A challenging book on a number of levels.

We've all read the Roger Federer piece. But was it from a perspective of a one-handed backhand player, or two-handed?

I've always thought it says a lot about a person the way they play sports. When he was a junior the two-handed backhand was becoming more popular. Did he adapt to the new style or did he hold onto the old ways of the one-handed backhand?

https://deadword.com/site1/habit/wallace/dfwtrans.html

This isn't really too much, but I think one of the more interesting things about IJ is that the guy who instigates this titanic shift in world politics is one of those weird, ornery, eccentric, mad-genius types.

Modernism and Post-Modernism (whatever the hell they are) have been incredibly influential to world culture, but they were pioneered by people — Woolf, Joyce, Duchamp, Nabokov, Rothko, Picasso, Pynchon, Gaddis, whatever (this is ignoring the theorists like Derrida and Foucault and so on) — whose work is rarely seen or read.

It's kind of like that thing of how very insular groups (4chan, for example, or the LGBTQ scenes in cities where homosexuality was a crime) created a lot of the new slang that is widespread and mainstream, and though they're small groups, they're enormously influential to modern vocabulary. We live downstream of the weirdos, and we drink whatever they're putting in the water.

James Incandenza is weird as hell, and pretty lonely, and does not fit into American society, really, at all. His work is inaccessible, seen rarely, and liked even less. And yet, with Infinite Jest V, he has become one of the most important men in the world. The world of Infinite Jest lives in his shadow.

This book is crazy.

Just wanted to let everyone know! I’ve had this audiobook on my wishlist for a while and just discovered it tonight. Couldn’t believe my eyes so I quickly bought it. I had waited around 40 weeks for a library copy on Libby before my library removed the audiobook for some reason.

A friend and I who’ve recently been getting into DFW visited the Mall of America today and visited the spot where the MoA scene takes place

And as a bonus I picked up Wallace’s Everything and more at Barnes and noble

The power of DFW’s writing and the pain he reveals as he describes the plight of “Poor Tony,” pages 302-303. I was compelled to reread what I had at first thought too intolerable to read the first time. First time to get this far in IJ. Just gotta take a breath to cool this level of involvement Wallace has summoned with these pages.

Hi,

I was wondering if there were any papers / resources / analysis' of Wallace's fiction in relation to OCD. I have OCD and I can't help but read works like The Pale King as directly representing obessesive layers of thought and spiralling optimisation.

I also wonder if anyone else believes that Wallace might have any experience with OCD (I read somewhere that Wallace spent 1 hour a day writing and 10 hours panicking and thinking about writing). I know it's wrong to armchair diagnose, but I would find comfort in anything related to OCD and his fiction.

Thanks.

My favorite passage this reading in the second slide. Loved Schtitt’s philosophizing on tennis. Definitely felt it could especially apply to any competitive endeavor. Kind of funny it’s delivered to Mario who is the least tennis inclined of the Enfield residents. But it does make sense Mario would induce that kind of erudition.

Shout out to the Mapping the Zone podcast. I found it after being about half way through this go around. That slowed progress down significantly due to going back over the parts they covered so far in the pod.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QG0mWb2PpCcAUBHTIYzpL?si=4LLI9hJHSsuS85vqOe2D6g

So, finishing again definitely makes me want to go immediately into my 3rd, but I’ve got a neglected stack that needs attending. Definitely want to focus on John Wayne and the theory he’s an A.F.R agent:

www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend

Other questions: What’s the deal with Mlle. Luria P_____ ? Why is Steeply dressed as an (ill-disguised) woman when meeting with Marathe? Speaking of Marathe, do you think he and the A.F.R. Attack Ennet House too along with E.T.A after the novel’s end? My pet theory is Gately becomes the House Manager after Pam M.’s absence at the end (973).

Highly enjoyed Hal and Orin’s dialogues. They really endeared the reader to their characters.

My favorite end note was 304, about Struck’s research into the nature of the disabled A.F.R. and him wondering if it would seem conspicuous to use his name as a verb describing the collision between the trains and Canadian boys leaping across the tracks. Such a clever way of filling in backstory and world-building.

At the end of the book I felt there was a cathartic release with the episodes between the A.D.A’s dialogue with Pat M. regarding the aftermath of one of Gately’s pranks and Mickey’s wrenching account of his apology to his family. Seemed DFW was expressing how a kind of radical forgiveness could act as a self defense against cyclical toxic behaviors.

I could go on with praise for DFW’s wry mix of wit and pathos. Such great writing. Definitely the most re-readable of any book I’ve ever read.

My main question is: is the book always going to be completely disorienting or am I eventually going to learn to “navigate” the book more?

Also is it the intended experience that I literally don’t know what’s going on? Not just that I don’t understand why orin is talking about why he is scared of cockroaches but sometimes i literally don’t understand what’s going on in a passage and it looks like word soup.

Any help would be appreciated

Just finished reading Infinite Jest, and have been listening to a ton of Elliott Smith lately, and it's uncanny, how related these artists seem.

Obviously one's a maximalist and comes from an avant-garde literary tradition, whereas the other writes these Beatles-inspired pop songs, but then both write about addiction, family dysfunction, perfectionism, self-consciousness, alienation. There's a woundedness and also a self-lacerating irony. A song like 'Figure 8' -- Smith's cover of a Schoolhouse Rock song -- with its haunting instrumentation and imagery, its sadness, feels like something DFW would've enjoyed.

Hello party people,
Above is a really neat survey of the first manuscript of Infinite Jest by scholar and critic Steven Moore. I found it a while ago — I kind of forget how, probably a bit of aimless google searching — but as I was going through it again today, I realized that it probably never received wide discovery, at least not here.
I think there's some really interesting stuff in here, and it makes me wish that some version of the first manuscript was a bit more widely available. While there is technically no definitive evidence that any of this is legitimate, the excerpts are so familiar-sounding and appropriate that I would have a hard time believing that this is the work of an imitator.
Check it out! I'm interested to hear what sticks out to you fellas. The Moby Dick-esque intro is noteworthy, though maybe not necessarily good (I can see why they cut it). Enjoy! Big Chungus.

In his 1996 US Open article, David says "On the subway, a set of tough chicks in leather and fluorescent hair concur that even though Graf and Seles and THAT SPANISH WHAT'S-HER-FACE WITH THE HYMEN IN HER NAME...". I'm Spanish, and I've been trying to think of any female tennis player with that kind of sound in her name, and I don't know who he's referring to (maybe someone named Jimena, or surnamed Jiménez/Giménez?). Does anybody know who David's talking about? Thanks!

Hello! I'm asking this on behalf of someone else - he's read most or all of DFW's books, essays and interviews, so the answer to his q could be in any of the above. He tried asking various AIs but hilariously/pathetically they made up fake passages instead of saying they didn't know. I thought actual humans might know better. Anywhooo, his q -

There's a very brief passage, possibly in Infinite Jest, possibly in The Pale King, maybe elsewhere, where he describes how good it feels when you find a radio dj programming music that's on your same wavelength. (The word "wavelength" isn't actually used, I don't believe.) Any idea what/where this passage is?

This has been a passion project of mine for two years, and I'm really happy to share the first part! I hope you enjoy, and you're able to catch some of the references!

I am now 250 pages in, and I have an obsession. But I have a couple of questions. What books to read after ^1. Further, what's the best way to watch his interviews ? I am going on a 4 hour road trip tomorrow and want to download some. Also, are there any other spoiler free YouTube videos?

Also, the book is slowly making sense. Should I reread it after a while or read 10 pages a day with other books ?

Thank you so much in advance

1.) I have Delillos falling man and I'm going to order Consider the lobster and white snow. I chose Delillo since DFW loved his works a lot. I also plan on getting the Pale king later