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anyone here ever finish infinite jest

i did 400 pages
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
I did 40
self-centered sneaky criminal abode
  07/15/20
nice
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
Never tried.
Hilarious Locus
  07/15/20
poast moniker synergy
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
yeah
Hyperactive hairraiser forum goal in life
  07/15/20
should i read the other 600 pages
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
eh... did you LIKE the first 400 pages? imo in some sense t...
Hyperactive hairraiser forum goal in life
  07/15/20
agree with this. if you don't want to put in that much time ...
Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse
  07/15/20
...
self-centered sneaky criminal abode
  07/15/20
yeah i thought it was great but then i started reading anoth...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
Yeah.
fear-inspiring comical garrison mental disorder
  07/15/20
yeah
Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse
  07/15/20
by the time i got it i didn't have a ton of time to devote t...
underhanded angry plaza
  07/15/20
I did finish, after like a month and a half. I regret it.
Razzmatazz principal's office headpube
  07/15/20
faggot
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
whok probably did
Ivory electric field stain
  07/15/20
shit, pure shit
Fragrant magenta depressive
  07/15/20
It is shocking how dated and frivolous that book seems now. ...
Talented Church Building
  07/15/20
titcr
Fragrant magenta depressive
  07/15/20
That's always the vibe I got of this book
Slate Hospital
  07/15/20
...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
You must not have understood it. It's more relevant than ev...
fishy generalized bond
  07/15/20
i wonder why he thought cartridges would be the next medium ...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
The specific technology (which feels dated as fuck) is much ...
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
yeah im not a fucking retard okay? i read 400 pages of infin...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
interesting
Slate Hospital
  07/15/20
agree and disagree. it did not predict today's social and po...
Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse
  07/15/20
i think the fixation on addiction and substance abuse is sor...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
some would even consider xo the Ultimate Entertainment
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
...
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
some?
Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse
  07/15/20
...
fishy generalized bond
  07/15/20
...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
lol fuck no i threw it in the trash after ~40% of it or so ...
charcoal multi-colored stage
  07/15/20
I got like 120 pages in and then I was like "Why the fu...
maniacal stag film dysfunction
  07/15/20
yes. 30% of it is interesting, in a conventional way. the re...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
Yes, it becomes a real page-turner around page 203. By page...
fishy generalized bond
  07/15/20
cr
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
...
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
Nope. Still sitting on the shelf and will probably never be ...
translucent french set
  07/15/20
Yes. It's my favorite novel and I don't just use that line t...
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
okay dave
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
...
translucent french set
  07/15/20
Cr. It's 1100 pages long on large pages with small type and...
fishy generalized bond
  07/15/20
the prose is godawful
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
Huge spritezero fan here. Big poaster. Full respect. You...
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
disagree
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
what books do you like
Slate Hospital
  07/15/20
authors i like: pynchon, joyce, fitzgerald, flaubert
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
Nabokov? what do you like by Joyce?
Slate Hospital
  07/15/20
i dig nabakov. i like everything abt joyce. have not read fi...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
nobody has ever read finnegan's wake
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
No apostrophe come on man
crimson vibrant brunch chad
  07/15/20
Harold Bloom: Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace,...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
ins't he famous for penning a screed about western canon or ...
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
yeah
insanely creepy native boltzmann
  07/15/20
good man, but. Jewish. can't escape that
racy tanning salon
  07/15/20
fair
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
I'd agree that DFW's prose style works against him at least ...
Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse
  07/15/20
i agree--my copy of IJ has a few paragraphs and sentences m...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
Lmao “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with Dav...
crimson vibrant brunch chad
  07/15/20
this critique seems pretty accurate: [T]he novel's Pynchones...
Pink antidepressant drug
  07/15/20
It is the Great American Novel
Emerald institution
  07/15/20
I became extremely annoyed with it after about 50 pages and ...
Salmon kitchen sandwich
  07/15/20
That's crazy. If you're not enjoying a book you should quit...
fishy generalized bond
  07/15/20
Sometimes you gotta keep going though to make sure, e.g. Rab...
crimson vibrant brunch chad
  07/15/20
I read it when I was unemployed, which helped a lot I think....
curious nofapping stead immigrant
  07/15/20
it's up there w moby dick for best written work by an americ...
obsidian rebellious area
  07/16/20
I could never get through IJ. Really enjoyed Oblivion (in p...
indigo stage love of her life
  07/16/20


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:46 PM
Author: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: self-centered sneaky criminal abode

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

nice

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:50 PM
Author: Hilarious Locus

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: Hyperactive hairraiser forum goal in life

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:54 PM
Author: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: Hyperactive hairraiser forum goal in life

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: Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse

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: self-centered sneaky criminal abode



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:34 PM
Author: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: fear-inspiring comical garrison mental disorder

Yeah.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: underhanded angry plaza

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: Razzmatazz principal's office headpube

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: racy tanning salon

faggot

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:06 PM
Author: Ivory electric field stain

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: Fragrant magenta depressive

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: Talented Church Building

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: Fragrant magenta depressive

titcr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: Slate Hospital

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:49 PM
Author: fishy generalized bond

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: racy tanning salon

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: Slate Hospital

interesting

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: racy tanning salon

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:57 PM
Author: Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse

some?

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:38 PM
Author: fishy generalized bond



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Pink antidepressant drug



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: charcoal multi-colored stage

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: maniacal stag film dysfunction

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: fishy generalized bond

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

cr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: racy tanning salon



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:45 PM
Author: translucent french 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: racy tanning salon

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: translucent french set



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: fishy generalized bond

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: racy tanning salon

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: Pink antidepressant drug

disagree

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:03 PM
Author: Slate Hospital

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: Slate Hospital

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

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: crimson vibrant brunch chad

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: racy tanning salon

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: insanely creepy native boltzmann

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:00 PM
Author: racy tanning salon

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: Pink antidepressant drug

fair

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Coral Windowlicker Meetinghouse

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: crimson vibrant brunch chad

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: Pink antidepressant drug

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: Emerald institution

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: Salmon kitchen sandwich

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: fishy generalized bond

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: crimson vibrant brunch chad

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: curious nofapping stead immigrant

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: obsidian rebellious area

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: indigo stage love of her life

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)