Am I about to get memed?
Daily IJ thread I guess.
DFW's intelligence and work are really depressing
>tfw you'll never be a genius who smokes weed on a daily basis
The book is profoundly sad. It's very enjoyable too, and lots of the episodes are excellent pieces of writing unto themselves.
>>7721625
I'm 60 pages into it and, no offense, but I have yet to encounter an interesting scene. Approximately when does it get good?
>>7721656
Just keep reading. It really starts to take off around page 300.
*restrained snickering*
>>7721663
I already resolved to finish the book (which I will definitely do as I've completed my resolutions for Tolstoy), sarcastic advice will only thumb yourself in the ass.
Book as a whole is sort of enjoyable, but any particular part blows. It's clumsy but it can make you think about pretty cool stuff, even if the book can't think for itself.
>>7721462
Its okay. It has a very narrow appeal. if you can't relate to anxiety or addiction it's going to be painfully boring. Even if you do relate it's not really profound in any way.
>>7721673
What sort of anxiety?
Existential anxiety, social anxiety, chronic anxiety?
>>7721462
Just read the first 90 pages like everybody else and I guarantee you will never not understand any of the references people make.
>>7721691
Not him, but all of the above.
>>7721462
>Am I about to get memed?
Did you buy the book? Then you already go memed, friendo
>>7721656
Depends what you consider good.
Personally I loved the intro scene with Hal and the admissions administration.
Lots of the Marathe and Steeply discussions read like DFW essays (which I liked) and any part with Pemulis is entertaining.
>>7721700
But which is emphasized most, of them?
>>7721673
I thought the themes of banal trite shit having it's uses profound. Likewise with the comment on how difficult it is to project yourself out into the world properly.
>>7721656
>>7721669
There are various high points scattered throughout it, but your mileage may vary depending on whether DFW's writing style agrees with you or not. As that other guy said, it is a very clumsy book, partially by design, partially just by virtue of the author's clumsiness. The first 100 pages or so and 300-500 drag the most from what I recall.
>>7721716
But that sounds like piecemeal ethics. How can DFW be profound by trying to communicate that, if broader philosophical systems (including modern Japanese defenses of Shinto) have already expounded on very similar observations?
>>7721711
Couldn't tell you.
And personally, I don't see a point in trying to quantify it. Sorry if you're looking for a book that's focused on one of those types of anxiety. IJ is over 1,000 pages, it sticks its hands into many a Pop-Tart box by the end of the journey.
>>7721723
He wasn't trying to be profound. His first book (The Broom of the System) was his undergrad philosophy thesis and referred to Wittgenstein and Hegel. Infinite Jest is something of an antithesis to formal philosophical systems based on his experiences with depression, drugs, and rehab.
>>7721462
SPOILERS I FORGET HOW TO SPOILER TAG
Given the structural similarities and references to Hamlet, is it reasonable to suspect CT of having had a hand in killing Himself? Is there any evidence of this in the text?
>>7721806
Highlight the text you want covered by the spoiler tag and hit ctrl+s
>>7721806
>>>7721462 (OP)
>SPOILERS I FORGET HOW TO SPOILER TAG
>Given the structural similarities and references to Hamlet, is it reasonable to suspect CT of having had a hand in killing Himself? Is there any evidence of this in the text?
It's implied that [spoilers]CT's affair with Avril drove him to kill himself in a pretty delicious way[/spoilers]
>>7721462
sup /lit/
>>7721656
I'm almost 70 pages in, so far I've found it very interesting, the subplot with the medical attaché has been quite interesting for me. I've enjoyed Orin's story and the flashbacks to Hal's childhood. So far, the only bits I disliked were the incoherent chapter about a child getting beaten and the constant footnotes for medical things which are completely useless. Most of James Incandenza's filmography was meaningless to me, but I saw quite a few important bits in there (one film replicates exactly what happened in one of the earlier chapters) and I got a few chuckles from it
So far, I'm enjoying what I've read and it's a good read, just lots to get through
>>7721860
Oh, I'm friends with the son of a Pakistani ambassador and learned some of their experiences, so that vignette just kind of glossed over me. Nas magazine was a funny nonexistent parody of People magazine, but there wasn't enough fresh content for me to get hooked on that subplot so far.
>>7721922
Why are the introductions to each plot thread so dreary to read? Was this intentional on DFW's part?
>>7721656
All these other posts are right, the book settles into a flow about 250 pages in. Once you start hitting 500-600 onwards, the book actually gets really easy to read. Took me a month to read the first 600 pages, four days to read the last 300.
>>7721816
I thought it was Avril's affair withOrinand the situation with the car that did him in
OP here, I'm 38 pages in so far and its quite enjoyable. I'm enjoying the changes in style between chapters, some of the humor feels a little too wacky and forced. The first chapter was the best so far.
I'm glad to say that I haven't been memed (yet).
Who else hardback here? Reading this fucking thing on the bus is hard work.
>>7721462
epically.
>>7723192
my bookstore has it for 10 bucks more than paperback, is it worth it?
I'm starting to like IJ a little more, but still some parts are just pointless and just barely amusing (Eschaton comes to mind) and DFW's incessant need to be write like he has a thesaurus by his side gets kinda old. Yes the style is enjoyable (and not a hard read either, though you should google any of the dozen IJ "guides" and find them to have definitions of basic words and references for every page, lel) but DFW's constant vocabulary flexing gets old. Like why write "lipid-free" instead of fat. Or referencing calculus and orgo constantly where he's clearly out of his depth.
>>7721462
i was interested in this, decided to try it out so i gacve the first one hundred pages a try. utter crap. being a genius doesnt make you a good artist.
>>7721472
defew smoked weed????
regularly??????????
>>7721656
If you didn't lose your shit during the Wardine scene, this book just isn't for you.
it's a funny book
>>7721462
This book was hilarious. Hes just being a contrarian when he says it was supposed to be sad.
>>7721822
Gross
>>7721462
I am almost 700 pages in and book starts to feel a bit off. I'm liking it so far, but it's really slow and the tone isn't clear at all.
He wants to be sad? He wants to make me chuckle? In the second case it totally failed save for a bunch of time(I hope there's more Eschaton). He wanted to do some wacky socio-political commentary? It could have worked, but all these Ennet House people are getting boring. Sum it with the unending talking about tennis and you have two elements who costantly interrput the flow for pages.
What's the point on giving us characters like Lenz when Don Gately stopped to do something worth pages ago, and we are clearly reading Ennet House chapters for Joelle, who is actually one of the best characters?
There are several issues that won't make me stop reading, but are so diluited in chapters who feels they are simply there, and I don't feel I care.
Maybe Bloom is right about this book.
>>7723139
It's pretty much spelled out that himself couldn't deal with his wife's affair with CT. It's certainly possible that Avril sexually abused Orign and himself found out about it, but it seems unlikely that he would have killelf himself because of that.
>situation with the car
eh?
>>7723369
I found the description of the past eschaton games pretty entertaining. Those sections also explain a complex game and its appeal, which is related to other shit in the book.
>>7723591
I remember watching an interview where he says something to the effect of "i don't remember putting anything in the book that is supposed to be funny" which is complete bullshit.
When i finished this book i felt sad for some of the characters, but I didn't feel sad
>>7723369
Implying he didn't purposefully mess up the math
>>7723369
>Like why write "lipid-free" instead of fat.
i don't think lipid means wut u think it do
that said, dfw pathetic entry level calc junk is embarrassing, clearly he was trying to be like pynchon but failing
>>7721472
I smoked a lot of weed for a long time and I think it's made me dumb
>>7725954
>his philosophy major
oh now i get why dfw is such a shitty writer with such bad ideas! he majored in being a pseud! ok that explains a lot...
>>7725979
confirmed for not knowing anything about philosophy majors. a great deal of the topic learned is logic, and most take a couple mathematical logic courses
I just finished it this morning. I enjoyed it but I feel like it could easily lose 300 pages plus the endnotes.
Why is "and but so" a meme? He literally only says it twice in the entire book except for a few variations.
>>7725998
in case u didn't notice philosophers are some of the shittiest writers the planet has ever seen
Taking this thread to ask about another meme book.
I'm super interested in reading Gravity's rainbow, but given the fact that most people find it incredibly difficult to read, anything I should tackle before this book? I've read a decent amount of existentialism, modernism, and a bit about political theory and theology.
Will I need a companion book to get the most out of GR?
>>7725977
it comes back slowly then, you kinda get back to where you were before. stoners dont realize how much you lose intellectually when you smoke erryday
>>7726091
what does that have to do with anything we're talking about? im talking about dfw's knowledge of mathematics
>>7723333
Unless they're the only available edition, or it's something like the library of America (where you're getting a collection or sampling of several things), hardcovers are more of a collector's item than paperbacks imo. I wouldn't pay extra for a hardcover unless I'd already read the book and liked it enough to want to own it in its most "refined" form.
tl;dr: just get the paperback
>>7724265
>>7723591
He was kinda trolling when he said that, because some sections are impossible to interpret as anything other than goofy comedic bits, even when they involve people dying, but on the whole it is a pretty depressive book, even if there are a lot of deliberately goofy things in it.
My favorite part was probably the whole "inner infant" thing near the end.
>>7726502
Yeah, he probably didn't feel comfortable with putting something out there that was supposed to be funny. It leaves you pretty vulnerable. The part where Struck is trying to plagiarise the essay about the AFR is great.
>>7725954
In infinte jest he fucks up some very basic combinatorics that I learned in a first year comp-sci math course. Apparently his writing about calculus is pretty embarassing, but I wouldn't know.
>>7727740
He just had something of a contrarian streak I think. Like he'd publicly talk about how the things he did in college were really pretentious despite him thinking they were clever at the time he wrote them because he tried too hard to be an avant-garde postmodernist, but The Pale King is arguably the most pretentious thing he tried to write and that was years after he'd supposedly "grown out" of those tendencies.
How can you people discuss this one damn book every day for at least 3 years straight
>>7727831
It's a fairly long and detailed book.
>>7726087
I don't know but I'm reading IJ for the first time and it's weird to read all these little memes that I've been aware of for years but I had no idea about their actual context
