But no comparison could prepare us for what is surely one of the most original and adventurous novels of the decade. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives. Snow crash, infinite jest, and our cyberpunk present. Infinite jest by david foster wallace 71,288 ratings, 4. I felt compelled throughout to read it aloud, such was the almost poetic quality of it. However when he wrote infinite jest he built the internets structure into the bones of the book. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of infinite jest by david foster wallace. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, 9780349121086, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Infinite jest is both sad, depressed and funny and even 25 years after it was published in 1994 remains relevant to the modern age.
Infinite jest by david foster wallace, paperback barnes. The book opens in the year of glad or, 2010, while the majority of the action occurs in the year of the depend adult undergarment 2009. Wallace taught creative writing at emerson college, illinois state university, and pomona college, and published the story collections girl with curious hair, brief interviews with hideous men, oblivion, the essay collections a supposedly fun thing ill never do again, and consider the lobster. Keep in mind that with the introduction of the teleputer tp. I took my friends advice and just delved into infinite jest. For reference while working on the project drew used the ij scene by scene guide, and stephen burns david foster wallaces infinite jest. Knowing what year youre in while beginning the book will help you both immeasurably in navigating your way through the early pages of the book and comprehending what the hell is happening. Unquestionably, infinite jest required great ambition and focus to write, and requires a bit of ambition and focus to read as well. Drew cordes has put together a neat guide for reading infinite jest chronologically and shes given permission for it to be available here for howling fantods readers. 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. Feb 01, 1996 admittedly, infinite jest is a tough book. Dec 29, 2012 i just finished infinite jest, and i have questions. The publication of infinite jest on feb 1,1996 turned david foster wallace, 34, into a literary rock star. Snow crash and infinite jest both predicted our cyberpunk.
Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. In fact, its take on the very nature of entertainment itself perhaps foresaw the age of vanity and social media, as seen through the prisms of tinder, facebook, twitter and instagram. As if one could, yes, have it all with the exception, i suppose, of that book. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. While arguably one of the most postmodern of the big postmodern texts, infinite jest manages to reject the cynicism pundits often claim marks this age by pointing this correlation between addiction and alienation out to the reader. I have heard young adults describe in similar terms their difficulties in reading a book.
A big thank you to the men and women in the publishing industry who were kind andor lazy enough to keep things consistent. Stephen kings the stand uncut edition and george r. Aug 06, 2015 in this way, infinite jest is speculative fiction just like 1984 or never let me go or the handmaids tale. However when he wrote infinite jest he built the internets structure into the bones of. American filmmaker reservoir dogs, pulp fiction tarkovsky, andrey. Infinite jest by david foster wallace overdrive rakuten. Also it might have sounded sciencefictionish which would have killed the book, or at least classified it in many minds as speculative fiction not a literary with a capital l entry in the running for the great american novel. It is two of my best friends favorite book, and one of them actually mailed me a copy to get me to read it. In a sprawling, wild, superhyped magnum opus, david foster wallace fulfills the promise of his precocious novel the broom of the system. But the emergent figure of gatelywounded, desperate, but able to find and give loveallows infinite jest to work as a postmodern saga of damnation and. How to read infinite jest chronologically infinite jest. Infinite jest by david foster wallace free download.
I read my first bits of leaves of grass hiding in my brothers bedroom. I just finished infinite jest, and i have questions. May 30, 2018 infinite jest by david foster wallace, 9780349121086, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. I was told not to read other books in addition to this one. A multilayered postmodern saga of damnation and salvation. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Feb 07, 2016 when his infinite jest came out 20 years ago, david foster wallace felt some anxiety about how his fully stuffed novel would be received.
When his infinite jest came out 20 years ago, david foster wallace felt some anxiety about how his fully stuffed novel would be received. But this infinite jest summary guide may actually prove valuable to you at least, that is the hope. 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. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives.
If you have not read infinite jest there are major spoilers to be found. Calling to mind that infinite jest was published in 1996, dont think crystal meth is a new phenomenon. Cdroms were becoming a popular way to distribute software and preinternet computerized encyclopedias and atlases when infinite jest was written, and even then it was predicted that dvdroms or some other videodata disk would eventually supplant them. Apr, 2009 a gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives.
But if you are seeking something other, then this book will not disappoint. It is an exuberant, uniquely american exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do. I was just talking about the teleputer in infinite jest, which more or less predicted skype and even more than that, predicted things like snapchat and instagram and the kinds of filters that we. Dec 19, 2016 infinite jest is notoriously known for being a long book its just shy of 1100 pages. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Buy infinite jest book online at low prices in india. 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. As it turns out, all physical edition of infinite jest have 981 pages. It is rare to find a reader who is lukewarm about this book one tends to either love it or loathe it enormously.
Not too many people write thousandpagers, much less read them. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding addictions of their own. 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. David foster wallaces infinite jest, a favorite book of many, is the kind of genrebender that will thwart your mind with its convoluted narrative, plethora of allusions and cultural references, and multilateral connections between the characters. His nonfiction includes consider the lobster, a supposedly fun thing ill never do again, everything and more, and this is water. Buy infinite jest book online at best prices in india on. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. Martins storm of swords are longer this, but i was able to clear those books much quicker than david foster wallaces second novel. Wallaces particular conceit in infinite jest is that the events described are taking place in the indeterminate future, possibly. 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.
So, about two years ago i began reading infinite jest and i only got about 200 pages in before it was due back to the library. I havent read infinite jest, but heres some memes about it anyway. The publication of infinite jest on feb 1, 1996 turned david foster wallace, 34, into a literary rock star. I read the first chapter of mobydick in the old student media computer lab at radford university.
Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace comprising about 1,000 pages. His second novel, infinite jest, was published in 1996. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop. Infinite jest, a friend of wallaces commented to me when i was researching every love story is a ghost story, the biography of wallace that i wrote, reads like a valentine to a.
I began reading infinite jest by david foster wallace around october 2008. In the real world, best known in the name of the nonmusic version of compact discs cdrom. I finished the book early one morning, before the kids were awake. Feb 15, 2016 today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline.
Infinite jest 20th anniversary edition special edition. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best. I had ordered the book from after hearing of david foster wallaces death. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are a total of 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. I was in france at the time, and when i got back to the u. I havent read infinite jest, but heres some memes about it. You start the book having no clue when it is happening and who the various characters are. Jan 02, 2017 infinite jests structure mirrors the selfinduced attention fracturing created by the internet, and snow crash shows both the joys and the dangers of a place like the metaverse. The 5 impressive ways david foster wallaces infinite jest. I read a borrowed copy of the handmaids tale on a break.
If you find yourself ahead of the pack and eager to chat with likeminded overachievers, or if youre already read infinite jest and wish to talk about the novel in its entirety, what we ask that you do so in the infinite jest general discussion forum, where there are. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading infinite jest. In this way, infinite jest is speculative fiction just like 1984 or never let me go or the handmaids tale. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a. David foster wallace wrote the novels infinite jest, the broom of the system, and the pale king, and the story collections oblivion, brief interviews with hideous men, and girl with curious hair. I just finished ij and cast about on the teleputer looking for some answers. I remember it being sort of boring at certain parts describing. Navigating its maze of relationships and 400 footnotes could drive even the most seasoned literary disentanglers up. Infinite jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining.
Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. Infinite jest kindle edition by wallace, david foster. Apr 09, 2009 i began reading infinite jest by david foster wallace around october 2008. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace comprising.
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