/lit/ - Literature

Yes, although I did take a break somewhere in the middle like I do with most long books.

>>5242249
I have 2 pages left at the moment (first try). I don't want to finish it, but it's time. Definitely one of the most unique reading experiences I've ever had, regardless of the length.

Not yet. Soon.

I'm on my third attempt.
I absolutely love this book for its self containing paragraphs, but I keep getting to a point where I realise I haven't been paying attention to the overarching story, and get lost in the sequences!

>>5242260
Reread at least YoG.

Has anyone tried reading this book chronologically?

Nope...

>>5242271
>exclamation points on the internet
this always bothers me

>>5242304
No way! That totally bothers me too! WOW!

>>5242275
I've heard to re-read certain parts, but I'm pretty confident that I've pieced the puzzles together about-->major spoilers Hal and DMZ, the wraith of James Incadenza, John Wayne and Avril, Orin's involvement with the tape, etc..

Was anyone actually thrown off by the narrative being achronological? After 300-400 pages everything other than the footnotes were Y.D.A.U., and most of the little out-of-order things at the beginning were explained by the end.

I read somewhere to keep the page with the timeline bookmarked, but I don't remember going back to it but once or twice.

>>5242249
that fucking pychon and his doorstopers.

I got 50 pages in and the awkwardness of the narration was flaring up my autism so I stopped.

>>5242320
My copy looks like scribblings of a madman.

I wrote the years at the top of each chapter, and surrounded the body of the text in definitions, time lines, character trees, and other misc notes.

It's the only way I can absorb everything with any clarity.

>>5242249
Yes.
About to start a second read through with a 1st ed hardcover I got for four bucks from a thrift store.

Yes, I didn't get the non-ending till the internet explained it though.

No but I had a ~10 minute conversation with a qt grill today about it having only read reviews and heard /lit/s opinions on it

What's with people and not finishing books?

>>5243741
Some people stop reading books when they prove to be irredeemably bad.

>>5243744
What's with people and not finishing books for reasons other than this?

>>5242249
Yea, but there were a couple times that I left it for a week or so and come back to it. Once I got to about pg. 500 or so I think I finished it in a week. Took about three months, but I wasn't trying to marathon it or anything.

Read Siddhartha the day after to sort of come down from it.

>>5242271
http://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/Infinite.htm

I used this to help keep track of the plot if I felt lost. It's just a reference point, you shouldn't rely on it too heavily.

>Download IJ for free
>Start reading
>Dropped after first page

No regrets :D

Yes, but it took six months and I read a Michael Crichton book at the same time.

>>5242326
what's the deal with people "confusing" wallace and pynchon. i dont get it

>>5244303
Yeah everyone knows Wallace is the one who wrote Infinite Vice.

>>5242315

Can you explain the third major spoiler on your list please?

>>5242348

You must have below average intellect.

>>5242347

That style of writing just appears at the beginning. You'll figure out why if you read to the conclusion.

>>5244321
Anytime I hear someone refer to him as "Wallace" I think of a heavy chested Midwestern, State College professor gobbing down a thick hoagie while holding back throbs of snot just before telling those ironic academics to "bug off."

>>5242304
aww shucks! i'm sorry about that pal! i forgot that you were going to be on the internet today!!!!!!

IJ is long but it's enjoyable all the way through so I don't really know how people could struggle with it.

>>5245174
So you think of him more or less as he was; that's good.

>>5242304
exclamation points ...anywhere bother me.

>>5244303
Mostly the bandana fetish.

why is it hard to read?

How long does it take to read on average?

>>5245434
for /lit/?
about two years

they only read like 20-50 pages a week
the rest is them shitposting on /lit/ saying they don't have enough time to read

they do not work
they do not do anything

but they are out of time

>>5245746

I dont belive in time.

>>5245754
Just because you don't believe something doesn't mean it's not real, science is beautiful.

>>5245794
Time is relative. Just because it looks like I have a lot to you, doesn't mean I have a lot to me. Maybe my time moves faster since I don't move at all.

>finishing books

First time I rented it from the library, I read the first section where Hal has his breakdown (maybe 3 pages). Never got around to reading any more, and returned the book.

Picked it up a few years later and finished it.

Does the first rental count as an "attempt"? I never put any effort into it, I read it literally for about ten minutes. So, can we classify this as an attempt or is it on the level of the skimming you might do at a bookstore?

>>5244327
Yes, well basically Orin doesn't attend James' funeral, but later, when everyone leaves, he opens his casket where a copy of the Entertainment is lodged in the head of James. In doing so, he releases the wraith of James (which we know goes on to communicate with Gately in the hospital). Orin sends the Entertainment to all of James' enemies (like the disgruntled film critics in Berkeley), which makes him the main target for the AFR because he has the master copy.

>>5244327
fuck me, i just realized u said third spoiler not fourth. Well okay then, the third spoiler is pretty basic. John Wayne was sent to infiltrate ETA and that's about it. He's an AFR sympathizer/member as evidenced by his great anger at Mario's film about the creation of the Great Concavity/Convexity. Avril, too, is an AFR sympathizer and knows Wayne is there to help the cause..

this book is trash

>>5245814
It doesn't matter how fast or slow your time moves, it's all the same regardless. If your time moves slower than my time relative to me then you simply do everything in slow motion, and I would be quicker, but it's all the same.

>>5246409

John Wayne isn't AFR, common misconception. He's an FLQ mole (cf his freakish stamina, and the FLQ's "breath-holding" initiation rite). That's why he's helping Hal and Gately retrieve the master in Year of Glad. He intends to deliver it to his FLQ brethren. Unfortunately, we can assume he was killed at some point during the retrieval.

What about Michael Pemulis?

Yeah, finished it on my first try. Though >>5244292
>>5246398
>>5246475
>>5246409
>>5242275
Made me realize I had to read it again. I seem to have missed a lot. Maybe I should try to read it in my language this time.

>>5246398
Could you tell me how you found that? Because when he's interrogated by the AFR there's the cockroach torture (which is the most horrible thing that could happen to him since DFW went out of his to make a reference to Orwell's 1984 interrogation scene) but he doesn't say anything about the master record.

>>5246409

Ah thank you, I could never understand where anyone got the connection between him and the AFR. Much appreciated my friend.

I did but I skim read a lot of it and missed a lot of important information, it took about six weeks. I still liked it, though.

After reading a lot of essays/reviews for it I decided I needed to read the book again and not skim any of it. This again took about six weeks but I loved the book a whole lot more this time around.

>>5248581
It's all implied, I remember Orin keeps going to the post-office to mail things even though Hal keeps reminding him he hates post offices but Orin keeps ignoring the question

>>5242249
first try stopped at page 500 i think
second try read the whole book (but i cant claim to read all annotations...)

my latest attempts to read it again, for pleasure/wider exploration, failed because there´s just to much important literature for me to read first (faulkner/joyce/kafka/dickens and so on) and it don´t feel justified to read another book twice before I´ve read the other shit at least one time.
Does anybody has this ´problem´ too? (Problem as it probably will prevent me from ever read anything for a second time, as theres always shit to discover. But this might be BS as I´m only 23 and theres hopefully some years of lit ahead of me.

I'm 200 pages in, I started reading it for the first time a few days ago. Liking it a lot so far.

Just read the part where James Incandenza's dad is talking to him as a child. God damn

>>5248652
i read what i want to. there is no "important" literature, just stuff i like more or less to read

>>5248972
my favorite chapter in the book

>>5248972
Those parts where Mario and Hal interface...Oh man...

Bump

>>5246372
dude no one cares about you

>>5249529
i do

>>5249529

I'm trying to pin down how we define the concept of "attempting a book." I used myself as an example, but it's not about me at all!

quit at page 500-something. i thought some aspects of it were interesting. but i thought the prose was really pretentious and the footnotes kept getting in the way if any focus i had for reading it. i gave it a fair shot.

Gave up at 43%.
Too much inane shit 4me

>>5245814
thats not how relativity works retard

>>5242249
ij isnt a hard book to read, it just takes a little gumption and perseverance

Yes. It just took me 2-3 months to do. The last two hundred pages went by real quick because I knew I was nearing the end.

I didn't think it was that hard. Long as hell, but I never really felt lost of anything. It's weird, I read Gravity's Rainbow first, and I was expecting more of the same (since the two are compared so often). I thought Infinite Jest was much more cohesive and easier to read. And better.

>>5242249
I just started reading this on a flight from San Juan to Tucson. I basically stopped soon after. I couldn't handle the drudgery of listening to this guy's stream of consciousness to justify smoking weed. As a previous pot smoker, I almost had an anxiety attack.

>>5251572
top pleb

>>5251607
I mean, it's not a scene you're supposed to feel good about.

i read the first 500 pages and really didn't enjoy it
post-post-modernism gets on my nerves
it's an amazing book, just not for me

>>5242249
Yeah, I genuinely loved it and found it a pleasant experience to read. Tore through the book.

Also
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend
^
every IJ thread forever because too many vacuous cunts didn't get the book.

>>5242315
>>5244327
>>5246398
>>5246409
See
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend

>>5245051

When you say beginning, how far in are you talking about?

>>5251715
>>5251725
yeah this pretty much sums it up

>>5245434
took me around 60 hours. Going back in for a re-read now. It has been 3 months.

>>5247891
One of the finest characters in 20th century literature. That bastard makes me laugh every fucking time I read the book. Especially him catching Wayne and Avril playing punter-and-cheerleader.

>>5248644
Yes, plus the postal return address was in Arizona and he sent the Entertainment to the near-Eastern medical attaché, the critics who hated Himself at Berkeley, etc.

>>5248972
>"Yes, But He'll Never Be Great."

Chills, erry time.

>>5245434

It took me about two months to read it. I didn't read it every day. I even went a week or two without reading it at one point, but I powered through the last 300 pages in two or three days iirc.

>>5242304
I know what you mean

>>5251770

There's just that one chapter in the beginning with Hal's admission interview. I think that chapter occurs within the first fifty pages. The end of the book places it in context.