Indian Readers discussion
This topic is about
Infinite Jest
COZY READS -GENERAL
>
Infinite Jest -Vimal,Psmith [and....Manju after finishing with Storm of Swords]
All the best Ma'am :D The book is HUGE :O
Mod
I hope you two are planning to read this one real slow! If yes, I can join in from March..not before that I am afraid :)
Mod
I am sure that is a good pace! ;) Great will join in from March :)
Mod
Would love inputs from you. See you here in March. (preferably any time sooner:P )
I am actually a little bit worried that I may be gravely disappointed with my high expectations from this book and the author(more from the latter). Let's see how it goes.
Before starting I think, a heads-up from this blog is much needed. http://infinitesummer.org/archives/215
On a lighter note, this book has more 'How to read it' kind of guides/companions than any other book I have ever read. This is certainly interesting.
Before starting I think, a heads-up from this blog is much needed. http://infinitesummer.org/archives/215
On a lighter note, this book has more 'How to read it' kind of guides/companions than any other book I have ever read. This is certainly interesting.
Mod
This time, I'm going to consider the book as an enemy to conquer rather than a simple book.
@ Siddharth, I am optimisric:-)
@ dely, thank.you.
Mod
Brushing up on Hamlet and keeping notes, I already knew.
Mod
@PSmith If i can make a humble suggestion, it might to appropriate to first read the book "Both Flesh and Not" a collection of essays spanning myriad topics. This gives a flavour of the kind of writing engaged in by the late mercurial David Foster Wallace. The opening essay on Roger Federer (the title of the book takes its name from the essay) provides a breathtaking insight into the depth of Wallace's imagination. A real pity that he fell prey to the unsympathetic and sordid affliction that is depression.
Mod
Finished what seems to be the first chapter, Year of glad. It is pretty much darkly-humorous. The one part where I found myself smiling stupidly was when Hal says
"I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it."
But towards the end of the chapter, it becomes a bit confusing like what is exactly wrong with Hal?
And yes, I am reading it quite intensely than my normal speed too. While DFW has generously bestowed so many descriptory images for the readers, it's seems only my deficit for not being able to recognise them and irritatingly skipping them and moving ahead soon.
"I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it."
But towards the end of the chapter, it becomes a bit confusing like what is exactly wrong with Hal?
And yes, I am reading it quite intensely than my normal speed too. While DFW has generously bestowed so many descriptory images for the readers, it's seems only my deficit for not being able to recognise them and irritatingly skipping them and moving ahead soon.
Mod
Mod
Sorry, for no recent update. I am back at college, so was a little bit busy. I managed to read the second chapter, so right now bookmarked on 27.
The second one seems more like a short story, no sign of story continuation from the tennis wonder boy who acts funny in the first chapter. Because I have never read this guy's writings, I have beginning to appreciate his style of humour. Not tongue-in-cheek, not satirical comedy, not slapstick rather circumstantial. Addiction is just a serious issue to poke fun at, but DFW has deftly described this particular man's anticipation for his poison. This whole chapter has nothing been but an episode of anticipation and the characteristic of it which stretches fleeting moments to infinity.
Don't let IJ let you down. I was a bit busy with catching up on missed classes, but now that I am done with it, I will be posting more regular updates.
The second one seems more like a short story, no sign of story continuation from the tennis wonder boy who acts funny in the first chapter. Because I have never read this guy's writings, I have beginning to appreciate his style of humour. Not tongue-in-cheek, not satirical comedy, not slapstick rather circumstantial. Addiction is just a serious issue to poke fun at, but DFW has deftly described this particular man's anticipation for his poison. This whole chapter has nothing been but an episode of anticipation and the characteristic of it which stretches fleeting moments to infinity.
Don't let IJ let you down. I was a bit busy with catching up on missed classes, but now that I am done with it, I will be posting more regular updates.
Mod
Mod
Nothing much to discuss.
one peculiar thing I noticed is that the chapters begin normally and slowly some difference creeps on.
It's fine with me.
I believe it's kind of a way of keeping the readers engaged. :)
I believe it's kind of a way of keeping the readers engaged. :)
Mod
Okay, So I am at Page 51 at the end of Hal's narration in YDAU. And I am also through 75 pages of a 300 page Readers Companion, after which a lot of things started making sense.
Such as in YAG, in the end, when the guy asks Hal "Yo man, what's your story", the entire chapters that follows is a sort of flashback sort of thing for Hal telling his story.
The Saudi Arabian Attache's who is supposedly still watching an unknown cartridge, that is first proof of existence of "The Entertainment". The catridge which is supposedly the blue-pill of ultimate self-gratification.
And Orin's subjects are really the girls he is able to seduce. So he is some guy with Playboy and Oedipus tendencies ( Typical Freudian case ).
The Clenette's narrative was confusing. I had to read it. And re-read it to understand it.
The only question I have, who was the professional conversationalist? Was he really Hal's father? The lack of diploma and his excessive knowledge about Hal seems just enough to make him look like its his father that also Hal doubts him to be?
And by the way I am hooked to IJ... :D .
Such as in YAG, in the end, when the guy asks Hal "Yo man, what's your story", the entire chapters that follows is a sort of flashback sort of thing for Hal telling his story.
The Saudi Arabian Attache's who is supposedly still watching an unknown cartridge, that is first proof of existence of "The Entertainment". The catridge which is supposedly the blue-pill of ultimate self-gratification.
And Orin's subjects are really the girls he is able to seduce. So he is some guy with Playboy and Oedipus tendencies ( Typical Freudian case ).
The Clenette's narrative was confusing. I had to read it. And re-read it to understand it.
The only question I have, who was the professional conversationalist? Was he really Hal's father? The lack of diploma and his excessive knowledge about Hal seems just enough to make him look like its his father that also Hal doubts him to be?
And by the way I am hooked to IJ... :D .
And do make a list of years chronologically, Year of Whopper in the start and ending with year of Glad. The fragmentation will make much more sense.
Mod
I am reading the main book and I have finished Ergedy 's chapter approximately page 40.
Mod
I recommend you should read the companion first. Its consist of spoilers but the good ones, the ones which act like a map which can be used effectively to understand IJ.
You can do it without the companion no doubt. But I think, to understand the story all together, you will need to keep track of lot of things in a notebook. I have a notebook by the way and filled with characters introduced, words which doesn't have a place in the latest dictionary and quotes which "gets me".
You can do it without the companion no doubt. But I think, to understand the story all together, you will need to keep track of lot of things in a notebook. I have a notebook by the way and filled with characters introduced, words which doesn't have a place in the latest dictionary and quotes which "gets me".
Mod
Just to make sure that we have the same edition. My book's chapter for Year of trial-size dove bar begins at Page 32. Same for yours?
I have William Downling and Robert Bell's Reader Companion. But I feel any one will do. You will need the surface information to get started. And companion's are usually spoiler-free, I think.
Mod
Mod
Mod
I finished Clent e's broken English narrative.
Now on next chapter -year of dependant adult undergarment (YDAU) where Hal an Mario begin to talk.
Okay. I think that's because I have the e-book. No worries. I will wait till you catch-up. Will be reading the companion in the meantime.
Mod
What about your companion guide? is it an ebook too?
Mod
Some infinities are bigger than other infinities - George Cantor.
Remember reading the same in The Fault in Our Stars
Mod
Infinite Jest wins again. We are currently dismantling this read due to other pressing needs.
DFW, I will read you yet.
Mod
Here come Vimal and Manju to the rescue...
And the thread will be active again..(keeping fingers and toes crossed)
Mod
Hmm...it is that complicated? :O feels Like a challenge. :-DI will try at least.
Mod
There's a guide too, which comes handy.
Mod
I will try at least."
yes do try and finish it unlike theft.:P
Manju wrote: "Utkarsh wrote: "Hmm...it is that complicated? :O feels Like a challenge. :-DI will try at least."
yes do try and finish it unlike theft.:P"
If I can finish NOTW, I can finish it too.
Mod
I will try at least."
yes do try and finish it unlike theft.:P"
If I can finish NOTW, I can finish it ..."
hope it has someone better than Kote.:P
Mod
I started yesterday and completed chapter 1, The year of glad. The prose is vertigo-inducing :)
I'm short of time until Sunday too.. Will continue on Sunday
Mod
Mod
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest (other topics)The Fault in Our Stars (other topics)
Infinite Jest (other topics)
This is my last ditch effort to read this mammoth which is eluding my advances. And this time, thankfully I have a like minded buddy to join in. So (Hopefully ) we will be tackling Mr.Wallace in the coming weeks.
SUMMARY:
In a sprawling, wild, super-hyped magnum opus, David Foster Wallace fulfills the promise of his precocious novel The Broom of the System. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction, features a huge cast and multilevel narrative, and questions essential elements of American culture - our entertainments, our addictions, our relationships, our pleasures, our abilities to define ourselves. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
With its baroque subplots, zany political satire, morbid, cerebral humor and astonishing range of cultural references, Wallace's brilliant but somewhat bloated dirigible of a second novel (after The Broom in the System) will appeal to steadfast readers of Pynchon and Gaddis. But few others will have the stamina for it. Set in an absurd yet uncanny near-future, with a cast of hundreds and close to 400 footnotes, Wallace's story weaves between two surprisingly similar locales: Ennet House, a halfway-house in the Boston Suburbs, and the adjacent Enfield Tennis Academy. It is the "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" (each calendar year is now subsidized by retail advertising); the U.S. and Canada have been subsumed by the Organization of North American Nations, unleashing a torrent of anti-O.N.A.N.ist terrorism by Quebecois separatists; drug problems are widespread; the Northeastern continent is a giant toxic waste dump; and CD-like "entertainment cartridges" are the prevalent leisure activity. The novel hinges on the dysfunctional family of E.T.A.'s founder, optical-scientist-turned-cult-filmmaker Dr. James Incandenza (aka Himself), who took his life shortly after producing a mysterious film called Infinite Jest, which is supposedly so addictively entertaining as to bring about a total neural meltdown in its viewer. As Himself's estranged sons?professional football punter Orin, introverted tennis star Hal and deformed naif Mario?come to terms with his suicide and legacy, they and the residents of Ennet House become enmeshed in the machinations of the wheelchair-bound leader of a Quebecois separatist faction, who hopes to disseminate cartridges of Infinite Jest and thus shred the social fabric of O.N.A.N. With its hilarious riffs on themes like addiction, 12-step programs, technology and waste management (in all its scatological implications), this tome is highly engrossing?in small doses. Yet the nebulous, resolutionless ending serves to underscore Wallace's underlying failure to find a suitable novelistic shape for his ingenious and often outrageously funny material.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Wallace's second novel is not for the faint-hearted or the weak-wristed. Wallace (The Girl with Curious Hair, LJ 7/89) throws everything he knows-and he knows plenty-into this river of stories. If you can stand the extreme length, ignore the footnotes, and have a bed-desk to rest this tome on, this book can be fun. Wallace sandwiches more than you'd ever want to know about a private tennis boarding school, Quebec separatists, a drug-and-alcohol addict's halfway house, potheads, and other topics-both trendy and not-in between E-mail messages, admissions reports, headlines, and other real-life documents, or pseudo-documents. Too much happens here even to begin to summarize, but the author has a wicked sense of humor and a wonderful eye for capturing the odd juxtapositions of modern life. Besides his lack of conciseness, Wallace's other main weakness is dialog: nobody talks as cleverly as most of his characters do. Distinct, idiomatic, wild, and crazy, this book is destined to have a cult following. Recommended for most fiction collections.
Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, Ind.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Wallace offers huge entertainment...only Gaddis and Pynchon have this range. So brilliant you need sunglasses to read it, but it has a heart as well as a brain. Infinite Jest is both a vast, comic epic and a profound study of the post-modern condition. -- Review of Contemporary Fiction