/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11435958]

Daily Infinite Jest thread.

[Anonymous No.11436028]

Thats a big book

[Anonymous No.11436032]

>>11436028
So big, yet lacking in unique insights.

[Anonymous No.11436051]

David Foster Wallase wrote it. It's nice.

[Anonymous No.11436068]

>>11436028
for you

[Anonymous No.11436074]

I liked Pale King

[Anonymous No.11436136]

It made me go from kissless jobless loser virgin to full chad in just 6 years of reading it and remembering characters and subplots.

[Anonymous No.11436615]

>>11435958
I should be finished with it by August. So, I'll have successfully replaced my individual personality with symbiotic brainletism, and finally be apart of a community.

[Anonymous No.11436642]

>>11436032
oh are you shitting me right now
out of all the books written in the XX century, all the empty pomo drivel, cringy experimental self indulgence, edgy books by beatniks and the alike, you point out that IJ is lacking in unique insights?

[Anonymous No.11437619]

>>11436642
Not the guy you're responding you but you're not really pointing out a dichotomy. In theory that guy could lump IJ in with any or all of the things in that list and think they all "lack unique insights."

He didn't say that IJ had the least amount of insight of anything, just that it lacked "unique insight."

[Anonymous No.11437992]

>>11435958

I read this. A long time ago. It was probably the first piece of real literature I had read at the time. And I’d read a lot before then.

Since I IJ I’ve read GR. And a lot of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, gadamer. I’ve read niet, schope, Hume, Descartes. listened to a lot of Bach, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Godot. Even some houellebecq, hemmingway, poe, Shakespeare, pound, Eliot, etc.

IJ is the book where nothing happens. It’s the book that makes you think, at the turn of every page, that something is going to happen. The entire time it laughs at you. Making you think. This time. This page. Something will happen.

But the sun never rises. Nothing ever happens. It’s just. Cute little contrasting juxtapositions and vignettes. And in the end. You did the drugs, lost your goals hopes and dreams, but at least you can feels?

It was, truly, an infinite jest.

[Anonymous No.11438013]

>>11435958
Haven’t read this but I read “Good Old Neon” today. I’ve always avoided DFW and considered him a maximalist hack and a fraud, but this story was real good. Perhaps I somewhat misjudged him.

[Anonymous No.11438037]

>>11437992

Hal’s brother is a fucking riot. Some of his games to subjects are epic and noteworthy. The wedding ring in particular is hilarious for a bar flirt.

GR like destiny. Like gets an erection, plows a woman, everywhere the damn rocket lands. Like normal plot v normal plot and they match identically. He’s rocket man. And those nursery rhymes. Wow. Even scatology. Dirty mud fucking man those aristocrats.

IJ. Fuckin wheelchair assassins and the PGOAT with the splashing on the face with the reflexes and destiny. With the no narrative heroin addict detoxes v romantic college chad whose been plowing since 13 taking Stacy+1’s card.

With the ducking escaton and those fucking kids with a raison Detre and the smoking for the sake of being a closet smoker.

With the so and but so’s and the commas that make you giggle.

Idve offed myself too desu.

>>11438013
Pale king is good. Supposedly fun thing. One of the stories brief interviews, the depressed person, and the one about rape. Also the one that’s like hills like white elephants, with the abortion.

Dfw is a phase to go through. Just make sure you go thru it.

[Anonymous No.11438041]

>>11437992
This basedboy didn’t get to the Gately fight

[Anonymous No.11438049]

>>11438041

The gately fight was basic. More shit happened with the fucking wheelchair indoctrination. And the ghost. Like lmao. With STENOGRAPHIC and. Wow when Hal’s dads dad lost his knees. Wow.

[Anonymous No.11438148]

>>11438037

And the classic turns page for footnote to turn page to footnote’s footnote, to turn back to end footnote, to turn next page, to turn back to original page in book reader frustration that he started and finished in the reader frustrated about reading translated philosophy metareflective way.

He was maximum self reflection for it’s own sake. As many levels as possible. With no plot. As a rejection of plot. To illuminate the act that is reading in the act of writing for a reader who is reading the writers writing. But who is the author?

Could say he was summoning a demon with his writing. A phantom of the mind that is particular to the experience one has when reading postmodern writing like his.

You have to remember he was a logic major and wrote a thesis on fatalism that won some not insignificant recognition at the time.

[Anonymous No.11438522]

>>11436074
then ur gay. his wife wrote that shit and its trash

[Anonymous No.11438544]

Saw this today. Pretty good.

[Anonymous No.11438578]

>>11438544
What is this?

[Anonymous No.11438586]

>>11438578
A movie about David Foster Wallace and Infinite Jest. Interesting.

The End of a Tour

[Anonymous No.11438724]

guys I'm bailing again (3rd time), this time around page 100 to read the expanse novels, call me a brainlet
I'm never going to make it

[Anonymous No.11438783]

>>11438049
True, but the Gately fight was the climax of the Enfield House chapters. The man became my personal hero for a while after I read it. He wasn't even Stoic about it.

He didn't act purely out of anger which would've been understandable, considering. It was not required of him, but it was his job as he saw it. Whatever sense of responsibility he gets as a live-in staff, bullshit notwithstanding, is more than Hal ever had; despite Hal having his purpose laid out in front of him and being guaranteed affluence in life.

I think the ghost was just delirium from the anesthesia, along with his vision of Hal and Orin at the cemetery. Joelle visiting him in the hospital was a infinitely more significant.

There's my two cents.

[Anonymous No.11438855]

Just finished the Eschaton chapter. It was hilarious, haven't laughed at a book like that in awhile
I love all the kids at the tennis academy, they're great characters. The chapter was great, I was reading some sentences multiple times but then after a certain point I realized much of it is purposefully complicated and didn't really need to be understood
What'd you all think of it?

[Anonymous No.11439019]

it is I, Idris Arslanian

[Anonymous No.11439046]

>>11439019
Help me piiiiiisssss

[Anonymous No.11439047]

>>11438855
One of my favorite parts, along with "Jim not that way Jim."
Pemulis is probably my favorite character in IJ

[Anonymous No.11439048]

>>11438544
Lipsky such a cunt

[Anonymous No.11439059]

>>11438855
After reading this chapter, I was ready to criticize it for being a drawn-out, heavy handed metaphor involving a kids' game being a proxy for nuclear war (like how Lord of the Flies was a microcosm of WWII).

Then I considered whether it was deliberately heavy-handed, and whether DFW would ever be obvious on purpose.

By playing Eschaton, a politically-charged table game with such a complex rule set, the ETA kids reveal that they're more informed and mature than kids "should" be. It's almost like they've figured out the world before actually entering it, and are preemptively assuming roles that 'fit' the eschatological narrative.

But the game of Eschaton is just that - a game. Instead of becoming real adults with 'authentic' world views and experiences, the students enact pre-conceived tropes condensed from Cold War newsreels.

The ETA kids' entire concept of the adult world is gleaned from TP and film cartridges - by taking instruction about adulthood from sensationalized pop media and tropic, self-aware news broadcasts, they become tropes themselves, thus ratifying the caricatures which the media has created. They essentially "become" media, which underscores the terrible power of entertainment DFW keeps elucidating.

Or maybe it was just a stupid chapter in a gassy book about some dickbag kids playing a gay fucking game. You decide.

[Anonymous No.11439207]

>>11435958
Anyone else doing Infinite Summer? I saw that the IF website has a forum, and that there are other online users on it browsing, but it doesn't look at though any new users can register and actually hold discussions on there anymore.

[Anonymous No.11439224]

>>11437992
This is why I don't understand why anyone thinks PoMo is on any comparable level to earlier literature. Not only is earlier literature better written in terms of mechanics (DFW constantly uses terms such as "w/o, or w/r/t," is he worried about taking the extra time to actually write those terms out? Seems strange given the length of the book) but also in terms of plot, which PoMo books frequently seem to have none of. The result of this is that we get shitty PoMo style books, such as Brief History of Seven Killings, winning awards despite having shitty grammar, poor writing, convoluted plots (or no plots at all), and we're supposed to think it's wonderful writing. Of course, if you point this out then people say you just don't understand it or some nonsense, meanwhile I become increasingly convinced that most of human opinions can be explained by that old story "The Emperor's Clothes," where every idiot just plays alone and acts like what everyone else says is good is good despite nothing being there.

That said there are elements of the book that I am enjoying. It works well as a collection of short stories, but it's depressing to think that the man spent so many years in liberal arts programs just to churn this work out. Also there's plenty of passages in the book where it just seems like he went over it with a thesaurus and expects us to think he's intelligent for it. At least Pynchon has the decency to put his obscure words in interesting places instead of peppering them all over the place like confetti.

[Anonymous No.11439320]

Is it a good book? Is it too hard to understand? I can read the greeks just fine, as a reference (I dobt assume I understand all the messages, especially the subtle undertones, but I think I understand most of it)

[Anonymous No.11439459]

Was DFW a liberal?

[Anonymous No.11439481]

>>11439320
>Is it a good book?
Yes.
>Is it too hard to understand?
No. The hardest part is the fact that the story is fragmented but as far as the style of writing it's easy (and enjoyable) to read.
>I can read the greeks just fine, as a reference (I dobt assume I understand all the messages, especially the subtle undertones, but I think I understand most of it)
You will be fine. Despite it being full of philosophical references you don't need any background knowledge in philosophy to get it or anything. It's a very human story, and if you push through it I guarantee you will connect with it at some point.

[Anonymous No.11439496]

>>11439224
>having shitty grammar
Jamaican patois is not shitty grammar, and mentioning Emperor's Clothes is an empty platitude: yes, you saw through that, you the lucid one, very obviously you are the poor boy in this scenario who pointed out the naked emperor and all the dunces around you are just too stupid to see it. Give me a break, you self righteous cretin.

[Anonymous No.11439503]

>>11439496
I don't know why people like him come on 4chan with their holier than thou attitudes. It's 4chan, we're all losers.

[Anonymous No.11440077]

this is hell gay but the thing i loved about infinite jest was how 'close' you got to the characters by the end of it. you know how those reddit tier posts by normies whining about how sad they are when they finish a good book or tv show, usually they're talking about harry potter? well damn, i felt that way about IJ. after i finished it i just wanted to hang out with the characters a little more, i googled everything i could about the book, interpretations, discussions, fuck, even memes. they're a good bunch them.

[Anonymous No.11440214]

>>11439047

[Anonymous No.11440447]

When people discuss IJ they seem to imply that Gately's story arc was meant to be seen as inspirational. The whole addiction to abstinence being identical to addiction to drugs in the same way that they were just distractions for Gately. Always took his AA sponsor stepping away towards the end and his wish for opiates to be injected in paralleled with his fever dream flashbacks of events that led to him getting clean before.

Also thought the last line was out of womb imagery which it probably is but didn't notice the tide imagery indicating the cycling of addictions

[Anonymous No.11440949]

>>11439459
He would have voted for Bernie

[Anonymous No.11441007]

Does anybody have that post of a guy talking about Infinite Jest in a class and humiliating himself?

[Anonymous No.11441078]

>>11439459
He voted for Reagan and Perot

[Anonymous No.11441469]

>>11441007
Please.

[Anonymous No.11441754]

>>11440214
Kekis, more?

[Anonymous No.11441966]

>>11440077
I feel like a brainlet for having done the same.

[Anonymous No.11441993]

>>11441754

[Anonymous No.11442492]

That closing sentence is perfect.
Anyone who thinks IJ is a troll's work needs to stop parroting /lit/ and come to their own conclusions
>it goes nowhere
David Foster Wallace does what few authors do and gives you the ending in the first chapter. But the beauty of it is that you'll most likely never come to that conclusion on a first readthrough. If you were paying attention then you'd be able to better fill in the gaps.
He's not trolling you, he's created a novel that requires you to become invested in the world, not just regard it as another knotch in your library

[Anonymous No.11442517]

JOI’s anti-confluentialism = the book itself. Annularity (ring-shaped, circle-shaped) a constant motif in the book. It’s meant to suggest an eternal loop of the reader reading the book over and over to understand how all the subplots end and/or fit together, addicted to experiencing it again and again because of all the tension it builds up and leaves unresolved. In an odd way, even though it’s a gargantuan, seemingly rambling and deliberately detail-stuffed book at times, it’s one of the funnest books I’ve ever read.

[Anonymous No.11442538]

>>11441007
that one is clearly fake

[Anonymous No.11442839]

>>11441993
Hmm, was hoping for more allusions to the book. Im halfway through though, so its possible I dont get this one.

[Anonymous No.11442885]

>>11435958
Late DFW is actually much superior to Infinite Jest era DFW. He humbled himself with age and was genuinely seeking some form of sincerity, which is so much clearer in The Pale King and his late short stories like “Good Old Neon.”

IJ was him trying to be a literary genius

[Anonymous No.11442923]

Wow all this time I thought it said Infinite Jets and it was some kind of futuristic war story about replicating jet plane robots that take over Earth and fly around until they are defeated by the power of sincerity or something faggy that you book nerds are into, Infinite Jest sounds gay as fuck, like what, some court jester clown guy dancing around forever squirting water out of a fake flower onto people and juggling bowling pins? Fuck that lmao

[Anonymous No.11443853]

>>11439496
>Jamaican patois is not shitty grammar
If not this then it's a brain dead attempt at linguistics by people with low intelligence. Let's be honest, the only reason he only won the Booker is because he's a gay black man who fled a country that lynches gay black men.

>mentioning Emperor's Clothes is an empty platitude
>empty platitude
Oh cool, it's babby's first criticism.

>you are the poor boy in this scenario
Did you have to go and read the story right after I made that post? The point I was making is that people tend to say things are good when other people are standing by to criticize them for not thinking otherwise, and that this might explain why people "enjoy" certain works.

>Give me a break, you self righteous cretin.
I'm glad that you're enjoying your introductory years to literature. Oh no, not a "cretin!" Don't call me that!

Fucking undergraduates.

[Anonymous No.11444362]

>>11440077
I'm with you, anon

[Anonymous No.11444474]

>>11442839
>to the library and step on it

It is though a hard one to get.

[Anonymous No.11444557]

>>11443853
>fucking undergrads
Don't criticize someone for using stupid buzzword insults and then use 'undergrad" you dense fuck. Go jerk off to your intelligence somewhere else.

[Anonymous No.11444602]

>>11439059
I think the point of the chapter was how Pemulis' autistic planning and rules were all undone by the 'roid-rage of someone who got beaned in the head with a tennis ball, human emotion trumps rationalism and legalism, and c.

[Anonymous No.11444613]

>>11444474
It's not really

[Anonymous No.11444636]

>>11440077
ETA is Hogwarts for people who are too good for Harry Potter

[Anonymous No.11444730]

>>11440077
this, /lit/ needs to stop shitting on IJ for its so called pretentiousness, and start lauding it for its top-tier comfiness. Mario and Pemulis are great

[Anonymous No.11445160]

>>11438037
>>11438148
> so. much. better than food, man.

[Anonymous No.11445261]

What the fuck is a police lock?

[Anonymous No.11445454]

>>11436642
What *is* good about beatnik writing? Why is it regarded as highly as it is?

[Anonymous No.11445461]

>>11439459
He saw too much of himself in Bush

[Anonymous No.11445474]

>>11445261
presumably a physical locking device, set up under police authority

[Anonymous No.11445482]

>>11444636
Shit, you're right

[Anonymous No.11445490]

>>11442923
ur trying too hard

[Anonymous No.11445504]

>>11445490
He writes like someone who read it though.

[Anonymous No.11445507]

>>11445504
Top kek

[Anonymous No.11445513]

>>11443853
The irony of a dolt who throws in the adjective "shitty" several times, brings up emperor's clothes like a typical goodreads retard, and now tries to weasel in the "Let's be honest" rhetoric accusing me of babby's first criticism and being an undergraduate. For someone who acts so self righteous you have said nothing of substance in your two posts.

[Anonymous No.11445528]

>>11445507
>>11445504
i havent read infinite jets to be anne frank with u my brothers

just thought he was trying too hard

[Anonymous No.11445561]

>>11445528
Now I can't even start to bring up the reason why your post made me laugh so badly.

[Anonymous No.11445741]

>>11445454
Depends on which ‘’Beatnik’’ writer you’re talking about? Remember, despite all of them being ‘’Beats’’, their styles and believes did differ. Burroughs experimented with his writing through maximalist and post-modernist styles (see Naked Lunch), while under his opium reverie. Kerouac, An Alcoholic, stanch anti-communist, and self-loathing catholic, made very honest, easy-to-read and beautiful ‘’Roman à clef’’ books, probably best suited for young adults t.b.h. And Ginsberg, the other ‘’essential’’ beat in the trio, was a new leftist, Buddhist, and ‘’alleged’’ pedophile, he mainly did poetry. So overall their a diverse bunch with a huge repertoire of books differing in lengths, style and themes, also keep in mind these aren’t the only ‘’Beats’’. They are only remembered as such because they popularized the term, hung together, and were the most successful. Overall, they are appreciated for their historical significance being the catalyst for the American counterculture that would later climax in the late sixties, and good writing.

[Anonymous No.11445774]

>>11445741
good post

[Anonymous No.11445779]

>Wardine be cry
what did he mean by this?

[Anonymous No.11445798]

>>11445779
That he needed a better editor.

[Anonymous No.11445801]

>>11445779
You really can't defend that bit because in every other part of the book he has no problem putting in endnotes that say he's not speaking in the character's own voice.

[Anonymous No.11446606]

>>11436032
Oh yeah? When God was passing out insight, you thought he said that when God was passing out holy prophets you thought he said oily faucets. Because your soul has diarrhea of the mouth... faucet.

[Anonymous No.11446752]

Tell me about Lyle, why does he drink the sweat?

[Anonymous No.11446783]

Loved the book for purely the writing and characters. Lo and behold I look it up online after finishing it to read Aaron Swartz’s explanation of what transpired and feel like a fucking retard for not even have a modicum of an idea on what actually transpired. Still one of my GOAT novels.

[Anonymous No.11447436]

>>11445741
Is Pynchon 'post-Beat'? Neo-beat? Doesnt matter what you can call it but point is: whats your opinion regarding the relation between those authors (esp. Burroughs) and Pynchon, style and theme wise?

[Anonymous No.11447488]

>>11442492
love the closing sentence. Left me with a weird feeling in my stomach.

>>11446783
I feel the same

[Anonymous No.11447497]

>>11435958
If Pemulis nor Orin are your favorite character you suck and you don't belong here. FACT.

[Anonymous No.11447503]

>>11445741
they were all pedos

[Anonymous No.11447541]

>>11447488
My man

[Anonymous No.11447754]

>>11438544
i really enjoyed that movie till i started watching some wallace interviews, his ticks and mannerisms are so over the top the fact segel didn't even attempt to allude to them just ruins the immersion.

[Anonymous No.11447916]

>>11444730
I just finished it for the first time, and re-read a few important chapters (including the first) after.

The comf is what I liked about it most. Hal, Mario and Gately especially were actually just good characters at an interesting point in their lives, the setting was comfy as hell, I read like 100 pages a day for almost a week because I just liked being in the world. Their minds are interesting places a lot of the time, and there are some really engaging scenes, even if they aren't important to an especially satisfying overall story.

It is not the piece of literary genius DFW wanted, but it's a good book that does its best to bend the rules of how to tell a narrative, telling you as much by what it leaves out as what it includes, and has some very funny and occasionally poignant moments along the way.

One of my favourite scenes is close to the end, the story of the trainer guy at ETA whose brother became a priest and then a nihilist, and who tries to prove to his brother people have humanity by acting homeless and asking to people to touch him. For weeks nobody does, and DFW meanders and rants and meanders and rants like always, detailing how slowly more and more real homeless guys join him wailing to be touched and everyone refuses to, and then after like 2 full pages of yarn it's revealed that none other than "ETA's own Mario Incandenza" rounded a corner and touched like 15 homeless guys hands who were begging to be touched, only because "nobody had ever told him he wasn't supposed to".

Moments like this are not a visionary reflection on humanity, but they are nice. They are really nice to read.

Gately's bottom at the end is interesting too, because in our worst moment's, things get really absurd, and the thing about your bottom moment is that it doesn't seem like there will ever be a way out, which is why I thought it was a great place to end. Suspended in that moment, with Gately on the floor.

We never find out how Gately went from that piss soaked apartment to a functional human being, other than that he Came In and Surrendered and went to Ennet House. We just know at one point he was in that hellish shithole, and in another, he was 9 months clean and had some semblance of purpose.

Again, I thought that was cool. But it didn't change my life or blow my mind.

Honestly, there were only a couple of clever things in the book that made me think about things hadn't considered, most of his actual point is well expressed, and I liked reading the ways he made his points, but honestly he's kind of basic. "No one moment is in and of itself unendurable" is not a world-first genius insight, but the characters he built to express it could be really captivating.

I would definitely recommend it for a week in a comfy summer when you're taking time off work, but don't expect it to change your world, the meme has definitely given it a warped reputation.

[Anonymous No.11447923]

>>11447497
Who should I like then?

[Anonymous No.11447965]

>>11447923
Pemulis is fine but if Orin is your favourite character then you’re probably a massive Rick and Morty fan

Gately is the books best character

[Anonymous No.11447981]

>>11438037
Orin is legit just a reflection of the part of DFWs personality that stalked that woman, totally poisonous and creepy, no depth whatsoever.

The worst bit about it is that he wrote a totally empty and toxic character into an obvious self insert and it sort of comes across as a brag.

[Anonymous No.11448006]

>>11447965
Damn Orin was my favorite. I did like Gately though.

[Anonymous No.11448615]

>>11435958
This is my first time reading it. Im about 200 pages in, and u gotta say its not as bad as people purport. If you have a decent memory this book can be fun at times.

[Anonymous No.11448620]

>>11445779
That section gave me a headache.

[Anonymous No.11448625]

guy who kill dog and freeze sinus to head doing cocaine also guy who kill cat in bag

guy who smash other guy head into windshield make liquid crunch noise

guy who crossdress in the desert do reconnaissance

widowed mom headmaster who tug off boy in her office pretend to cheerlead and son saw

[Anonymous No.11448629]

>>11448615
i've been reading it for over 5 years. this book for my brain is like 5 plates deadlift for my body

[Anonymous No.11448708]

>>11448629
I dont know what it is that lets me glide through the book with relative ease. i have a harder time getting through Ulysses if anything.

[Anonymous No.11448878]

>>11447923
There’s nothing “wrong” with “liking” Pemulis and Orin. But it’s worth recognizing that DFW intended IJ as a critique on that entire hemisphere of characters—including Himself, Hal, C.T., the Moms, etc.

It’s fitting in an ironic way that his work to exorcise that part of himself was received almost universally as glorification of the convolutedly selfish ideals those characters represent.

[Anonymous No.11448888]

>read IJ two years ago
>loved it, and been wanting to re-read it from the very day I finished
>haven't read and pynch or delillo, so I figured I was going to start with pynch after my current read
>re-watch dfw interview
>urge to re-read IJ multiplies by 1000
fuck. Do I give in lads? or do I hold up and read pinecone before reading IJ again?

[Anonymous No.11448893]

>>11448888
damn those digits

[Animal Brollective !!nMR3UaudcIW No.11449470]

>>11438544
Eisenberg ruins it IMO, Segel does a great job of impersonating DFW.

>>11447965
Gately grows the most during the book (I started hating his passages, ended the book loving them) but I'd say my fav character was Lenz.

>>11448629
It took me two years total with long periods of reading it a lot and periods of reading two pages a week. Don't give up though, it's totally worth.

>>11448888
Read a short pinecone or go for DeLillo, he has some books that fly by you (White Noise specially flew like a Concorde for me after IJ)

[Anonymous No.11449840]

>>11438544
>tfw the ending scene with "The Big Ship" by Brian Eno playing

more like Brian Kino

[Anonymous No.11449893]

>>11438544
I liked it too and want to read the book by lipsky, which is pretty much a transcription of their conversations. Any one here read it?
Also, if you are not aware, there are 10 minutes of conversation between them from the original tapes on youtube, dfw talks, for instance, about the 'room with no furniture just a drain in the center floor', which by the way made me question the movie. In the tape dfw says this very calmly, would even say near humorously, while in the movie he is portrayed saying that very pissed off

[Anonymous No.11449947]

>>11449840
>This song is making me feel both warm and safe, as though cocooned like a little boy that's just ben taken out of the bath and wrapped in towels that have been washed so many times they're incredibly soft, and also at the same time feeling sad; there's an emptiness at the center of the warmth like the way an empty church or classroom with a lots of windows through which you can only see rain in the street is sad, as though right at the center of this safe, enclosed feeling is the seed of emptiness

[Anonymous No.11449989]

>>11449947
Thats from the pale king, right? It's my main draw to the book desu. Plus I really liked IJ, I guess. But man I love that song. I think I read once that DFW used to do drugs with his buddy in college while listening to that song on repeat. Maybe I'm making that up.

An Ending by Brian Kino is also amazing. I prefer it to The Big Ship. It's the most calming, soothing song I've ever heard.

[Anonymous No.11450014]

>>11449470
>>11438544

>dfw lives entire life guarding his private life from media frenzy
>reporter gets him drunk and records the most embarrassing shit
>now this is all we have to go by

[Anonymous No.11451144]

>>11448625
* peemster saw, 8/10

[Anonymous No.11452166]

>>11446606
*strums guitar*

[Anonymous No.11452188]

>>11450014
Please, DFW did tons of interviews where he discussed personal stuff, moreso than any other author of his stature

[Anonymous No.11452457]

>>11438783
S A D B O Y E

Gately fight was a climax but it was the peak of tragedy, not pure heroic. Gately's actions show that he didn't progress through the steps of his program fast enough. He was not able to accept the removal of all of his character defects- he held on to his anger. That fucked him and he ended up hurting innocents, defending a scumbag again, re-introduced to narcotics in the hospital, and generally fucked in his own character arc. The same thing happened to DFW except he held on to his will, not his anger.

[Anonymous No.11452477]

As for your second paragraph, thank you for reminding me about why I admired Gately so much.

>>11438783
>I think the ghost was just delirium from the anesthesia
This is where I have to bring up some textual evidence of an afterlife being canon in Infinite Jest[spoiler/spoiler]. Namely, when the thrift shop owner is killed by having a broom shoved down his throat by Marathe, there’s a detailed description as the chapter ends of the former character’s journey getting catapulted into the afterlife like those ONAN trash catapults.

Himself really did visit Gately! Have some faith!

[Anonymous No.11452591]

>>11442885

Even Brief Interviews With Hideous Men was better.

[Anonymous No.11452638]

>>11448888
IJ is a book that should just by default be read twice at least. Do it

[Anonymous No.11452662]

>>11452457

>re-introduced to narcotics in the hospital
>???

[Anonymous No.11452748]

>>11452662
>the entire last third of the book
>???

[Anonymous No.11452787]

>>11452748
i think you missed a slight piece there: he explicitly refuses narcotics in favor of strong antibiotics to maintain his recovery. the fever dreams and hallucinatory timelines/memories are all products of his intense pain and fever resulting from the infection, but as far as the reader is aware he does not accept the oral narcotics and relapse.
the assumption is that his last memory and the close of the novel is his 'rock bottom,' which after reliving he is stronger in his sobriety and acceptance of his fucked up past.

[Anonymous No.11453054]

>>11444636
Um, no. Who the fuck would want to board at ETA? It sounds miserable

[Anonymous No.11453086]

>>11451144
it was probably 2 years ago when i read that scene, and i'm only on footnote 304 now. give me a 10/10 bitch

[Anonymous No.11453210]

>it's a J.O.I. autistically recounts his childhood chapter

[Anonymous No.11453217]

>>11453210
The end of Jim not that way Jim. always wows me

[Anonymous No.11453238]

>>11447965
This, Don is great, also Mario

[Anonymous No.11453547]

>>11447916
>>11447916
I mean, this is the way I feel about most if not all fiction truthfully. It's an imperfect vehicle for "life altering insight" because the author has to channel this insight through the necessary constraints of character and narrative: both of which have to feel real, which have to breathe, which necessarily curbs the amount of wisdom you can cram into their mouths. You therefore can't reach quite as profound a level of insight as a philosophical text can, but the pay off is you produce something that is actually enjoyable to read. The insight comes across in a slow burn, as you reflect on the actions of the characters over the days and weeks following the conclusion of the novel, comparing them to your own life and applying their insights to your own problems.

That being said, I feel as though for its length you might expect MORE unique insight than you get, which I think is a fair criticism, but I think it's worth reminding ourselves at the end of the day this is a fiction novel, not a philosophical tract.

[Anonymous No.11454135]

>>11453238
HAL!

[Anonymous No.11454140]

>>11453086
*10/10*

[Anonymous No.11454144]

Okay, I've never cared before but what is the significance of this book? Its science fiction yeah?

[Anonymous No.11454148]

>>11454144
yup

[Anonymous No.11454149]

>>11436074
You're into getting cucked and disappointed repeatedly?

[Anonymous No.11454165]

>>11454144
>>11454148
no its not REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NORMIES STOP CALLING POMO BY THE NAME OF JUST ONE OF THE TECHNIQUES IT PLAYS WITH REEEEEE

[Anonymous No.11454173]

>>11454165
you okay buddy?

[Anonymous No.11454177]

>>11454173
yeah man, I just mildly overreacted.

[Anonymous No.11454179]

>Start book
>lolsportssportssports

Fucking DROPPED.

[Anonymous No.11454247]

>>11454179
Mmmm yeah... beta & bluepilled

[Anonymous No.11454249]

>>11454179
spotted the fag who was bullied in gymclass

[Anonymous No.11454259]

>>11454249
Nope, sports are just fucking boring, boring to watch, boring to read about. Shit puts me to sleep like nothing else.

[Anonymous No.11454275]

>>11454259
It's your own problem, dingus.

[Anonymous No.11454361]

>>11452787
file name got me

[Anonymous No.11454529]

>[...]: so then how was the big game, Mr. president?
>GENTLE: Ollster, boys: seminal, visionary. An outstanding experience. I now say things like outstanding instead of boss. But also seminal.

Have you ever portrayed gentle as steinbrenner from seinfeld?

[Anonymous No.11454635]

>>11448888
Read Pynchon if you haven't yet. Crying of Lot 49 is a great (and short) intro to his writing style and themes. Then dive into V or Gravity's Rainbow.

[Anonymous No.11455220]

Help me understand something
So I'm at like p700, why did the wheelchair assassin's murdered the Antitoi brothers even though they were fellow speratists?
Coludnt they help them find the Master copy? Is there a plot point that will be revealed later?

[Anonymous No.11455231]

>>11452787
he's re-introduced to the immediate access of the narcotics ya dink

[Anonymous No.11455331]

>>11454259
well, thats a shame. Tennis is half the book. I actually used to find it extremely boring, but I've come to enjoy it, was watching today's match at wimbledon couple hours ago.
Always loved sports/competition though, football, f1, basketball, olympics, you name it

[Anonymous No.11455357]

>>11455220
Another question- do years in subsidized time switch on interdependence day or on the normal new years eve?

[Anonymous No.11455367]

>>11455357
normal new year's
and the antitoi brothers were seperatists but not AFR, and were getting in the way. the 'technical interview' was brief

[Anonymous No.11455525]

>>11435958

I've finally started reading my copy out loud and it's a heck load of fun.

[Anonymous No.11456691]

>>11455331
brad?

[Anonymous No.11456692]

>>11447965
What does Orin have to do with Rick and Morty? Orin is just a normal dude you can actually relate to. Gately is great too though.

[Anonymous No.11456720]

JOI is the best character, and my favorite ever.

[Anonymous No.11458256]

>>11456720
>blocks your path

[Anonymous No.11458258]

>>11435958
Lmao