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I started Infinite Jest on a whim yesterday and I'm really enjoying it so far. The second chapter was brilliant and the character's reasoning and thought processes were so eerily similar to my own at times I finished it in one go.
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Apr 13, 2009 16:14
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In only 200 pages, Infinite Jest has shot up to one of my favorite all-time books. Jesus Christ DFW can write.
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May 7, 2009 12:11
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I put Infinite Jest on the backburner for a few months and just picked it up again recently. There's something about Wallace's long, rambling, convoluted spiels on whatever topic happens to pop up in his head that I liken to the actual Infinite Jest film in its hypnotic quality. I get so engrossed 10 - 20 pages just pass in the blink of an eye.
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Oct 26, 2009 23:24
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Can anyone direct me to some good discussion on Oblivion? It's beautifully written and all, but the endings of every story so far have zipped over my head - especially the title story, what the hell?
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May 20, 2010 04:49
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meanolmrcloud posted:Has this interview been posted? Is this down for anyone else besides me? Could someone post another link to it?
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Jun 26, 2010 00:38
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Holy poo poo I need to get Brief Interviews. Any buzz about Girl With Curious Hair? I loved Oblivion if that's any indication I'll like GWCH.
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Aug 18, 2010 01:59
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Jirolico posted:Thanks to some recommendations in this thread (and DFW, of course), I started reading Franzen's "The Corrections" and it's riveting thus far. I look forward to seeing how each character's strange neuroses will end up playing out, as my favorite aspect of IJ is the strange, nuanced behavior that defines each character. I actually just started reading The Corrections too and it's amazing how much Franzen reminds me of Wallace sometimes. Great book and I can't wait to keep reading. Also started Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and I am in love with it so far: the dialogue about the guy telling his girlfriend he has a horrible habit of pulling out of any loving, committed relationships after working so hard to establish them is such a mindfuck. There's a line where he goes something to the effect of: Oh, baby, I love you so much and I'm only telling you this to warn you and make sure you don't get hurt by me so don't take it the wrong way and I'm definitely not trying to scare you and make you to pull out instead of me for once, at least I think I'm not. There are some seriously hosed up people in that book.
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Aug 28, 2010 17:27
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I like to think in BIWHM he was channeling a lot of the pain and frustration the actions of the people around him aroused. Given his stated goal of writing "passionately moral fiction" or whatever it was, I would imagine a lot of his depression stemmed from how he viewed the people and their interactions in the world around him.
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Aug 28, 2010 21:26
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IJ is my favorite book of all time but I couldn't loving stand the Eschaton poo poo. It was the only section of the book I actually skipped halfway through, which just goes to show you: even die-hard DFW fans don't love everything the guy does.
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Sep 2, 2010 00:20
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I distinctly remember reading Pale King was going to be about some kind of shadowy agency (think the Wheelchair Assassins) trying to learn the secrets of a guy who works in the IRS who has achieved a state of supreme mindfulness and concentration, despite how mind-numbingly boring his job is. DFW makes other mentions to mindfulness and its benefits in other works, I believe, so I can definitely see it as his "way out".
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Sep 16, 2010 00:20
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I love DFW because he's someone I can relate with on a very, very deep level, but I definitely try not to dwell on a lot of what is presented in his stories. There's an instance in Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way where we're introduced to this couple in a short story who love each other very much and have healthy sex lives, and everything's just peachy etc. but deep down, the boyfriend has trouble loving his girlfriend because he doesn't know if she loves him or the way he makes her feel. I could see a lot of myself and DFW in the short story's author, who is constantly described as someone who is singularly and very profoundly terrified of being Alone. I find the moral and compassionate life DFW espouses so much is like a sort of anesthetic, a blind pulled over our eyes so we can forget about the terror of our situation long enough until we die. I think on some level DFW realized this too, that even being a good, moral person just so happens to be the most guilt-free and 'easiest' way to reach the same fulfillment drug/sex/food/pick-your-poison addicts and basically the rest of us are looking for. If you could inexplicably achieve deep personal fulfillment scooping dog poo poo off the street ten hours a day I don't doubt we'd be seeing a whole generation of authors touting the virtues of that, too. I think DFW realized this all at a very young age, and so spent the rest of his life trying to forget it. I find a lot of what makes liveable in the first place involves forgetting in some way. I watch the football game with my buddies to forget. I go to a keg party to forget. I get a good education so I can get a good job so I could have an even easier time of forgetting in the future. ... It just unsettles me deeply that someone who I consider a kin to my own soul killed himself. Edged Hymn fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Oct 22, 2010 |
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Oct 21, 2010 23:57
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Le Sean posted:This is pithy as all gently caress. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic here, but I do want to say the discussion in this thread is just the sort of discourse I'm glad DFW inspires. Kudos to all for some amazing posts.
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Oct 22, 2010 22:14
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pelswick posted:Yo are you familiar with the psychological concepts of Terror Management Theory? Basically is posits that the things we obsess about are just distractions to help us forget our own mortality and eventual death, and the general meaninglessness and random chaos of life. Yes I have and it sounds about right to me. Though I haven't done enough reading. I haven't read the story in awhile, but I do remember one character asking the narrator "how are you so happy?" near the end. I interpreted it as the neurotic, depressive person DFW must have identified himself as essentially asking a more well-adjusted (or maybe oblivious?), "normal" person what it is that makes them so. edit: and whoooaaa, where were there koans in IJ? It's been awhile since I read it. Edged Hymn fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Feb 18, 2012 |
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Feb 18, 2012 21:12
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I've been re-reading IJ at the tail end of 4 years of heavy weed use and intermittent depressive episodes, so it's been making a huge impact on me. I don't think I can gush enough about the Gately sections. As dense as DFW's prose can be the time flies when I'm reading about Ennet House. I also love that between the ETA and halfway house sections, there's the Marathe and Steeply sections forming a thematic backbone for not only the book but I think DFW's entire body of work. There's a part early on when Marathe, I think it is, asks Steeply what you do when "the temple comes to Muhammed", when you're helpless to love something even at great personal cost. And I think that's the big question IJ poses, how to temper the extremes of instant and delayed gratification (exemplified by the residents of Ennet House and ETA, respectively) and learn to live your life without giving yourself to destructive habits in the present or taxing your body and mind to its limits for the vague promise of happiness in the future. I mean yeah there's a lot more to talk about in this book - communication, deformity, conditional and unconditional love, fathers and sons, I can legit talk about IJ all day - but I think that is the crux of the books and its characters. Such an amazing, thought-provoking work.
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Jul 5, 2013 19:49
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Cool blog with tons of IJ fan art: http://pooryorickentertainment.tumblr.com/fanart I love the tour of book locations in Boston. Definitely check it out.
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Jul 8, 2013 00:05
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What's with the witch hat (?), and big rear end spider? And I call myself an IJ fan.  Speaking of being a lackluster fan, I live right in Boston and I had no idea (early spoilers) Joelle's walk to Molly Notkin's apartment pretty much follows my old commute to work. The Charles is beautiful at night and to think that's what Joelle intended to be her last sight on earth
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Jul 8, 2013 06:51
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What's up noticing new details on your first re-read buddy? I love that there's lots of evidence in the text to suggest Orin was mailing out the Entertainment to Avril's former lovers as a form of revenge, like how when he calls Hal up and complains about the line at the post office, to which Hal replies "What are you doing there? You never liked snail mail". Also, that Mario is perhaps the only character who loves openly and indiscriminately, a great counterpoint to all the darkness and tragedy that pervades the rest of the story.
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Jul 9, 2013 05:47
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