I don't get it.
>>7499734
what's there to get?
>>7499750
not much tbqf.
>>7499734
If anything, it's heavyhanded.
>I can only speak one language and have no sense of world history or culture.
>Artificial consumption manufactured through overt social conditioning is bad, or something.
>I'm going to just put a lot of characters in because people like characters
>Nobody knew or cared about me until I put on the noose
Who am I?
>>7499769
Ted Danson.
>>7499734
i seriously thought it was a joke that this author was adored after spending about 100 pages in this novel. i was looking for a challenge, but got genre tier writing, and unlolworthy jabs at annotations. i guess i understand why a lot of people who are less well read (not that i'm remotely well read) might like his work so much, it's better than twilight and all that junk. but all this hype about his being the greatest writer is just that, hype. i plan to go back and finish this book, but right now i'm investigating pynchon.. who is leaps and bounds above dfw, but only because what i've read so far presents a bit of a challenge, and has some soul to it, a feeling that its roots are a little bit closer to the better times of lit.
i really do wonder why people like him though, i hear a lot about sincerity, but is that what it is? anyone really a big fan of DFW? i'm curious to know why.
The Jest is Infinite, if you "get it", you don't get it
>>7499881
DELETE THIS
>not recognizing DFW as base and redpilled as fuck
>not attributing his suicide as his final infinite jest1
>1 being literally worse than AIDS spreading Hitler Jews
>>7499887
Why does he wear the bandana?
>>7499881
>>7499903
he was balding
>>7499781
you really spent like 5 minutes trying to be as subtle as possible with this mediocre tier shitposting?
>>7499922
eh, i just don't like his writing or think what i read of him was worthwhile enough to continue. pynchon is pretty damn hyped too, but at least i can drag myself back to the pages he shit all over. please don't be cross, at least say why you like DFW or whoever or whatever, and you can move on, huh?
>>7499903
because under it contained the pulsating brain of an absolute god. it would frighten the plebs without the proper shielding, the psionic waves carried through the air would cause ripples through the minds of those he strolled by, who suddenly begin scrawling epic poems on the sidewalk with their own blood.
>>7499810
As someone who likes him, but doesn't think necessarily thing he's the best thing since sliced Faulkner, here's what I like about him:
1. Yes, the sincerity. You get the sense when reading him that he's really trying to be honest and not hiding behind a pose or irony/pastiche.
2. Cult of personality. When people talk about how much they like DFW's books, they're really talking about how much they like them in the context of his public personality and life story.
3. His prose sounds unmistakably like the voice inside your own head. This feeling of recognition is extremely rare, at least for me.
4. His work is difficult to read, both emotionally and otherwise, so you get a certain amount of gratification out of completing it simply for that.
5. He's in tune with the cultural zeitgeist and writes about things have seem really pertinent to contemporary life.
6. Particularly with his non-fiction, you get the sense that you're learning something from reading it, which is bolstered by the sense of authority and intelligence you get from his voice.
I read the /lit/ starter kit, Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest and I don't feel any smarter. Did I get memed?
>>7499937
>say why you like DFW
Because liking a genius is the default response to being exposed to his work.
If you simply ''don't like his writing'' you've probably missed the point and everything below the frontal layer, because a lot like with Pynchon, there is quite some out there to miss.
Not to mention that your tone really resembles the one used by people who label Joyce as trash and his works as ''normal novels with 'he thought' and 'he said' cut out, lol, what's there to admire?''
>>7499914
4 u
>>7500228
Old meme trilogy, son. Read the new one
>>7500285
''new maymay trilogy'' is the most bland and trite meme out there atm, stop it pls
>that fucking monologue of Hal's grandfather in the trailer park to Hal's dad
one of the greatest homages I've seen to Gaddis and a perfect imitation of his style
>>7499937
Seems like your the type that craves instant gratification. If so, IJ isnt for you. But know that the payoff of hard work and paying attention throughout IJ is indeed worth it
>>7499781
>Pynchon
>soul
Opinion discarded
>>7500222
>3. His prose sounds unmistakably like the voice inside your own head. This feeling of recognition is extremely rare, at least for me.
This. This is the only author I've ever had this feeling with. The first time I felt it, it changed my perception on literature.
>>7499734
You thought it was a good book.
That's the joke, the infinite jest.
>>7499770
noice!
>>7499734
Do more LSD, once you do that just reading the title alone should be enough for you to 'get it'
Whats there to get? Hal was adopted, orin had sex with his mom, and james o incandenza was lyle's second personality.
>>7499734
Postmodernism
Alright, you should get it now
>>7499781
Mods, if you're listening, can you please ban this guy? I am triggered
>>7501321
are you making of people who think that they can do that? or are you actually think that?
>>7499781
Delete this now.
So I just started it and have a question. Is it completely necessary to read the James filmography footnote? Will I miss much going further into the story if I skip it?
>>7501415
You got another like 800 pages, what the hells the difference
>>7501415
Why would you skip of one the funniest parts?
It's a meme. You pretend it's good to trick people into reading it.
>>7501415
it seems boring but it is extremely important
it lays out most of the thematic elements of the story and clearly references many key elements: for example the premise for "The Man Who Began To Suspect He Was Made of Glass" is actually a summary of what happens to Halwho near the end it is revealed is on an interpersonal level colder than even John Wayne, but through a second ingestion of DMZ (his first being as a child, the mold that grows on mold, in the opening pages of the book, within which the flashback is nestled) reverses his interior/exterior emptiness, to become wholly self-satisfied but utterly incapable of expressing himself (hence the "transcendentally enlightened or schizophrenic), the source of his second ingestion being largely speculated and thought to be somehow the work of Himself's Wraith (which haunts Gately and ETA in general
Medusa vs the Odalisque foreshadows the killer beauty of Joelle, any reference to "Death" in his filmography is interchangeable with Madame Psychosis' beauty (I don't believe she was disfigured given blatant holes in Molly's testimony, but that she was simply so beautiful that it drove men mad)
I could go on about each and every film but I ramble
>>7501456
Hal is Hamlet jr.
Himself is King Hamlet
elements of Himself's work "haunt" most of the novel both literally and metaphorically
so yes it seems unimportant but it isnt
also if you don't enjoy reading the premises for those films why are you even reading the book
>>7500222
it's weird you say that, i get that impression too, but i felt like if i wanted to write what was in my own head, i would. i don't particularly care for that feeling. i can understand the sentiment, but i just don't really want to read my own thoughts, i want to be awed by someone who is different from me.
>>7500236 actually, i think Joyce is one of the greatest authors of all time, and found his style inimitable and overwhelming. i didnt feel that from dfw. no need to try to insult me or assign me to a group when i simply didnt particularly care for an author you liked.
>>7500296 instant gratification? i spent months reading don quixote and finally found the nugget of hilarity in sancho panza, struggled through translations of petersburg, only to be astonished in the end by that diamond bely, sat confused and stunned through ulysses, trying my best to understand. i hated the boring moments through the recognitions, only to realize in retrospect what gaddis was trying to tell me, to teach me. i'm not the instant gratification type. i just didnt like the guy's style.
>>7500300 yeah, soul. i'm reading V. right at the moment, and i get glimpses of it, of actual human emotions, alongside his cheek.
look, i'm not saying dfw is a bad writer, or a good one, or a genius or not a genius. i felt like his prose was a bit simple compared to a lot of the great writers i've read, it might just be he's better than me, a greater mind that i just can't relate to, it might not be. I plan on going back and reading the rest of the novel, but i'm not going to pretend like i'm excited to do so, and that he's not at the ass end of my list.
