Also, what did Pemulis use to drug his tennis opponent? Was it DMZ?Also, what do we think Lyle’s advice to Hal actually was re therapy. It seems that Orin was aware that Hal had misunderstood Lyle as having advised Hal on how to “deliver the goods.”Also, it’s funny how much Wallace’s essay topics appear in IJ. It’s like he had a limited number of opinions that he considered “deep” and felt the need to treat each of those “deep” thoughts with an essay in addition to weaving it into his Novel to impress his readers.
>>24103774>Also, what did Pemulis use to drug his tennis opponent? Was it DMZ?Probably.>Also, what do we think Lyle’s advice to Hal actually was re therapy. It seems that Orin was aware that Hal had misunderstood Lyle as having advised Hal on how to “deliver the goods.”You still have not figured out what Lyle is, have you? Orin did not think Hal misunderstood, just did not find that to sound the like the Lyle he remembered which is important. Remember these are children forming these opinions and views of who Lyle is and is not, many of them very young children. Reflect on your own childhood impressions of people you never really knew but often had contact with. >Also, it’s funny how much Wallace’s essay topics appear in IJ. It’s like he had a limited number of opinions that he considered “deep” and felt the need to treat each of those “deep” thoughts with an essay in addition to weaving it into his Novel to impress his readers.Most authors use their essay writing partially as a way to sort things out in their fiction writing and even if they don't that novel they have been putting all that time into is going to affect other writings of the time, Most writers also have a handful of things they are very interested in and tend to find ways to make everything they write relate to those things because it is what interests them. DFW is not an exception.
>>24103794No I have not figured out who Lyle is but thanks for the nudge on that topic.
>>24103819You need to keep in mind that the narrator uses a good amount of free indirect speech and even goes to the extreme of taking it all the way to stream of consciousness as well as everything in between. The narrator is not a removed third person omniscient narrator.
>>24103829I have noticed that and I appreciate that aspect of the book.
>>24103829this
>>24103774I wish Wallace had written not directly a sequel but something taking place in the same universe as Infinite Jest. Maybe from the wheelchair assassins's perspective could've been interesting or from a different country
>>24104404Then you have figured out who/what Lyle is and have at least some idea of his significance?
Page 1. Sorry but you got filtered. Try again in three years.
>>24103774son, you got memed on
>>24104973This board is for people who read books.
>>24104947No kek I still have no idea, but I’ll keep your points in mind as I continue on
>>24103774>>24105223>reading american slop
It's ok to stop reading a book if you don't like it. Be kind to yourself. Unless you're a jew.
>>24106002>finishing what you start is jewishExplains a good deal about those who blame the jew for everything.
I read this book once every year.
>>24106209So ... when does it get good?
>>24107113I'm also reading IJ at the moment and I'm currently about 450 pages in. I wouldn't say it's getting "better" more that it's remaining consistent with the various mysteries and intrigue presented slowly and methodically being revealed layer by layer. If you're not into it by page 300 it just might not be for you. Personally I'm loving it, and have been getting a lot of of the book even from some of the earlier sections. I think it's deeply reflective of the modern world and it's shocking to me just how much DFW predicted. Social media, facetime, food delivery services, Presidential candidates which appeal to the extreme fringes of society and who are entertainers first and statemen second, the obvious metaphor for the titular Infinite Jest being representative of media as a whole and the American people's relationship with it. Our population treasuring and seeking entertainment above all else. We are addicted to it to the point that we are entertaining ourselves to death. I think it's down right prescient of the modern era we live in.
>>24107239It really is the kind of work that rewards reading through, even re-reading. The question isn't should I keep reading this, it's when should I read it again.
>>24107239He didn't really predict those things, they were all things regularly reported on in the time period and the general trends were obvious, mostly just waiting for the tech to get there or someone to find the right execution. Some of those like food delivery services are not even remotely new and others like the president are your myopically fitting it to your existence and failing to put the pieces together, how would the other political elements work towards your interpretation of JG be a prediction of Trump? He was commenting on the growing trend of politics as entertainment with people forming their identity around politics in much the same way teens form their identity around music complete with t-shirts, the rise of 24 hour cable news and talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh who he has as president preceding JG with HRC as VP, and so on. His predictions were not about president, they were about the people and he was pretty on the nose, if you build your identity around politics you either cripple yourself (Marathe) or reinvent yourself every election cycle (Steeply) which is functionally the same as crippling yourself.
>>24108588I think one of the many, many things DFW is trying to say in IJ is that there are no "figurants" in real life, and that someone who may be a background character in your story is the main character of their own. One of the things I personally like about the book is that we get relatively significant backstory for so many characters, like the tale of Barry Loach towards the end of the novel.
>>24103774It doesn’t get good. It just eventually ends with some cultural Christian moralizing about muh drugs bad
>>24108880actually that's not really what happens.the book has a really ambivalent take on that issue.the ultimate idea is that we're sort of helpless to resist, it will always find a way in our life, the key thing is that we make a decision regarding what to do next.
>>24103774to be honest it sounds like you're enjoying yourself, and it's fairly clear that you were, or perhaps still are, a bit of a devotee of the late great DFW.
>>24103774It doesn't. That's the jest.
>>24108852I think if you want to look at it from the standpoint of figurants it would be why do so many people end up figurants? Sure they have an internal life but no one hears it, it just narrates their own bleak existence—I am in here—self preservation necessitates finding a way to shut off that narrative, something you can dump yourself into so fully there will be nothing else.
>>24107638I’m only at page 300 and you’re saying I should start over?
>>24108588>others like the president are your myopically fitting it to your existence and failing to put the pieces together, how would the other political elements work towards your interpretation of JG be a prediction of Trump?I knew I should have been more specific when I mentioned that. Believe me anon, I am no democrat. I meant that line to be a jab at both political parties. However I do think the similarities to Trump and Gately are too stark to ignore. Gately was a Vegas entertainment mogul who turned president. Trump may have made his fortune in real estate but he also entered the entertainment industry as a reality tv show host before then turning to politics. That's not even mentioning all of his boisterous tweets and outright trolling of liberals at times. Again, it's entertainment as much as politics, especially to people who like him. I'd also like to reiterate that I don't think democrats are any better. How many variety shows and late night tv shows was Kamala paraded out on in a pathetic attempt by dems to make her seem like a cool and with-it antithesis to Trump? She didn't even get properly elected in a primary and yet these are the people screaming from the rooftops about Trump being a threat to democracy, it's pure hypocrisy and foolishness. It's all pageantry. That's the point I was trying to make. >He was commenting on the growing trend of politics as entertainment with people forming their identity around politics in much the same way teens form their identity around music complete with t-shirts, the rise of 24 hour cable news and talk radio personalities100% agree, you've put it much better than I did. This has been my take away from the book so far in regards to politics.
>>24110307>Gately was a Vegas entertainment mogul who turned president.You mean Gentle.
>>24110307>GatelyYou are not coming off the best. A good number of entertainers turned politician during DFW's life including one who became president as well as the trend of celebrities using their celebrity to campaign for others being fairly well established by that point. Trump was not an entertainer turned politician, he was a businessman who had a stint in entertainment before politics.
>>24111074>Trump was not an entertainer turned politicianuhh, he was a reality tv star and a casino mogul. not so far from a vegas crooner.
>>24108985page 300 is when it starts to get good, unironically
>>24111255Like saying that a public education and cleaning toilets at the local University is not so far from getting masters degree from an ivy league school. But it was a good demonstration of what DFW was getting at with people crippling themselves with their politics, if you are going to criticize someone at least do it intelligently.
>>24103774>when does it get good?The part where the author kills himself. A piece of advice you should follow immediately.
If you didn't enjoy it, read it again. If you didn't understand it, read it again. Best advice for any book. You probably don't like it because you don't understand it. That's ok, give yourself a break, then read it again.
>>24106209What a waste of time by a waste of breath.
>>24112099I don’t breathe when I read, I subvocalize
Sir, a second "When does Inifnite Jest get good" thread just appeared.
>>24108980Indeed
Why would you read 300 pages of something you don't enjoy? Then be confused about continuing. You won't get in trouble for not finishing a book op.
>>24114497>Why would you read 300 pages of something you don't enjoy?To post about not enjoying it on memechan
The book is alot better if you're from New England>>24114497To get to the good parts.
>>24114497Most defenders of the book say that it’s really good but that it doesn’t get good until the X page. Not that hard to understand anon.
>>24103774Good? You expect books to be good? I thought everyone here just read books as a masochistic test of the will.
>>24115364That's idiotic. A book that's bad for 300 straight pages is a bad book. Might as well just tear it in half and just read the second part.
DFW says IJ resolves just to the right of the frameJOI ghoulie does not want his son to be in the peripheryWhat did he mean by this?
>>24116741No one said it’s bad for 300 pages.And the reason people say “it gets good after x page” is because all pages before x page lay the groundwork for all pages after x page to be good.
