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/lit/ - Literature


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14920972 No.14920972 [Reply] [Original]

do I start reading this or what

I'm kinda scare it'll change my life or some such fuckery

>> No.14920987

Don't worry my dude. It's your first time reading it, so you'll drop it after a couple hundred pages.

>> No.14920989

>>14920972
It’s good, nothing incredible. DFW is ingrained into youth culture pretty hard nowadays, which kinda defused it for me when I read it. Like watching Alien and thinking, ‘yeah this probably was scary when it came out’

>> No.14921004

>>14920987
How many times will it bring me back to it, then?

>> No.14921740

>>14920972
It changed mine, sure. First read was an absolute slog. /lit/ memed me into getting it and I wanted to get back into reading, so I was determined to finish it no matter how long it took (like 5 months lol). I credit it with making me into books again. Also for being absolutely fantastic at articulating depression, addiction, and anxiety--really helped me realize a few things

>> No.14921983

It's pretty good, it's filled with slice of life absurdities regarding modernity, addiction and depression, but the first half is pretty hard to get into as there isn't much resembling an actual plot, even though the writing is excellent.

>> No.14922124

>>14920972
Sure. I enjoyed it enough that it became my favourite book. Read it over about a month and enjoyed it from the start. Haven't read a book in the 3-4 months since. I always get a chapter or two in and then put the book down. I'm still drinking as much as ever.

>> No.14922731

>>14920972
I'm on my first read and I'm 40 pages from the end
Can honestly say it was worth it, despite the fact that it took a while to read

>> No.14922745

>>14920972
What were the circumstances around Wallace's suicide? Do you think that the way he died should influence how his literature is interpreted?

>> No.14923212

>>14922745
He stuck his head into a microwave oven by drilling off the door in a circular motion, putting his head inside the hole, covering up the gaps with aluminium foil, and pressing the button.

>> No.14923220

>>14922745
>2020
>thinking that dfw killed himself
good goy

>> No.14923223

>>14920989
Alien is great though. Not scary because no horror films are scary, but great.
The Exorcist, The Thing and Alien make up my own personal onions horror triuumvate.

>> No.14923230

>>14923223
Absolutely based taste in horror

>> No.14923233

>>14923220
If there was ANY celebrity that had actually killed themselves, it's DFW. Dude's life was a fraud and he knew it.

>> No.14923239

>>14923233
Elaborate on this please.

I'm almost done with Infinite Jest and it's very interesting to have some insight on a writer.

>> No.14923315

>>14923212
what the heck

>> No.14923337

>>14923230
Yeah I know they're not exactly obscure picks, but they stand head and shoulders over every other horror I've watched. They really don't make 'em like they used to.

>> No.14923672

>>14920972
If im a mature adult will this book do anything for me

>> No.14923715

>>14923672
Yes? Why wouldn't it?

>> No.14923885

>>14923233
>Dude's life was a fraud
a fraud who could write
even if he's a fraud he has such a cult following that it automatically makes him interesting

>> No.14923890

>>14923233
>a fraud
People reading what you write because you have a unique voice is fraudulent if there are problems in your personal life?

>> No.14923918

>>14921740
this. Though I still think it's the best thing I've ever read

>> No.14923921

reminder to read his short story collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Men if you enjoyed Infinite Jest.

>> No.14923923

>>14921004
I stopped reading 300 or so in, came back to it 6 months later and restarted. That second time took me all the way to the end. It's a fun book anon, read it.

>> No.14923927

>>14923672
No, just read the mature works from the authors of antiquity. This faggot reads like self-help for people who can't control their impulses. Essentially, he is like a special ed teacher.

>> No.14923929
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14923929

>>14923223
>The Thing
Based

>> No.14923941

>>14920972
no it's fucking retarded and a total waste of time. Actually reading it is a joke among /lit/ posters like people on /fit/ say "ss+gomad" or people on /mu/ tell newfags to spend a retarded amount of money on sinheiser headphones. If you actually read it you're just a newfag who fell for their trick and got duped and that's all there is to it. But as far as that retarded book goes, you could read ANYTHING else and be better off because it's the stupidest waste of time people here could think of to trick retards into reading. Seriously read those shit romantic novels 30 year old cat ladies read and you will be better off.

>> No.14923945

>>14923890
More like it seems hypocritical. From what I hear, in his personal life, he was egotistical and hateful. He transgressed his wife by being unfaithful. He can write and I can enjoy his works, but I refuse to feel bad for him on a human level. I'd honestly be more generous in judging the choices of a Jihadi or favela urchin than DFW.

>> No.14923949
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14923949

>>14923941

>> No.14924019

>>14923949
at least I'm not a retard who got fooled by people I don't even know into reading some pseudo intellectual trash. I have never even seen that book in person, opened it or even read a page and I can tell you everything you need to know about why not to read it. I know more about that piece of shit than the majority of people who read it that post on /lit/ and that alone says volumes about why you shouldn't listen to dipshits that recommend it.

>> No.14924044

>>14923945
Nothing about his writing asks you to feel bad for him. You're just as bad as people who can't enjoy old movies because the actors were racist.

>> No.14924059

>>14924044
I don't care for the works of degens nor the Hollywood psy-op

>> No.14924833

>>14924044
I don't give a fuck about racism. That isn't a moral failing. And like I said, I have read/enjoyed his work. But he's still a pussy.

>> No.14924866

>>14923941
pleb filtered

>> No.14925073

>>14923223
Alien sucks ass, my friend

>> No.14926013

>>14920972
If you don't read books much I would go for something shorter and more readable.

May or may not change your life depending on your starting perspective.

>> No.14926020

>>14923923
This exact thing happened to me.

>> No.14926038

>>14923239
Read Good Old Neon.

>> No.14926623

>>14923223
Yeah, of course it is, and so is Infinite Jest. But, like Alien, Infinite Jest isn’t as effective as it was when it was first published. It’s still artistically excellent, but it’s ‘newness’ has dissipated over the years to the point where it is defined more by its artistry rather than its immediate psychological effects on the reader/viewer.

>> No.14927208

>>14923223
Add the shining and american werewolf in london, and then you have my top 5. The Thing is a brilliant horror movie, the theme of doppelgangers, or "pod people" has always creeped me out the most as a horror trope. It's also one of the few "cosmic horror" films that's actually good.

>> No.14927215

I'm going to read this as I'm stuck in my house anyway and have nothing better to do. I'm going to read all of my longer books during this corona outbreak, I've already finished moby-dick.

>> No.14928365

>>14923941
>> Infinite Jest is the definitive pleb filter

>> No.14928374

>>14922745
What kind of fucking retarded question is this, you sound like a 15 year old

>> No.14929461

>>14923885
DFW is the Sam Hyde of literature. Memed on the internet by virgin faggots and rightfully loathed by people with intelligence and taste. Sorry, homo.

>> No.14929560

>>14929461
you haven't read infinite jest have you

>> No.14929602

Can someone tell me what the point of IJ is? Is it post-post modernism? Is irony bad?

>> No.14929620

>>14929602
It's about modern day culture's relationship with addiction. Internet addiction, junk food, sex, validation, drugs etc.

>> No.14929640

I'm reading it right now and I think it's good. Nothing really deep or profound, it's mostly just funny/absurd. I have had to look up a few words just to discover they were made up words. I have also had to also look up a few acronyms, which he seemed overly fond of using. The endnotes throughout the book can be annoying depending on the format you read the book in. I actually prefer to read the book on my laptop cause it's easier to click on endnotes, look up acronyms, and other stuff. I'm on page 720 something so I will probably finish it. The previous book I read was A Confederacy of Dunces, so I'm on an American authors who killed themselves kick.

>> No.14929833

>>14920972
I thought it was pretty good.
I'm really surprised a lot of people are THAT influenced by it, honestly,
But I also get that it touches on themes of loneliness, suicide, addiction, depression quite well,
Especially if you've found it really difficult to approach those topics before - if you're a white guy who struggles understanding his emotions I think the irony really helps. (I'm saying 'white guy' because I think there's something about being a white lonely dude in the West that makes us use irony to perceive the world.)

But the irony is also its biggest weakness. It's a 1,000 page joke and it's sometimes pretty funny, sometimes it just feels like the joke is going on way too long.

It can also feel really cynical in places, which is actually something Wallace always said was an inherent issue with irony - Infinite Jest has a habit of critiquing a lot, just like Delilo and Pynchon and whatever. Where I liked IJ the most was when it felt really sincere.

So it was good all in all, yeah. Some really, really great ideas in it and the sincere moments were fantastic storytelling. I liked The Pale King more but I didn't regret struggling through this.

>> No.14929842

>>14923941
I was definitely this angry when I was 400 pages in and wondering why this book was purposefully wasting my time. Then I finished it and thought it was pretty good, all in all.

>> No.14929865

>>14929602
If by post-post modernism you mean, is it transcending the American Ironist movement (Delilo, Pynchon etc) - almost?
I think his intention was to write a simultaneously ironic and sincere novel, probably he kept the irony because he spent 90% of his time reading Pynchon and he didn't know how to write a different style of novel.
He kind of achieved it, I guess. I mean, there are a lot of different character threads, and some of them are a lot more ironic and po-mo than others.
So it is a mix of sincerity and irony, but it's not necessarily transcending po-mo's limits. I think it's still kind of limited by its irony.

If IJ and The Pale King are the last great postmodern/ironic American novels then I think that's a really good ending to the movement, and there's not really a lot farther for it to go.

Though, as long as college kids need something that makes them feel clever and above-the-rest there'll probably be some author somewhere making ironic critiques of society and getting huge off it.

>> No.14930291

>>14923212
Himself was based tbtqh

>> No.14930621

>>14929842
Funny coincidence, I dropped the book at 400 pages too. Do elaborate what changes afterwards?
It just felt like a guy is taking the piss using a thesaurus

>> No.14930635

>>14930621
Honestly it just gets more fun.
What makes the book work is the combination of satire (critique), satire (fun) and really sincere passages, I think, and around 400 it was trying to be fun but missed the mark for me. But then the balance returned really well.

>> No.14930670

>>14930635
So could he have just cut these 400 pages out of the novel or are you implying that they're prerequisites which later connect into a coherent plot?

>> No.14930676

>>14930670
Oh no it definitely all connects, yeah. There are a couple of plot threads that come and go but a lot of them continue through the whole book.

>> No.14930829

>>14927208
good list. invasion of the body snatchers

>> No.14931417

>>14920972
Just give it a shot. If you don’t like it, shelve it and get at it another day. At worst you’ll hurt your back carrying it around and at best you’ll have a good time.

>> No.14931457

>>14931417
This is my cordon-sanitaire book

>> No.14931472

>>14923233
>fraud

i hear people saying this a lot, mostly angry butthurts like brett edgelord ellis, what does this even mean? what is authenticity to you?

>> No.14931501

>>14931457
Truly. I use the Dalkey Archive press of The Recognitions myself. I carved out the pages and use it as a makeshift shelter.

>> No.14931512

>>14923223
Horror is a shit tier genre. Go back to /tv/

>> No.14931523

>>14931501
I laugh at the people stockpiling toilet paper because I have IJ on my shelf.

>> No.14931536

>>14931512
Horror-comedy is a based genre, as it recognizes that comedy and fear are inversions of the same emotion.

>> No.14931552

>>14931523
Great thing about the American edition in the OP is that the sheer height of the thing means each page is at minimum two pieces of loo roll each.

It’s a less known use for his behemoth, but I’m firmly convinced that the inclusion of end notes rather than in-text footnotes was a genius ploy by the publishers to give us extra wiping surface.

>> No.14931569

>>14931552
I'm trying to outpace my bodily movements as I read.

>> No.14931582

>>14931552
always give yourself a 3-page buffer when eating bran-based cereals.

>> No.14931586

>>14931569
All jokes aside though it’s an odd book and at least worth a brief glance just to see what the hype is about.

I liked it, even if I think it could have used a few extra revision with an editor. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Gravity’s Rainbow or, God forbid, Ulysses, but it occupies a strange place as probably THE book of the 90’s.

>> No.14931590

>>14929560
>DFW is trash
>you haven't read it
Every goddamn time. Yes I've read it, alongside his short fiction, which was okay, and a handful of his terrible fucking essays which to this day I still can't believe received print. You fags deserve death. Sleep with a woman. Travel outside your country. Interact with people outside your computer monitor. DFW is exclusively revered by virgin shut-ins.

>> No.14931599

>>14931586
I want to get into the auto-fiction, "sincere" movement going on now with authors like Knausgard and Boyle. I figure I should start with the man that started this whole meme(I'm sure calling that would disturb him). I didn't finish the last 100 pages of broom of the system, so we'll only hope I fare better with this one.

>> No.14931610

i wouldn’t recommend it. Purely based on the personalities of those people I know who have read it and liked it.

>> No.14931614

>>14931599
Never got around to Broom. Did The Pale King as my first foray into DFW. I find it’s best moments better than Infinite Jest, but when it drags it really is a freeze dried sloth.

Any reason Broom trailed off for you?

>> No.14931631

>>14931590
>if you like DFW you're a virgin who's never been outside his country
Woah big man over here has had sex and flown on a plane before. Better listen to him when it comes to literature.

>> No.14931691

>>14931614
It never felt like a story, more like a group of stitched-together allegories, just a series of vignettes with characters that personified conflicting philosophies and Wallace's critiques of them. There's a talking parakeet that's very on the nose as to what it symbolizes, it felt blunt at times, I'm not the biggest fan of magical realism though. I enjoy DFWs "voice" in his writing, so I still think fondly of the book, but it felt somewhat jumbled in its execution.

Do you ever find it difficult to separate your memory of a book from the period of your life you read it in? I was a confused youth failing at the bohemian dream while reading it, so maybe my memories of it are muddled in its favor, DFW is very good at capturing the disenfranchised feelings of mid-twenties confusion.

>> No.14931707

>>14931691
Considering I’m in my early twenties I’d say I haven’t lived long enough to have that experience, but it doesn’t too grand if I’m to be honest.

You are right about the idea of him not “feeling like a story”. Arguably Infinite Jest suffers from it too since very little really happens in it.

>> No.14931742

>>14931707
He wrote surreal sub-plots and characters because he loved Pynchon and then filled in the lines with mundanity and authentic angst. I don't love the surrealness because it feels to me like a watered-down, self-hating Pynchon knockoff. Is the Pale King especially surreal?

>> No.14931841

>>14931742
Not really. It’s a lot more grounded in the realities of office work. There’s one bit in it where an author stand in also called David Wallace goes to work for the IRS and that bit has the tingle of surrealism. But other parts of it are a more about the real lives of real people.

It’s not completely gone, but you do get the sense that he’s trying to write about what he sees as the internal clock work of what makes actual America tick. It sometimes works, but you can feel it’s unfinished, most of all because of how there is absolutely no actual central story to speak of.

>> No.14931866

>>14923212
Actually googled this in disbelief, he hanged himself. The coroners report also mentions frontal balding.

>> No.14931908

>>14931866
Hal’s father kills himself in that way in Infinite Jest. It’s just taken straight from the novel itself.

>> No.14931909
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14931909

>>14923223
>>14923230
>>14923929
>>14927208
t. hollywood fags
pls watch some foreign kino thank you

>> No.14932607

>>14931909
any reccs?

>> No.14932927

>>14931909
I don't watch horror movies really because they're kinda dumb. I just happen to have fond memories of watching The Thing as a kid with my grandmother. Also, Stephen King is a faggot and he got my anonymous account banned from twitter.

>> No.14932961

>>14932927
Like any genre, there are a few films that transcend the archetype, but yeah, for the most part, horror movies are pretty dumb.

>> No.14933051

>>14920972
bait post is obvious bait

good luck either way. book is amazing and worth every moment, anyone who says otherwise either has not read the book or just skims pages. there's a reason it's canon, and that reason is: it's brilliant work.

>> No.14933065

>>14933051
is it canon? I agree with you, I'm just wondering if it's been admitted yet.

>> No.14934531

>>14932607
not him but eyes without a face