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Infinite Jest

thomass [Edit] [Delete] 22 replies 18:16, 19 August '09

anyone read this?

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  • yep

    my favourite book ever. The only book that's ever made me properly laugh (maybe Confederacy of Dunces got close). I'm too scared to re-read it in case I don't like it so much anymore. The footnotes are better than most other books. So many perfect sentences.

    doctornovocalcords | 19 Aug '09, 18:40 | X
  • Love it.

    David Foster Wallace has the BEST footnotes!

    Luis_Carruthers | 19 Aug '09, 18:48 | X
    • hmm...are you sure?

      I read it last year. The footnotes got a bit tiresome for me; and when footnotes started appearing on the footnotes, I started to get a bit fucked off.
      On the whole I enjoyed it though, and felt I real sense of achievement when I finished it (which is probably a bit sad).

      I read Consider the Lobster as well. It's a book of DFW essays. That's pretty good (if you like footnotes). Bizarrely, one of my favourite pieces in that is his review of the Dictionary of Modern American Usage. Would never have thought a review of a dictionary could be so interesting.

      JGJug @Luis_Carruthers | 19 Aug '09, 19:25 | X
      • It seems what you hate about it is what I love about it.

        I too love his essays.

        Luis_Carruthers @JGJug | 19 Aug '09, 19:43 | X
      • The footnote listing all of James Incandenza's films is hysterical

        chuff @JGJug | 20 Aug '09, 14:11 | X
  • the people who comment on the monthly thread about it have i guess

    though as i've made about five of them i shouldnt moan.

    great book, fiercely intelligent.

    david foster wallace RIP :(

    Jordan_229_2 | 19 Aug '09, 19:21 | X
  • i need to go to it

    but Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is one of my all-time favourites. he's sorely missed.

    powerfulmellow | 19 Aug '09, 23:10 | X
  • good enough for me

    i'll be buying tomorrow. Confederacy of Dunces was a struggle, i finished it more through duty than desire - can't help but feel this owes more to me than the book itself mind.

    whilst i have a small but perfectly formed audience, i don't suppose anyone has a copy of Celine's Death On Credit do they?

    thomass | 19 Aug '09, 23:21 | X
    • the only struggle with Dunces anyone should have it that of....

      there being a film made of it, and it starring Will Ferrell. Lord.

      Scout @thomass | 19 Aug '09, 23:29 | X
      • i think he'd be excellent as ignatius

        but the film is in development hell.

        powerfulmellow @Scout | 19 Aug '09, 23:39 | X
        • do you really? I can't see it myself but I wont write it off just yet

          Scout @powerfulmellow | 19 Aug '09, 23:42 | X
          • yeah

            he's a gifted comic who i think could pull of the blustering pomposity of ignatius. i think it will struggle to be a film personally because the book is so cyclical and windy in its prose, but i would be for ferrell doing it.

            powerfulmellow @Scout | 19 Aug '09, 23:59 | X
            • probably can't be cyclical and windy

              i do understand what i'm trying to get across.

              powerfulmellow @powerfulmellow | 20 Aug '09, 00:00 | X
              • I thought this movie was eternally stuck in some sort of preproduction hellhole.

                I heard that Mos Def was supposed to play Jones at one point. WTF is going on with this?

                Luis_Carruthers @powerfulmellow | 20 Aug '09, 00:13 | X
  • Great book!

    loved it lots

    The_Living_Year | 20 Aug '09, 13:57 | X
  • MOKER TO THREAD

    he's halfway through it and loves it very much.

    finchleydisco | 20 Aug '09, 14:02 | X
  • I'm halfway through as well

    haven't had so much fun reading a book ever, though it's pretty hard going for the first few hundred pages. "It's not my fault that I though he smelled delicious" had me literally doubled over with laughter - like doctorno up there, I've never had that before.

    I'm also pretty impressed that in a 13 year-old book he predicted exactly how television would end up, not just HD but also the idea that people would just download TV shows to a high definition set via the internet and that advertising would freefall because people would have so much control over what they saw.

    chuff | 20 Aug '09, 14:09 | X
  • Also - there's quite a few of his essays here:

    http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/09/hbc-90003557

    and here:

    http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1841088,00.html

    This is probably my favourite:

    http://www.harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

    Incidentally a friend of mine has read the first 150 pages of the book he was working on before he died and apparently it's fantastic - though that said he's quite closely involved with promoting it.

    chuff | 20 Aug '09, 14:18 | X
  • Anyone else wish they'd make Blood Sister: One Tough Nun?

    or other J.O.Incandenza films?

    http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llo3onpL6T1qks0zqo1_r1_500.jpg

    http://arts.vcu.edu/sculpture/2011/03/a-failed-entertainment/

    alcxxk | 21 May '13, 15:16 | X
    • http://25.media.tumblr.com/d9ea513ce6956a58f88bf27c9b30efa5/tumblr_mj99haAkyI1rovyr0o1_1280.png

      alcxxk @alcxxk | 21 May '13, 15:24 | X
  • If you read A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

    It gives you a great taste of how he was compiling ideas for Infinite Jest and tied theories together for years.

    Rembrum | 21 May '13, 15:24 | X
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