/lit/ - Literature

I can't read Infinite Jest because anyone who killed themselves didn't know shit about anything

>>6121928
That's a stupid assertion. People suffer from depression mate.

I found Gately to be one of the most genuine characters in IJ. Hal seemed completely contrived and entirely too unrealistic. Pemulis too. I suppose that's the nature of fiction, however.

>>6121928

keep telling yourself that

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicides

>>6121944
What does that prove? You're saying all these people don't know shit about anything?

>>6121928
Let's see how strong you are when you wake up one morning without any mental fortitude, agency, faith nor any will to live. I'd really - and I mean this - love to see you writhe around in bed, crying, wide eyed screaming in your head, beyond shame and begging and phonecalls and medication.

Although in your case you would indeed, as you put it, die not knowing shit about anything.

>>6121939
yeah, because they don't know shit
>>6121944
none of them knew shit
>>6121968
I've done all that. lol

dfw fans everyone!

>>6121968
Is that you, DFW?

>>6121975
everyone else is just being reasonable, i don't know what kind of lens you view things through but you seem rather unreasonable

>>6121975
>proves that people who commit suicide don't know shit by linking a list of people that have committed suicide.

>>6121985
hahahaha

>>6121986
Why would someone kill themselves if they knew anything? If they knew anything, they wouldn't kill themselves. The lens is in how anything is defined. That is, the objective.

>>6121928

>I'm a normie and everything is great.

>>6122010
I'm a "normie" accoring to autistic newfag spergs but I have wanted to kill myself for like 6 years and it's not getting any better.

>>6121997
so in essence you are not communicating anything

Please commit a crime.

>>6122052
think about what anything must necessarily mean if he knew nothing despite knowing what he thought he knew

i'm communicating an assembly for a thought, on the meaning of how I think of knowledge and how I can't read Infinite Jest as it lacks that meaning I'm wanting you to deduce

>>6122066
Gracious me and mine! A crime you say!

>>6122083
I'll like hurt your family and shit if you don't.

>>6122066
Oh gracious me!

>>6122073
please kill yourself

>>6121944
just spent a good 30 minutes on that link, anyone got any more good Wikipedia lists?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists

>This article is a list of articles that are themselves lists of articles that are also lists of articles on Wikipedia; i.e., the articles linked each index numerous lists on a topic

>>6122172

WE NEED TO GO DEEPER

>>6122198
http://www.raikoth.net/lololol.html

>>6121951
No, he's saying that if killing yourself means that you don't know shit about anything, then this guy

>>6121928

is therefore saying that all of these

>>6121944

people don't know shit about anything. Which would be a retarded thing to think.

>>6122066
>>6122083
>>6122084
I need to read this fucking book again.

Micheal Pemulis is easily the best character

>>6122551
Mario > Pemulis.

But it's very close. It's amazing how complete a character Mario is. From the very first dialogue he has with Hal, you instantly know who Mario is.

>>6122140
lol'ed

>>6122551

yeah buddy

>>6121997
nice armchair views grandma
>listen here grand son buddy let me tell you about these mothefucking cowards that kill themselves
>they aint knowin nuthing
>YOU HEAR
>NOTHING

The part where Gately beats up the Canucks and gets shot was one of my favorites.

I loved how it finally, after all these pages of depression and apathy and whatnot, showed people banding together.

It was a brief section, but you could really see the love that the residents had for each other Bruce wrassling the gun-Canuck, the chicks kicking the shit out of the one guy, Erdedy distracting the cops, Joelle saving Gately, and of course the man himself getting shot and almost killed in order to save Lenz of all people.

I think this section gets across DFW's point best. And it's not a talky or philosophical scene--it's a big-ass street brawl. But we finally get to see his ideals in action.

>>6122551
>>6122551
I would take a bullet for Avril and DFW mandated grammar.

>>6123067
Lenz was a great character in general. You think he's just going to be a one off joke about that guy sitting in the corner but he really takes off.

>>6121943
Really? I thought Gately was a rather weak "noble savage" borderline Gary Stu. I kind of empathised with Hal but didn't find him that interesting. TPGOAT was also kind of lame imo. Mario, Orin, Pemulis, Lenz, Steeply and Himself were the stars of the show for me.

>>6123091
Yeah, Lenz is a work of comedic genius.

>>6121975
Pyrrho, is that you?

>>6121928
>enjoying life

I stopped at page 303 (no reason in particular for that page though, just where I'm up to) because I wanted to take a break and read some other stuff.

I really want to get back into it but sadly it simply didn't draw me into it that much. My favourite parts are just the goings on of ETA, which I would more than enjoy if the book was entirely centred around but the other stuff just isn't interesting to me.

Also when does the plot really get going? Because as far as I remember there hasn't been much more than the medical attaché bit and a few conversations between characters who haven't been visited again since.

>>6123486
it's supposed to pick up around 200, maybe it's just not for you
but the connections drawn between the various plot threads strengthen throughout 200-500, roughly, iirc

>>6123486
I don't think you even reached the point where the Ennet halfway house and the samizdat plots kick into gear.

I don't really like the bits with the agent and the disabled guy on the rock.

>>6121928
imo anyone who doesnt kill themselves doesnt know shit about anything

Holy shit you guys are dumb

>tfw 260 pages in and woke up late and have to go to work soon

It's been a shit-tier start for me and I'm liking the book a lot too. Ah well this weekend hopefully I'll get through a substantial amount.

I kind of want to flip through the prior chapter and compare to the list of years but then again idk.

Fun-fact: Lenz is a stand-in for DFW's personality as an author.
The fact that after Gately gets shot, he's seen hitch-hickign a ride "west-ward" is the clearest example.
See, DFW wrote "Westward the course of empire takes its way" about 6 years bfore IJ, a novella he later viewed as deeply pretentious, and for good reason too. At the end of the story he goes off about how this clearly autobiographical self-insert character "March Nechtr" will someday write a book that will make all the sad kids happy. Some chosen-one shit. DFW being the egotist he clearly despised, felt deep guilt over this and probably played a role in the development of characters like Clipperton (forced to win by threatening his own suicide).
Blah blah blah, theres more but fuck it.

>>6123787
Also himself's man contribution to film was in "lenses" (a more obvious example).
Also, Lenz abuse of animals can be tied into his relationship with the reading audience.
He clearly wrote the book on a variety of stimulants.

anyone have a link to the youtube interview the edited version?

>>6121944
heaven must be real if this many privileged, successful people killed themselves

why else would you give all that up, if not for something better?

Should I?

>>6124807
I know its retarded and self congratulatory, but I absolutely fucking love when there is only one copy of a book on a shelf.

Its like it was meant for you.

>>6124807
Why is it in the Gs, in the middle of another authors books?

>>6124807
do it faggot

>>6121944
>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicides
>mostly white people
Dropped

Is this the kind of book anybody could pick up? I mainly read Stephen King and Sci-fi.

>>6124807
READ IT, M8

>>6125240

I never realized that. I was just waking around B&N and saw it from the corner of my eye

Maybe it was meant for me

>>6125720
'Infinite Jest' is also sci-fi, except with boring stretches of whining about drugs thrown in.

I was feeling pretty sad yesterday, seriously thinking about commiting suicide. Then I asked myself, What would David Foster Wallace do?

It got me through my roughest hour, knowing that the faggot killed himself like a pussy.