The Infinite Jest reading, discussion and support group thread

[000000]

I'm through 150 pages. I've just now realized that reading 50 pgs a week means i'd be reading this for 5 months or so. I am thus going to double my weekly goal (and try to do more than that).

What happened to the idea of discussions on saturdays?

[DavidFosterWallace]

I knew you guys would like doing something long and hard.

[mikechike]

I'm about 300 pages through so far, liking the section about how Orin became a punter. My favorite bit so far is the digression on how people used videophone.

[Ineedaride2]

I'm still reading. Slowly.

Spoiler:

My first time through I missed the part about the schizophrenic guy who believed people were trying to inject radioactive liquids in his head and bury him alive.

He ends up at the hospital for his mental illness and the doctors inject radioactive liquids into his head and then bury him alive in the MRI machine.

[mikechike]

I'm at the section depicted here, mid-300s, sounds/looks like a wild game:

[-Insert Witty SN-]

thats ****ing cool

i had no idea there was a music video portraying ESCHATON wat

im over 3/4ths done (2nd time, been reading some other stuff) so lets discuss some **** imo

[Tumaterminator]

i really enjoyed his stuff on federer, commencement speech, and the piece released by uk.guardian post-mortem, and this book is on my bucket list. prob pickup from amazon and read 5 pages. if i get farther than you guys i will be sure to brag and ruin the ending. sort of surprised people aren't further, though I have no conception of the density within.

[000000]

I'm sputtering.

I doubt i'll get back into this until after fantasy football season's over. I don't know. I feel ashamed.

[Tumaterminator]

Thank you, your order has been placed.
An e-mail confirmation has been sent to you.
Order Number: 105-3775496-7242646
1 item will be shipped to [redacted] by ---greatbookdeals. Estimated delivery: Aug. 17, 2012 - Sept. 4, 2012

In it to win it. Hoping it remedies my addiction to the internet.

[agapeagape]

Originally Posted by Tumaterminator

In it to win it. Hoping it remedies my addiction to the internet.

Use "A Confederacy of Dunces" for that

[calmlikeabomb]

Have a flight tomorrow, going to try for a 2nd time to read this. Bought it a year or so ago and got through maybe 100-125 pages then gave up.

[kokiri]

I have a question that I don't think needs spoilering.

A bit of casual reading about David Foster Wallace suggests that he had strong (negative) views on the role of irony in modern fiction. Yet as far as I can see, a lot of Infinite Jest is in a style that I would identify as a part of the sort of postmodern style that is playful, knowing, possibly a bit self referential, and which I would happily characterise as ironic. Irony is a broad term, so maybe he's using it in some other context. But still I'm confused.

Any views?

[NajdorfDefense]

My pov is that DFW had strong, negative views about the *overuse* of irony in today's fiction. He clearly tweaks the reader who knows this with a few ironic touches.

YMMV, but 'playful,' nor 'self-referential' are not synonyms to me for 'ironic.'

Also we need to separate the traditional 1990s view of irony, with the Shakespearean, Hamlet use of dramatic 'irony.' Clearly DFW uses the latter version throughout the book, but I think we both agree that's not what you meant.

[NajdorfDefense]

Originally Posted by Shark Sandwich

SPOILER DON'T CLICK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK

Spoiler:

FAIR WARNING

Spoiler:

This is never really answered is it? There's the mold theory, which seems most plausible, the DMZ-dosed toothbrush theory (i.e. ghostly JOI stole Pemulis's stash and used it on Hal), and the he-watched-Infinite-Jest theory, but it's not clear which one is responsible for Hal going nuts. Not that it matters I guess, since it all ultimately leads to the same result

Of course it's never answered. It's DFW, not Agatha Christie.

Virtually none of the characters, questions, plotlines have endings, per se. This is not news. [as you note, it doesn't matter anyway.]

[NajdorfDefense]

Also, the Eschaton part is the bomb.