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Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace

Start date: March 16, 2015

Discussion: Infinite Jest - MARCH 2015

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Infinite Jest - MARCH 2015

General Discussion
By Justin · 71 posts · 65 views

last updated Aug 01, 2015 08:45AM

IJ Discussion: Part VIII
By Justin · 19 posts · 15 views

last updated Jul 30, 2015 04:31PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 16, 2012 Tracy Reilly rated it it was amazing

This is not a solid five star book for me the way, say, THE IDIOT is. Probably because it irritated me as often as it caused me floods of enjoyment and insight. I think I was just way too conscious of reading it, and how LONG I was reading it. Imagine that my stars are somewhat opaque, with bits of blood and bodily fluids seeping through the gold.

More later, too wiped now.

Ok, now.

Maybe body fluids described in great detail are not my bag. My concept of verisimilitude. I'm not being a prude..ju ...more

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Jul 03, 2013 Glenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-read

This tome asks: Does achievement confer interior worth? It is obvious it shouldn't and doesn't. Yet we still post pictures of our graduation gowns receiving our fake diplomas until the real one comes to our home by mail. We can be so obsessed with earning money and measuring our value based on our net worth that we can forget to be kind or to socialize with others. I have witnessed it myself, coming from a socialist country to a capitalist one obsessed with beauty and success. Witnessed it in th This tome asks: Does achievement confer interior worth? It is obvious it shouldn't and doesn't. Yet we still post pictures of our graduation gowns receiving our fake diplomas until the real one comes to our home by mail. We can be so obsessed with earning money and measuring our value based on our net worth that we can forget to be kind or to socialize with others. I have witnessed it myself, coming from a socialist country to a capitalist one obsessed with beauty and success. Witnessed it in the way that we barely speak to and know our neighbors.

I think the masks and filters social media offer resemble very much the video phones in IJ. I don't like facetiming with others because I'm often too preoccupied with my own little image in the corner to even see the bigger picture of the person I'm communicating with. Communication is less personal, less real. Texting allows you to think of what to say and change what you're going to say to eliminate any mistakes, because any mistake can tell people what were dreading to hear: that we're not as smart as we think we are. IJ is covered with mistakes and I think that's what makes it more authentic. Maybe it's our desire to be perfect, to achieve that perfect SAT score that doesn't allow us to be human and not robotic. And how silly it is to be so concerned with grammar, more than the actual meaning behind the words.

This book is about our failure to communicate efficiently. How James Incandenza tried by so many means to communicate with his son Hal, through the entertainment, by pretending to be his psychiatrist, by speaking to Don Gately as a ghost (which Gately himself wonders how come the ghost of James does not speak to Hal himself) instead of communicating in a straightforward way. It was sad when Orin who also attempted to communicate with his father was happy when he was reprimanded by his father for wanting to watch a pornographic movie, and his father told him how he didn't want to tell him not to watch it, but that he preferred that he didn't because he wanted him to experience sex for the first time as it should be, with someone he loves and not watching it as organs going inside and outside body parts. When Don couldn't speak in the hospital and so many people came to visit him, he was frustrated at his inability to speak and say what was on his mind. Only James ghost could speak to him by reading his mind.

One theory of mine is that this book was purposely difficult because you had to slow down to read it. And this world doesn't allow much slowing down sometimes. I am reminded of Fahrenheit 451, where the cliche "take time to smell the flowers" was reverberated. I wonder if David Foster Wallace preferred simple language with his mention of George Orwell's essay of "Politics and the English language", which I hadn't read before this book and thanks to this book I did read. And how it mentions to not use convoluted language when a simpler language is much better.

One of the books theme is addiction and why we become addicted is because we try to escape the self and how it is impossible to do so entirely. Lately I look at the people around me who are not speaking and think of what they may be themselves thinking about. And think what's so important or secretive that it can't be said out loud? And how it's this component to choose what to say out loud or to keep hidden that make us bound sometimes by the "caring what people think" syndrome. I have to read this book again and take my time with it and to not rush through it. To live in the moment. Just like I have to do with life. ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 Simone rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was a hard, very intense read. But enjoyable once I got into the rhythm of the novel. It can be hilarious at times, and full of jest, as the title suggests. It is not always fun, though, and there are parts that I had to wade through. But most of it was incredibly insightful and poignant. I'm not really satisfied with how it ended, but I feel better with myself for having read it. ...more

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Feb 01, 2015 Nico marked it as dnf-and-never-will · review of another edition

New rule, I'm not reading anything harder than Vanity Fair. Exceptions will be made for books written in the 19th century or earlier to allow for people who were paid by the word and such.

If someone wants to read your book, but your book does not and cannot hold their attention for more than 50 pages... and you've taken it upon yourself to write 1000 pages? Well, I'm just not going to read it.

A story that is difficult to follow and loses your interest immediately is, in my most humble opinion, ...more

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