His dad is dead, a suicide who stuck his head in a microwave oven ah, sylvia plath lives. If one of your reading resolutions is to finally finish infinite jest, david foster wallaces mammoth novel, im here to help. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. Wed love for you to join the tunnel club and help us draft our very own version of roberts rules. Infinite jest as infinite jest a supposedly fun blog. Infinite jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it. It was a bold undertaking for the firm to publish a complex, challenging novel that spans over 1,000 pages and contains hundreds of endnotes, many quite lengthy and all printed in very small type. Published in 1996, infinite jest is an absurd, brilliant, dystopian novel about an america gone mad under the guidance of president johnny gentle, an illequipped, insane, germphobic, former lounge singer. Matt bucher is the administrator of the david foster wallace mailing list and publisher of elegant complexity. The reading of david foster wallaces infinite jest as play master of arts.
I was ready to say this is an awesome book, this infinite jest, and while i spent much of the first couple hundred pages admiring it, i was also somewhat. Infinite jest is a novel written by david foster wallace. I remember it but couldnt tell you hals dads dogs name, it was obvious to me that the whole point of the book from dfws perspective, was to create the entertainment in real life, or, something close to it. Tom bissell and the editor michael pietsch discuss infinite jest. The end of the tour is based on david lipskys book that records the week he spent with wallace in 1996 while he was publicising infinite jest, when dfws fame was at. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace.
Reading david foster wallaces latest novel, infinite jest, i couldnt help thinking at times about 7yearold seymour glasss booklength letter home from camp, published in the new. Whether its drugs, sex, or fame, the novels primary goal is to examine the need for these addictions and show that it is possible to addicted to addiction itself. He had a convenient reason to start infinite winter in 2016 its the 20th anniversary of infinite jest. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. When i got to the end of infinite jest i read it about 10 years ago and im not one of those people with great memories. The reading of david foster wallaces infinite jest as play. There is stuff that happens in the opening pages that explains events at the end of the book, albeit over pages and hundreds of footnotes away. Visa, mastercard, american express paypal, diners club and discover. You get someone who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not theres a dog. When people do tackle it, they often give up within the first 200 pages or soone of the most difficult parts of.
On this weeks episode of the mashreads podcast, i was joined by. When the book was first published in 1996, the audio version wasnt available and to be honest, i was having too much fun in the 90s to be reading. An attempt to read infinite jest in company of others. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. But this infinite jest summary guide may actually prove valuable to you at least, that is the hope. Jason segel plays david foster wallace in the end of the tour.
This book is wandering, selfindulgent, overwritten, and gives ample evidence that the academics and literati are captivated by the deranged workings of a damaged mind wallace struggled with addictions and mental illness and killed himself a couple years after infinite jest was published. The initiative invites people to read 75 pages a week for weeks, beginning january 31 and running through may 2, 2016. Why infinite jest will kill your book club youtube. While i cant read the book not even the end notes for you, i. This is the last of a fourpart roundtable discussion with the infinite summer guides. On a primal level, the motive behind completing infinite jest is probably. Infinite jest also ends abruptly, leaving as many questions unanswered as does jims suicide. In infinite jest, don gately, a former opiates addict, finds himself in. Take a selfie with book accidentally in background. The answer depends on whether you define the end as the last chronological event of the story, chronological events near the end of the text, or whats happening on the actual last page of text not counting footnotes.
By troy patterson, katie roiphe, and james surowiecki. A tv show would certainly give book sales a boost and numerous new fans would want to take up the books challenge. Twenty years ago, in february of 1996, little, brown and company published david foster wallaces 19622008 novel infinite jest. Lipsky as he profiles wallace during five days on the infinite jest book. Spoilers in this video, i talk about the mysterious line the woman who kills you in this life will be your mother in the next life and how it applies to drug addiction and david foster wallace. He also created a film called infinite jest that many people use as porno, but.
The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semiparodic future version of north america, and touches on substance addiction recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising, popular entertainment, film theory, quebec separatism, and tennis, among other topics. When i was asking my friends on what i should read next, they suggested infinite jest by david foster wallace. Wallace wrote to a friend that the fuckers cut by 600 pages from the first version. Twentyfour hours watching the berlin theatrical adaptation of david foster wallaces magnum opus. Portrayals of masculinities in david foster wallaces infinite jest and chuck palahniuks fight club. A novel 1,079 pages long is not the best one to start reading on a dare. Its a big very big, bold, complex book that divided critics yet nevertheless landed with a thud on that list of novels everyone intends to read someday. On sunday, i named infinite jest as a book readers can benefit from dipping into, even if they never read it straight through to the end. It all started with a post called 1088 reasons you should read. Finally he succumbed, making what he considered the perfect entertainment.
Using wallaces 2008 suicide as a slightly hagiographic framing device, the film quickly flashes back a dozen years, when rolling stone staffer david lipsky jesse eisenberg first tore though 1,000 or so pages of infinite. The end of the tour captures five days in the life of. David foster wallace february 21, 1962 september 12, 2008 was an american author of novels, essays and shortstories, and a professor at pomona college in claremont, california. I remembered seeing this author in interviews and wanting to dive in this book.
David foster wallace wrote a difficult book to talk about, and its only gotten harder with time. Could the internet age see another david foster wallace. Reading infinite jest after a year on the wagon paste. Jason segel plays david foster wallace in the end of the. He was also a tragic figure, hanging himself when changing antidepressants in 2008. I felt like wallace poured all of himself into jest, and im frankly a little skeptical that there could be more of him to read. The book itself changed my life in the way that any great book does. I have not eliminated infinite jests map, but i have walked its length. And thank you for your continued participationi hope the infinite summer experience has been as wonderful and engrossing for you as it has been for all of us. Our critics dissect david foster wallaces epic novel. Wallace himself, as the note doesnt mention, was a recovering alcoholic.
It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. The book was edited by publisher little, brown and companys michael pietsch, who has recalled. The marathon of infinite jest the american writers museum. Commend self for protecting bookstores from onslaught of crass digital commercialism. Infinite jest would become a popculture phenomenon and ensure that the original novels brilliance and david foster wallaces legacy would live for many decades to come. Buy hardcover copy of infinite jest at brickandmortar bookstore. Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. For a few minutes, the end of the tour seems in danger of teetering into the exact biopic pitfalls it ultimately avoids.
Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. This book is wandering, selfindulgent, overwritten, and gives ample evidence that the academics and literati are captivated by the deranged workings of a. He was known for his 1996 novel infinite jest, which time included in its alltime 100 greatest novels list covering the period 19232006. Infinite jest was the book that everyone was grappling with reading or pretending to read, or using as a prop. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the. But wallace himself, its worth noting, was not always a good guy. Just over twenty years ago, david foster wallace published his bestknown and most frustrating novel, infinite jest. Infinite jest book club tackles the big tome on its 20th. A fringe group of quebecois radicals, les assassins des fauteuils rollents english. Infinite jest book club an attempt to read infinite jest. On reading the first chapter of infinite jest sally allen. His archive of his infinite jest commentary can be found here. The novel is a interconnected sequence of events, told out of timeline order, that focuses on addiction in all its forms. Why david foster wallace should not be worshipped as a.
Like his alter egos experimental films, the book seems like an exercise in what one gifted artist can produce without the hindrance of an editor. Infinite jest kindle edition by wallace, david foster. He did though, leave behind a hugely impressive body of work and infinite jest, in my opinion, having read everything he has written over the years, is his crowning glory. He is an editor at houghton mifflin harcourt, runs a weblog about writer roberto bolano and the novel 2666, and can be found at. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, first edition. Im in the middle of a long account of eschaton, a game whose function in the story is interesting to me but whose rules and play are far less compelling to me as a reader than quidditch. You start the book having no clue when it is happening and who the various characters are. I was going to wait on it, but not that even infinite summer is talking about the end. We run a loose book club, which essentially means that we pick a book and text.
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