/lit/ - Literature

>>18972431

touch grass

idk it's a good book. maybe the pseuds have good taste?

>touch grass

>>18972431
>uk edition

>>18972431
>uk edition

>>18972521
is there a significant difference? i have that same version

Because it is a good book

>>18972442
>touch
>>18972442
>ass

I’m pseuicidal bros ;w;

>>18972431
Because it's long and funny. Did you know the name is a Shakespeare reference?

>>18972601
>phoneposter is a baiting faggot
clockwork

>>18972431
He hasn't read it though.

>>18973746
>Funny
DFW frequently expressed his confusion as to why people kept interpreting his deliberately sad book as humourous. I think so people missing the entire point of his sincere attempt to engage with very real modern problems was a large driver in his inevitable suicide.

>>18972431

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQUL7VbuUMU

>>18972431
It's good, not the best but really good. The tennis ball game was a particular highlight for me.

>>18972431
Because it's pretty good, so to the uninitiated it will seem like the greatest thing ever written, which is not, but it's still great. By now, hating on IJ has become more pseudish than liking it.

no, he only hypothetically finished them. observe:
on monday he read one page
on tuesday he read another
by the principle of induction, he would have read the entire book of IJ in 1000 days.
knowing this, there was no need to actually read it.
Waldun's a pretty smart guy

>>18972431
i dont care about weefinite gayst or what contents are in the writings did the person in that picture wrote but ill say this just look at that physiognome

>>18974059
>hating on IJ has become more pseudish than liking it
Yeah at least those who gush about it are likely to at the very least have read it instead of dismissing it due to some weird idea of its fanbase they have read about in literary adjacent circles

>>18972442
Fpbp

This thread basically just proves that /lit/ is mostly composed of pseuds. That's probably why they reacted so harshly to Waldun.

>>18972431
It’s a book that flatters the reader. Wallace’s project, as he himself said, was to dress clichés up in intellectual garb, because he believed cliché was ultimately a form of truth. Because the syntax is difficult, the reader gets the false impression that the ideas are difficult as well. Understanding a platitude therefore feels like grasping a deep truth. But this is only an illusion, and it falls apart once you recognize the trick. The inability to do so is the mark of the pseud — he can’t distinguish between presentation and content.

>>18973937
This.

Pretentious white kids it is.

I think it just goes to show how lame life really is.

>be notorious class clown in high school, one time diving across a teacher's desk like a slip-and-slide and knocking over everything on his desk.
>night classes, classmates single parents and former military who work during the day, razor thin tolerance for bullshit
>read Infinite Jest the summer before college. unironically believed it was the pinnacle of literature despite only reading high school literature prior to it.
>English Literature, The American Experience class
>female "instructor", AKA Ph.D student
>I bring up Infinite Jest in literally every single discussion, even if it has nothing to do with it
>instructor tells me how Infinite Jest is a contemporary work that might be forgotten in the next 10 years, not worthy of comparison to the classics, and beyond the scope of this class
>actual animosity builds between instructor and i
>sometimes in the middle of discussion while she's talking, i'll take my copy of Infinite Jest out of my backpack and loudly smack it onto my desk, making the entire class jump and look at me. This caused the professor to KNOW I'm about to ask a question relating her monologue to Infinite Jest, and you can feel her shifting her monologue mid-sentence to steer away from as much possible Infinite Jest-related things as she could. That simple smack was a real mind fuck. The rest of the class was glaring at me.
>one day I did this and a former US Marine sitting next to me literally grabbed my copy of Infinite Jest and threw it out the window. We were on like the 4th floor and it was raining outside.
>the class applauded loudly
>then SMACK! i had another copy of Infinite Jest in my backpack. I was SO proud of this, and trying so hard to hold back my shit-eating grin but I couldn't contain it. I looked beyond autistic.
>"Get out!" the instructor yelled. Thinking everyone would laugh, I was scared at her response, and the Marine took my backpack and book and placed it in the hallway and held the door for me to leave
>i ended up dropping the class

No don’t loves Infinite Jest. You’ve either read it or haven’t read it.

>>18975669

What about the recurring reference to film, optics, and light? Or about the dark and grotesque undertones found everywhere throughout the book, like DFW is posing lousy jokes that are not even funny but have a very ugly message.

>>18975796
>the content isn’t deep?
>what about the way he presents it via analogy?
>or the way he presents it using humor?

>>18972447

>>18975690
you will never be a woman

>>18972431
As far as the appeal for "pseuds" its obvious. It's "postmodern", it's 1,000+ pages long, and it's (in)famous enough that you gain hipster street cred for having read it, perhaps moreso than any other book. Therefore it is a pseud magnet.

Not hating on IJ btw, although I've never read it. I like Wallace's essays and he seems like a cool guy based on interviews.

It is pretty cringe that people treat it like a special club though. I've read plenty of other long books that don't have "cult followings" that primarily circlejerk for having completed the book, treating it like an xbox achievement or something (like here):
>>18975777

>>18974059
>>18974396
>By now, hating on IJ has become more pseudish than liking it.
Lol, sorry but no.

>>18976811
>Lol, sorry but no
Anon I think you're forgetting that every art hoe and thirsty male feminist in the universe right now uses hatred of Infinite Jest as an in-group signal

>>18975707
Good larp
Also fuck retarded undergrads

>>18976842
do you actually know people like this IRL? everyone i know who actually reads either likes David Foster Wallace to some degree or simply hasn't read him but doesn't have a negative opinion of him. I'm 30 though so maybe it's an age thing. I can only imagine someone who spends way too much time on 4chan thinking that this weird boogeyman contrarian position about a widely adored author is "more common" than the ubiquitous college freshman who reads IJ because they like the idea of being someone who has read IJ.

>>18976535

Well, in any IF reading discussion group nobody really manages to pry beneath the surface and I don't think it's because they sense the work is worthless. In fact I can't think of any critics that have tried to interpret the work in a serious way either. You do after all have to interpret WHY DFW is repeating certain metaphors and themes throughout the work and WHAT purpose it has. Only after a serious interpretation can you criticize his message as petty or whatever you think of it

>>18973937

Never happened but good story lmao

>>18972431
harry potter

>>18976919
fpbp

>>18973929
>I think so people missing the entire point of his sincere attempt to engage with very real modern problems was a large driver in his inevitable suicide.

Lol I am actually laughing at this. I've had exposure to writing and performing comedy. It's no surprise that comedians blow their brains out as well. They/we will say very serious things out of frustration in a breaking point on stage and the unfiltered truth of it makes people laugh. Especially when I meant it, at the risk of looking retarded if you ever watch Jordan Peterson speak he will say things honestly with conviction and people also laugh. Why do people laugh when truth is spoken that is apparent to everyone but speaking it a loud is some how child like. The naive'et of a child speaking honestly without regard to society's conception is some how amusing. Also the name of the book is infinite jest, what does jest mean but a joke.

>>18976919
based

Why didn't DFW try loving Jesus Christ bros
A mind as sensitive as his could never live healthily in this in this world without faith

Just finished it today and really enjoyed it. I felt it was incredibly poignant and loved the characters (Mario especially), but the "figure it out for yourself" ending is probably the most obnoxious thing I've ever experienced in literature.

>>18976962

read hamlet bitch

>>18972447
AAAAHH GET OUT OF THE WAY

>>18972447
What's with this board's obsession with trannies?

>>18976880
>You do after all have to interpret WHY DFW is repeating certain metaphors and themes throughout the work and WHAT purpose it has.
The Point is that Addiction is Cyclical. That’s not particularly profound.