/lit/ - Literature

And I do gotta question bc is Madame Psychosis a pun on "metempsychosis" and if it is then why?

plus then if it is I won't see till the morning then cuz I'm a little drunk and I need to rest cuz I've got stuff to do tomorrow morning but I love you /lit/ and never change cuz you're a great bunch and I hope you've had a good time and I hope you'll have a great night good night ladies and gents good night and love you guys for all the good times good night

Why doesn't /lit/ like Infinite Jest?

james

>>9617841
First

Memes aside, is this book in any way worth reading? There's a copy at a local thrift store and I want to know if I'll be wasting my money and/or time if I were to pick it up.

Test

Serious question:

Is this a tacit admission of DFW's pedophilia?
>the "entertainment" is CP
>uses the word "ephebe" casually like a pervert
>"I have become an infantophile" apropos of nothing in the initial ambulance scene
I am only on page 190 does he come right out and say it later? This is a tedious read.

SO isn't this trying to be Ulysses but with Latinate diction and memes?

>I have become an infantophile
What did he mean by this?

The king, baby

I've decided to read Infinite Jest, but quickly became frustrated by the footnotes, specifically the fact that they're in the back of the book. Early into the book the footnotes don't seem to add much to the story, so I decided fuck it, I'm going to skip them. Then I got a bit nervous about 150 pages in so I read through the footnotes I had skipped and caught up on them. But I'm at a point where I just want to read the book straight through without reading the footnotes and then after finishing the main text going through the footnotes and connecting together missed information. I don't know if this reading style will work, but I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

I'm just about halfway through the book and while I'm not thrilled about all the different stories (Mario's video at the dinner, though very informative about the politics of the story, bored me to death) I'm really digging a lot of the scenes and characters. The book becomes more approachable as time goes on and pages go by. I want to hurry up and be done with it so I can move on to something else, but for some reason I'm reading it slower than I normally read.

What does /lit/ think of Infinite Jest?

>>9426441
Infinite Jest is burdo bürdo.

Meme book thread. I'll start.

OK, I finished this book and I wanted to get other opinions on it. I enjoyed it overall but I don't understand all of the love that it gets from critics. I get that DFW was trying to fracture the narrative, to better represent what life is actually like for humans, and I think that he did that beautifully. My problem is that I think it could have been done with much less pages. Something as a reader and a writer that I am always thinking about is whether or not the text earns its length and I think that Infinite Jest fails in this regard.
I saw an interview with DFW and he said that one of his biggest fears was not making himself clearly understood and so he would keep repeating his point over and over. I think this is very apparent in Infinite Jest and, once you grasped what DFW was trying to accomplish the entire text seemed very meandering and pointless. I appreciate what he did and, in the context of accomplishing what he set out to do, DFW was successful but I still don't get all of the praise that the book receives.
I found the dialogue to be particularly bad and unrealistic and that the prose itself wasn't much better. I kind of took the entire book as a sort of gimmick that wasn't very enjoyable once you figured out that I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT I'M A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT

"Oh Anon, what is it you're reading... Oh, "Infinite Jest"! What is it about?"

Is the weird post-modern dystopian society invented by DFW in Infinite Jest close to our society? How close? Could it be an accurate depiction of the years to come?

What would be the "main theme" of the Infinite Jest soundtrack?

I'm thinking of anything by Brian Eno, but probably this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE24Eli_mxk

Hi /lit/, what is your opinion about Infinite Jest? I'm really curious, let's try not to use words like "meme" and "post-ironic".

I read half of it and I think it's really great.

>>9314235
Cry from boredom

Did a book ever change your life?

I read Infinite Jest while withdrawing from heroin and meth. It was, maybe, the worst few weeks of my entire life. I had been addicted for years - living outside or on a friend's floor, shoplifting batteries to return for store credit just so I could get something to eat (I would have never spent my cash on food), begging dealers to give me just enough so I could feel good enough to come up with some bullshit plan to get more money, etc - and I needed to try something new, immediately. I decided to pick up Infinite Jest, as I'd heard it dealt with some of the issues I was having such a hard time with, and something clicked inside of me. I had never before read what seemed like my own thoughts put so beautifully. I didn't realize there were other people out there that understood depression and addiction in the way I understood it. I felt alone until I read that book. It legitimately changed my life. It opened my eyes to the little everyday things I had been missing, and the importance of compassion. I had been truly alone - even when surrounded by other people - for so long, and David Foster Wallace became, during that time, the best friend I ever had. I didn't want to go out and use anymore, I wanted to stay home and read. I truly believe it played a significant role in saving my life, and sparked what I know will be a lifelong love of literature. I am addicted to reading now, and I could never describe to you just how much my life has improved over the past few years.

Jesus Christ, what are you, a fucking faggot? You can't make a decision in your life without the help of others? Does the prospect of reading a fucking book give you so much entertainment anxiety that you need to seek approval from /lit/ in order to enjoy a damn book? DFW was right, man. People can't committ