/lit/ - Literature

What am in for sad, bored, postmodern-meta bros?

I meant to start reading Foster Wallace with "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" but bought this instead. It is a great read but don't know if I could be arsed with Infinite Jest any time soon.

I think it had the potential to be better than Infinite Jest. Why couldn't he have finished it before killing himself?

How does it compare with Infinite Jest

Share your thoughts

Is it good?

>>19948315
Semi-related, but it's about an actuary. Someone recommended this book to me when I was studying actuarial mathematics and I changed my major to computer science because of it. Never looked back.

>being a wagie with unresolved childhood trauma is good, actually.

I can't believe it was 90% complete before he died. It's not nearly enough, I need MORE.

>>19350501
The Pale King

>>19349770

>>19218796
this is better.

>>18504148

>be reading Infinite Jest
>use a normal bookmark for the end-notes and a poker card for the actual pages I'm reading
>Particularly a King of Clubs
>discover DFW has an unfinished book called the Pale King
>look it up
>see the artwork
>shit myself

I know this must be a sign of some sort, but what does this mean?

>a book abiut the importance and heroism of working a regular job for the sake of society and people other than yourself even if you don't enjoy it
>written by dude who lived his dream and became an author

What do you think he still had left to write?

the pale king is not finished at all. the foreword and introduction makes it out to be all about this administrative conflict in the IRS which david foster wallace did extensive research about, but it ends up barely getting mentioned or resolved at all.

The Pale King undoubtedly suffers from being unfinished. If Infinite Jest ended abruptly after 500 pages, few would have good things to say about it. There are passages in The Pale King that are better than anything in Infinite Jest, but the whole is less cohesive. Personally, I feel that Infinite Jest is the better work, and that The Pale King could benefit from the excision of some unnecessary text.

I plan on reading the pale king, but I'm wondering how tedious it is to read. I've heard you talk about how boredom and boring tax lingo are a big theme, how extreme is it? compared to infinite jest

more novels about the drudgery and boredom in the adult life? I work a shitty office job for 10 hours a day but I have managed to carve out a nice little hole of melancholy in my apartment/life right now, so it's an soothing sort of misery and re-reading The Pale King is really doing me a lot of good right now.

How much do you think is missing?

Thoughts on this?

Pale King is what Kafka would have written if he had been born an arrogant anglo in the modern era:
>revealing the opaque machinations of some great system
>random dreamlike excerpts similar to Kafka's short stories
>long sentences for the sake of long sentences
>One Dialogue sequence for 50 pages
>muh 'ennui'
>unfinished
>

why are people impressed with DFW? i read the first half of this and i couldn't find any redeeming qualities about the way he writes. he writes like your average neurotypical autist. what's with the high praise? am i missing something? what's so impressive or groundbreaking about writing neurotic characters that are constantly overwhelmed with seemingly unrelated thoughts and ideas (that actually DO relate to each other in some epic postmodern way blah bla bla)? why do so many people fall for the oldest neurotypical outcast (DFW, woody allen et all) trick in the book? are people unironically inspired by these artists because the characters/stories are quality or is it simply because it confirms the average neurotypical outcast loser's belief that they're actually some kind of undiscovered genius that's too good for society? i really want to know

>>13057234
I heard a pop song based on this novel, so I'm reading it now