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Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

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Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#31

Post by altmanaltman »

abrookewood wrote: post #27
eps wrote: post #11

Apparently, Infinite Jest is a book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest

One that is almost universally praised, but which I have been unable to finish.

I think a lot of what "universal praise" means is just peer pressure and people making their Identity fully around the art they consume. A lot of it is also marketing and pushing tastes into culture.

A key part of how to see if someone is just parotting acceptable opinions vrs is actually having an opinion, is to make them explain it. If its a generic "oh you need to read it, its great" or parotting of popular talking points, that person is not serious about their taste. They use the art as an ornament to make their personalities more interesting than actually engaging with the art in any meaningful way.

The only reaction that matters should be your personal one and what resonates with you.

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#32

Post by jacobedawson »

chiply wrote: post #14
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried three times to read it and got a few pages in before giving up on it. Would it make more sense to just dive into the middle and see what converges out then? What put me off it is it just kind of reads like a rambling stoner conversation.

"rambling stoner conversation". Lol, you've clearly made it to Ken Erdedy's section, which is literally that. That's a brief passage in the book, and honestly one of the hardest parts to read. I'd say there's a lot of groundwork laid in the first 60 - 100 pages or so. After that, I honestly don't think it would be harmful to cherry pick interesting passages from the book. You could research interesting sections of th…

Erdedy's vignette is one of my favourite passages! The Wardine section was the one that had me second guessing, but after two full read throughs I'll be approaching a third next year with the Sierpinksi Gasket in mind :)

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#33

Post by jnovek »

altmanaltman wrote: post #31
abrookewood wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One that is almost universally praised, but which I have been unable to finish.

I think a lot of what "universal praise" means is just peer pressure and people making their Identity fully around the art they consume. A lot of it is also marketing and pushing tastes into culture. A key part of how to see if someone is just parotting acceptable opinions vrs is actually having an opinion, is to make them explain it. If its a generic "oh you need to read it, its great" or parotting of popular talkin…

This might be survivorship bias, the people who read and enjoy a difficult book for the sake of it probably don’t need social media validation to do so.

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#34

Post by gglitch »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #13
chiply wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, maybe I made my claim unclear. So my claim is that the 3 vertices are the institutions (ETA, Ennet House, the Wheelchair Assassins), not plots. I agree that IJ is kind of plotless, and that to me is what the voids in the Sierpinski Gasket could represent, but this article was more about the two-ways-to-construct-the-triangle thing. But I like your vertices (family, education, and society). You're making me think…

I've tried three times to read it and got a few pages in before giving up on it. Would it make more sense to just dive into the middle and see what converges out then? What put me off it is it just kind of reads like a rambling stoner conversation.

Wallace was a masterful writer of short fiction, and I think IJ is best read as a (very) long series of short pieces with much that interrelates them.

Past a certain point on my first successful read through, maybe ~300 pgs in, I started realizing that, with very few exceptions, the more abstruse, boring, or frustrating the vignette, the more powerfully it ended; and at that point, I couldn’t put it down. So, in my opinion, skipping around would not make it more fulfilling, and would certainly not make it make more sense (and I do think it would be easy to understate how much they do compose together into a functioning plot for the novel). I could only advocate cultivating an appreciation of the individual vignettes themselves as more-or-less complete short stories.

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#35

Post by latexr »

eps wrote: post #11

Apparently, Infinite Jest is a book. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest

One whose author saw the direction of society towards numbing entertainment very clearly.

There’s a book written by David Lipsky where he followed and interviewed David Foster Wallace (author of Infinite Jest) upon the release of Infinite Jest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Although_of_Course_You_End_Up_...

There is also a movie which is faithful to the book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Tour

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#36

Post by iammjm »

altmanaltman wrote: post #31
abrookewood wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One that is almost universally praised, but which I have been unable to finish.

I think a lot of what "universal praise" means is just peer pressure and people making their Identity fully around the art they consume. A lot of it is also marketing and pushing tastes into culture. A key part of how to see if someone is just parotting acceptable opinions vrs is actually having an opinion, is to make them explain it. If its a generic "oh you need to read it, its great" or parotting of popular talkin…

I think if someone read a book this dense, they earned their keep.

Also, what is our "Identity" if not the sum of all our influences?

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#37

Post by altmanaltman »

iammjm wrote: post #36
altmanaltman wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of what "universal praise" means is just peer pressure and people making their Identity fully around the art they consume. A lot of it is also marketing and pushing tastes into culture. A key part of how to see if someone is just parotting acceptable opinions vrs is actually having an opinion, is to make them explain it. If its a generic "oh you need to read it, its great" or parotting of popular talkin…

I think if someone read a book this dense, they earned their keep. Also, what is our "Identity" if not the sum of all our influences?

Exactly, our identity is the sum of our influences and I also agree if someone actually engages with the art and has their own views on it, that is a good thing.

My comment spoke more about how society just drip feeds us influences via marketing and with an external motivation. That means they are screwing with our very identity itself. My point is that curating those influences is important and shaping your own identity instead of basing it on universal acclaim, reviews, "what does the world think/what must be the right way to think".

Re: Two Ways to Draw Infinite Jest's Sierpinski Gasket

#38

Post by altmanaltman »

jnovek wrote: post #33
altmanaltman wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of what "universal praise" means is just peer pressure and people making their Identity fully around the art they consume. A lot of it is also marketing and pushing tastes into culture. A key part of how to see if someone is just parotting acceptable opinions vrs is actually having an opinion, is to make them explain it. If its a generic "oh you need to read it, its great" or parotting of popular talkin…

This might be survivorship bias, the people who read and enjoy a difficult book for the sake of it probably don’t need social media validation to do so.

or it might be marketing and sales trying to push that book, right? I am not sure what you mean by social media validation though. Telling people what they should like and what they shouldn't like with an external motive to make them like things you sell, is much much older than social media. Blindly engaging with that and basing your views on it is not optimal was my point.
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