Infinite jest is a novel written by david foster wallace. Begin reading wikipedia entry multiple times, but repeatedly get. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. As you may well know, finding a quote is a damn nightmare in that book, but ill have a look. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of infinite jest by david foster wallace. This book is wandering, selfindulgent, overwritten, and gives ample evidence that the academics and literati are captivated by the deranged workings of a damaged mind wallace struggled with addictions and mental illness and killed himself a couple years after infinite jest was published. Specifically the oversized shelf, adjusted to accommodate textbooks, magazines, and tomes of infinite dimensions, a realm from whence literature rarely returns. So many people post their i just finished x post, and while thats fine, what i hope to do differently is having just finished infinite jest, write a post i would have liked to have read before having started the book. Unquestionably, infinite jest required great ambition and focus to write, and requires a bit of ambition and focus to read as well.
Read the excerpt from david foster wallaces infinite jest. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop. Infinite jest chapter 3, 1 april year of the tucks. Infinite jest by david foster wallace chapter 3, 1 april year of the tucks medicated pad, chapter 4, 9 may year of the depent adult undergarment, chapter 5, year of the depend adult undergarment, and chapter 6, year of the trialsize dove bar summary and analysis. When people do tackle it, they often give up within the first 200 pages or soone of the most difficult parts of.
Infinite jest by david foster wallace 71,653 ratings, 4. Crack out your copy of infinite jest, and recreate it in lego. Infinite jest, by david foster wallace, is the worst science fiction novel ever written. Which line of text from infinite jest best illustrates an objective narrative voice. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of. Published in 1996, david foster wallaces infinite jest became a best.
The new movie the end of the tour recreates the authors tour for that book. Shipping out pdf link, an essay about wallaces experiences on a. The book is drumtight and relentlessly smart and, though it does not wear its heart on its sleeve, its deeply felt and incredibly moving. Orin stood there, he says, hefting a cold clod, playing with the velcro on his puffy coat, watching as the moms, bent way down to me, hand reaching, her lowering face with its presbyopic squint, suddenly stopped, froze, beginning to i. Npr coverage of infinite jest by david foster wallace.
Infinite jest explores the idea that all humans are addicts and examines how the chosen drugs particularly entertainment of late 20th century americans eat them alive. David foster wallace on gen x, infinite jest and a life of writing. There is an enormous searchable wiki, and on his website infinite jest by the. The beloved 1100page novel is david foster wallaces magnum. As a college english major, ive read my fair share of great literature, and very few authors even approach wallaces ability to entertain, enlighten, mystify or infuriate. Infinite jest is a book that in almost every sense just keeps going and going. Infinite jest is a novel about the narcotic power of languagea power so overwhelming that wallace has to shred narrative into tiny strips to keep it under control. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. But the novel still contains many highly entertaining and provocative sections. If you do this, you also need to tear the footnotes from the back half and tape them to front half. But if you are seeking something other, then this book will not disappoint. Despite the book s dozens of characters, wallaces presence in infinite jest is quite pervasive, standing out from the cacophony of voices.
Just over twenty years ago, david foster wallace published his bestknown and most frustrating novel, infinite jest. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. Wallace once suggested that the writing of infinite jest was a grand gesture meant to impress karr. The beloved 1100page novel is david foster wallaces magnum opus and. Infinite jest, in other words, can be exceedingly frustrating. Eggerss introduction observed that infinite jest was 1,067 pages long and there is not one lazy sentence.
From early 1992 until the novels publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Personally, i hated infinite jest and i cant imagine ill ever want to reread any of it. Copyright 1996 david foster wallace all right reserved. The novel is a interconnected sequence of events, told out of timeline order, that focuses on addiction in all its forms. Having said that, i feel pretty confident in asserting that it is not the greatest book.
The length of infinite jest should not be an obstacle to. To be fair, the essay, penned on the topic of and shortly after 911, was by wallaces. Infinite jest quotes the guardian on the front cover, and the guardian quotes infinite jest. The answer depends on whether you define the end as the last chronological event of the story, chronological events near the end of the text, or whats happening on the actual last page of text not counting footnotes. Though complex, the existence of his voice is consistently present in the novel, a peculiarity that should force the. Some readers have found it useful to rip the book in half for easier reading on the subway or on the beach. Over the holidays i took my third crack at infinite jest by david foster.
David foster wallace on humor and infinite jest youtube. The truth is it might be the worst novel ever written, or at least published, but given the fact that wallace has stiff competition from the burgeoning spawn of pc elitist writers, not to mention his own pomo kith, such as rick moody, dave eggers, and that. Brush up on book on wikipedia to corroborate thin claim of readership. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction. David foster wallaces nowclassic novel infinite jest published 20 years ago. With regard to the basic 14 plot line, the setting for the majority of the action is enfield, a fictional suburbia town outside of boston. To fully understand what wallace was up to, the book bears being read, and reread, with talmudic focus and devotion. They are not boring bibliographic details, but rather an integral part of the text. David foster wallaces infinite jest, is, without question, the best book ive ever read.
In fact, its take on the very nature of entertainment itself perhaps foresaw the age of vanity and social media, as seen through the prisms of tinder, facebook, twitter and instagram. I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Favorite sentences and paragraphs from infinite jest ben casnocha.
And the bouncing backandforth is a feature, not a bug. At the top of a hill is the enfield tennis academy, and at the base of the hill is the ennet house. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. The plot of infinite jest takes place in a somewhatmoredystopian future uni. This 1,079page book would eventually provide me with a total of two.
David foster wallaces infinite jest, a favorite book of many, is the kind of genrebender that will thwart your mind with its convoluted narrative, plethora of allusions and cultural references, and multilateral connections between the characters. Infinite jest has become an exemplar for difficulty in contemporary fictionits 1,079 pages full of verbal invention, oblique narration, and a scattered, nonlinear, chronology. That was the project embarked upon back in april by american english professor kevin griffith and his 11. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without. Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. For example, head to page 321 for an amazing and hilarious section. But the novel still contains many highly entertaining and provocative. In 2006, little brown published a 10th anniversary edition of david foster wallaces infinite jest that featured a foreword by dave eggers. Whether its drugs, sex, or fame, the novels primary goal is to examine the need for these addictions and show that it is possible to addicted to addiction itself. Is there no ending to infinite book because there couldnt be. Dfws masterpiece otherwise known as the pinnacle of postmodern literary snobbery. Infinite jest 20th anniversary edition special edition. But the emergent figure of gatelywounded, desperate, but able to find and give loveallows infinite jest to work as a postmodern saga of damnation and salvation.
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. Infinite jest is both sad, depressed and funny and even 25 years after it was published in 1994 remains relevant to the modern age. A readers guide was the first book to be published on the novel and is a key reference for those who wish to explore further. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace comprising about 1,000 pages. It is an exuberant, uniquely american exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the. This deluxe paperback editionfeaturing flaps, new cover art, and a new foreword by tom bissellcelebrates the 20th anniversary of the original publication of infinite jest.
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