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/lit/ - Literature

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8734693 No.8734693 [Reply] [Original]

I'm about 20% in to Infinite Jest.

What even is the purpose of this book? Does it ever go anywhere? Should I just drop it and read something better instead?

Feel like I got memed into it.

>> No.8734698
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8734698

>>8734693

It doesn't get good until like 600 pages... trust us :^)

>> No.8734774

>>8734693
>What even is the purpose of this book?

What even isn't the purpose of it?

>> No.8735216

Yeah OP if you don't like the language or any of the characters or the way it's written then the book just isn't for you.

That being said I hated reading the parts with Hal

>> No.8735508

>>8734693
That's about when it should kick in, at ~25-30% it starts making sense and giving you the impression that it will be about something

>> No.8735512

>>8735508
I read ~450 pages and it never made me feel like it was worth reading

>> No.8735527

>>8735512
I didn't say it was

>> No.8735558

I'm gonna let you all in on a secret. Infinite jest is the "finger box" of this board. You're welcome.

>> No.8735566

>>8735558
t. hasn't read IJ to completion.
>>8734698
Unironically this. There are a few nice tidbits beforehand, but everything before ~600 is necessary build-up. Stick with it, OP, you won't regret it. There's a reason it's so critically acclaimed.

>> No.8735664

>>8734693
It's the ultimate meme book.

>> No.8735687

>>8735566
That's what everyone told me about page 300.

>> No.8735711

>>8734693
>Feel like I got memed into it.
I know I did, but I kept with it and now it's my favorite book as of yet

>> No.8735724

>>8734693
>Should I just drop it

yes

>> No.8735734

Should we tell him?

>> No.8735735

>>8734693
Wallace was pretty good when it came to writing about ennui and what it feels like to be alive as a human in the world minute by minute second by second (he actually did this better in Pale King than IJ imho).
Pale King is better despite being unfinished.

Does purpose to you mean plot? There is a central direction of things and it does eventually somewhat kind of come together (the two main worlds that is), but its slow burning and "plot" and things being tied rigidly to cause and effect is not the focus of this book. If that really bothers you there's nothing wrong with that, but perhaps you should read something else.

If you're not enjoying IJ 20% in you probably should drop it.

>> No.8735741

Great writing by a mentally ill man who wants to inflict the virus of suicidal thinking on the reader in a slow, insidious fashion. Got a few good parts, but not worth the long-term effects it produces.

>> No.8737421

By Postmodern standards it isn't even a difficult book

>> No.8737424

>>8735558
apt as fuck

>> No.8737461

It's what a great novel mixed with absolute trash looks like. Cut the degeneracy like wardine be cry, cut the repetitive pieces that don't offer any new significant insight into the novel's themes, cut all the pointless "look, i can write about anything!" masturbation, you'll get a great american novel.

>> No.8737478

>>8735558
You got one of those too?
I thought they were a thing just in my town

>> No.8737704

>>8737424
Apt meaning?