Garbage, genius, or both 3 ways of looking at infinite jest book. Infinite jest book johnson county library bibliocommons. Most people trashing it i can assure you havent actually read through the entire book. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has. I was in france at the time, and when i got back to the u.
Not a great segment, but posted here for dfwmedia completists. During the scene in which don gately receives his gunshot, two men. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. Eventually, in the world of the book, people began wearing formfitting polybutylene masks when talking on the videophone before even that became too much. David foster wallace infinite jest 1996 year of glad audiobook excerpt. David foster wallace infinite jest abc book club youtube. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to. Matt bucher is the administrator of the david foster wallace mailing list and publisher of elegant complexity.
David foster wallace infinite jest abc the book club. In 2006, little brown published a 10th anniversary edition of david foster wallaces infinite jest that featured a foreword by dave eggers. I had ordered the book from after hearing of david foster wallaces death. In a sprawling, wild, superhyped magnum opus, david foster wallace fulfills the promise of his precocious novel the broom of the system.
A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives. At times i hated it, daydreaming of the lovely, comprehensible books i would read when all this was finally over, even feeling a pang of desire. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a boston halfway. I first became interested in infinite jest after learning that david foster wallace was a fallen philosopher like myself. I am somewhat tempted to immediately start again, since the end is the beginning and you really cant pick it all up in a single read, but if anyone has a good followup or comedown read suggestion id be glad to hear. Youll never discover all of infinite jests secrets. Infinite jest, by david foster wallace, is the worst science fiction novel ever written. I really havent seen like active hate for it though. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace.
David foster wallace infinite jest excerpt your bottom. Infinite jests characters are authors of this realm of the novel. Wallace wrote to a friend that the fuckers cut by 600 pages from the first version. In this chapter, huck finds his own moral compass and decides to do. Wallace read the big book and enjoyed making fun of its cheesy 1930s adman vocabulary to his. If you do this, you also need to tear the footnotes from the back half and tape them to front half. Infinite jest book austin public library bibliocommons. The novel is a interconnected sequence of events, told out of timeline order, that focuses on addiction in all its forms. The plot of infinite jest takes place in a somewhatmoredystopian future uni. I do things like get in a taxi and say, the library, and step on it. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that i see it as something faulty, broken, dysfunctional. The center becomes a hotbed of revolutionary activity by quebec separatists in revolt against the organization of north american nations which now rules the continent. A spoof on our culture featuring a drugandalcohol rehabilitation house near boston. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a boston halfway house for.
Infinite jest book chicago public library bibliocommons. Favorite sentences and paragraphs from infinite jest ben. If nothing else, the success of infinite jest is proof that the great american hype machine can still work wonders, in terms of sales. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. The book is drumtight and relentlessly smart and, though it does not wear its heart on its sleeve, its deeply felt and incredibly moving. The pale king is an unfinished novel by david foster wallace, published posthumously on april 15, 2011. Once again, the preponderance of american culture in germany makes infinite jest a book that is readily understood. But if you are seeking something other, then this book will not disappoint. In the book, infinite jest, by david foster wallace, a young tennis prodigy is learning how to transcend his limitations, develop his talent and manage his fear in this case talking about tennis and how to improve your game but at the same time talking about hope, fear, understanding, fathers and sons, parents, the long waking dream. Wallace, or his narrator, only of the translation of those authors work into language. Huck has been led to believe it would be sinful to help his friend jim, a runaway slave. Though published in 1996, david foster wallaces infinite jest appears to be the defining novel of the twentyfirst century, both in the questions it raises and in the way it attempts to answer them.
Infinite jest is both sad, depressed and funny and even 25 years after it was published in 1994 remains relevant to the modern age. Infinite jest arrived on the scene just as a dominant cultural narrative began to take hold with a vise grip, strangling all other ways of approaching human meaning. In fact, its take on the very nature of entertainment itself perhaps foresaw the age of vanity and social media, as seen through the prisms of tinder, facebook, twitter and instagram. Infinite jest explores the idea that all humans are addicts and examines how the chosen drugs particularly entertainment of late 20th century americans eat them alive.
A successful book says, here are your own thoughts, reader, reflected. Some readers have found it useful to rip the book in half for easier reading on the subway or on the beach. Infinite jest quotes by david foster wallace goodreads. Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. Unquestionably, infinite jest required great ambition and focus to write, and requires a bit of ambition and focus to read as well. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. In her essay she quotes from adelle waldmans the love affairs of nathaniel p. The truth is it might be the worst novel ever written, or at least published, but given the fact that wallace has stiff competition from the burgeoning spawn of pc elitist writers, not to mention his own pomo kith, such as rick moody, dave eggers, and that. It was planned as wallaces third novel, and the first since infinite jest in 1996, but it was not completed at the time of his death.
Infinite jest book lawrence public library bibliocommons. Infinite jest generally gets hate because theres entire subs devoted to it. I became curious because i wondered whether i could identify. Then they show you a 20 x 25 glossy of their dead cat. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of. Quote from the book infinite jest by david foster wallace lyric quotes, book quotes. Infinite jest is a cult book that became a phenomenon right from its publication day in 1996. But the emergent figure of gatelywounded, desperate, but able to find and give loveallows infinite jest to work as a postmodern saga of damnation and. Book excerpts are provided by the publisher and may contain language some find. Infinite jest is the name of a short, experimental film said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction, features a huge cast and multilevel narrative, and questions essential elements of american. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, first edition. Three faces have resolved into place above summerweight sportcoats and halfwindsors across a polished pine conference table shiny with the spidered light of an arizona noon.
A book that has shaped popular culture despite or because of its length which demands a bit of much rewarding work from the reader. Npr coverage of infinite jest by david foster wallace. Not too many people write thousandpagers, much less read them. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. But why are so many insufferable people in love with infinite jest. Quote from infinite jest david foster wallace quotes, book quotes, me quotes, book david foster wallace. These are three deansof admissions, academic affairs, athletic affairs.
It is an exuberant, uniquely american exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do. The answer depends on whether you define the end as the last chronological event of the story, chronological events near the end of the text, or whats happening on the actual last page of text not counting footnotes. Infinite jest is a novel written by david foster wallace. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. Eggerss introduction observed that infinite jest was 1,067 pages long and there is not one lazy sentence. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america. Why insufferable people love infinite jest paste paste magazine. Whether its drugs, sex, or fame, the novels primary goal is to examine the need for these addictions and show that it is possible to addicted to addiction itself. Copyright 1996 david foster wallace all right reserved. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between. The late david foster wallace somehow accomplished the impossiblea book both sprawling and intimate, intellectual and pedestrian. I began reading infinite jest by david foster wallace around october 2008. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to.
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