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/lit/ - Literature

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3535324 No.3535324 [Reply] [Original]

I'm reading Infinite Jest for the first time. I have beeb reading it chronologically but my friend told me you can just open at any chapter and start reading. What should I do for my first read through?

>> No.3535328

I think your m8 is having a giggle.
Cheeky cunt.

>> No.3535331
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3535331

Bump

What is the about anyway? A few chapters in and the plot jumps around between several characters. One is even a barley literate gansta

>> No.3535332

Read it chronologically. Your friend is an idiot. It would help to be familiar with the context and have a basic understanding of some of the concepts driving it, most people don't take it seriously and assume it's all meaningless pretentious drivel, which is dumb.

>> No.3535334

>>3535328
Why? Have I fallen for his rouse?

>> No.3535338

>>3535332
Uh OK. What are some of these concepts you speak of? I hear postmodernism being thrown around a lot.

>> No.3535362

>>3535338
>>3535338
Right, you should probably put it down and come back to it in a few months.
Postmodernism encompasses the breadth of contemporary western culture.

>> No.3535396

>>3535362
what should I do in the meantime?

>> No.3535406

>>3535362
i disagree, i think anyone who grew up in the US in the 90s-2000s can relate to what the book is talking about, or has a basic understanding of its context by sheer demographic fact. he goes at length to explain and contextualize the settings

>> No.3535492

>>3535406
post-modernism is an intuitive concept
demonstrated by all the contesting definitions
and the fact that you can learn its meaning most clearly by reading its works (read the book,OP)
(I haven't, but will soon)

>> No.3535735

>>3535332
>implying they are wrong
Lel.

>> No.3535781

I didn't finish reading it before I had to return it to the library, but I had to use two bookmarks, one for the text and the other for the footnotes.

>> No.3535792

>>3535324

have you ever heard of any book ever written being read like that?

>> No.3535798

>>3535362
Aren't you going to reply his question though? Which concepts are yu talking about. I'm interesting in reading it too and would like to know if I have some knowledge of such concepts

>> No.3535808

>>3535792

Georges Perec - La Vie mode d'emploi

Check, bitch. Lrn2 experimental literature

>> No.3535809
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3535809

Not OP but is there a way to break up the reading? I read War and Peace a month ago and I like parts of it but I think it was just too long for me. Is there clear break in IJ like the books in War and Peace?

>> No.3535815

OP here. Im currently reading catch-22 . Is that a good intro into postmodernism?

>> No.3535818
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3535818

>>3535324
>What should I do for my first read through?

Go to a garbage dump and surround yourself with smelly garbage while you read, that way you can get an idea of where the book belongs within the context of the written tradition and what the mind of DFW was like.

>> No.3535819

>>3535792
alice in wonderland

>> No.3535910

>>3535808

>Purposefully using the foreign title while bragging about a book that barely qualifies as "experimental literature".

Babby's first year as a proud pseudo.

>> No.3535918

>>3535910
Yeah. Either that or the anon is employing the title they're used to in their home language.

Why so much butthurt, bro?

>> No.3536044

>>3535818
You guys are so edgy, holy shit.

>> No.3536048

Picked it up and read it cover to cover, no outside opinions of the book until after I finished it. 90% of the people I talk to have never heard of it, only people that have are professors.

Best book I've ever read, and I'm sure I've read a few thousand. But I identified with DFW on a personal level so I'm biased.

Only thing I can suggest is to commit and don't stop for a month halfway through like I did. It's harder to keep everything together if you stop. Read every sentence, as 1 sentence will be hidden within 50 of whats basically superfluous detail and that 1 sentence will tie something in from 200 pages back.

Don't think you can use 'and but so' in an english essay as the instructor /will/ dock you points for its use, whether correct or not. 2deep4them obvi

>> No.3536055

>>3536048

Also, if you have 0 experience with substance abuse and 0 personal experience with competitive sports, the book will get real stale real quick.

>> No.3536066

I read the first hundred pages and couldn't stand it. Illuminatus Trilogy>Infinite Jest for drug lit.

>> No.3536072

>>3536055
I've smoked marijooana twice and have never played a sport outside of football with neighborhood kids when I was 10 to 12-years-old.

I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly.

Addiction isn't something that just affects druggies and people who drink too much. It affects close to everyone in some shape or form. It's like, ingrained into our culture, addiction. This book opened my eyes to how an addictive mind operates, and how said mind can be subdued and re-wired into something much more productive.

>> No.3536077

>>3535818
I'm actually curious as to why people are so turned of by Infinite Jest. Not because it bothers me or because I feel the need to defend any book, but when one that I personally love incites such disdain within people's hearts, it just kinda piques my curiosity.

>> No.3536187

>>3536077
so drunk off foul smelling trash that you can't even recognize reason, tut tut...

some day you'll mature anon, some day you'll realize what we're talking about and we'll laugh together, we'll laugh and smile and lay our bodies together in fields of flowers and kiss, some day when you mature

>> No.3536197

>>3536077

People despise what they believe DFW represents as part of their narrow experience.

>> No.3536206

>>3535792
Not OP. But I have. BHN by that Ramm Dass Bodi Satva Phd turned psycho retard whatever the fuck. Someone told me to read that book in that manner.

>> No.3536210

>>3535792

Finnegans Wake is MEANT to be read like that. It's cyclic. No beginning or end.

>> No.3536223

>>3536210
You know what? You just made me understand Finnegan's Wake. Not that I have read it... or want to... what's the point to a cyclic book? Reflections?

>> No.3536230

>>3536223

What's the point of a linear narrative?

>> No.3536233

>>3536230
Entertainment? Education? Killing time?

>> No.3536232

>>3535792
Naked Lunch is meant to be read like that. It's a series of connected stories.

>> No.3536237

>>3536223
>what's the point to a cyclic book?
What the fuck? what kind of dumb question is that?
You can't be very cultured at all. Don't you have any familiarity with the eastern culture? I'm not saying Finnegan's Wake was informed by it, but cyclic form is extremely common.

>> No.3536249

>>3536237
Well, I meant the question to be taken literally, as in, what's the point? To Finnegan's Wake, for instance. Are you saying a cyclic book is the same as a linear book? I wasn't implying that reading a cyclic book is dumb, or anything like that.

>> No.3536256

>>3536249

>what's the point?

What's the point of anything?

>> No.3536258

>>3536249
And also, no, I am not that cultured. I decided I would like to learn a new language recently, and realized that I should start with my native tongue. know what I'm sayin

>> No.3536261

>>3536256
Feels
from such things that happen in life, good or bad.

>> No.3536267

>>3536261

I was going to take a shit on your post, but you're basically correct.

>> No.3536274

>>3536267
Yeah, I thought about going all in depth on it, but decided basic would be best for me at this time. It's so late its early right now.

>> No.3536298

>>3536055
Disagree, I don't play sports and I drink maybe once a month and it didn't get stale at all

Looking into someone else's experiences is enough, you don't always need relatable feels. I didn't really relate to any of the characters.

>> No.3536308

>>3536055

One should never read To The Lighthouse without having visited a shore in the United Kingdom. Yep.

>> No.3536358

>>3536044

>a literature forum
>still using cookie cutter insults and shaming devices.

Do you even read?