\
  The most prestigious law school admissions discussion board in the world.
BackRefresh Options Favorite

anyone here ever finish infinite jest

i did 400 pages
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
I did 40
Ruddy Mood
  07/15/20
nice
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
Never tried.
swollen curious ape alpha
  07/15/20
poast moniker synergy
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
yeah
black motley crotch chapel
  07/15/20
should i read the other 600 pages
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
eh... did you LIKE the first 400 pages? imo in some sense t...
black motley crotch chapel
  07/15/20
agree with this. if you don't want to put in that much time ...
Glassy senate degenerate
  07/15/20
...
Ruddy Mood
  07/15/20
yeah i thought it was great but then i started reading anoth...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
Yeah.
Disgusting Big-titted Sound Barrier
  07/15/20
yeah
Glassy senate degenerate
  07/15/20
by the time i got it i didn't have a ton of time to devote t...
Offensive mental disorder
  07/15/20
I did finish, after like a month and a half. I regret it.
cruel-hearted immigrant den
  07/15/20
faggot
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
whok probably did
Sapphire vivacious new version step-uncle's house
  07/15/20
shit, pure shit
Chrome Church
  07/15/20
It is shocking how dated and frivolous that book seems now. ...
Aquamarine cumskin newt
  07/15/20
titcr
Chrome Church
  07/15/20
That's always the vibe I got of this book
talented saffron psychic
  07/15/20
...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
You must not have understood it. It's more relevant than ev...
Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye
  07/15/20
i wonder why he thought cartridges would be the next medium ...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
The specific technology (which feels dated as fuck) is much ...
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
yeah im not a fucking retard okay? i read 400 pages of infin...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
interesting
talented saffron psychic
  07/15/20
agree and disagree. it did not predict today's social and po...
Glassy senate degenerate
  07/15/20
i think the fixation on addiction and substance abuse is sor...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
some would even consider xo the Ultimate Entertainment
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
...
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
some?
Glassy senate degenerate
  07/15/20
...
Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye
  07/15/20
...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
lol fuck no i threw it in the trash after ~40% of it or so ...
Passionate amber headpube philosopher-king
  07/15/20
I got like 120 pages in and then I was like "Why the fu...
Adulterous half-breed
  07/15/20
yes. 30% of it is interesting, in a conventional way. the re...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
Yes, it becomes a real page-turner around page 203. By page...
Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye
  07/15/20
cr
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
...
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
Nope. Still sitting on the shelf and will probably never be ...
silver idiot locus
  07/15/20
Yes. It's my favorite novel and I don't just use that line t...
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
okay dave
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
...
silver idiot locus
  07/15/20
Cr. It's 1100 pages long on large pages with small type and...
Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye
  07/15/20
the prose is godawful
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
Huge spritezero fan here. Big poaster. Full respect. You...
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
disagree
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
what books do you like
talented saffron psychic
  07/15/20
authors i like: pynchon, joyce, fitzgerald, flaubert
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
Nabokov? what do you like by Joyce?
talented saffron psychic
  07/15/20
i dig nabakov. i like everything abt joyce. have not read fi...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
nobody has ever read finnegan's wake
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
No apostrophe come on man
slap-happy haunted graveyard
  07/15/20
Harold Bloom: Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace,...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
ins't he famous for penning a screed about western canon or ...
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
yeah
obsidian territorial roommate
  07/15/20
good man, but. Jewish. can't escape that
fragrant set potus
  07/15/20
fair
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
I'd agree that DFW's prose style works against him at least ...
Glassy senate degenerate
  07/15/20
i agree--my copy of IJ has a few paragraphs and sentences m...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
Lmao “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with Dav...
slap-happy haunted graveyard
  07/15/20
this critique seems pretty accurate: [T]he novel's Pynchones...
electric crackhouse private investor
  07/15/20
It is the Great American Novel
Outnumbered coral regret
  07/15/20
I became extremely annoyed with it after about 50 pages and ...
twinkling meetinghouse
  07/15/20
That's crazy. If you're not enjoying a book you should quit...
Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye
  07/15/20
Sometimes you gotta keep going though to make sure, e.g. Rab...
slap-happy haunted graveyard
  07/15/20
I read it when I was unemployed, which helped a lot I think....
Appetizing nudist coldplay fan
  07/15/20
it's up there w moby dick for best written work by an americ...
Aromatic Cerise Sex Offender
  07/16/20
I could never get through IJ. Really enjoyed Oblivion (in p...
cerebral forum travel guidebook
  07/16/20


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:46 PM
Author: obsidian territorial roommate

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: Ruddy Mood

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: obsidian territorial roommate

nice

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:50 PM
Author: swollen curious ape alpha

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: black motley crotch chapel

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 7:54 PM
Author: obsidian territorial roommate

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: black motley crotch chapel

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: Glassy senate degenerate

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: Ruddy Mood



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:34 PM
Author: obsidian territorial roommate

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: Disgusting Big-titted Sound Barrier

Yeah.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Glassy senate degenerate

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:00 PM
Author: Offensive mental disorder

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: cruel-hearted immigrant den

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: fragrant set potus

faggot

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:06 PM
Author: Sapphire vivacious new version step-uncle's house

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: Chrome Church

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: Aquamarine cumskin newt

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: Chrome Church

titcr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:41 PM
Author: talented saffron psychic

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: obsidian territorial roommate



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:49 PM
Author: Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: fragrant set potus

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: talented saffron psychic

interesting

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:51 PM
Author: Glassy senate degenerate

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: fragrant set potus

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: obsidian territorial roommate



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:57 PM
Author: Glassy senate degenerate

some?

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 11:38 PM
Author: Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: electric crackhouse private investor



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:37 PM
Author: Passionate amber headpube philosopher-king

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: Adulterous half-breed

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye

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: obsidian territorial roommate

cr

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:44 PM
Author: fragrant set potus



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:45 PM
Author: silver idiot locus

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: fragrant set potus

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: silver idiot locus



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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:48 PM
Author: Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: fragrant set potus

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: electric crackhouse private investor

disagree

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:03 PM
Author: talented saffron psychic

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: talented saffron psychic

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: obsidian territorial roommate

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: slap-happy haunted graveyard

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: fragrant set potus

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: obsidian territorial roommate

yeah

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 9:00 PM
Author: fragrant set potus

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: electric crackhouse private investor

fair

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



Reply Favorite

Date: July 15th, 2020 8:59 PM
Author: Glassy senate degenerate

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: slap-happy haunted graveyard

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: electric crackhouse private investor

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: Outnumbered coral regret

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: twinkling meetinghouse

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: Massive Hyperactive Locale Round Eye

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: slap-happy haunted graveyard

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: Appetizing nudist coldplay fan

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: Aromatic Cerise Sex Offender

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: cerebral forum travel guidebook

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)