Infinite Jest

[albionmoonlight]

I am planning (in the next month or so) to pick up Infinite Jest and read it. I note that it came with a reader's companion, which I have not gotten. The fact that someone felt a need to make a reader's companion, however, has given me pause.

How complex is this book? I was an English major, and I like to think that I can follow a pretty complex story, but I want to make sure that I am not biting off more than I can chew. (For example, when I read Lolita, I made sure to get the annotated version, and I enjoyed the book a lot more with the annotations).

Any hints for one about to get into this book? Should I pick up the reader's companion? Anything I should look for while I am reading it to make sure that I get the most out of it?

Thanks.

[corbes]

Who authored it, A.M.?

[albionmoonlight]

David Foster Wallace

[Calis]

Hmm, I really need to pick up the annotated version of Lolita. I just recently read that and it instantly moved up to one of my favorite books, but I'm sure I missed 60% of what makes it so good. ;)

I haven't read Inifinite Jest, but I have a friend who did and quite enjoyed it. I think you should be ok.

Isn't it a rather lengthy book? Like almost a thousand pages? I don't remember much about it, have to check it out sometime.

Was anxious to read Pale Fire by Nabokov after finishing Lolita, but I unfortunately got sidetracked by the Patrick O'Brian books. Enough of the sidetracking though, just had to chime in with how much I like Nabokov.

Let us know what you think about it if you do read it. Maybe it'll give me a push to read it myself.

[Scholes]

Infinite Jest IMO is a good book, not a great one, but a good one. I wasn't aware of the companion to it, maybe it wasn't out when I bought it a year ago. I think I would get the companion now, but it's not so complex that you don't know what's going on, it just jumps around a little bit, and I guess I was a bit confused about the time period of a few parts, but it's good.

Incidentally, I finished that book in a shorter amount of time then it took me to finish Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenence... which I had to keep going over a re-reading to understand.

[corbes]

AM, I haven't read the book, and had to look up D.F. Wallace on the internet to find information about the book. I ended up with a Salon interview.

I'm generally inclined against reading companions, on the grounds that the reader's own reactions while reading are just as valid as anything anyone else says. I think in the end, you end up reading the Reader's Companion instead of reading the book.

That said, the sheer girth of the novel does seem overwhelming, from the Salon interview. My only advice, which you already know from being an English major, is to read slowly and carefully, and put the book down if you start skimming. As long as you don't get lost, I can't imagine the need for a reader's companion, as well.

That's a simplistic answer, I realize. Sorry.

[portnoise]

I tackled Infinite Jest a couple years ago. The language usually isn't difficult, as in Nabokov or Joyce. Everything's readable...it's just that so much information is given--much of it ambiguous, useless, or out of order--that it's a challenge to keep everything straight.

That said, I had fun working through it and figuring it out on my own and then going to secondary sources afterward to help me make sense of it all. One of the few things I now presume to know about the book is that the experience of reading it is meant to be part of the point. Also, DFW does so much annotating of his own, I dunno how you could stand any more! :-)

The follow-up question: anyone read Gravity's Rainbow without help?

[corbes]

it's just that so much information is given--much of it ambiguous, useless, or out of order--that it's a challenge to keep everything straight.
I shouldn't keep talking about a book I haven't read, but in the interview I DID read, Wallace said that the manuscript he delivered was 1,700 pages. Then the editor cut it down to 1,200.

Talk about a director's cut.

[Scholes]

I haven't went for Gravity's Rainbow yet... but it has been recommended many times to me. Is it worth the effort?

[portnoise]

I've never managed to get into Gravity's Rainbow...always bogging down near the beginning...something about a giant tumor rolling down a busy city street...if someone (or a reader's companion) can explain what the hell's going on with that tumor, I'll read it.

[QuikSand]

I bought it a few years ago, but haven't gotten past the first few pages. It is a mammoth text, and is just too heavy for me to comfortably hold up in bed. For me, that's something of a bookreading litmus test, as that's where I do 75% of my reading. If I fall asleep while reading (which I do frequently), and the momentum of the book falling out of my hands could kill someone ... it's probably time for a lighter book.

[portnoise]

AM--good luck with the book... Be sure to come back and discuss IJ when you're done!

[NoMyths]

I may have said this here before, but I think Infinite Jest is the greatest novel of our era, for an incredible variety of reasons. Reading the book (and I've read it a couple times, excepting false starts) made me give up writing for a time. It's a staggering achievement. And probably quite prescient (after all, it's probably only a matter of time before we invent entertainment that is so effective that it kills us. Although Everquest and Internet porn probably come close. ;) )