/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12596118]

Is this book really that bad ? It seems to be around the size of most of it's "post-mordern" contemporaries so what makes this one so much harder to finish ? I'm considering reading it soon (currently reading Pynchon's works) but I'd like to know what exactly caused IJ to become such a meme

[Anonymous No.12596156]

>>12596118
>is this book really that bad?
Its divisive and there are sections that aren't very good
>It seems to be around the size of most of it's "post-mordern" contemporaries
Pointless observation.
>so what makes this one so much harder to finish ?
Some people don't like it so they stop reading it
>I'm considering reading it soon (currently reading Pynchon's works)
Okay. Its easier than that.
>but I'd like to know what exactly caused IJ to become such a meme
The fact that its a popular book with some ridiculous aspects. Meme doesn't mean bad. Its an 1100 page book with 400 end notes. I would tell you to use your brain but that's clearly asking too much. You should just throw out your pynchon books because you're clearly a vacuous retard. Stop being a fucking shitposter DUDE LE M3M3S LMAOOOOO

[Anonymous No.12596166]

>>12596156
>Meme doesn't mean bad
I mentioned that because that's usually the vibe attached to most posts about it
>Pointless observation.
The point of that observation was in relation to how often I see people discussion how hard it is to finish

[Anonymous No.12596175]

“Stephen King is Cervantes compared with David Foster Wallace. We have no standards left.”

DFWfag BTFO

[Anonymous No.12596186]

>>12596175
>Sounding rather suspiciously like Professor H. Bloom's turgid studies of artistic influenza

[Anonymous No.12596555]

>>12596166
Just give up reading books. If you're too retarded to browse /lit/ you might as well be staring at the fridge instead of reading gravity's rainbow. Maybe you can find a nice video game on mist or fog or however its called ;^)

[Anonymous No.12596606]

>>12596555
carrot nose is dead anon

[Anonymous No.12596614]

If you have to ask the question I wouldn't bother starting. Infinite Jest is a work so complex, so artistic, so sophisticated that if you even ask such a banal question you certainly aren't capable of understanding what DFW is doing. Stick to Harry Potter kid and leave the grown ups to their grown up books.

[Anonymous No.12596627]

>>12596614
That sounds great and all but I just didn't want to get memed into something like a Nick Land mess.

[Anonymous No.12596657]

>>12596118
No, it's an engaging read that is really hard to put down, partially due to it's shit ending.

[Anonymous No.12596664]

>>12596627
Nick Land isn't a meme, but he plays one on the internet

[Anonymous No.12596797]

>>12596555
I think you mean steam.

[Anonymous No.12597116]

>>12596118
I recently started and dropped the book after 70 pages when I was told it doesn't really change or build up to something better. There were interesting parts, but 90% of the time I found it dull and decided to drop it.

It isn't that hard to comprehend, the reason most people drop it is because its just boring.

[Anonymous No.12597159]

>>12596555
yikes

[Anonymous No.12597212]

>>12596118
Many people drop it either during the protracted description of mundane dope thoughts or the notorious Wardine section. Those are legit points to drop it. It's a good book though. Exclusively here it has a shit reputation exactly because it's exactly what people who post here logically ought to like, and therefore indefensible.

[Anonymous No.12597236]

>>12596555
Fuck off

[Anonymous No.12597237]

>>12596118
When is /lit/ going to stop talking about this fucking book, seriously - i've been on this board for too many years of my pathetic fucking life and this book gets mentioned DAILY since the dawn of time. I honestly think DFW's ghost has cursed this board to mention it every single day.

THE BOOK IS FINE, IT'S OKAY, IT'S LONG AS FUCK AND DFW WAS A LOONY, THAT'S IT.

[Anonymous No.12597293]

>>12597237
Like it or not IJ is the most controversial and popular book of our generation. It’s only becoming more and more popular (even relevant) within out culture. I shit you not there will be blockbusters and netflix serieses coming out within several years. It’ll only get worse. This is irregardless of the merits of the tome itself, which is both reviled and revered by a growing populace.

[Anonymous No.12597308]

>>12597293
Pynchon's better

[Anonymous No.12597315]

>>12597293
I am being honest with you, nobody talks about this book outside of this fucking board. I am serious, go into the street, and ask people if they have ever heard of Infinite Jest. People will fucking blankly look at you. It is not the most popular book of our generation, some fucking awful trash like Twilight or fucking Dan Brown is probably the most popular book of our generation. The vast majority of people do not care about him. There might be a netflix series about his fucked up life that morons watch and think oh ma gad he's so intersting :D but that is about it.

This board has to move on, we all made it past the Stirner stage we can make it past this.

[Anonymous No.12597323]

>>12596118

[Anonymous No.12597328]

>>12596118
Because dickhead DFW makes you flip to the back of the book every second sentence for one of his retarded annotations and sometimes the annotation has its own annotation. Its an absolute chore to read and not very good either. Its just as Bloom said, He can't think, he can't write, there's no discernible talent.

[Anonymous No.12597341]

>>12597308
Yes, but that’s not the point

>>12597315
The vast majority do not care about books, let alone literature. Within younger literary circles, which is really what matters for our purposes, yes, DFW reigns supreme. Every 20-30 something literary type/reader knows of him and IJ.

[Anonymous No.12597350]

>>12597315
>we all made it past the Stirner stage
>implying

The Ghost of the Unique Milkman is still roaming around.

> I am serious, go into the street, and ask people if they have ever heard of Infinite Jest.

You're right, but I wa surprised to hear it mentioned but one of my coworker who's a father of four, a qualified scientist and a genuinely non-meme guy.

[Anonymous No.12597351]

>>12596118
it gets a bad rap cause college indie boys like the idea of having read "great american literature" but its not so bad, i'd say he even had some future insight if you look at any corporate twitter account

[Anonymous No.12597400]

>>12597212
For me, it was the giant hamsters. I remember thinking, 'this isn't particularly funny, nor is it particularly clever' and realised I had another 700 pages to go

[Anonymous No.12598998]

>>12596175
BASED

[Anonymous No.12599279]

>He can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent

[Anonymous No.12599291]

>>12597315
this board was 1000x better during the Stirner stage

[Anonymous No.12599292]

>>12596555
I come here to vent just as much as the next guy but fuck you specifically

[Anonymous No.12599384]

>>12596156
>>12596555
brainlet
>>12597328
Bloom said it best.

[Anonymous No.12599462]

>>12596797
>>12597159
>>12597236
>>12599292
>>12599384
lmao

[Anonymous No.12599479]

>>12596118
It was a fun read. The fuckton of anotations were a pain in the ass tho.

[Anonymous No.12599899]

I found the endnotes to be pretty fuckin' engrossing

For example, something about an optician-turned-film-auteur's entire fictional filmography is oddly compelling to me. And a lot of JOI's films had really absurd premises that turned out be pretty distinctly autobiographical. Something about that is really evocative to me.

And Hal and Orin's conversations were pretty sweet as well and remained fresh and interesting. Basically the whole thing was, either way. I just think too many people look at it like its this cold post-modern brick. It's far more riveting when you discuss/consume the work through the lens of The New Sincerity, which is a movement that my teenage self found to be compelling as shit.

[Anonymous No.12600014]

>>12599899
you and everyone else, bud.
Endnote 24 is really the highlight of the book.

[Anonymous No.12600058]

no book in the last 25 years has come remotely close to IJ. memes aside, it is an absolute masterpiece, even if its a pain in the ass to go to the back of the book to read the endnotes.

just give it a try. my first time i dropped it at page 400, and the following summer i successfully finished it. i am glad i did since it is truly the book of our era.

[Anonymous No.12600223]

>Wardine be cry

[Anonymous No.12600238]

>>12596614
Don't listen to this guy. The book is essentially DFW jerking himself off with how great he is while bitching about how inferior he is. You'd get the same thing out of a tissue someone cried and then came into.

[Anonymous No.12600244]

>>12600238
>a tissue someone cried and then came into.
kek, what a great summation of DFW's work

[Anonymous No.12600260]

>>12596156
Funny how you critique someone else’s post when you just produced a nice specimen of the worst kind of post.

[Anonymous No.12600267]

>>12600260
As expected from a DFW sycophant.

[Anonymous No.12600269]

>>12600238
Lol that’s pretty good dude

[Anonymous No.12600274]

>>12600267
I have never read any DFW and, having skimmed this thread, still have no intention of doing so.

[Anonymous No.12600277]

>>12596118
Nah, just overrated and somewhat plebeian. You could be reading much, much worse.

[Anonymous No.12600296]

>>12600277
embarrassing post

[Anonymous No.12600308]

>>12597323
Mommy...

[Anonymous No.12600310]

>>12600277
1,000 fucking pages of mediocrity, you could be reading something much, much better. Multiple things, in fact, in the time you've wasted on IJ. Why are midwits so adverse to reading the classics and stick with things written after they were born?

[Anonymous No.12600456]

>>12596186

Kek Bloom never forgave him and now his old jewish ass is setting the canon

[Anonymous No.12600636]

>>12596118
its not great literature but as it get mentioned so much its probably better to get it out of your way by reading it. this site likes to have in "jokes" stirner, land, Wallace

[Anonymous No.12600723]

>>12596555
this guy gets it, checked

[Anonymous No.12600732]

>>12600636
>its not great literature but as it get mentioned so much its probably better to get it out of your way by reading it.
This is such pathetic logic you must be from r*ddit

[Anonymous No.12600752]

>>12600732
no its not logic, Im tired of giving detailed reasons for my opinion that i think many already share

[Anonymous No.12600770]

>>12600752
If the board suddenly decided Mein Kampf was a must-read and "everyone is doing it," would you read that too and apply your same mental gymnastics to why it is a must read? God you're such a pathetic worm, you lack any independent thoughts or principals of your own and you make me fucking sick. I unironically hate you and all people of your ilk.

[Anonymous No.12600774]

>>12600770
What kind of pussy gets mad on 4chan?

[Anonymous No.12600778]

>>12600310
agree

[Anonymous No.12600805]

>>12600770
yes, sometimes i pick up a book and read it because "everyone is doing it".

[Anonymous No.12600811]

>>12600770
all that just to say ilk

[Anonymous No.12600950]

>>12596118
It's only pussies that whine about reading ergodic literature. Are you a pussy anon?

[Anonymous No.12601112]

>>12597293
>irregardless

[Anonymous No.12602213]

>>12601112
Kek

[Anonymous No.12602346]

I started reading until page 300 and put it away. I liked it but it was nothing special.
I want to continue again but can't be arsed reading chapter summaries about what happened. I remember that people watched a video and could not stop until they died.

I just watched the DFW movie with Eisenberg and my interest was sparked again.

[Anonymous No.12602357]

>>12602346
>reading chapter summaries about what happened
that's not what IJ is about
additionally things literally start to come together after page 300 and make more sense.

[Anonymous No.12602371]

>>12596156
>>12596555
the fuck is up with this guy? i recognize this intense autistic fury, he went apeshit at me a few days ago when i inquired about pynchon. what's his problem, bros? why does he have such a short fuse?

[Anonymous No.12602375]

>>12602357
>that's not what IJ is about
Who gives a fuck what it is about? I need to read the summaries to remember the plot.

[Anonymous No.12602384]

>>12596118
i love DFW and i don't think he was pretentious i think he was a good person and i feel so bad he passed and i wish i could have been his fren...

[Anonymous No.12602411]

>>12596555
>mist or fog
based and keked

[Anonymous No.12602419]

>>12596555
best post on /lit/ ever desu

[Anonymous No.12602667]

>>12602371
READ THE GOD DAMN BOOKS YOU STUPID COCKSUCKER STOP MAKING THREADS TO ASK IF YOU SHOULD OR TELL US YOU LIKED THE FIRST 35 PAGES

[Anonymous No.12602733]

>>12602667
OP here, that wasn't me, all I wanted to clarify was that this book had merit enough to purchase and sit down with and with the responses in this thread I've decided I will read it. It's easy to say "just read " but that doesn't go without the awareness that there exist things not worth spending time on. I am fond of all the nonfiction from David Foster Wallace that I've come across but IJ has always been something that seemingly sat on it's own plateau for which I had no reference. I simply didn't see the merit in starting something that I don't feel fulfilled enough to complete , for instance attempting finnegan's wake. Now I know what to prepare for and why I should read it, that's all.

[Anonymous No.12602852]

>When Rod the God slips up and says Luria's name instead of the President's
This shit is magical, bros. Is she the one pulling the strings? Was SHE the one who wanted O.N.A.N. and Experialism? How closely tied is she to the A.F.R.? 'Cause I remember she has a thing witt Fortier.

[Anonymous No.12602888]

>>12602852
hold up. same anon

I just realized that this whole thing is supposed to be occurring through the lens of Mario's 11/8 puppet show.
what does this mean?

[Anonymous No.12603009]

>>12597293
The book was recently translated into Russian and it is now everywhere, anybody with literary interests above Harry Potter talks about it. The phenomenon is extremely funny, since book talks about things that are very distant culturally from us, post-soviet kids, and because people read a translation, which is different from the original (Russian does not have that wealth of obscure English synonyms).
I personally dropped the book four hundred pages in and found three or may be five pages interesting or witty.

[Anonymous No.12603265]

>>12603009
Over here in Deutschland this stuff is discussed in public at length. Last year there was a translation of a nonfiction compilation getting about as much attention as something like that possibly can and glowingly reviewed.

https://youtu.be/8Px-frt7aHY?t=2427

[Anonymous No.12603374]

>>12602384
Read up on him. He was a bad person through and through.

[Anonymous No.12603792]

>>12596118
It's not a masterpiece, not in content nor style, but it's a genuinely good book that tackles depression and addiction very well and it has some memorable characters and moments.

[Anonymous No.12604050]

>>12603792
this but i think its absolutely a masterpiece, just going on consistency of quality ALONE, nevermind its cohesion with recurring imagery that hasn't been equally in 25 years

[Anonymous No.12604869]

>>12604050
>just going on consistency of quality ALONE
Wardine be cry

[Anonymous No.12604878]

>>12596118
I found "Infinite Jest" a lot, LOT easier to read than "Gravity's Rainbow." I'm not really into incomprehensible postmodern books, though.

My advice is just to forget the hype (either positive or negative) and read it. It's entertaining and challenging.

[Anonymous No.12604882]

>>12596118
>what exactly caused IJ to become such a meme

Its comedic realism and thus is easy to joke about. he almost encourages us to

[Anonymous No.12604888]

>>12604050
Idk I'm reading the pale king right now and a homeless girl killed her hobo rapist with a sandwich laced with ground glass trap. I'm only about 70pages in

[Anonymous No.12605314]

>>12597116
>70 pages
No idea what you're missing.

[Anonymous No.12605352]

>>12603374
Are you referring to the r*pe of women? Are we sure he did that? What else are you referring to?

[Anonymous No.12605502]

>>12597293
IJ sould have always been a tv show, never a book.

[Anonymous No.12605515]

>>12599899
DFW was at heart a film director, who was spoilt by a academic preening.

[Anonymous No.12605533]

>>12602346
Every idea DFW had he ripped off from the movies than wrung it through his turtously affected inner monologue. He was basically driven mad by trying to emulate an academics idea of the great american novel. Dude would have been happier writting sci fi pulp. Or making midbrow films.

You can define his work by the films he watched in college, average freshman stuff like monty python sketches (the joke to die for) and blue velvet.