I just... really fucking hate Infinite Jest? I feel like I got meme'd into thinking it was good.
Look, I've read Joyce. Ulysses is often lumped into "the meme trilogy" with this book and I honestly find that unfair and insulting to Joyce.
To call Infinite Jest a "farce" would be to undercut the sheer magnitude of bullshit it employs. Hundreds of pages of nigh-endless, mandatory footnotes that establish a lot of important but ultimately pointless worldbuilding. I mean, not to call /ourguy/ David Foster Wallace a hack or anything, but his magnum opus just feels needlessly cryptic and tone-deaf.
Don't get meme'd into reading it, it's Atlas Shrugged for nihilists.
There is truly no point to the book at all, it’s only supposed to recreate the feeling of being bombarded by stimuli, much like the television and connected internet it predicts.
The book is explained by the little allegory about the prank Hal’s dad played on the academic community with the mirror reflected back on the audience. I forget the details because I read it 10 years ago.
Tyler Clark
>t-the meme trilogy is bad because LE MEMES XDDD Shut the fuck up you retard they are the most discussed books of the board since forever its that simple now fuck off and kill yourself
Leo Martin
Wow, finally someone has found the courage to stand up to David Foster Wallace and his book Infinite Jest
Luis Barnes
>This is my opinion. It is right; I am right. You should believe me because I am me. Woah, strong argument.
Jacob Clark
Refute it then, peon.
Caleb Rivera
The meme trilogy is bad because all three of those books are bad. They're overblown, pretentious, tryhard, downright incoherent at times, and praised by the most insufferable kinds of people.
Infinite Jest is pretty masturbatory but there are a lot good sections of writing and thought contained in it. I dont particularly think Wallace, pynchon, and joyce are all that similar in thematic concern though even if they all write encyclopedic "novels".
Logan Wood
ME NO LIKE THING ME DIFFERENT
Jonathan Rogers
t. triggered DFWfag
Brayden Russell
Why the fuck is Ulysses in there? It's a classic isn't it?
Now Finnegans Wake is a meme book through and through. Why Ulysses and not that?
Jack Torres
Because >they are the most discussed books of the board since forever its that simple now fuck off and kill yourself newfags these days
>hey guys this is the first time I'm seeing an 8 year old image and let me tell you, I'm gonna bitch stop posting
Noah Garcia
M8, you're the one acting like a chimp over someone not enjoying something you enjoy
Cameron Morris
>muh latin american representation Make you own meme trilogy banana breath quit being a wetback
James Anderson
Yea Forums mk1 loved IJ because its aimed at humanities academic students. I have no idea why post 2016 Yea Forums like IJ as they are anti humanities, academia and post-modernism.
Ulysses - the only book i regret finishing to the last sentence. What a load of crap. "Classic".
Landon Brooks
fw is only a meme book to those who haven't read it it's a slog of a read, since it's not really reading in the traditional sense. but it's also the funniest and punniest book ever, with an obscene number of parallel meanings interwoven in its sentences. I've unironically read FW twice, and it's far from gibberish. i wouldn't even consider it cryptic, since it reveals itself by simply reading it and doesn't require any decoding in the modern sense of the word. fw is the monomyth and the world would be drastically different without it. easiest example is that campbell wouldn't have articulated the hero's journey, and if he hadn't done that, lucas wouldn't have cribbed the cycle when writing star wars. it's affected billions of people in a way that no other modern work has. it's the never ending story of everything. there is nothing new or novel to be found in any work outside the wake, past present or future. literally. the burgess interpretation is pretty shit, but campbells skeleton guide is the foundation for basically all modern exegesis.
Tyler Collins
Woah buddy are you saying Joyce was the first to elaborate the mono-myth as such?
Oliver Green
WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY DFW IS PRETENTIOUS AND ELITIST IF I READ HIS LOBSTER ESSAY AND FOUND NOTHING BUT WARMTH AND HUMILITY EXTENDED TO ME?
It felt like he was speaking directly to myself, and not anywhere did he use vocabulary or syntax or otherwise that was even slightly pompous. Why, then, would he do the very opposite in a large-scale book of his? If you have any pretentious passages from IJ, send me them so I can see for myself that you aren't just bullying the poor guy.
Kayden Morris
He comes across as smug because the book and his prose style in general has an endearing absurdity to it and it really rubs some people the wrong way
Juan Nelson
I have to agree. I was fucking underwhelmed by this. GR and Ulysses I was also memed into - and loved both.
>le reddit buzzwords You're on Yea Forums, faggot, act like it.
Jordan Kelly
It's "well written," but I don't think it's a "great" work.
DFW was a very good writer, but I don't think IJ is a book for the ages. It's going to be remembered, but it's also going to be remembered as a high point (not sure if THE high point) of postmodernism.
PS. I lump Dave Eggers in this same category
Aaron Turner
>They're overblown, pretentious, tryhard, downright incoherent at times, and praised >overblown k.
Asher Scott
I'm glad I didn't read this post before I finally decided to read Infinite Jest. The book spoke to me, and was so full of compassion that it brought me to tears. The gimmick of endnotes wasn't a pain and sometimes got good use (Incandenza the Senior's filmography, for example). DFW made me care about Don Gately and Mario and Joelle enough to read every page and it was worth it.
I don't see how you found it cryptic. Everything is written in plain English. DFW's criticism of commercial culture wasn't exactly subtle, nor his value of empathy and relating to others.
Was DFW a good person in real life? I really hate to hear of the scandals which have come to surround his name. From interviews, he seems like a very jovial and kind fellow.
Matthew Davis
He hung himself.
Cameron Kelly
whoa buddy, is that what my post said? fw is the only embodiment of the monomyth, for it is the monomyth, for it contains every story, every past and present. campbell was one of the first to tackle the wake, and from his reading of fw did he articulate hero/1000 faces, et Al, from which lucas cribbed. without the wake, campbell most likely didn't attempt to formalize the hero journey, lucas didn't polish star wars on top of it the most asinine thing about readers today is that everything must be qualified against it's negation to get anywhere. just read what was said, don't force the reader to say "I'm not saying..." over and over again.
Thomas Sullivan
he was a depressed tortured artist and pussyhound bound to fits of passionate rage, iirc he once tried to push the girl he was lusting after out of a car when they had a fight and plotted to murder her husband. Genius writer and great at interviews but probably not someone you would want to be too close with read "Every Love Story is a Ghost story" and "The End of the Tour" if you want more insight on his life
Christian Harris
>plotted to murder her husband Oh dear...
but okay i will thanks user :3
Jason Garcia
Don't sperg because you didn't understand it and you're jealous you'll never write it. No matter how hard you hate it, this book is talked about every day on here, has been for a while, and will be for a long time. You're not that much smarter than most other people on here, so don't be so full of yourself.
Oliver Davis
it's way overated and he's an admitted plagiarist c&p'ed half the novel from early 90s web
Cooper Barnes
>I just... really fucking hate Infinite Jest? Do you? Are you sure about that? Is that a question or a statement? Talk and write properly, and stop using uptalk like some sort of Californian limp-wristed faggot.
James Carter
plagiarized from which sources?
Joshua Lee
>IJ is NEEDLESSY CRYPTIC >CLAIMS TO HAVE READ (likely didnt understand) ULYSSES I'm SEETHING.
Matthew Lopez
He didn't plagiarize. He just lifted the idea of the entertainment from some short story that was buzzing around Cambridge (basilisk something-or-other) and he had VERY HEAVY Pynchon influence
Jackson Williams
Maybe you have to be american to understand it? Because I'm not american and I didn't get it
Brayden Garcia
What's so great about Pynchon? Should I look into him?
Easton Reed
I finished this book 2 days and felt that IJ was a chore to read. The book was unique and creative but ultimately it just wasn't enjoyable to read except the parts about Gately and Addicts.
Brayden Myers
run an acrostic program on the corpus, you'll find his admission of plagiarism
