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/lit/ - Literature

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1081124 No.1081124 [Reply] [Original]

I have yet to read Infinite Jest. Is it good?

>> No.1081130

If you have the patience for it...

>> No.1081138

it is a pile of incoherent and irelevant shit you must wrap your time and brain around to prove your friends how sophisticated you are. he lost me as a reader in the very beginning. fling shit at me for being such a snob!

>> No.1081151
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1081151

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/fiction/incarnations-burned-children-david-foster-wallace-0900

I'm sick and fucking tired of people accusing DFW of being a shitty writer who writes to make himself look smart just because they're lazy or impatient or didn't get it and wanted to get it desperately because they wanted to look smart. I understand not liking it and I also think that sometimes the footnotes get annoying but he was a fucking genius. Read the short story OP. If you don't like that Jest definitely isn't for you. And even if you like it you may not like Infinite Jest but at least you'll know why there's hype.

>> No.1081154

>>1081138
"This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no philosopher looks
out." —Lichtenstein.

>> No.1081155

>>1081138
http://infinitesummer.org/archives/215

>> No.1081159

It's brilliant, just don't expect a resolution or ending...

>> No.1081166

>>1081151
I just read it and I didn't get it.

>> No.1081172

>>1081166
http://machines.pomona.edu/dfwwiki/index.php/Incarnations_of_Burned_Children

>> No.1081173

>>1081154
>—Lichtenstein.
was that one of the Emperor's tailors?

>> No.1081191

>>1081154
I'm going to be using that quote a lot. Thank you.

>> No.1081194

>>1081154
Sir, you are the reason why I keep coming back to 4chan.

>> No.1081198

>>1081173
SORRY I MEANT LICHTENBERG. BUT YOU GET THE POINT. HA.
>>1081191
YOU'RE WELCOME. :uhh: *_*

>> No.1081248

>>1081151
That was pretty fucking fantastic.

>> No.1081267

>>1081124

YES.

>> No.1081291

judging by the blatant veneration ITT, that is not impurified by boring aesthete's arguments I have to conclude that D.F.Wallace ranks amongst such magnificent writers as Stephanie Meyer, Adolf Schicklgruber and Lady Gàgá.

>> No.1081321

>>1081291
IT SEEMS APPARENTLY THAT YOU'RE A ISAMOV-WELLS-HEINLEIN-LEADHEADED KIND OF READER WHO JUST GETS OLD FIXED STIFF PROSE FORMS OF WRITING.

BYE, LEAD MONKEY.

>> No.1081326

>>1081154
So one's experience of reading a book is entirely subjective, and has nothing to do with the book itself?

>> No.1081340
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1081340

Any Wallace fans read this yet? Opinions? Grave robbery?

>> No.1081352

>>1081151
>>1081151
holy shit that was a hard read

is infinite jest as hard to read as that?

>> No.1081357

>>1081340

just bought it today, haven't opened it yet. I'm afraid to, sort of.

>> No.1081364

>>1081357
>Buy books
Get a Kindle

>> No.1081371

>>1081352
Infinite Jest is harder to read than Incarnations of Burned Children. Some passages are written without explicit notation of who speakers are, the narrative voice shifts from voice to voice without necessarily aligning to a particular character, there are some idiosyncratic games played with abbreviation and standard usage formatting. There are mild overtones of speculative fiction sci-fi futures. Some passages are written in what Wallace later in his career referred to as "standard Black Enlish." There are a LARGE number of characters to keep track of.

I really don't want to come off as condescending here but I'd be interested in knowing in what way you found the piece difficult.

Was it the sentence structure?

>> No.1081414

>>1081371

I like "Westward the Course of Empire Makes Its Way". And even Wallace likes to pretend he didn't write that one.

>> No.1081417

>>1081371
The thing being one big block of text for one.Lack of paragraphs killed it for me.

>> No.1081429

>>1081417
It gets much harder than that in Infinite Jest, but you get used to it. Eventually you'll just wind up thinking "Holy shit, you can do that with English?" whenever he's up to something tricky.

>> No.1081438

Actually, this thread has me thinking.

Can anyone explain the premise for the story 'Church Not Built With Hands' in the Brief Interviews short story collection? I think there was something happening with diminished capacity or observing reality through some kind of disability, and there was a sense of loss and sadness in the story-- But for the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on. I remember enjoying the closing line greatly, but didn't write it down. Didn't take the time to re-read it yet, no copy on hand. Any interpretation?