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/lit/ - Literature

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1983371 No.1983371 [Reply] [Original]

Who think the Ennet House parts would've made a phenomenal book, a possible classic?

Everything else in the book is varyingly less interesting.

I think DFW could've made an excellent book and a good book, the first about addiction and the second about tennis.

>> No.1983531

>>1983371
I think people would have complained that the two books had the same themes.

>> No.1983532

yall read it wrong op, try again

>> No.1983542

>>1983532
Could you spare some advice?

>> No.1983594

>>1983542
As long as you're paying attention, there's no wrong way to read a book, and if you didn't like the ETA bits so much, then whatever, it's personal taste.

>> No.1983607

>>1983594
Why, I did like the ETA bits, I just liked the addiction parts more, much more. Anything else was filler for me.

>> No.1983643

There needed to be more Kate. A lot more.

>> No.1983689

So, uh, is the narrator Hal trying to escape himself?

I feel like DFW was pulling some post-modern schtick of "the narrator is both Hal and not Hal."

>> No.1983695

>>1983643

This. She was my favourite secondary character.

>> No.1984923

>>1983643
>>1983695
Same here. After that first scene with her and the doctor, I just wanted to know more about her. DFW was just being a cocktease.

>> No.1984952

No to state the obvious, but the ETA sections were as much about addiction as the Ennet House sections. Really, there's very little in IJ that isn't about addiction.

>> No.1984968

Op seems to be missing the simple link that with tennis as his metaphor DFw portrayed the obsessive, almost occult nature of humanitys addiction to sensorial experience perfectly. And that the Esperanza family is the central axle upon which the novel rotates.

>> No.1984984

If you take out the "filler", as you put it, then what I believe to be the whole point of the book is almost lost. I think the topics in the book are more filler for the overall idea. But that is just me. The drug talks are probably my most memorable parts. I enjoyed the telephone and wraith speech too.