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The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

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Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#31

Post by e40 »

arkaic wrote: post #26

I found Infinite Jest extraordinarily compelling, hilarious, and endlessly entertaining. I wouldn't go as far to say that it was "hard to put down". The book will fatigue you at points, as there is such a density of ideas within a single page that you need to just step back for the day and take it all in. But I was inevitably drawn back every time to sit down and open Infinite Jest again and again. Maybe it was the p…

I love the way DFW makes these small, minute observations of life that always seem to make me go "yeaaaah I can relate too!"

We need a word for that, in English. I had a very close friend that had an uncanny ability to find things about any situation that I would gloss over, but when he pointed it out, I would realize that I had missed seeing it but I completely agreed with it. And, weirdly, this friend also committed suicide.

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#32

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

laxatives wrote: post #25
johnhattan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made it about 125 pages. I wanted to like it, but the endless digressions and footnotes wore me out.

FWIW, I didn't like it for the first 300-400 pages either. But it very quickly became one of my favorite books. Its worth sticking it out to the end.

>300-400 pages

>very quickly

How good can a book be if it starts off bad and stays that way for so long, most books would have already ended?

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#33

Post by sharkweek »

praneshp wrote: post #12
jraines wrote: post #9

If anyone is daunted by Infinite Jest but undaunted by the fad of hating DFW, definitely start with his books of essays & journalism. IMO they're a lot more rewarding and enjoyable than his novels. I think E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction is essential reading. (PDF link: https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf )

Also String Theory (which is a collection of essays about Tennis). Also, is there a fad of hating him? Do his books have controversial content (like Ayn Rand, for example, who divides people)?

It's people who look at a book that's 1100 pages long (1600 if you use standard font/page sizes), and call it pretentious.

Is it? Sure, but that doesn't make it any less of an absolutely insane/enjoyable journey. There are parts of this novel that absolutely shook me (the parts on addiction/suicide, and the "that if..." part on the halfway home), while others had me in tears laughing (the parts on the insurance claim for the brick layer, the part about the camera phones, the "heart thief"... etc).

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#34

Post by psyc »

andrewfromx wrote: post #2

show of hands, how many HN readers have tried to read Infinite Jest and never made it all the way thru?

Raises hand. I only made it 50 pages in. I didn't understand it, or didn't find anything interesting in it. I don't doubt that there's something there. I just couldn't get to it, or perhaps there's something about my perspective vs his that makes it hard for us to "communicate" and it translates as not compelling.

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#35

Post by Analemma_ »

bri3d wrote: post #30
tannhauser23 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what fad of hating him?

Like any other subculture / virtue signal which gains in popularity, there's a strong group for DFW and a strong backlash against from both sides. One side rejects the signal due to its popularity ("only dilettante freshman losers love DFW, REAL enthusiasts love REAL lit") and the other rejects the signal due to its accessibility ("these hipsters think they're cool just because they've read something, anyone could bu…

Don't forget the hate from the positivist-minded STEM crowd and right-wingers, who both have a reflexive dislike of anything with a whiff of postmodernism about it.

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#36

Post by yarrel »

jraines wrote: post #9

If anyone is daunted by Infinite Jest but undaunted by the fad of hating DFW, definitely start with his books of essays & journalism. IMO they're a lot more rewarding and enjoyable than his novels. I think E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction is essential reading. (PDF link: https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf )

"Besides frequently losing itself in superfluous and wildly tangential flights of lexical diarrhea, the book suffers under the sheer burden of its incredible length."

http://www.edrants.com/the-infinite-jest-review-that-dave-eg...

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#38

Post by jerrylives »

praneshp wrote: post #12
jraines wrote: post #9

If anyone is daunted by Infinite Jest but undaunted by the fad of hating DFW, definitely start with his books of essays & journalism. IMO they're a lot more rewarding and enjoyable than his novels. I think E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction is essential reading. (PDF link: https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf )

Also String Theory (which is a collection of essays about Tennis). Also, is there a fad of hating him? Do his books have controversial content (like Ayn Rand, for example, who divides people)?

Infinite Jest is pushed in everyones face as an example of what a novel "should" be / best book ever written (yea right) and he has an evercrooning group of adorers who make Pynchon fans look reasonable and sane.

Personally I find it him to be turgid and overwrought but I get why people enjoy him and come back. His essays are entertaining but I've never gleaned any great insight or inspiration from him.

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#39

Post by jandrese »

cyberpunk wrote: post #29
rockostrich wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't recommend reading it on Kindle unless they made it easier. 2 bookmarks and a physical copy is the way to go.

On my oasis I can just tap on a footnote reference and it'll take me to it, then tap back to bring me to the main text once I've read it... Am I missing something, did this process use to be harder (I think my first was a paper white which I vaguely remember as having the same feature)? I find that easier than flipping through a massive book, at least...

On the Kindle app clicking on a footnote brings you to the first footnote, regardless of which one you clicked. Clicking on the footnote again brings you to the start of the chapter (or sometimes the start of the previous chapter). Drove me crazy when I read Three Body Problem.

Re: The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s Struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest (2009)

#40

Post by jandrese »

arkaic wrote: post #26

I found Infinite Jest extraordinarily compelling, hilarious, and endlessly entertaining. I wouldn't go as far to say that it was "hard to put down". The book will fatigue you at points, as there is such a density of ideas within a single page that you need to just step back for the day and take it all in. But I was inevitably drawn back every time to sit down and open Infinite Jest again and again. Maybe it was the p…

I have to admit I'm skeptical of online hype for books like this. The last book I read that had this much love was Gravity's Rainbow, and that book seemed to have much less to say than it promised. It seemed to me it was just written in an intentionally difficult way to make it harder to notice that nothing much happens.
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