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anyone here ever finish infinite jest

i did 400 pages
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
I did 40
stirring french lettuce
  07/15/20
nice
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
Never tried.
unhinged talking goyim
  07/15/20
poast moniker synergy
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
yeah
bonkers keepsake machete
  07/15/20
should i read the other 600 pages
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
eh... did you LIKE the first 400 pages? imo in some sense t...
bonkers keepsake machete
  07/15/20
agree with this. if you don't want to put in that much time ...
Lime school kitty cat
  07/15/20
...
stirring french lettuce
  07/15/20
yeah i thought it was great but then i started reading anoth...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
Yeah.
at-the-ready philosopher-king affirmative action
  07/15/20
yeah
Lime school kitty cat
  07/15/20
by the time i got it i didn't have a ton of time to devote t...
lascivious henna gunner whorehouse
  07/15/20
I did finish, after like a month and a half. I regret it.
Khaki talented karate
  07/15/20
faggot
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
whok probably did
Racy mint sex offender lay
  07/15/20
shit, pure shit
Red Box Office
  07/15/20
It is shocking how dated and frivolous that book seems now. ...
Submissive cerebral hairy legs parlour
  07/15/20
titcr
Red Box Office
  07/15/20
That's always the vibe I got of this book
navy self-centered chapel halford
  07/15/20
...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
You must not have understood it. It's more relevant than ev...
Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage
  07/15/20
i wonder why he thought cartridges would be the next medium ...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
The specific technology (which feels dated as fuck) is much ...
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
yeah im not a fucking retard okay? i read 400 pages of infin...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
interesting
navy self-centered chapel halford
  07/15/20
agree and disagree. it did not predict today's social and po...
Lime school kitty cat
  07/15/20
i think the fixation on addiction and substance abuse is sor...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
some would even consider xo the Ultimate Entertainment
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
...
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
some?
Lime school kitty cat
  07/15/20
...
Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage
  07/15/20
...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
lol fuck no i threw it in the trash after ~40% of it or so ...
Hateful dun toaster
  07/15/20
I got like 120 pages in and then I was like "Why the fu...
cordovan bateful yarmulke
  07/15/20
yes. 30% of it is interesting, in a conventional way. the re...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
Yes, it becomes a real page-turner around page 203. By page...
Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage
  07/15/20
cr
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
...
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
Nope. Still sitting on the shelf and will probably never be ...
Floppy Godawful Potus
  07/15/20
Yes. It's my favorite novel and I don't just use that line t...
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
okay dave
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
...
Floppy Godawful Potus
  07/15/20
Cr. It's 1100 pages long on large pages with small type and...
Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage
  07/15/20
the prose is godawful
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
Huge spritezero fan here. Big poaster. Full respect. You...
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
disagree
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
what books do you like
navy self-centered chapel halford
  07/15/20
authors i like: pynchon, joyce, fitzgerald, flaubert
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
Nabokov? what do you like by Joyce?
navy self-centered chapel halford
  07/15/20
i dig nabakov. i like everything abt joyce. have not read fi...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
nobody has ever read finnegan's wake
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
No apostrophe come on man
white set boistinker
  07/15/20
Harold Bloom: Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace,...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
ins't he famous for penning a screed about western canon or ...
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
yeah
mahogany brunch
  07/15/20
good man, but. Jewish. can't escape that
razzmatazz associate
  07/15/20
fair
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
I'd agree that DFW's prose style works against him at least ...
Lime school kitty cat
  07/15/20
i agree--my copy of IJ has a few paragraphs and sentences m...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
Lmao “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with Dav...
white set boistinker
  07/15/20
this critique seems pretty accurate: [T]he novel's Pynchones...
Zombie-like library partner
  07/15/20
It is the Great American Novel
Brilliant native
  07/15/20
I became extremely annoyed with it after about 50 pages and ...
azure menage
  07/15/20
That's crazy. If you're not enjoying a book you should quit...
Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage
  07/15/20
Sometimes you gotta keep going though to make sure, e.g. Rab...
white set boistinker
  07/15/20
I read it when I was unemployed, which helped a lot I think....
House-broken orchestra pit kitty
  07/15/20
it's up there w moby dick for best written work by an americ...
Comical Faggotry Stage
  07/16/20
I could never get through IJ. Really enjoyed Oblivion (in p...
big maize antidepressant drug electric furnace
  07/16/20


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:46 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

i did 400 pages

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614435)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:47 PM
Author: stirring french lettuce

I did 40

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614443)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:49 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

nice

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614458)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:50 PM
Author: unhinged talking goyim

Never tried.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614474)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:51 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

poast moniker synergy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614481)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:53 PM
Author: bonkers keepsake machete

yeah

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614492)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:54 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

should i read the other 600 pages

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614495)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:58 PM
Author: bonkers keepsake machete

eh... did you LIKE the first 400 pages? imo in some sense the rest is going to be 'kind of what you expect' in many ways, even though that sounds paradoxical for a novel that is very original, unusual and defies categorization like probably no book has since early Pynchon

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614510)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:03 PM
Author: Lime school kitty cat

agree with this. if you don't want to put in that much time and you haven't read Oblivion, just read that instead

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614532)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:05 PM
Author: stirring french lettuce



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614545)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:34 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

yeah i thought it was great but then i started reading another book or something

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614691)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:59 PM
Author: at-the-ready philosopher-king affirmative action

Yeah.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614516)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Lime school kitty cat

yeah

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614517)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: lascivious henna gunner whorehouse

by the time i got it i didn't have a ton of time to devote to books, especially ones that long. so no.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614523)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:05 PM
Author: Khaki talented karate

I did finish, after like a month and a half. I regret it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614544)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

faggot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614745)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:06 PM
Author: Racy mint sex offender lay

whok probably did

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614553)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:36 PM
Author: Red Box Office

shit, pure shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614700)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: Submissive cerebral hairy legs parlour

It is shocking how dated and frivolous that book seems now. We were so silly in the 90s. It was nice.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614705)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: Red Box Office

titcr

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614726)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: navy self-centered chapel halford

That's always the vibe I got of this book

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614728)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:43 PM
Author: mahogany brunch



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614741)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:49 PM
Author: Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage

You must not have understood it. It's more relevant than ever.

Just this year companies have started releasing software that makes your face look better on video chats.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614774)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

i wonder why he thought cartridges would be the next medium for storing entertainment bullshit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614784)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:52 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

The specific technology (which feels dated as fuck) is much less relevant than the general feelings of dread and ennui that a world of meaningless striving evokes

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614794)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:53 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

yeah im not a fucking retard okay? i read 400 pages of infinite jest. i know things.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614796)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:04 PM
Author: navy self-centered chapel halford

interesting

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614875)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: Lime school kitty cat

agree and disagree. it did not predict today's social and political strife, but the concept of non-stop "entertainment" weaponized against us certainly resonates

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614786)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:54 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

i think the fixation on addiction and substance abuse is sort of prescient

lots of people living in despair with some dying

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614801)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:55 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

some would even consider xo the Ultimate Entertainment

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614805)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:55 PM
Author: mahogany brunch



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614809)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:57 PM
Author: Lime school kitty cat

some?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614824)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:38 PM
Author: Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615643)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614840)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: Hateful dun toaster

lol fuck no i threw it in the trash after ~40% of it or so

swordmo keeps telling me its a work of art but what does he know

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614706)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: cordovan bateful yarmulke

I got like 120 pages in and then I was like "Why the fuck am i reading this?" and then stopped.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614707)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

yes. 30% of it is interesting, in a conventional way. the rest is garbage

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614710)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:39 PM
Author: Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage

Yes, it becomes a real page-turner around page 203. By page 400 you kind of understand what's going on.

I mean that sincerely. I have really strong visual memories from that book. It's really really good.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614719)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:40 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

cr

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614724)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614753)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:45 PM
Author: Floppy Godawful Potus

Nope. Still sitting on the shelf and will probably never be read

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614756)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:47 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

Yes. It's my favorite novel and I don't just use that line to get laid (but it has worked)

DFW has a rare command over the written word, and it's a joy to experience. It's a book that makes you FEEL and THINK but lets you decide how much energy you'll put into these charges. And the reward is great, if the effort is there.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614761)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:47 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

okay dave

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614765)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: Floppy Godawful Potus



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614769)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage

Cr. It's 1100 pages long on large pages with small type and every sentence is perfectly crafted.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614772)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:50 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

the prose is godawful

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614776)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

Huge spritezero fan here. Big poaster. Full respect.

You're wrong.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614785)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:53 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

disagree

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614795)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:03 PM
Author: navy self-centered chapel halford

what books do you like

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614871)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:07 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

authors i like: pynchon, joyce, fitzgerald, flaubert

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614898)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:08 PM
Author: navy self-centered chapel halford

Nabokov?

what do you like by Joyce?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614906)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:10 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

i dig nabakov. i like everything abt joyce. have not read finnegan's wake tho

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614916)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:30 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

nobody has ever read finnegan's wake

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615029)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:46 PM
Author: white set boistinker

No apostrophe come on man

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615657)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:56 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

Harold Bloom:

Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace, who took his own life in 2008, but who has a new book out, “The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel,” put together from manuscript chapters and files found in his computer, Bloom says, “You know, I don’t want to be offensive. But ‘Infinite Jest’ [regarded by many as Wallace’s masterpiece] is just awful. It seems ridiculous to have to say it. He can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent.”

It’s all a clear indication, Bloom notes, of the decline of literary standards. He was upset in 2003 when the National Book Award gave a special award to Stephen King. “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with David Foster Wallace. We have no standards left. [Wallace] seems to have been a very sincere and troubled person, but that doesn’t mean I have to endure reading him. I even resented the use of the term from Shakespeare, when Hamlet calls the king’s jester Yorick, ‘a fellow of infinite jest.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614814)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:57 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

ins't he famous for penning a screed about western canon or something

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614829)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: mahogany brunch

yeah

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614848)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:00 PM
Author: razzmatazz associate

good man, but. Jewish. can't escape that

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614854)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:03 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

fair

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614870)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Lime school kitty cat

I'd agree that DFW's prose style works against him at least as often as it works for him. I think he had solid ideas and insight though

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614841)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:02 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

i agree--my copy of IJ has a few paragraphs and sentences marked up. but IJ didn't have a big, unifying idea interesting enuff to carry a book of that size. dfw's shorter, nonfiction stuff is pretty good.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614866)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:47 PM
Author: white set boistinker

Lmao

“But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with David Foster Wallace."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615661)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:58 PM
Author: Zombie-like library partner

this critique seems pretty accurate: [T]he novel's Pynchonesque elements...feel rather willed and secondhand. They are impressive in the manner of a precocious child's performance at a dinner party, and, in the same way, ultimately irritating: they seem motivated, mostly, by a desire to show off."

dfw was a gen-x/poor man's pynchon

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614834)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:58 PM
Author: Brilliant native

It is the Great American Novel

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614836)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:13 PM
Author: azure menage

I became extremely annoyed with it after about 50 pages and decided to cut my losses. This may be the only book I started and never finished. Just found it exhausting to read and not enjoyable at all.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40614932)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:40 PM
Author: Multi-colored Ultramarine Blood Rage

That's crazy. If you're not enjoying a book you should quit reading it and start another one. You'll never run out of good books and you might be wasting time on bad ones.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615648)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:49 PM
Author: white set boistinker

Sometimes you gotta keep going though to make sure, e.g. Rabbit tetralogy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615664)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:47 PM
Author: House-broken orchestra pit kitty

I read it when I was unemployed, which helped a lot I think. It's so much to absorb, and it really comes together at the end in a more rewarding way if you don't read it over, say, 3 months. The good passages in IJ are as good as anything I've ever read, like the suicide attempt, or the eschaton game, or the Mt. Dilaudid part.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40615659)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 16th, 2020 9:15 AM
Author: Comical Faggotry Stage

it's up there w moby dick for best written work by an america. I have read it twice. the chapter on eschatology is the best thing anyone has ever written

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40616595)



Reply Favorite

Date: July 16th, 2020 11:11 AM
Author: big maize antidepressant drug electric furnace

I could never get through IJ. Really enjoyed Oblivion (in particular commentary on GC, eg a food company naming an indulgent candy bar "Felony!" to commoditize transgression in a profitable way). And the NYT sports "Federer as religious experience" is great. Collected essays on descriptivism vs prescriptivism, consider the lobster, etc were all interesting. But he's a little self indulgent for 1100 pages? I'm sure there are passages I would enjoy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4585875&forum_id=2#40617178)