David Foster Wallace

I couldn't finish Infinite Jest.

I do love Girl With Curious Hair, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Brief Interviews though. Check out A Supposedly Fun Thing.. after you're done with Infinite Jest. (Hearing about him, I shot straight into IJ, and I made it about 150 pages into that before I couldn't read anymore. The other stuff definitely redeemed him IMEyes though.)

You've created two topics in the past ten minutes that I've replied to within three or so minutes of their being posted. I'm stalking you.

I get that sometimes.

*major bumpage, I know.* But I didn't want to create a whole new thread. I know nobody likes that.

But I'm reading Infinite Jest right now, but I think I'm reading it now just for the sake of reading it. Is it worth it for me to finish it? Or should I just move on to the next book on my list?

i call it a big poseur book and use it as a measure of all other poseur books. i didn't like infinite jest at all, but i do love me some DFW short stories (see above). i guess it's up to you to decide...are you enjoying what you're reading so far?

i'm reading infinite jest, too.. actually, i have been for about the last two months (having read a few books in between)... i enjoy his wit and humour, though what gets me is that everything seems so long winded, as though he never edited his manuscript, choosing to leave everything in.. i'm about 2/3 through, there's been a few times where I've thought about putting it down, but I'm going to keep on going as the parts that are good, are good enough for me to want to find... he writes short stories? i would never have thought so after reading IJ.

that's exactly my point. DFW is an excellent writer; one of our generation's best if i may be so bold. however, i don't feel like i need to wear a back brace to carry around one of his books i've been reading for the past 6 months when i can get the affect reading a short story or 3.

[QUOTE=the midas touch]*major bumpage, I know.* But I didn't want to create a whole new thread. I know nobody likes that.

But I'm reading Infinite Jest right now, but I think I'm reading it now just for the sake of reading it. Is it worth it for me to finish it? Or should I just move on to the next book on my list?[/QUOTE]
If you're not enjoying it that much you probably won't by the end. Pick up Girl With Curious Hair or Brief interviews though. Some of his "short stories" are crazy long winded though, so you may want to skip those. IJ takes some serious patience to get through, for sure, but I was extremely glad I made the journey. If you any of you liked IJ then i suggest Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (If you have that kind of patience/time), which obviously heavily influenced DFW, I even found a few of the same names (they both like to give characters really obscure/made-up names so I'm pretty sure it was no coincidence). I've already whored IJ in other threads so I'll leave it at that.

so far, it's alright.

It seems like he's writing condescendingly all the time. Like he's showing off his mastery of the English language.

Of course he is.

I just finished Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. I really don't understand this author, but would like to.

The footnotes were pervasive and distracting. His "stories" had so many tangents and tangential footnotes that I'd forget how or why he went on that tangent (I'd forget what the main thrust of the story was about. Seriously.) And I'd find myself just getting annoyed and wondered why he was writing in such a manner. Actually, I was silently telling him to shut up and stop repeating himself incessantly and stop showing off. And stop hiding behind stylish techniques- you don't need them. He is obviously very intelligent and knowledgeable about a wide range of topics, so I must be missing something or the point to all his rambling and repetition .

If anyone has any thoughts or insight into why he used the style he did or what he was doing, I'd love to know. I'm missing the point and it's bugging me.

I'm finding with Wallace there are great moments of genius in his work, but that these moments are surrounded by incredibly dense passages that are a chore to read through.

I'm nearly finished w/ IJ (about a hundred pages to go), and so far it's been worth it.

However, every passage that started out like so elicited a groan:

"Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: InterLace TelEntertainment, 932/1864 R.I.S.C., power-TPs w/ or w/o console, Pink2, post-Primestar..." on and on and on.

It's like...GAH! More of this!

I whine, but it's been a while since I've challenged myself, so overall reading this beast has been a rewarding experience.

If I was to begin reading DFW which book would you recommend me to start off with?

[QUOTE=Barca Boy]If I was to begin reading DFW which book would you recommend me to start off with?[/QUOTE]
I'd go to the bookstore and see what peaks your interest.

For a quick taste.. .

[url]http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html[/url]

Normally, stylistic stuff like voice and shit is number one on my list of priorities re: books (I can't get through two damn pages of that shit Catcher in the Rye), but I didn't have any of the problems that you kids are complaining about. Yeah, it was lengthy, longwinded and, admittedly, I couldn't stand the fucking quebecois french voice, but to me, that's what a kid who reads the dictionary sounds like. Agreed, it was a bit of an exaggeration, but still, I thought it represented well how people talk. Half the time my tangents turn into full stories and I forget where I started or why. Shit like that just happens in everyday English. Plus, I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or not, but once you kind of get into it and reach a certain point, you just can't put the fucker down no matter how annoying it is. I got this frame of mind like "If I made it this far, I'm gonna read it to the end." One could use the word, say, "addicted" to the book. Plus there was the title "Infinite Jest." Didn't half of it just seem like one big joke that keeps going on forever?

Hi Lisa! I'm being your book friend!

"Infinite Jest" has recently become one of my favorite books. As Rents said, there are some parts that highly annoy:

The sub-plot (if ANY of the plots are sub-, which is debatable) of the American and the French Canadian standing in the desert and talking about...nothing. Yeah, okay, I understand the plot about the Entertainment was integral to the storyline, but it seemed like it could have been executed just as easily, or perhaps even better so without this. I think it's supposed to have echoes of [i]Faust[/i] in it, but still. The second time I read the book, I mostly skimmed those sections.

Still (and Lisa, you've worked in rehab centers, correct?) I feel like this book probably taught me a lot more about addiction, withdrawal, and the structure of AA than any other book I've read before, even nonfiction books about the subject.

And I LOOOOOOOVED the paralells of Hamlet. Anyone that knows me knows that I love this play forever and ever amen, and the similiarities between it and Hamlet are almost too great to name.

Both have a young protagonist who might or might not be going nuts (like Hal's seizures at the beginning of the book when he's doing a college visit) whose father is dead.

Both have matriachal figures who might or might not have had a hand in her husband's death.

Both have brother-figures that have usurped the protagonist's father's place in both home and business.

Plus the title. It's from the graveyard scene, "Alas! Poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio. A man/of infinte jest." (Poor Yorick also being the name of Himself's production company.)

what she said, suckas.

Infinite Jest was too dense for me. I stopped on page 100. I've never balled up enough to actually go back and finish that book.

It'd be worth it to try. The book gets great in its second half.

I hit this and MASON & DIXON the same week, as I recall. loved them and was changed by them both. I remember at the time--it feels like 97--everybody was saying DFW was outPynchoning Pynchon. I probably wouldn't go that far, but would argue that nobody yet's out DFW'd DFW. I think he's the best dialogue writer going right now. and yeah, that even includes Elmore Leonard. as for the best scene writer, I'd suggest Neal Stephenson, and for the most intentional, precise prose, Jonathan Franzen. like him or hate him, you've nearly got to respect his prose, I think.

for most intentional, precise prose i submit craig clevenger.

[QUOTE=moe.ron]for most intentional, precise prose i submit craig clevenger.[/QUOTE]
i'm really starting to dig on the meandering, wordy prose. don't know why. the good news is, though, i'm thinking i'll be able to tackle that victorian bullshit sooner or later. currently absorbing Les Miserables, which completely rocks my socks.

[QUOTE=Rents]i'm really starting to dig on the meandering, wordy prose. don't know why. the good news is, though, i'm thinking i'll be able to tackle that victorian bullshit sooner or later. currently absorbing Les Miserables, which completely rocks my socks.[/QUOTE]
you don't know why?? it's because you're enjoying the written word, son!! it's a good thing

so what victorian bullshit are you talking about?

What was that dude's name? Thomas Hardy, maybe. Yeah, soon I'll be all over that lengthy son of a bitch. YA HEAR THAT, HARDY!?! I'M COMIN' TO GITCHA!!! I'MMA BE ALL OVER YOU LIKE WHITE ON RICE, BITCH!!! JUST CALL ME UNCLE BEN!!!