a goofy literary detective novel expanded out way beyond necessity. It starts to drag like crazy in the second half, but I think the good outweighs the bad. Though it would seem DFW took a lot from Lot 49 while writing Broom, I think it's dismissive to call it a ripoff. It's not too Pynchonian and seems more Don Delillo to me, if anything. Has some great parts worth reading for, but it's far less human and emotional than Infinite Jest. It's more like an English grad's rewrite of a Coen Brothers movie.

>>6911254
>he hasn't read Infinite Jest
Start with the memes, idiot

Get for Infinite Memeing

>>6619465
Why is /lit/ the best meme board?

>>6602272
t

>>6595362
here's a reply

>>6589509
>he uses whomsoever as a verb
Now that's what I call banal platitudes, I bet he misused Kafkaesque.

Is anybody old enough to remember a reaction to infinite jest after it came out? Do you remember how big the initial reaction? Was it actually talked about a lot or did that only happen in retrospect/suicide?

>>6526394
>all these banal platitudes

Possible Spoilers

Why does DFW screw Pemulis over like that in the end? Why does he call him the anti-Christ of the book? The only negative thing I can find of him is how Hal calls him a monster because he can't tell when he's lying, but this applies to like half the characters in the books, especially his own Moms! What did Pemulis do or what does he represent that makes him such an evil character?

>>6518957
dfw will never teach you fictions

>>6518546

>>6518570

>>6518535
>scientism

>>6518202
is now.