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/lit/ - Literature

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1963165 No.1963165 [Reply] [Original]

Infinite Jest parts ranking:

High tier:
The rehabilitation parts

Mid tier:
The tennis parts

low tier:
The Quebec parts

Shit tier:
The ten pages long paragraphs of incomprehensible rants by random people.

PS: the lack of a 'God tier' is due to respect rather than disbelief.

>> No.1963183

Yes the Ennet house and ETA segments were the most interesting. Although a lot of the tennis stuff I wondered what was the point in (Eschaton and all the details of people playing were unbearable).

Separatism I almost ended up skipping (speed read most of it), unless it had something to do with the tape, which was disappointing because it didn't.

Basically if something was a critique of modern culture or had some interesting observations, or moved the plot forward or developed the characters, then I liked it, but the rest seemed like waffle to me.

>> No.1963189

i wanted to ask about this

> There are several popular way stations on the road to abandoning Infinite Jest. The most heavily trafficked by far is “The Wardine Section”. Where the opening pages of IJ are among the best written in the book, page 37 (and many pages thereafter) are in a tortured, faux-Ebonics type dialect.

this is the only thing on the wardine story, isn't it? why would someone abandon a book because of a 2 page chapter?

>> No.1963192

>>1963189
it's the story of one of the other patients at Ennet House rehab. of course it is irrelevant to the rest of the story but most of the book is.
read it again

>> No.1963200

God tier:
Rehab and Gately in general
Hal's reflections
Film "theory"

Good tier:
James Inc. in general
The Entertainment

Mid tier:
ETA in general
tennis
separatism

Bad tier:
Orin
Extras' stories and related stuff

Shit tier:
Marathe and Steeply

>> No.1963209

>>1963200

Pretty much this, although I liked some of the unrelated excerpts, they gave the book a good feel.

>> No.1963213

>>1963183
You didn't like Eschaton? I thought it was kinda hilarious. Just the idea that a bunch of thirteen-year-olds would get so absorbed into this bewilderingly complicated, math-heavy MAD simulation game.

>> No.1963216

Im with you OP
It was the Gately stuff that really sucked me in.

The best part was when hal said that right before he found his father microwaved brains he thought to himself something smells good.

i agree with the marathe steeply parts, i usually rushed through them. I only paid attention to see if i could recognize where they were, being from tucson.

>> No.1963218

>>1963200
I'm like 400 pages in. Do the Marathe and Steeply bits keep showing up through the whole book? Do they ever come to something resembling a satisfying conclusion?

>> No.1963227

>>1963218

They're supposed to act as commentary to like television and addiction in America, but the conversations are awful. Around page 600 Marathe and Steeply go off separate ways.

Also I wish there was more of Pemulis at ETA.

>> No.1963228

Good Tier

Tennis sections
The bit where the crack whore has a dead baby
Eshaton
Kate Gombert

Decent Tier

Rehab section

Bad Tier

Canada sections (except for the MASH bit)

Shit Tier

The 11 page paragraph about the 'ideals' of Tennis

>> No.1963231

>>1963218
there's only one interesting marathe-steeply part imo; when steeply talks about his dad and tv, the chapter ends in an unusually melancholic way and it's a nice change of mood. other than that I'd say no

>> No.1963238

>Kate Gompert

I liked this character until the conversation with Marathe at the bar.

BITCHES AND WHORES

>> No.1963242

So is Infinite Jest still /lit/'s favourite book, or what? It was 12 months ago, and 6 months ago. It's pretty much the fave book on every forum I've been to.

Seriously, it's not that amazing. The author's best works, which are very good, are Girl With Curious Hair and Oblivion: Stories.

>> No.1963247

>>1963242
my favourite book is The Drought by Ballard

>> No.1963249

As if a book where everyone talks like the author is anything but shit tier.

>> No.1963259

I read this, gravitys rainbow and ulysses back to back to back.
I saw them on a list of difficult books.This was the easiest to get through But i really dug it and it was nice to know a fellow wildcat wrote something that great

>> No.1963265

>>1963259

Where can I read this list?

>> No.1963269

>>1963259
Sometimes, only an aberrant cloud can save you from Tucson's sun. Do you still attend?

>> No.1963603

>>1963265

I really dont remember, it was proabably about a year ago, but i think it was some Time magazine poll.

>>1963269
I graduated a couple of years ago. Im still in Tucson but getting ready to move on.

>> No.1963621

God Tier: Eschaton, Ennet House, the M*A*S*H rant, that one dude killing the cats

Good Tier: ETA

Mid Tier: Orin, Extras like Poor Tony

Poor Tier: Marathe

Shit Tier: Endnotes

>> No.1963637

>>1963621
I don't think the endnotes were ever supposed to be good, he only added them to break up the linearity of the story.

>> No.1963649

itt: the reason dfw hung himself

>> No.1963654

>>1963649
I don't see any mention in here of depression and/or munching down amphetamines like they were jelly beans.

>> No.1963657

>>1963649

He killed himself because he realized that all those years he'd wasted on Big Pharma treatments for depression had fucked him up when he could just have smoked a bowl instead.

>> No.1963672

>>1963654

He wasn't doing speed at the time of his death.

>> No.1963677

>>1963657
>>1963654
learn more. stop looking for order where it doesnt exist, stop making lists, stop ranking things, stop ranking parts of a novel like they're your favorite episodes from some sitcom. appreciate the whole

>> No.1963683

>>1963677

Why are you talking shit?

>> No.1963693

Infinite Jest asks to be compared to a sitcom in any case, with its ludicrous characters and plot that never goes anywhere. But srsly, brah, what you said had no connection with the posts you were replying to. So what the fuck?

>> No.1963695

>>1963657

Do you think he agreed with the advice Pemulis gave Hal? The stuff about not quitting drugs, but to just keep moving on, smoke weed, take a bump of coke, keep it all in moderation without trying to go sober and ending up dead inside.

>> No.1963718

>>1963695

I think he tried not to, that's the thing. I think the new book - from what I can yet process of it - indicates he realized that the straight-and-narrow was turning him into a houseplant. There's always that risk, too, when you take things from that dangerous zone of self-help, blame-the-victim and pray-for-win where we find AA. Jung said the only cure for alcoholism was religious mania, and the comedown from religious mania is the worst shit in the world, take it from me. You owe it to the God who gave you the heights to go with the lows, as you wonder if anyone around you has ever scaled the peaks, and years turn to decades. You end up spending most of the time trying to call boredom virtue, unless you 'backslide', or 'fall off the wagon', and then you're stuck with so much self-recrimination.

>> No.1963794

>>1963683
>>1963693

You asked me why I thought this thread is representative of the motivations for his suicide, I answered. If you thought I was "talking shit," then so be it. I simply think posting ones rankings of chapters from a book in hope of having them validated is sad. Talk about the book, interpret it, share your thoughts, share the dreams you had after falling asleep reading about Hal or whatever but rankings are not thoughts, they're arbitrary rubrics of qualification we feel compelled to overlay onto objects in an effort to feel superior. But it's a facile concept.

>> No.1963819

>>1963794

No, rankings are thoughts.

>> No.1966557

Couldn't get past the Quebec secret agent stuff, shit was not cash.

>> No.1966560

>>1963683

He's talking shit because he's Shit Tier.

>> No.1966573

High tier—

Madame P's almost OD on the freebase

Mid tier—

et cetera. Pretty much everything relates structurally to the whole concave/convex motif, which is in itself, really damn compelling and interesting.

>> No.1966597

>>1963695
I think that was a deep insight into giving up on drugs. When you stop taking the drug, you stop becoming the person you are when high; and if you feel yourself most when you are high that's a scary thought.

I used to do drugs a lot when I was younger but gave them up for one reason or another. When I read that shit Pumulis was saying it kind of clicked and made me feel real sad.

>> No.1966623

>>1963189
thats exactly where i abadoned it actually.

Basically, i was on the fence as to whether I felt like the novel was a genuine work by a person in a endlessly ironic period of time, or an annoyingly ironic person in an ironic period of time. That sealed the deal.

>> No.1966639 [DELETED] 
File: 239 KB, 853x1280, Reading makes black men cry.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1966639

>reading IJ a few weeks back
>whew i'm pretty tired, better just read this last chapter which is only a few pages long
>it's one stream of continuous stream-of-consciousness prose spoken in 'gang-speak;

had to re-read that shit like 3 times until i knew what the fuck was really going on

pic was mfw i just wanted to finish that part and go to sleep

>> No.1966664

Currently reading, about 430 pages through. I'm really enjoying it and the only sections I didn't like were yrstrly's and the assasination of Lucien.

>> No.1966699
File: 22 KB, 400x280, 1277341519433.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1966699

>>1966639
>reading IJ
>decide to finish this chapter before going to bed
>endnote
>"Better check that out,"
>it's 7 pages of Hal and Orin discussing some fat bitch

>> No.1966712

>>1966623

Why do you hate black people?

>> No.1966750

>>1963819

rankings are fascist thoughts

>> No.1967991

bump