ready set go!

[[deleted user]]

Is anyone using a reader's guide? I'm deathly afraid of spoilers. In fact, I'm afraid to look at any of the groups I've joined - here, ravelry, and at infinitesummer.org. I couldn't wait, and am well into the book, about 100 pages. So far, so good.

[Richard]

I'm using the Continuum Contemporaries guide and, though I'm only 80 pages in, it has shed light on a few bits and pieces. I'm not worries about spoilers. I think I need all the help I can get! lol

[[deleted user]]

I know I'll read it twice in a row. I have learned to pay close attention, especially if I don't really understand what is meant, or what is happening. Just over 100 pages in, I started over, to stay on schedule. The slow pace might help me read more carefully.

[Jack]

No reader's guide here, although I'm reading it for the second time so spoilers aren't an issue. I am looking for some odds and ends online as I go.

One example: Why do some of the section breaks have a crescent/ring symbol? I went to the DFW Wiki (http://machines.pomona.edu/dfwwiki/in...) and found this under "Annular" - Wallace's numberless disk section breaks are a "joke," pointing to the novel's annularized, narrative No-Time.

Let me make a recommendation to first-time readers in as non-spoilery a fashion as I can. Take note of what the 'conversationalist' says about the Incandenzas on pages 30 and 31. It sounds like a delusional rant, and some of it almost certainly is, but even those parts reveal significant details of what that character believes.

[Scott]

Kathy wrote: "Is anyone using a reader's guide? I'm deathly afraid of spoilers. In fact, I'm afraid to look at any of the groups I've joined - here, ravelry, and at infinitesummer.org. I couldn't wait, and a..."

Infinite Zombies -- seven writers yakking about the book -- is going to be a strictly no spoiler zone.

infinitezombies.wordpress.com

[Suevw]

I will NOT use a guide -I try not to even read the book jackets on books I know I want to read - want to at least try to understand it on my own. Wish I could just sit and read all day! Only on pg 60 but so far enjoying it!

[Sonja]

I haven't been using a guide, but being as this is my second time through it's taking me a lot longer as I'm looking up all of the references that I didn't get the first time. You can certainly enjoy the book without consulting the dictionary/wikipedia five times per page, but I'm finding that these little bits and pieces *do* help shed a lot of light on the book. I definitely wouldn't recommend a first-time reader bother to look up anything unless they truly couldn't get the jist of what was going on.

The Infinite Jest wiki has been, well, infinitely helpful for me. It goes by page, so you can avoid spoilers very easily.

[[deleted user]]

It sounds like a good plan for this time to just read and enjoy...

[CS]

Sonja wrote: "The Infinite Jest wiki..."

Cool, thanks for that reference! I'm just reviewing the info for the pages I've already read and like the sense of, "ooh, yeah, I got that."

[Joey]

Kathy wrote: "It sounds like a good plan for this time to just read and enjoy..."

It's my first time reading Infinite Jest and this is the approach I'm taking with it too.

[Marc]

I'm 79 pages in and am loving every minute. I am using a guide--A Reader's Guide by Stephen Burn--and the spoilers are spoiling nothing for me. The guide is helpful, but much of the important stuff I'd already understood. It's the language that I'm entranced by, the way he plays with it.

Also thought I would mention the WAY the book is being read here in my household: Aloud, in small reading groups. Reading groups of two. The Upstairs Group is my wife and I and the Downstairs Group consists of my two sons (ages 16 and 14--my boys have always been advanced, ambitious readers). Reading the book aloud is a lot of fun if tongue-twisting at times. We can add our own interpretations to the characters, make the respective voices gruff or high-pitched, and of course the next day (we read in the evening) we discuss the twists of what we've read. Upstairs, our goal is 17 pages per day, more or less.

I'm looking forward to tonight's session!

I'd love to here if others have ritualized their Infinite reading.

[Suevw]

Well I'm at page 290 and definitely feelin' very challenged!! The eeriest feeling is knowing the author's real ending - yipes. I did try that wiki site but good heavens it would double my time spent to read and look that up - so think I will keep on reading on my own as I am enjoying as is! Thanks for the suggestions.

Can not even imagine getting time together with others to do a read out loud! Would be interesting to do though I am sure.

[Mark]

I'm floored by the ritualistic reading aloud you're doing in your family, and impressed by your sons' participation (applause). DFW's language definitely requires slowing down on my part, and I have found myself enjoying reading parts of it aloud, though I doubt my wife would participate.

[Marc]

Well, Mark, I'll put it to you this way: we (my family) live an hour's drive to any town, our nearest neighbor is a couple of miles away and we didn't have TV for ten years (in recent months we've had a satellite disk installed). In other words, we all read a lot, always have. My kids, particularly my twelve year old daughter, read a novel a day, at least three a week. Having exhausted all the YA books our local library offers, they've been reading the parents books for some time. These kids of mine have also been attending an adult writers group all their lives. Now they contribute stories, many of which pale the grownups' efforts. Ultimately, we ALL are what we do.

Enjoy...Marc