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anyone here ever finish infinite jest

i did 400 pages
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
I did 40
khaki laughsome national security agency
  07/15/20
nice
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
Never tried.
excitant legal warrant liquid oxygen
  07/15/20
poast moniker synergy
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
yeah
Fuchsia Halford
  07/15/20
should i read the other 600 pages
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
eh... did you LIKE the first 400 pages? imo in some sense t...
Fuchsia Halford
  07/15/20
agree with this. if you don't want to put in that much time ...
Smoky Effete Laser Beams
  07/15/20
...
khaki laughsome national security agency
  07/15/20
yeah i thought it was great but then i started reading anoth...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
Yeah.
adventurous pozpig
  07/15/20
yeah
Smoky Effete Laser Beams
  07/15/20
by the time i got it i didn't have a ton of time to devote t...
Misanthropic crimson shrine
  07/15/20
I did finish, after like a month and a half. I regret it.
Bateful Tripping Idiot
  07/15/20
faggot
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
whok probably did
olive hospital
  07/15/20
shit, pure shit
light exhilarant cuck
  07/15/20
It is shocking how dated and frivolous that book seems now. ...
Floppy cocky kitchen
  07/15/20
titcr
light exhilarant cuck
  07/15/20
That's always the vibe I got of this book
Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster
  07/15/20
...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
You must not have understood it. It's more relevant than ev...
Bistre public bath
  07/15/20
i wonder why he thought cartridges would be the next medium ...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
The specific technology (which feels dated as fuck) is much ...
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
yeah im not a fucking retard okay? i read 400 pages of infin...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
interesting
Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster
  07/15/20
agree and disagree. it did not predict today's social and po...
Smoky Effete Laser Beams
  07/15/20
i think the fixation on addiction and substance abuse is sor...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
some would even consider xo the Ultimate Entertainment
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
...
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
some?
Smoky Effete Laser Beams
  07/15/20
...
Bistre public bath
  07/15/20
...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
lol fuck no i threw it in the trash after ~40% of it or so ...
Opaque Alpha Faggot Firefighter
  07/15/20
I got like 120 pages in and then I was like "Why the fu...
lascivious gas station knife
  07/15/20
yes. 30% of it is interesting, in a conventional way. the re...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
Yes, it becomes a real page-turner around page 203. By page...
Bistre public bath
  07/15/20
cr
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
...
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
Nope. Still sitting on the shelf and will probably never be ...
passionate rusted set
  07/15/20
Yes. It's my favorite novel and I don't just use that line t...
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
okay dave
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
...
passionate rusted set
  07/15/20
Cr. It's 1100 pages long on large pages with small type and...
Bistre public bath
  07/15/20
the prose is godawful
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
Huge spritezero fan here. Big poaster. Full respect. You...
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
disagree
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
what books do you like
Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster
  07/15/20
authors i like: pynchon, joyce, fitzgerald, flaubert
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
Nabokov? what do you like by Joyce?
Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster
  07/15/20
i dig nabakov. i like everything abt joyce. have not read fi...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
nobody has ever read finnegan's wake
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
No apostrophe come on man
Mind-boggling Slippery Den
  07/15/20
Harold Bloom: Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace,...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
ins't he famous for penning a screed about western canon or ...
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
yeah
Heady philosopher-king dragon
  07/15/20
good man, but. Jewish. can't escape that
exciting transparent church
  07/15/20
fair
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
I'd agree that DFW's prose style works against him at least ...
Smoky Effete Laser Beams
  07/15/20
i agree--my copy of IJ has a few paragraphs and sentences m...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
Lmao “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with Dav...
Mind-boggling Slippery Den
  07/15/20
this critique seems pretty accurate: [T]he novel's Pynchones...
out-of-control heaven
  07/15/20
It is the Great American Novel
Galvanic point
  07/15/20
I became extremely annoyed with it after about 50 pages and ...
Flatulent 180 Corner
  07/15/20
That's crazy. If you're not enjoying a book you should quit...
Bistre public bath
  07/15/20
Sometimes you gotta keep going though to make sure, e.g. Rab...
Mind-boggling Slippery Den
  07/15/20
I read it when I was unemployed, which helped a lot I think....
big-titted main people new version
  07/15/20
it's up there w moby dick for best written work by an americ...
Coral feces puppy
  07/16/20
I could never get through IJ. Really enjoyed Oblivion (in p...
unhinged gunner deer antler
  07/16/20


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:46 PM
Author: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: khaki laughsome national security agency

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

nice

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:50 PM
Author: excitant legal warrant liquid oxygen

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: Fuchsia Halford

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:54 PM
Author: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: Fuchsia Halford

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: Smoky Effete Laser Beams

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: khaki laughsome national security agency



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:34 PM
Author: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: adventurous pozpig

Yeah.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Smoky Effete Laser Beams

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Misanthropic crimson shrine

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: Bateful Tripping Idiot

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: exciting transparent church

faggot

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:06 PM
Author: olive hospital

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: light exhilarant cuck

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: Floppy cocky kitchen

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: light exhilarant cuck

titcr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:49 PM
Author: Bistre public bath

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: exciting transparent church

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster

interesting

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: Smoky Effete Laser Beams

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: exciting transparent church

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:57 PM
Author: Smoky Effete Laser Beams

some?

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:38 PM
Author: Bistre public bath



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: out-of-control heaven



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: Opaque Alpha Faggot Firefighter

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: lascivious gas station knife

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: out-of-control heaven

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: Bistre public bath

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

cr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: exciting transparent church



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:45 PM
Author: passionate rusted set

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: exciting transparent church

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: passionate rusted set



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: Bistre public bath

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: out-of-control heaven

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: exciting transparent church

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: out-of-control heaven

disagree

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:03 PM
Author: Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster

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: out-of-control heaven

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: Swashbuckling crackhouse toaster

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: out-of-control heaven

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

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: Mind-boggling Slippery Den

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: out-of-control heaven

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: exciting transparent church

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: Heady philosopher-king dragon

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:00 PM
Author: exciting transparent church

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: out-of-control heaven

fair

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Smoky Effete Laser Beams

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: out-of-control heaven

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: Mind-boggling Slippery Den

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: out-of-control heaven

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: Galvanic point

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: Flatulent 180 Corner

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: Bistre public bath

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: Mind-boggling Slippery Den

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: big-titted main people new version

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: Coral feces puppy

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: unhinged gunner deer antler

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)