David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral • Hacker News Board

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#21

Post by havblue » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 5:57 PM UTC

lotw_dot_site wrote: post #11

Infinite Jest was largely a collection of various scenes, some of them recurring and some not. Probably the main recurring scene involves an extended conversation between Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply on a hilltop overlooking Tuscon. Marathe is a legless French Canadian agent of uncertain allegiance and Steeply is a US agent posing as a female reporter called Helen. Closely following the back-and-forth between the tw…

The state farm insurance claim passage about the brick layer is great and doesn't depend on the rest of the book.

http://infinitesummer.org/archives/608

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#22

Post by iggldiggl » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 5:58 PM UTC

npilk wrote: post #3

Though unfinished, I highly recommend the Pale King. It's not as consistently great as some of DFW's other works, but the highs are as high as anything else he wrote and IMO it's a little more accessible than Infinite Jest. (For a new reader, I would start with some of his essays, e.g. Consider the Lobster: http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf )

I first stumbled across the Pale King in my local library, and it was indeed enough to get me hooked and read first one of the collected essay books and then Infinite Jest.

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#23

Post by iggldiggl » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 5:59 PM UTC

boucher wrote: post #13

rintakumpu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first time I read Infinite Jest I was expecting something as inaccessible as Ulysses or Gravity’s Rainbow but ended up finding the book pretty readable and a total delight. And but so I would highly recommend it, just take the off-beat sci-fi setting at face value and skip the footnotes if you feel like you want to focus on the story. You can always return to those later.

I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.

You just need a second bookmark, and then you're good to go…

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#24

Post by adam_ellsworth » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC

npilk wrote: post #3

Though unfinished, I highly recommend the Pale King. It's not as consistently great as some of DFW's other works, but the highs are as high as anything else he wrote and IMO it's a little more accessible than Infinite Jest. (For a new reader, I would start with some of his essays, e.g. Consider the Lobster: http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf )

The link you provided didn't work for me. I was able to find another copy here: https://faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/lobster_dfwallace...

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#25

Post by ComputerCat » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

Yikes, I had suppressed the memory of a terrible university prof I had who was obsessed with DFW, this instantly took me back.

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#26

Post by xefer » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:13 PM UTC

npilk wrote: post #3

Though unfinished, I highly recommend the Pale King. It's not as consistently great as some of DFW's other works, but the highs are as high as anything else he wrote and IMO it's a little more accessible than Infinite Jest. (For a new reader, I would start with some of his essays, e.g. Consider the Lobster: http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf )

...

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#27

Post by nelsondev » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:16 PM UTC

boldslogan wrote: post #4

npilk wrote: post #3

Though unfinished, I highly recommend the Pale King. It's not as consistently great as some of DFW's other works, but the highs are as high as anything else he wrote and IMO it's a little more accessible than Infinite Jest. (For a new reader, I would start with some of his essays, e.g. Consider the Lobster: http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf )

Spoiler: don’t read this unless spoiled But the part describing the teacher who wanted to kill the child was the funniest chapter of a book I’ve ever read. And I recommend this book based only on this one chapter. I have never seen this kind of comedy in a book. Maybe something like it’s always sunny in Philadelphia or futurama comes slightly close. But I’ve never laughed out loud from a book like that.

As for comedy in books, I find Bukowski - Post Office to be quite hilarious at times.

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#28

Post by dailyrorschach » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

iggldiggl wrote: post #19

lotw_dot_site wrote: post #11

Infinite Jest was largely a collection of various scenes, some of them recurring and some not. Probably the main recurring scene involves an extended conversation between Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply on a hilltop overlooking Tuscon. Marathe is a legless French Canadian agent of uncertain allegiance and Steeply is a US agent posing as a female reporter called Helen. Closely following the back-and-forth between the tw…

> My favorite scene […] Eschaton […] And a band that apparently has some David Foster Wallace fans amongst its members did a music video based on that chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni7T18UUBUI (The Decemberists - "Calamity Song")

And directed by Office, Parks Rec, Good Place Mike Schur - who once definitely owned the film rights to Infinite Jest, not sure he still does or not.

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#29

Post by UncleOxidant » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

iggldiggl wrote: post #19

lotw_dot_site wrote: post #11

Infinite Jest was largely a collection of various scenes, some of them recurring and some not. Probably the main recurring scene involves an extended conversation between Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply on a hilltop overlooking Tuscon. Marathe is a legless French Canadian agent of uncertain allegiance and Steeply is a US agent posing as a female reporter called Helen. Closely following the back-and-forth between the tw…

> My favorite scene […] Eschaton […] And a band that apparently has some David Foster Wallace fans amongst its members did a music video based on that chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni7T18UUBUI (The Decemberists - "Calamity Song")

Oh, that's what that was about (haven't gotten around to reading Infinite Jest). Love that song (Love most Decemberists songs), but couldn't quite figure out that video. Thank you.

Re: David Foster Wallace’s final attempt to make art moral

#30

Post by jbmny » Fri, Jul 29, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

boucher wrote: post #13

rintakumpu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first time I read Infinite Jest I was expecting something as inaccessible as Ulysses or Gravity’s Rainbow but ended up finding the book pretty readable and a total delight. And but so I would highly recommend it, just take the off-beat sci-fi setting at face value and skip the footnotes if you feel like you want to focus on the story. You can always return to those later.

I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.

I've been roughly halfway through the book for years, so take this for what it's worth, but if they were actually footnotes I might have read them. Instead they are endnotes, meaning you have to pick up a solid pound of book and flip to the end each time you encounter one. And there are many.

I just found that dehumanizing. Lol