The End of the Tour : Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

A lot of folks talk about the book being extremely long. Highly Complexed. Life Changing. But, I know most of them haven't read the book. People make him out to be some sort of saint when in reality the things he talks about make the reader question his authenticity.

Eric Clipperton. The Nobody that wins tennis matches because he holds a gun to his temple threatening to blow his brains out if he loses. Plays mind games to win the tournament. What literary term would describe this character? Where do people like this appear? According to Wallace, the entertainment.



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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

What exactly are you asking?

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

No idea. have you read the book>

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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Yeah, I just finished it about a week ago and am now devouring everything else he's written. Do you have any questions about it or do you just want to talk about it? Did you enjoy it?

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

When I read it I had just started making music under the name. Atmospheric Tide. So, when I finished Infinite Jest. The last line "and when he came to he was on the beach and the tide was way out." Or something like that. I guess it depends on how you read it whether by following the footnotes.

I didn't enjoy it in the sense that the happenings of the story were funny or something we should laugh at. I thought it was insightful and moving.

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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Brief Interviews with hideous men wasn't one of my favorites. it was so-so.

The Pale King is good and I would recommend that you read it with his short story collection Oblivion.

A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again is great.

His earlier works (Girl With Curious Hair - The Broom of the System)

Are worth noting. He was a young writer who was still learning his craft.


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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

What do you mean by read The Pale King with Oblivion? Like, at the same time? Do the stories cross over?

I really enjoyed the process of reading the book. I read it on Kindle so it was extremely easy to define all the words I didn't know and also very easy to just click on the footnote to read it and then jump back to my page. I feel like the plot throughout the first half was a little loose but by the middle and on I was really sucked into Hal and Don's stories and wanted to see them get what they wanted. I loved just about all of the characters, ecsoecially Kate Gompert, Mario, Mike Pemulis, Hal, Don, and Joelle. The book was laugh out loud funny to me, I'll never forget the moment that I realized the large reporter that Orin was hitting on was actually the undercover agent! All of that was really funny as well as the INSANE Escheton stuff. The Escheton scene and the Don getting shot scene are just about the most intense things I've ever read.

Now I've also read "A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again" (the book) and absolutely LOVED "A supposedly" and also the State Fair peice (can't remember the name). It makes me sad how full of life and humor DFW seemed to be while writing these works and then how dark and unhappy his fiction is. I wish he could have been happy.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

When Pemulis gets his face stuck to the glass. That had me laughing. The writing was so vivid and alive.

The books are similar in terms of subject matter. There's a scene with two men on a plane talking about this young boy from a village who knows about everything. But then in the pale king a man named Claude Sylvanshine is flying on an airplane so it makes me wonder if it was the same flight.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

That's super cool. DFW likes to talk about how the thing that motivates him to write is chasing the "click" of enjoyment that he gets when reading a really good story, solving a good math equation, or creating a solid philosophical argument.

He would be happy to know that I experienced that same feeling many times in Infinite Jest, one was the click I already mentioned when I realized who the reporter was, but others were when I realized that the wraith was JOI, when I realized that the person in the hospital bed next to Don who had some sort of square shaped head was the kid from Esheton with a computer monitor on his head, and also when I realized that the short bit with the character helping his father move the mattress was actually JOI as a younger kid. All of those moments just suddenly slammed into place in my head and I remember looking up from the book and going "whoaaaa" and wishing I had someone there with me who was reading the book at the exact same time to share this with. I guess this is the joy of bookclubs.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Yeah, I could see how that might be missed since his father calls him Jim and not James. That was one of my favorite parts.

The part when DG is in the hospital after being shot ( x amount of days clean) and the Indian doctor wants to give him morphine. Or is it demerol? Did the doctor give him the drug? or did DG pass out from the pain?





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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

A bookclub would've been nice when I was reading it because I feel like I missed a lot the first time through. I read it maybe three or four years ago. I tried it because it seemed like most of the peers I grew up with were always looking for entertainment. Most of that entertainment included drugs, alcohol, and sex. Just being completely mangled by substance. That was the goal everyone seemed to be aiming for. It brings you back to ETA. Good but not good enough to go pro.

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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

The thing that I took more so from the book than anything else was a human understanding. Sure, the plot was good. The characters were colorful. But, the message lingers on long after you've completed it. And strangely enough, after I read it and six months or so passed by, I saw a story on the news that was similar to the part with the student that drinks poison milk and the father tries to give the son CPR and in turn poisons himself and then the mother comes into the kitchen and tries to perform CPR on the father and poisons herself. Except it was in a garage with carbon monoxide.

For example, I read this book called "Before The Fall" by Noah Hawley (He writes for FX's Fargo) Good book. Touched on a lot of the themes that IJ did. The difference? The catastrophic plot device. Whereas Wallace's prose could make the most ordinary scene feel extraordinary. In terms of beauty the only author whose writing comes close is Haruki Murakami. I've only read IQ84. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend that book.

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Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

I tend to think that they did not give Don the medicine.

Are you saying that Noah Halwey's book doesn't have a good plot? I'll definitely check out some Murakami books. Thanks!

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

I don't know where I was going with that. I read another book by Murakami. The strange library or something like that. It wasn't a novel it was disguised as a children's book. It was about a kid that is held against his will in a library and forced to read an entire selection of a subject. (I forget what it was) with the intention of eating the child's brain and acquiring the knowledge he gained. Crazy *beep*

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

What I'm really interested in reading is the new novel by Alan Moore. Wrote watchmen , v for vendetta , the dark knight returns , the killing joke. Well his new book is called Jerusalem. 1,200 pages. When asked what it was about, the answer, everything. Gotta love the encyclopedic novel.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

I looked into Murakami and saw he wrote a book about running. I just read it and it is really good. Can't wait to read some of his novels. Dude, I am totally going to read that new Alan Moore book, or at least give it a shot. A book about everything is the title of the new introduction in the beginning of Infinite Jest. : )

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Murakami is one of the best. IQ84 was one of the craziest books I've ever read. I recently picked up Jerusalem. All I can say is wow. Without a doubt the longest book I've ever attempted to read. I heard a part of the book is in another language. But not like any language known to man. Or so it goes. From what I've gathered so far is that it takes place in England. And in both the present past and future all at once. Talking angel statues.

I don't think I'll ever take up In Search of Lost Time.

Author: Marcel Proust. Rated the longest novel ever by the Guinness Book of World Records, there's no doubt that Proust's masterpiece could quite easily double up as a mightily effective doorstop, with 13 volumes clocking up nearly 1.3 million words.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

But you were referring to what I talk about when I talk about running. That's more essay right? I've heard Norwegian Wood. The Elephant Vanishes. And Kafka by the Shore are his best works.

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

I think Dave Eggers did the introduction on my book. I have the paperback. People make too much of the depth. I went into it attempting a book of that magnitude.

I think you'll enjoy Jerusalem. It is the book. Serving a reminder for every joyful moment. Because the book itself doesn't try to make you feel time. The front cover gives a start. From the gutter. Clearly the protagonist has hit rock bottom. Maybe Humpty Dumpty is the protagonist. Select Childhood Hero. How dare you idolize anything!! Turns upside down. Much better. Now where were we?

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry."

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

Jerusalem is inspired in some ways to Stephen King's book 'Salem's Lost. God looks over the United Kingdom. In the world of Jerusalem it is heaven. Consider the inhabitants of this town to be lost souls. In that they all suffer from sadness of the past. All desperate to find out why they are having hallucinations. But, all too stubborn to talk about it. God is a warlock that grew up in another United Kingdom. Picture something along the lines of King Arthur. Only Arthur isn't King of Anything. His father was a poor peasant man that lied in order to provide for his family. But this leads him into a trap set by a future version of himself. And he has to decide what kind of man he wants to be. If he wants to feel dead or alive. He needs to decide what kind of Jerusalem he wants to return to.

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry."

Re: Who has actually read Infinite Jest?

I had a Wallace moment a few months back. (Sort of like the part in IJ where Hal goes to what he thinks is an AA meeting only to realize that it's grief counseling.) With Kevin Bane. The man who lost his parents in a plane crash and he's squeezing the bear and letting his emotions out. The awkward nature of this encounter. Although it wasn't that extreme in my case.

I had gotten a root canal so a week later I had to go back and get the cap put on. So, I drive to the back to the office, walk into the waiting room. I say hello to the receptionist. Start small talk and I sit down. A minute goes by and the woman at the desk asks me "Why are you here?"

I sit up awkwardly as to gather why she asked me that. So I go "I'm getting a cap on my tooth."

She goes, "Oh, you need to go to your dentist to get that done."

Awkward. So, I get up and leave. Then drive to the dentist.

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry."
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