A blog about media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. 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. We specialize in rare, signed, and manuscript ayn rand, history, and science. David foster wallace, alcoholics anonymous, and everybody. Zanesville oh a town 55 miles east of columbus vienna va a suburb of washington, d.
Since its publication, the world has moved past the events and years of the novels shaky mid2000s dystopian world. The page is to act as an aid to readers by listing the chronology of. Infinite jest is a genuinely groundbreaking novel of language. Is there no ending to infinite book because there couldnt be. 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. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop.
Those who have read infinite jest or as least past page 223. Instead, go straight to page 223 all north american editions have the same pagination and read or, better yet, write down on an index card, the listing of years under the heading its in caps in the text so im capping it not shouting here too, chronology of organizations of north american. The title of david foster wallaces 1996 novel infinite jest refers, amongst. Instead, go straight to page 223 all north american editions have the same pagination and read or, better yet, write down on an index card, the. There are several popular way stations on the road to abandoning infinite jest. Not even the masters of the highlow rhetorical register go higher more. Formed in the summer of 2009 to read david foster wallaces masterwork infinite jest. Baker creates erasure poetry from david foster wallaces infinite jest, one page at a time. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. David foster wallace, alcoholics anonymous, and everybody worships i should probably explain how this all started. There are 28 unnumbered chapter breaks signified by a little circle, similar to 28 days in a lunar continue reading matt bucher. Youll never discover all of infinite jests secrets. I was pretty sure greg carlisle had something like this somewhere in his excellent guide to infinite jest, elegant complexity i cant recommend carlisles book enough but sans index and after lots of flipping, i guess not.
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. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Endurance bibliophiles are gathering at to slay the giant. If youve never read it, starting infinite jest can be a little intimidating. Infinite jest is notoriously known for being a long book its just shy of 1100 pages. Stephen kings the stand uncut edition and george r. Today is the first day of a 3 month journey through infinite jest. Now, at the end of infinite winter, nathan seppelt just posted an image of what it looks like to drive the car being driven on page 270 in infinite jest. Hal incandenza, a tennis prodigy and drug user as a result of.
Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. Namely, flip to page 223 to see what were talking about. Shakespeares hamlet act 5 scene 1 alas, poor yorick.
Since i started infinite jest, my goal has been to suck it up until page 223. When people do tackle it, they often give up within the first 200 pages or soone of the most difficult parts of. Infinite boston is a photo tour of some of the boston locations that inspired locations in david foster wallaces infinite jest in july of what might have been year of glad, one year ago this week, i traveled to boston, massachusetts with the express purpose of visiting as many of the landmarks and lesser known precincts that appear in, or provide inspiration for, the late david foster. Infinite jest is a clear example of how humans add to the confusion of the world. My first attempt was a list of advice on reading the novelthe submission of which prompted infsums dungeon master, matthew baldwin, to write back with a frowny face and a. Theres an extraordinary sentence in infinite jest, almost exactly halfway through the novel. Infinite summer blog archive how to read infinite jest. David foster wallace novel translated by an 11yearold. Compaq keyboards with a delete bar where the space bar is. The buzzing claustrophobic energy of infinite jest placed wallace in the company of pynchon and delillo the wall street journal.
Infinite summer the short list of things to do time. I really want less hassle down the line when it comes to living in the us. What i get is an active and complex stack of information. Not every scene in the book is labeled with a definitive date, or has events or characters that can be crossreferenced to deduce a definitive date. For years, youve been meaning to read the late david foster wallaces 1,079 page masterpiece, infinite jest. 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. A few weeks ago, i wrote the foreword for infinite summer, a summerlong collective read of infinite jest, david foster wallaces bigass novel and one of my favorite books.
According to many reading guides for david foster wallaces infinite jest, page 223 is one you have to get to. Infinite winter read infinite jest with a few hundred of. 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. Anyway, i drew the lines with info from infinite jest on pages 93, 403 and 438.
Anyway, heres that first draft on how to read infinite jest. Because the infinite summer blog told me so in their posts on tips for reading the book, the guides four readers helping keep us going through the book said to persevere to page 200, and that page 223 was one to mark. The good news is that it is not a thousand page paragraph or even a thousand page story. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace comprising about 1,000 pages in addition to 388 endnotes. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, first edition. At the macro level, infinite jest consists of numerous anticonfluential wallaces word episodes set a dozen years or so in the future as was the broom, at a time when numerical designations for years have been sold to corporate sponsors. This one page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of infinite jest by david foster wallace. 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. The chorus unanimously responded that i should keep my eye on the timeline on page 223 of the paper back edition. Then, before starting, i took a quick tour though the multiple wikis set up as readers guides, but decided. Joelle thinks about orin and his father, the worlds best hailer of boston cabs.
The most heavily trafficked by far is the wardine section. I kept telling myself that if i could just get to page 223, everything. After twenty years, david foster wallaces grand overture on humans and addiction, infinite jest, has only become more powerful. The guides also tell readers, once there, to bookmark that page as theyll constantly need to come back to it. Infinite jest the 1,000 page epic of american addiction and tennis has been recreated in plastic bricks by an appropriately precocious child alison flood wed 27 aug 2014 10. Just over twenty years ago, david foster wallace published his bestknown and most frustrating novel, infinite jest. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. Where the opening pages of ij are among the best written in the book, page 37 and many pages thereafter are in a tortured, fauxebonics type dialect. 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. Joelle van dyne, star of jim incandenzas movies, goes to molly notkins ma thesis party. Page 93 states that rome, nny new new york, glens falls, nny, and beverly, ma are all.
Books journals magazines newspapers encyclopedia an outline of humor. Where the opening pages of ij are among the bestwritten in the book, page 37 and many pages thereafter are in a tortured, fauxebonics type dialect. Martins storm of swords are longer this, but i was able to clear those books much quicker than david foster wallaces second novel. Infinite jest the latest news about infinite jest from the wsj speakeasy blog. Copied by hand from infinite jest, page 223 of the first paperback ed. Infinite jest in the age of addiction the millions. What follows is a reshuffling of all the scenes in infinite jest as they occur chronologically. Page 269 contd equanimity mental or emotional stability laissezfaire french for let do, or, more idiomatically, leave alone, this is a term usually applied to conservative economics but here generally gives a sense of not caring very much. But the most addictive force in infinite jest is a seemingly innocuous videotape referred to simply as the entertainment. Time magazine listed the novel as one of the 100best english novels written between 1923 and 2005. Infinite jest page by page david foster wallace wiki. Or rather, the sentence in fact begins on page 487, continues all the way through page 488, and ends on page 489.
Im a very slow reader, and i was able to read infinite jest in. It is an exuberant, uniquely american exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the. All times are utc dst forum rules the inficratic oath. Then, i sent out an email to friends whod been suggesting me to read infinite jest for years, asking for help. Imagine all our views of this read piling up like his layered drawing. I have included books i love and books i hate, like infinite jest.
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