[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 499 KB, 1653x2560, infinitejest.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19567701 No.19567701 [Reply] [Original]

All memes aside, is it a meme? Or actually a Great American Novel?

>> No.19567712

It's a meme. Bamboozles just enough undergrads and academics to somehow still come up in certain circles, though.

>> No.19567720

>>19567701
Infinite Jest

When I hear these words.

It sends a shiver down my spine.

I just can't stand them.

1200 pages of crap, literal shit printed on paper.

It's like you let a pig shit all over your personal library.

Page for page, poop, feces, excrements.

Coprophily, that's the only word that describes ' Infinite Jest' readers

Out of all the books, you had to choose that one.

It couldn't be anything else, could it?

>> No.19567723

a literal 7/10 xoomer shitpost at best, i really don't get the hype beyond people liking it 10+ years ago and wanting to justify their old and lame opinions to avoid being wrong ever

>> No.19567777

DFW is more famous for his youtube interviews and speech than the book. You do the math.

>> No.19567972

I liked it when I read it a few years ago, but there are some chapters that definitely could have been cut. A lot of the humor and absurd situations were funny for me, but if the reader doesn't think so then the way the book indulges in itself will probably be seen as tedious.

>> No.19567990 [DELETED] 
File: 2.41 MB, 4145x3348, infinitejester.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19567990

>> No.19567999
File: 434 KB, 1000x807, infinitejester.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19567999

>> No.19568044

>>19567701
It's an undisputed masterpiece anon but I think the best way to go in is to read it with no knowledge beforehand. It can be slow at the start (though I think one of the earliest chapters is one of the best things ever written) but it's well worth it.

>> No.19568059

>>19567701
The novel was a massive publishing industry gaslighting operation.

>> No.19568063

It's great, it just got pushed really hard and that made people who've never read it hate it.

>> No.19568274
File: 1.03 MB, 856x894, 1450557227456.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19568274

>>19567777

>> No.19568286

>>19568059
Explain.

>> No.19568583
File: 11 KB, 225x225, DavidFosterWalrus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19568583

>>19567777
holy quads of truth

>> No.19568683

>>19567701
I like it.

>> No.19568889
File: 7 KB, 301x167, download.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19568889

>>19567701

>> No.19568892

>>19568889
Bro it’s infinite

>> No.19569498

>>19567701
It's great. Became a pinching bag in literary adjacent circles I assume due to its fanbase and given its length and scope it is easier to dismiss than to engage with and form your opinion
If you have a penchant for macimalist it's a must

>> No.19569759

>>19567701
Read the first chapter, couldn't see that beautiful prose they talk about.
They say it's hilarious but I couldn't see it neither


>"Boo boo you are afraid of big books!"
Nah, why should I read this when I could read War and Peace etc?
Maybe one day I'll read it. Not so soon tho.

>> No.19570690

>>19569759
>he reads the one chapter that is very deliberately not funny
>'this shit isn't funny'

>> No.19570742

>>19567701
All Great American Novels are memes

>> No.19570779

>>19567777
Definitely true in my case. I find his interviews, and what he claims he was trying to do with Infinite Jest, fascinating. Neo sincerity or whatever sounds like a really prescient and trangressive idea especially coming from the mind of a Gen X'er. But then I finally read IJ and its a cynical, edgy early Chuck Palahniuk novel but 10x longer for no good reason.

>> No.19570876

>>19570779
IJ does deal with Neo-Sincerity. Did you skip every Ennet House section? I mean, you could interpret the E.T.A. as an extended metaphor for post-industrial society: kids hopped up on all sorts of drugs in order to deal with the task of just living day-to-day. Kids trying to find community in each other but truly can't, because the pressures of competition embedded in capitalism won't allow them to. Soul-crushing angst, needing to be entertained to death, etc. It's all there.

>> No.19570886

>>19567701
It's just a book, anon. You can like it or you can dislike it. I think DWF is very humorous, and that's all I need.
This upsets his ghost, I'm sure.

>> No.19570892

i read it and i liked it. people on this board don't get the book tho.. probably because they dont read

>> No.19571044

>>19570876
Nothing you cant find in Fight Club or Less Than Zero. Maybe you had to be there in the 90s or read the book when you're young and impressionable, but it just reads like generic detached Gen-x bullshit to me.

>> No.19571366

>>19570690
If the book is not sold in the first 10 pages, it's not for me.
And what if I read 100 pages (1/10 of the book) and still don't like it?

>> No.19571713

>>19567701
I haven't read it so I can't say but I have watched his famous interview and to me he appeared shallow and boring. The first question is about tragedy and how he thinks it relates to humor. Wallace appears dumbfounded at first. After a moment he comes up with, "well, I know Wittgenstein believed..." followed by, "I know that in U.S. lit. there's a tradition from the '50s and '60s called dark humor which is a very ironic, very sad type humor... I'm trying to think of something interesting to say." And that's just it. He doesn't have anything interesting to say! Moving on, Wallace states that "U.S." culture emphasizes the individual above all things to the detriment of those things. True, though obvious, but there is potential in his framing of it as a negative trait. The interviewer asks where he thinks this attitude comes from. He has no answer. "Well, I mean, conversationally," says Wallace, "you know what I'm talking about, right?" On this European TV interview, he appeals to his audience. "I think in Europe, people know what I'm saying. They have this same idea of the U.S. but it's more complicated than they think. There are many factors." So we're told. Wallace can't name one. I stopped watching at that point, about 20 minutes in.
Maybe his brain comes alive when he writes but that performance hasn't convinced me.

>> No.19571733

>>19571713
It evidently wasn't part of his cultural tradition, which was evidently very Episcopalian.

>> No.19572884

ESL here. How the fuck are you supposed to get past the first few pages? Everything is so strangely written it's like an alien tries out "English" for the first time. I can read Shakespeare bretty good and I think that my comprehension of English is as good as a Balkanoid's can get but for some reason I just can't into IJ.

>> No.19572988

Just finished it a few weeks ago - I liked it quite a bit, it definitely took a while to get used to his writing style. Honestly I don’t think I had much comprehension of the first 200-400 pages because of this, but I guess that’s just motivation for a reread in the future. I was able to identify with some of it a lot too so that might bias me towards liking it. Also based Peemster