/lit/ - Literature

that's because most people who read the book didn't understand it, and just say haha tennis ball drug addict funny.

i read this last year and i still cry when i think about how Hal's humanity comes at the cost of an inextricable loneliness

>>15734675
Because he's a shit writer.

>>15734675
There are a few parts which are very comedic, but you have to ignore most of the novel to view it as a comedy. TPK was essentially an attempt at realizing what he atte,pted with IJ, he made and learned his audience with IJ, TPK was more informed in that respect.

>>15734696
The who Hal in VR5 section is brutal, just a long monologue of him convincing himself to give up life to be a stoner.

>>15734675
Yes, but don't forget that DFW also said "I'm a pseud and everything I wrote was just tasteless shit. My next book The Pale King™ is going to kick ass" And then he killed himself knowing the book was shit.
We can't trust Wallace's claims since he was a compulsive liar, and also had no fashion sense whatsoever. We must think of Wallace as happy, but also as a high degree autist

>>15734675
He wrote it to get into Mary Karr's shoes

>>15734675
don't you mean others misunderstand his?

>>15734696
I think on the whole it's still a funny book. I would say that it's more funny than sad. A lot of the characters are too cartoonish to be taken completely seriously eg Marathe and Steeply. Plus we don't know for sure that Hal's condition is permanent.

I get what you're saying about Hal though. JOI's intentions with the entertainment. It is tragic. But page-to-page it is v funny

IJ fucking sucked. What a slog.

>>15734781
I agree. Infinite Jest both examines and reproduces our addiction to excitement. The Pale King was supposed to be the antidote. An answer to addiction. The noble life. Overcoming boredom.

What is the VR5 section? Which monologue do you mean

>>15734675
i always think of myself as a massively depressed energy leech but people often tell me i'm funny and the life of the party

guess it just works out that way sometimes

>>15735034
Viewing Room 5, almost all of the novel concerning Hal post escheton, parallels Gately in the hospital.

>>15734675
He’s being coy; one of his talents is blurring the lines of comedy and tragedy

>>15734758
>>15734799
>>15734926
You retards always come out to these DFW threads to shit on him and never say or contribute anything new. Why do you even click on it if you see his face?

>>15734675
>How could he have such a misunderstanding of his own writing?
The book is literally called Infinite Jest you fucking idiot, he was joking

>>15735589
Because bullying you is easy.

>>15734675
The book is sad, but it also includes a group of wheelchair assassins, a cross dressing federal agent, and prep school buffoonery.

>>15735589
Mine was a well stated critic, go cope

>>15736187
Literally every "critique" he cited was a meme.

>>15734675
>Every breath you take

He's a better non fiction writer imo. Just finished Consider the lobster, it ssd pretty great.

>>15736723
>>15736477
>>15734816
I just finished IJ last week. Where do I find more about Wallace lore.

>>15735044
i get this a lot too. i think it's just autism tbqh

>>15734675
It's not a misunderstanding. Second-rate writers always like to talk about how the *real* point of their book was something other than what everyone else got out of it.

It's a lazy way to add 'depth' to their mediocre book

>>15737391
>Second-rate writers always like to talk about how the *real* point of their book was something other than what everyone else got out of it.
I like the 'wisdom from the mouths of babes' play where they say that the most perceptive audience, or the people who 'got it' were children.

>>15734675
Comedy is just tragedy with second, third and more chances.

>>15736723

>>15734675
What misunderstanding?

What he set out to do != How he thinks it turned out != How people received it

I actually had DFW as a professor at University of Illinois in the 90s. One time a few students were talking about how tennis was kind of a gay sport, DFW overheard this and it was the most bizarre reaction I've ever seen. He got everyone's attention by dragging his teeth across the chalkboard, not even his nails, his fucking teeth. Then he muttered something about John Updike. When one of us said "what" he just flat out announced he was failing the entire class and to try again next year before storming out of the classroom. On the way out some camera guy riding a unicycle threw a pie in his face and then DFW slipped on a banana peel while trying to recover from that. All I can say is I'm not surprised such a troubled person ended his life in such a tragic way.

>>15736913
Megan Boyle is kinda an IRL IJ character

>>15739312
Nice Pasta.

I dunno how people thought it was just a funny book either though. There are tons of incredibly sad sections. I mean half the fuckin book takes place in a drug rehabilitation house.

>>15734675
Don't listen to what he says OP. Wallace has been known to lie to the press about the meaning of his works, particularly IJ. He privately admitted to Franzen that the whole "the story resolves itself outside the book" crap was bs, yet said he would deny if outed.

The book is funny and he meant it to be. But not funny in the way the reviewers tried to make it out. More like that sick humour you get in Kafka. Good example is the jackinthebox heart attack bit, which cracked me up but at the same time made me want to puke.

I think he just didn't want the book to be portrayed as mere satire, bcs this shallow interp was very prominent with reviewers and the press when IJ hit the printers.

>>15739646
2. The real criticism is that he made a lot of the humour too obvious, which I don't think he intended.

In CTL he sucks up to Kafka about the subtlety of his funniness.

>>15739646
>Wallace has been known to lie
NO