/lit/ - Literature

>>16458822
I'm 3/4ths of the way through but its already one of my favorites of all time

One of my favourite books. Very well written. Wallace is very talented at observing and dissecting the mundane, and the thought processes people have that you wouldn't even normally think about- seen in the Erdreddy chapter early in the book for example.

>>16458897
>>16458943
Is this actually worth reading? All the DFW shitposting made me think that it was just a meme book

>>16458949
It’s okay to good but the best part is the last third so there will likely be many moments where you want to quit if you don’t read relatively often

>>16458949
>All the DFW shitposting made me think that it was just a meme book
>letting /lit/ pseuds meme you out of reading anything
Infinite Jest isn't for you buddy.
>>16458958
Same goes for you

Personally I just couldn't get through the terribad prose and endless "LOOK HOW SMART I AM" navelgazing, quit about halfway through

>>16459021
>terribad

>>16459021
The first chapter or so is a filter. I tried reading it a couple of times before I finally powered through the beginning, which is purposefully obtuse. After getting the hang of it I couldn't put the thing down.
footnote: I guess it helped that I read it with a kindle, because looking up obscure words (which he uses fairly often) was as easy as selecting the word.

>>16459011
If you think Infinite Jest is top tier then you literally just haven’t read enough. Go check out John Barth or something, DFW himself thought Barth was the superior writer

I’m nearly 300 pages in and I fucking love it. First time I only got 60 pages thru. Just gotta stick with it and know that he covers the core messages of the book later. You can’t just read it for the meme.

>>16459765
>"I myself personally find John Barth’s first few books interesting and then it seems to me that all he’s done since is work out certain techniques and certain obsessions over and over and over and over and over and over again." -DFW

>>16459853
A common misconception among critics is that a young David Foster Wallace fell under the influence of John Barth and other postmodernist writers, only to wrest himself free of this sinister authority as he matured as a writer, steering his own fiction away from its sway and becoming one of postmodern fiction's strongest detractors in the process. But a close reading of Wallace's early novella “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way” reveals that Wallace's literary relationship with Barth is better understood as agonistic rather than antagonistic, an example of what Harold Bloom iconically describes as “the anxiety of influence.” “Westward” should be read as not only a misprision of “Lost in the Funhouse,” Barth's predecessor text, but as a self-aware misprision, a knowing enactment of the anxiety of influence, as well as a fulfillment of the putatively unrealized possibilities of Barth's fiction and postmodern fiction in general.

Barth lived rent free in DFW’s head all the way up to the bitter end

I think Pynchon is the better writer.
I base this opinion on having read a very small amount of Pynchon (which frankly confused me), and from having seen photographs of David Foster Wallace.

>>16459882
based

>>16459882
truly basado

It sucks and I base that off of Infinite Jest threads and the fact that David Foster Wallace wore a bandana

Really powerful story, especially if you’ve ever struggled with a drug addiction. Shit hit home 10,000x harder than I had ever expected.

>>16461355
That one chapter about the guy preparing his "last" smoke sesh was so similar to my own experiences it was absurd

Just got thru the section about the big brother getting into football. That was pretty funny.

>>16458949
Nobody who claims that Infinite Jest is their favorite book is over 18, ignore them

>>16461495
>t. 19 yo

>>16458949
It legitimately made me LOL several times. Has some poignant moments too. Is it the height of literature? Not really, but nothing is (outside of the Bible, Homer, and Shakespeare).

>>16459021
You know, I've heard this opinion so many times but I've never really seen it qualified. Like, nothing he says screams "towering intellect" to me. He uses big words. So could you, if you read more and knew how to use a thesaurus. It's a fun book with both comical and sad moments. No one has unironically called it the best book ever. If you want to get mad at someone blame the MFA cunts who dissect it as if it's a mathematically constructed literary experiment or revitalization of American writing. Get over it, you fag.

>>16458822
>Daily Infinite Jest thread
>Daily Blood Meridian thread
fuck burgerbros

>>16462297
As a Western European citizen, I feel personally offended, by your flagrant anti O.N.A.N. stance Buckeroo.

>>16459730
I'd argue the first chapter is just bad. It's a concocted description of a plot necessary psychological state that has never really existed anywhere, and the other characters are lame caricature figures. The real filter is the weed ramble that follows - which is where most people I've spoken to dropped it, but is also brilliant.

>>16458949
Its a meme book but a pretty fun meme book. the witty prose is a lot of fun but can get tiring when reading it for a 1000 pages straight. i advice reading it it chunks of 300 pages or so and reading something something else in between.

>>16462407
exactly this

>>16459765
I can't know if it's top tier. Either way, I didn't say that. Go project your frustrations onto someone else.

>>16458943
Why the hell would anyone want to dissect the mundane? There is nothing there.
Its probably why he killed himself.

>>16458949
DFW is good, man. He wouldn't be such a divisive meme if there was nothing of value. Worth reading at least once to see what your opinion will be.

Big words hurt my head

>>16458949
He's really really good, but his techniques turn off a portion of the population, so some people actually think he's an untalented meme, but he's not. I can't think of any other writer from this century who has such control over language

>>16458949
It's alright, but DFW fanboys are almost like a Manston cult, so take their word with a grain of salt.

>>16464567
>I can't think of any other writer from this century who has such control over language
If you can read portuguese try Chico Buarque's fiction (I'd recommend Budapest if you're looking for amazing linguistic control or Estorvo, his best work imo - don't know if translations are especially good).
While DFW does have a lot of control when it comes to writing in various styles and from very different character's perspectives as he did in IJ, I have never read someone who can evoke two wholly different feelings in the reader over a span of a single page without even needing to change his writing style as well as Buarque.
Not that he "tries" to do it very often, but when he does it is certainly impressive.

>>16458949
>>16459021
>>16459882
>>16461333
>>16462297
>>16464671

>>16458822
Epic, Morty. Burrp.

>>16458822
i like it, it's a decent novel

>>16461529
How is the bible the pinnacle of literature?

Better than the bible

Bump

I love a book that needs three bookmarks. Really getting my money’s worth

>>16465905
yikes

>>16465905
surely you jest

>>16466663
Am I going to hell ?

>>16466673
>666
yep, looks like you are. So is >>16466663 and >>16466672

>>16465905
It's more entertaining to read than the entire bible. But that isn't necessarily a good thing, as you should have learned from the book.

>>16466679
Only end digits have any power. >>16466666