David Foster Wallace Thread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > David Foster Wallace Thread

EtaBetaPi: Aug 11, 2008

atomicstack posted:

...

What bothers me here is his defcons are backwards. 5 is peacetime, 1 is all out nuclear war. This seems to happen a lot.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2009 03:22

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 01:46

EtaBetaPi: Aug 11, 2008

Jewmanji posted:

I am having a lot of difficulty reading Infinite Jest (page 80 or so). Most of the text I find to be absolutely stunning, in a really subversive way. The way he'll use "like" in a really ornate and complex sentence structure is a real mind-gently caress, and his general approach to life is completely bewildering. I really want to keep pushing on, but I find the endnotes to be completely intolerable. Am I hosed? I actually feel physical anxiety whenever I come upon a new superscript, and really get impatient when I have to turn to the end and read some nonsense about who-gives-a-gently caress. My friend told me that some of it will be appreciated later on (such as the filmography, bits like that), but am I completely hosed if I'm already this fed up with the endnotes?

I think of myself as a pretty active and open-minded reader (ate the poo poo out of House of Leaves and I'm one of the only people I know how actually gave a poo poo enough to finish his follow-up), but for some reason I'm just having trouble latching on.

I can't remember the last time I had such a love-hate relationship with a book.

You can skip the end notes, but you're missing tons of plot exposition. My favorite section of the book (about the midnight train) is in the end notes.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2009 22:07

EtaBetaPi: Aug 11, 2008

ArgaWarga posted:

Uh no you can't. You might as well just skip large portions of the narrative ("The Gately sections are boring, and I'm not interested in AA, why don't I just skip those?" Because that's a HUGELY important part of the book!). Later on there are entire sections where the endnotes are by far more important/interesting than the main narrative.

80 pages in, you've hit, what, a dozen endnotes so far? Yes, several endnotes (particularly in the beginning) are dull little asides about drug chemistry and pharmaceutical companies. Remember, DFW wanted the endnotes to function as a sort of disruption of the narrative, like having another voice in your head. At 80 pages, you're still learning how the book works, you shouldn't really be "comfortable" until 2-300 pages in, like I said above.

There are a couple of things you can do to build up your tolerance. First and foremost, use more than one bookmark, makes a world of difference. Secondly, try reading some of his non-fiction, it's generally his most approachable and he typically uses footnotes instead of endnotes, so it's a lot easier to read, but you get use to having a disruption to your main narrative.

Uh, yes you can, you're just getting an abbreviated version of the book. Some people read for pleasure, and as such ignore parts they find boring, no matter how important they may be to the larger narrative. Don't be an elitist like "my way is the only way to read it".

# ¿ Oct 4, 2009 14:01

EtaBetaPi: Aug 11, 2008

Mr. Fun posted:

What a loving elitist to say that if I want to read a book I should actually read the book.

He is reading the book. He just isn't reading it YOUR way. Even attempting to read DFW is a step up from not reading it at all, which is what you'd suggest because he isn't reading it the right way.

Crap like this is why people don't like literature. People think you have to have an english degree, annotations, and five years preparation to read Ulysses. Just jump in and let it take you for a spin.

EtaBetaPi fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Oct 4, 2009

# ¿ Oct 4, 2009 22:49

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > David Foster Wallace Thread