ŷ������

This thread is to discuss Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Pages: 1088 pages

Length: 2 months (March and April)

Participants: SarahKat, bailey, Dominique, Lynn

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I am starting this today, or possibly tomorrow. Even though it's a 2-month read I'm going to try to accomplish it this month just so I can cross it off my list!

I read the forward by Tom Bissell and I am both wary and excited for this book. Sounds like we'll either love it or hate it. Hoping for the former 🤞

I would like to join this buddy read please.

I have had this book for a long time.

I was looking at the Audible version of the book plus end notes. This is a 64 hour read. I think realistically i would need 3 1\2 months to read this. Will this thread be open that long?

If not i may be a lurker and read on my own.

Hi Cosmic! The thread will be open through the end of May. However, if multiple people are still reading at the end of next month we can move it to the May thread and keep it open.

I have started it. I like certain chapters but some of them just seem like jibberish. I may look up a "explain Infinite Jest to me like I'm 5" thread or something.

There are some GREAT words and phrases in here though that I've highlighted. I'll try to post them on here when I get a few extra minutes.

I just started last night! I'm planning on taking it slow so I can annotate my copy and actually comprehend what I'm reading instead of blasting through like I normally would lol!

My edition had a forward from David Eggers rather than Tom Bissell and I opted to skip it after reading the first page. I have finished the first two chapters so far (Year of Glad and Year of Depend) and I definitely see what you mean, SarahKat.
Ch 1. (view spoiler)[ The first chapter was interesting because there was more movement for the story. And more dialogue. I also played tennis in high school so I'm looking forward to the tennis chapters!
My highlights from this chapter:
"The familiar panic at feeling misperceived is rising, and my chest bumps and thuds."

"The issue whether the damaged even have interested wills is shallowly hashed out as some sort of ultra-mach fighter too high overhead to hear slices the sky from south to north."

Some notes I took about who the characters are:
Harold 'Hal' Incandenza- 18
Uncles Charles 'C.T.' Tavis
Orin- Hal's eldest brother, in the NFL?
Coach White- varsity tennis coach
Mr. A. deLint- academic prorector (hide spoiler)]

Ch 2. (view spoiler)[ This chapter was basically just stream of consciousness from Erdedy. I did not enjoy the pages long paragraphs that seemed to lead nowhere. It helped us get into his mind about where he stands with his addiction but I currently work as a substance abuse counselor so I didn't really need this insight. It sounds like his primary DOC is meth and he has replaced that with marijuana which, obviously, is not a good idea.
I didn't have any highlights or notes from this chapter. (hide spoiler)]

Very smart, bailey. I might need to slow down too. I made a conscious effort to annotate last night which worked well for a bit but then I started to glaze over. I think some chapters will just be a slog for me. And thank you for putting a list of characters!

Going to post some quotes I highlighted. Some are just because I like the phrasing, or some are someone amusing observations.

Chapter 1: (view spoiler)[ "I am concentrating docilely on the question why U.S. restrooms always appear to us as infirmaries for public distress," (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5.. I think? (page 40): (view spoiler)[I am a Christian but I still like this quote...

"I’ll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about. I’m pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro-death. I’m not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I, Boo.��" (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 10 (page 73): (view spoiler)[ "It’s like horror more than sadness. It’s more like horror. It’s like something horrible is about to happen, the most horrible thing you can imagine—no, worse than you can imagine because there’s the feeling that there’s something you have to do right away to stop it but you don’t know what it is you have to do, and then it’s happening, too, the whole horrible time, it’s about to happen and also it’s happening, all at the same time.��" (hide spoiler)]

Chapter something, Titled "3 November Y.D.A.U: (view spoiler)[I really liked this whole chapter because the author predicts video calling and humans' reaction to it. There's a whole made-up and early version of filters! I looked it up and this book was written 3 years before Japan unveiled the first dinosaur video calling in 1999.

One such quote I enjoyed: "one of an incredibly fit and attractive and well-turned-out human being, someone who actually resembled you the caller only in such limited respects as like race and limb-number, the photo’s face focused attentively in the direction of the videophonic camera from amid the sumptuous but not ostentatious appointments of the sort of room that best reflected the image of yourself you wanted to transmit, etc." (hide spoiler)]

Wow. I have an author event and book club meeting I'm currently preparing for so probably won't get to start this until mid-month. I assume I will either love or hate it, as well, SarahKat! And like you, I hope for the former! :) This will be my first Wallace book. So sad that he needed to take his own life... :(

@SarahKat, I also love those quotes from chapter 1 and 5! I haven't gotten to the other ones you listed so I haven't read your spoilers yet.

@LYNN, this is my first Wallace as well and I was also saddened to read about his passing.

I've read up to chapter 9 and have a few notes I'll post here to keep track of my thoughts:
Ch 5. (view spoiler)[ We meet the medical attache who receives the mysterious tape and get a date for the chapter. April 1st YDAU (hide spoiler)]

Ch 6. (view spoiler)[ We meet more new characters
Clenette & Reginald- siblings
Wardine- Reginald's girlfriend
Roy Tony- harassing/abusing Wardine
Bruce Green & Mildred Bonk- using substances (hide spoiler)]

Ch 7. (view spoiler)[ Appears to take place on the same night as the earlier Hal and Mario chapter. We also learn that their father, Dr. James O. Incandenza, has passed away sometime between the Year of Tucks Medicated Pad and the YDAU. Mario believes that their mom is happier now that their dad is gone but Hal believes she's just sad in her own way.
And we learn the medical attache is still watching the tape after about an hour. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 8. (view spoiler)[ More substance use is introduced. Hal appears to be obsessively using marijuana and name drops a bunch of other students who also "get high." Something else I made note of is that Uncle C.T. is apparently their mother's adoptive brother, this could've been mentioned before and I just didn't catch it. There was a line somewhere in this chapter from their mother where she mentions something about having 2 out of 3 "high-functioning" kids. I wonder which of her children she is considering "high-functioning" since all three seem to have their own issues, not that their issues make them "lower-functioning" (I wouldn't use these outdated terms anyways!). We also learn that their father was involved in the film department at the school before he died. And Mario is now responsible for taping the players' practices.
It's April 2nd for the medical attache and he is still watching the tape.
Characters-
Avril Incandenza- the Moms
James O. Incandenza- Himself, ETA film department (hide spoiler)]

Ch 9. (view spoiler)[ New character Don Gately is introduced. He is addicted to narcotics and has a history of burglarizing homes to afford his addiction. In this chapter his burglary turns into a robbery that ends in the homeowner's death and foreshadows Don's future incarceration (I'm guessing?) because of a DA who has it out for him.
I couldn't find anything in this chapter to suggest where in the timeline this year falls but the summary guide I've been reading after I finish chapter says it occurs 1 year before chapter 8 which is in YDAU.

"People turned out so identical in certain root domestic particulars it made Gately feel strange sometimes, like he was in possession of certain overlarge private facts to which no man should be entitled." (hide spoiler)]

I haven't yet read other notes yet. I am reading this book on Kindle and Audible. Neither one are numbered by chapters (I mean Audible is but I think it is just a time related event not chapters in the book.). I may wait until I finish the book to read everything people have written here, but I really am interested in what you have to say and so please keep writing down your insights, as I will mine

10% (around 2504) 30 April YDAU (view spoiler)[

"The bitching and moaning. Even assuming they feel the way they say when they get together, the point is notice we were all sitting there all feeling the same way together.�� "

‘We’re all on each other’s food chain. All of us. It’s an individual sport. Welcome to the meaning of individual. We’re each deeply alone here. It’s what we all have in common, this aloneness.��

‘So how can we also be together? How can we be friends? How can Ingersoll root for...

‘Well that’s the whole point. How can we be friends? Even if we all live and eat and shower and play together, how can we keep from being 136 deeply alone people all jammed together?�� ‘You’re talking about community. This is a community-spiel.�� ‘I think alienation,��

‘Existential individuality, frequently referred to in the West. Solipsism.��

���DZ�·����·��������
��ˈ��ä��ə��ˌ������ə����
NOUN
the quality of being very self-centered or selfish.
PHILOSOPHY
the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.

. Hal says, ‘In a nutshell, what we’re talking about here is loneliness.��

‘Ah. But then so notice the instant group-cohesion that formed itself around all the pissing and moaning down there why don’t you. Blott. You, Kent. This was your question. The what looks like sadism, the skeletal stress, the fatigue. The suffering unites us. They want to let us sit around and bitch. Together. After a bad P.M. set we all, however briefly, get to feel we have a common enemy. This is their gift to us. Their medicine. Nothing brings you together like a common enemy.��

‘The point,�� Hal says softly, ‘is that it’s not about the physical anymore, men. The physical stuff’s just pro forma. It’s the heads they’re working on here, boys. Day and year in and out. A whole program. It’ll help your attitude to look for evidence of design. They always give us something to hate, really hate together, as big stuff looms. .....A common enemy.....the repetition, the stress. The loneliness. But we get together and bitch, all of a sudden we’re giving something group expression. A community voice. Community!

Oh they’re cunning. They give themselves up to our dislike, calculate our breaking points and aim for just over them, then


So I think that this video explains the "DESIGN" that he is talking about.

(hide spoiler)]

bailey, you amaze me with your note-taking! I am using you as an index.

Cosmic, I'll try to put the percentage down when I add my thoughts as kindle tells me so you'll have a better idea of where I'm at.

I didn't know anything about Wallace but because of the comments on his death I looked up an article. Very sad. Honestly he seems very familiar with feelings of depression and escape in this book I would be surprised (if I already didn't know) if he didn't have some sort of issues in some capacity.

Chapter 15 (I think. I don't know. Mine doesn't have numbers either): Winter B.S. 1960- Tuscson AZ: 14% - 16%:
(view spoiler)[ How to play tennis. This chapter was all fairly amusing. I appreciate the chapters with a lot of repetition. The flow is nice. Wallace is amazing with words and great sentences. In the article I read about him, it mentioned his 200-word sentences.

"Grasp your friend firmly at all times. A firm grip is essential for both control and power." About how to hold a tennis racket. But an amazing sentence and dual meaning.

"Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you." Good life advice.

The last part of this chapter was all quotes/conversation had at the rehab facility. Humor covering what is actually extremely sad. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter "Late October Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment." 16% - 19%: (view spoiler)[I defer to bailey's amazing ability to glean plot from chapters like this. I enjoy reading them. I like the cadence. But ask me what happened and I'll draw a blank. A lot of not-seemingly-related thoughts. Something about tattoos.

"That there might not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels.
That God—unless you’re Charlton Heston, or unhinged, or both—speaks and acts entirely through the vehicle of human beings, if there is a God.
That God might regard the issue of whether you believe there’s a God or not as fairly low on his/her/its list of things s/he/it’s interested in re you." (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "bailey, you amaze me with your note-taking! I am using you as an index.

Cosmic, I'll try to put the percentage down when I add my thoughts as kindle tells me so you'll have a better idea of where ..."

Thank you!!

I am using this to help me reach different targets:

I'm through ch 17 now, ~10%. And, if it's helpful, I'm using this guide to track my chapter numbers since the book doesn't have numbers: .


Ch 11. (view spoiler)[ I believe this was the chapter where we first learn that James Incandenza used to be the director of ETA before his death. And we learned that he committed suicide in the Year of the Trial-Sized Dove Bar. Now, C.T. is the director of the school. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 14. (The one w/ Kate Gompert (view spoiler)[ SarahKat I also loved that quote that you posted! A couple other quotes I highlighted were
I don't hate myself. I just wanted out. I didn't want to play anymore is all.

I wanted to just stop being conscious.

The feeling feels like it's always been there and will always be there, and you forget.

I felt like DFW really captured the essence of depressive thoughts/symptoms. A lot of people who don't have experience with mental health default to the "suicide is so selfish" statement because they don't understand what people experiencing suicidal thoughts are going through. I was glad that DFW was able to accurately portray them but I couldn't stop thinking about his own mental health struggles that he was probably going through at the same time.

In this chapter we also get an update about the medical attache, who is still watching the tape at 0145h when his wife comes home and gets sucked in, too.

There was also that weird section with Mario and Gerhardt Schtitt, the head coach and athletic director. I felt uncomfortable about the relationship between the two, despite Mario being 18. Schtitt is still in a position of power and Mario is still a student. Quotes from this section that I highlighted,

that locating beauty and art and magic and improvement and keys to excellence and victory in the prolix flux of match play is not a fractal matter of reducing chaos to pattern.

Tennis's beauty's infinite roots are self-competitive. You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution. Disappear inside the game: break through limits: transcend: improve: win. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 16. (view spoiler)[ We meet Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply. One a member of the Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents and the other a member of Unspecified Services. This chapter takes place on 30 April, 29 days after the medical attache began playing the tape. From their conversation, we learn that 23 people died as a result of the cartridge being played. They also discuss the possibility that the medical attache and Avril Incandenza had relations at some point. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 17. (view spoiler)[ Jeez this chapter was a lot. But there was one piece of information that I think might be important to hold on to. Hal mentions that "Mario doesn't seem to resemble much of anyone they know." Which could indicate that he was born as a result of Avril's affair with the medical attache. I'm not sure if that's even possible timeline-wise because the chronology has been so murky. But it's something I want to remember in case it comes back up.
Quotes from this chapter,
These sentiments from a person who allows them to place him in the field as an enormous girl with tits at the cock-eyed angle, now discoursing on tragic love.

But sure. The fanatically patriotic Wheelchair Assassins of southern Quebec scorn this type of interpersonal sentiment between people.

But choose with care. You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only, what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice.

This, is it not the choice of the most supreme importance? Who teaches your U.S.A. children how to choose their temple? What to love enough not to think two times? (hide spoiler)]

I am at 29%. Will add notes tomorrow.

How is everyone doing on this book?
I can't imagine reading it. I am really happy that Audible is reading it for me.

I am up to 34%. Have read the footnotes as well. Quite a lot of words. Feels like a marathon. I am trying to read it in this month like SarahKat, with the same sentiment.

Infinite Jest

I decided to revisit the ŷ������ page and remember why I should continue reading. LOL.

Is anyone else having any issues with this book? When you read something disagreeable do you feel the need to continue to read it or do you skip it? ( I skip anything I don't want to dream about later. lol) Do you understand why there is this kind of filter in some of the so called great books....thinking here of Ulysses.

I haven't had a well breed education so I am sure that I am missing why "modern" means distasteful. I could add East of Eden here too so you don't just think I am talking about books that are word salads.

I have another tome that I have had in my library for years ...Gravity's Rainbow. I am wondering if this is a book that is on any of yours minds for another buddy read.

Back to Infinite Jest
put a link to this book just to confuse you. 😁
Infinite Jest: Wit and Humor in Italian Renaissance Art

bailey thank you for sharing that link! I will definitely make use of it!!

Cosmic, I wish my library had the audio so I could switch back and forth a little bit. I'm in the middle of a very long chapter that my kindle says will take me about an hour and a half to finish and it's one of those jibberish chapters (but perhaps with the help of bailey's magic link I'll be able to follow it better).

My favorite thing about this book is the vocabulary and syntax. I have so many words highlighted I've never heard before. And some I'm fairly certain aren't words at all (squunches??)

Your question about reading disagreeable things is interesting. The disagreeable things in this book are like watching a train wreck. It's disturbing but I can't look away. I read straight through. Other things in other books have gotten to me to the point where I sort of skim the passage and have to put the book down to breathe.

I haven't read any of the other books you mentioned honestly. I can't commit myself to another classic tome for quite a while. After this I'm going to need to cleanse myself with 300-page YA drivel haha.

The kindle counts chapters differently than bailey's link so it looks like I skipped a ton but I didn't...

Chapter 37 (22%): 5 November-- Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: (view spoiler)[This would be one of those disagreeable chapters you are probably talking about Cosmic. It was so interesting though. The brothers talk like regular people on the phone, with interruptions and non sequiturs. Hal tells Orin the details of him finding his father's body when he was a teenager. The dad (James) cuts a hole in the microwave door and puts his head in until it explodes. Horrifying. Also, not sure that would actually work? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 39 (27%): 14 November year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: (view spoiler)[A very sad chapter tracking Tony and his withdrawal after downing cough syrup for a week. He has a seizure on the train and people try to help him. I'm not sure if he died or not? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 43 (31%): 8 November-- Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Interdependence Day Gaudeamus Igitur: (view spoiler)[This was a very good and accessible chapter. Though not an alcoholic myself, I have a few that are very close to me. I liked the general/opinionated description of AA and alcoholism. Some of it was actually very close to words I had used myself to my first husband when trying to get him to quit. In my limited experience, this chapter was very accurate. The stories people said were messed up too. Although I think the one I'm thinking about might be in the next section so I won't say it here.

Quotes:

"Boston AA is like AA nowhere else on this planet. Just like AA everyplace else, Boston AA is..."

"Alcohol destroys slowly but thoroughly"

"—and then you’re in serious trouble, very serious trouble, and you know it, finally, deadly serious trouble, because this Substance you thought was your one true friend, that you gave up all for, gladly, that for so long gave you relief from the pain of the Losses your love of that relief caused, your mother and lover and god and compadre, has finally removed its smily-face mask to reveal centerless eyes and a ravening maw, and canines down to here..." (hide spoiler)]

*sigh*

I have yet to dig this one out and two other buddy reads for March. The good news is I only have 2 other buddy reads in April!! Whew!

Sorry y’all, I put this book down for a bit so I could work on my other March TBR titles! So I’m not much further along from where I last posted notes.

Cosmic wrote: "I am at 29%. Will add notes tomorrow.

How is everyone doing on this book?
I can't imagine reading it. I am really happy that Audible is reading it for me.

I am up to 34%. Have read the footnotes..."

I agree that this book feels like a marathon. And I’m even going at a snail’s pace lol. Sometimes the footnotes just make me more confused, as well. It feels like we’ve just been thrown into this world with no explanation as to what’s going on and still 100+ pages in I have no idea why this world is the way it is.

Once my audible free book credit comes through next week I’m going to use it on this book and hopefully will be able to catch up to you and SarahKat!

I have been reading but I've been bad about annotating. I've had a bit of a cold and my focus has been off I think. So I don't have notes or comments on every chapter. Some of them I find really intriguing and others I just have to suffer through. Mostly I'm suffering through tennis chapters and finding AA chapters really intriguing.

Chapter 44 (34%): (view spoiler)[This was too close to current events with contamination (chemical spills) and the president of the US speaking unintelligibly.

This was funny though:

GENTLE TO CANADIAN PM: HAVE SOME TERRITORY—Header;
CANADIAN P.M. TO GENTLE: NO, REALLY, THANKS ANYWAY—Header;
GENTLE TO CANADIAN P.M.: BUT I INSIST—Header;
BLOC QUEBECOIS TO CANADIAN P.M.: ACCEPT TOXICLY CONVEX ADDITION TO OUR PROVINCE AND WE ARE OUT OF HERE SO FAST YOUR HEAD WILL SPIN ALL THE WAY AROUND—Header from That Guy Again;
CANADIAN P.M. TO GENTLE: LOOK, WE’RE SWIMMING IN TERRITORY ALREADY, HAVE A LOOK AT AN ATLAS WHY DON’T YOU, WE HAVE WAY MORE TERRITORY THAN WE KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ALREADY, PLUS I DON’T MEAN TO BE RUDE EITHER BUT WE’RE ESPECIALLY UNKEEN ON ACCEPTING HOPELESSLY BEFOULED TERRITORY FROM YOU GUYS, INTERDEPENDENCE RHETORIC OR NO, THERE’S REALLY JUST NO WAY—And Again" (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 47 (40%) Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: (view spoiler)[Gately is probably the character I can get my head around the best. This chapter had a snippet of his childhood about his mother drinking vodka and passing out and he would finish it off. I know a lot of people whose drinking started in a similar manner. (hide spoiler)]

I am at Part 33 in Audible. About 52% in kindle (which includes the notes, so probably further than this). A book that was mentioned (view spoiler)[
William James his books The Principles of Psychology, Vols. 1-2 William James: (4 books) - The Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, Essays in Radical Empiricism, The Principles of Psychology

I wonder if anyone has read these?

They are also mentioned in East of Eden

Footnote 224
William James on ‘�� that latent process of unconscious preparation often preceding a sudden awakening to the fact that the mischief is irretrievably done,�� the line that actually snapped Lenz to what he was up to when he chanced to read it in a huge large-print edition he’d found behind a bookshelf along the north wall of the Ennet living room of something called The Principles of Psychology with The Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion, by William James (obviously), available in EZC large-font print from Microsoft/NAL–Random House–Ticknor, Fields, Little, Brown and Co., © Y.T.M.P., a volume that’s come to mean a great deal to Lenz. (hide spoiler)]

Cosmic wrote: "I am at Part 33 in Audible. About 52% in kindle (which includes the notes, so probably further than this). A book that was mentioned
William James his books [book:The Principles of ..."

I just read that part, though my book says it's 48%. Chapter 54: (view spoiler)[ I have not read the books mentioned but I did get a lot out of this chapter. The section all about hideousness and hiding was really interesting.

‘What you do is you hide your deep need to hide, and you do this out of the need to appear to other people as if you have the strength not to care how you appear to others.

Even though it's talking about hiding physical deformities, this is very much something I do to mask all my issues. I just call it being awkward but when she was explaining this it was like... oh.

Lenz's coping mechanism for not getting high is killing animals and that is not great either.... (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: ...."

I really appreciate how highlighted something and are taking it out of context to make connections greater than the text, in my opinion. I have been doing the same way.

(view spoiler)[

"Orin can only give, not receive, pleasure, and this makes a contemptible number of them think he is a wonderful lover, almost a dream-type lover; and this fuels the contempt. But he cannot show the contempt, since this would pretty clearly detract from the Subject’s pleasure."

I know that guy. lol

Does Orin have any substance abuse problems? I don't remember any with him. Maybe it became a blur.... (hide spoiler)]

I tried the audio book and couldn't get into it. I'll skip this one for now and will one day try it again.

This has been moved to the April Buddy Reads folder.

Chapter 60: 1May Y.D.A.U. Outcropping Northwest Of Tucson AZ U.S.A.: (view spoiler)[In this chapter Steeply tells of his father's addiction to the show M.A.S.H.. Like more and more things in this book it was both humorous and very sad. The idea of becoming so obsessed with a television show it destroys your life just as much as heroin, cocaine, meth, etc. was somewhat ridiculous (although it CAN happen!). But hearing about his father abandoning all else in his life for the show and his mother hiding it and making excuses for him was just very sad. And THIS quote. Like I've said I have a few alcoholics in my life and this is SO incredibly accurate. Especially when the addict in question has that lovely habit of gaslighting you to think exactly this.

'This is unbalance,' Marathe concurred. 'This attaching of excessive importance.'
'Jesus, you don't know the half of it.'
'And for you also,' Marathe said, 'excessive unbalance. For your father progresses downhill in this obsessing, but always so slowly that always you could question yourself, whether you were maybe yourself the one out of balance, attaching too much importance to any one thing-- a notebook, a posture. Crazy making.'

(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 63: 14 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: (view spoiler)[This chapter was short but very disturbing. We hear about Matty's dad raping him at age 10. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. (hide spoiler)]

Thank you for moving the topic, SarahKat!

I've got two other pretty chunky books to read this month so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish this one by the time April is over. I'm more than happy to keep the buddy read going past then if anyone else will also need more time :)

bailey wrote: "Thank you for moving the topic, SarahKat!

I've got two other pretty chunky books to read this month so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish this one by the time April is over. I'm more than happ..."

I'm still hoping to be done this week but I'll read comments and discuss as long as people are still talking!

I am however losing steam and I'm just trying to power through to the end of the book.

Through Chapter 70: 11 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment: (view spoiler)[Hal is sort of a sad character. I hope this book ends well for him. Him talking to his brother sort of manically was a good section.

One of the brothers (Mario?) talking to Avril about being sad was interesting too. There are SO many different ways to tell if someone is "sad."

And the guy who had no legs who fell in love with a lady with a metal helmet because she has no skull? That was... weird. (hide spoiler)]

bailey wrote: "Thank you for moving the topic, SarahKat!

I've got two other pretty chunky books to read this month so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish this one by the time April is over. I'm more than happ..."

The first post says this is a 2 month read! It will definitely be April before I finish.

Cosmic wrote: "The first post says this is a 2 month read! It will definitely be April before I finish.
"

It is! I just wanted to finish within a month if I could. I'll still continue to participate in the thread though!

Well I am not sure that anyone could spoil this book for me. Meaning that if you could spoil it I wish you would go ahead and try. LOL

I have a hard time with the Chapters. It pisses me off that some of you have chapters and I don't. Anyway I am at 59%. And at 87% the book starts the footnotes...so I have 28% to go. That is nice. I have been reading the tennis scenes a little fast.

(view spoiler)[
I think I would like to write some notes about the tennis. One thing that is interesting is how they have tunnels built from the dorms to the school and then to the gym and courts. (If I am confused please let me know...but in general I see this.) And that reminded me of Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Did anyone else think of this reference. It has been a while since I have read this book.

I want to go back eventually and re-read the M*A*S*H scene. I think that was why I was recommended this book. I had found a code similar in The Catcher in the Rye. Meaning that the text had a double message in it.

I wonder how people are reading this book. I mean this must test our ability to read ...or construct meaning out of words. I imagine that just like there are writing styles there must be reading styles, or ways to "process" information that are unique.

I like the guy that would take books and black out all the words except the words that were important to him and then create a "book" from that. I am not trying to do this exactly but I feel that my highlights do look like this.

Chess
Circle are conventionnal or tactical. CIA/NSA reports that 64% of the civilian population of SOVWAR's MAMAs have been successfully relocated below ground in hardened shelters....Eschaton's game-master now posits -- but does not go so far as to actually assert -- that EndStat's game-theoretic Decisions Tree now dictates SPASEX response from AM-NAT......
...see an atavistic global nuclear-conflict game played by tanned and energetic little kids and so this might naturally expect to see fuzzless green warheads getting whacked indiscriminately skyward all over the place as everybody gets blackly drunk with thanatotic fury in the crisp November air-- these adults would more likely find an actual game of Eschaton strangely subdued, almost narcotized-looking. Your standard round of Eschaton moves at about the pace of chess between adepts. For these devotees become, on court, almost parodically adult ---"


59% in
"...Slice the court up into sections and chinks, then all of a sudden you see light through one of the chinks and you see he's been setting up the angle since the start of the point. It makes you think of chess."
The journalist blew her red nose.' "Chess on the run." '
"Nice term." (hide spoiler)]

Tennis

I just wanted to say something interesting about Tennis that you probably never thought of. In Lectures on Don Quixote, Vladimir Nabokov makes a case that Don Quixote wins more than he loses. He sets up this comparison on the bases of tennis.

So how you win in tennis is not the same as how you win base ball or football.

How is this like chess more, than say other sports like Basketball? Or Football?

Also has anyone noticed the time?

(view spoiler)[
The time is Greenwich Mean Time. Any thoughts on this? (hide spoiler)]

Has anyone lived or visited Boston?

Cosmic wrote: "I have a hard time with the Chapters. It pisses me off that some of you have chapters and I don't. Anyway I am at 59%. And at 87% the book starts the footnotes...so I have 28% to go. That is nice. I have been reading the tennis scenes a little fast...."

I don't have chapters either. I've been using the link bailey provided near the beginning. Sometimes I read too much at once and don't really highlight anything so I look through the summaries on there to remind myself what happened and label my thoughts that way (not knowing where they actually sit percentage-wise in the book).

Cosmic wrote: "I wonder how people are reading this book. I mean this must test our ability to read ...or construct meaning out of words. I imagine that just like there are writing styles there must be reading styles, or ways to "process" information that are unique..."

This is an interesting question. I talk to my husband about this sometimes because I usually see pictures in my head play out like a movie. Sometimes so vividly that when thinking about a scene later I try to figure out what movie it's from until I realize it was actually from a book. He does not "see" things when he reads. He also doesn't have an inner monologue or think in words like I do. I think those differences are incredibly interesting. The parts of this book that stick with me the most are the ones that are easiest to visualize.

Cosmic wrote: "How is this like chess more, than say other sports like Basketball? Or Football?"

I haven't read the book you mentioned but I'm guessing the biggest difference in most sports is that your goal is to get the ball to a destination (basket, yard line, hole) but in tennis the goal is to keep the ball in motion and try to get your opponent to fail at this. Chess is similar in that the goal is for your opponent to lose, rather than for you to win. Or something.

Cosmic wrote: "Also has anyone noticed the time?"

(view spoiler)[Is it everywhere? When Don Gately locks up the Ennet House it's local time because he says the street parking switches over at exactly 00:00. (hide spoiler)]

Cosmic wrote: "Has anyone lived or visited Boston?"

Nope. Never been that far east.

SarahKat wrote: "...time."

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]00:00 is still GMT time.


I think it is what the military use.

SarahKat wrote: "chess...."

That is very good. Plus the court is a board and your attention is drawn where the action is. It is hard to see the whole board at the same time. Your move is predicated on your opponents last move. You must remain flexible and in the moment.

74% in
Pinkie violin

(view spoiler)[
Playing the theme song from
The Sorrow and The Pity�� Official Trailer


Book:film


Nice to see it is from the Boston Public Library.

Maybe you can hear the song here better?

(hide spoiler)]

Cosmic wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "...time."

"

Ah I thought you meant that they had all adopted GMT, as in like... they would say it's 5am all over the world when it's 5am in Greenwich. Yes I did notice they use the 24-hour or military clock

Ok i have finished the book. Honestly didn't think I would be the one that would finish this in a month. Writing a review helped me make more connections. I hope that that encourages you to write a review!

/review/show...

I finished last night too! I am traveling this weekend though and won't have time to write a review for a few days.

Great review, Cosmic!

If you really want to add more pain to your reading of Infinite Jest, do what I did and read Mao's Great Famine: The History Of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62, in the same month!

I have finished the book and I keep having different thoughts about it come up...so I am just going to put maybe a word and spoiler. Enter at your own risk. LOL

Infinite
(view spoiler)[

I was looking up Commonplace book tonight because I like journaling and realize that I like to collect quotes and ideas a lot. So this one youtuber was talking about a book called Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Super Infinite? Did she borrow this from Infinite Jest or is having an encyclopedia of information the common factor? Or is this just a coincidence?

for reference if you are interested.
(hide spoiler)]

My notes on the timeline so far: (not sure if this is a spoiler since it's just the years we are aware of up to around the 14% mark)

*I've used a number line format since we don't know what year the story takes place in in B.S. years.*

-1: Year of the Whopper
0: Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
1: Year of the Trial-Sized Dove Bar
2: Year of the Perdue Wonder Chicken
3:
4: Year of Yushitya
5:
6: Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
7: Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
8: Year of Glad

bailey wrote: "My notes on the timeline so far: (not sure if this is a spoiler since it's just the years we are aware of up to around the 14% mark)

*I've used a number line format since we don't know what year t..."

I told my husband that I really didn't understand the tittle...like 7: Year of The Depends Adult Undergarment
(view spoiler)[
He said, what a load of crap! I said I think your right! (hide spoiler)]

I honestly don't have a lot of deep meaningful thoughts on this. Especially days after finishing.

(view spoiler)[Don Gately's POV was my favorite. It made the most sense more often than other storylines. It was also very sad. The way he grew up, his job at the Ennet House, getting shot, and then getting narcotics in the hospital against his will.

Everyone in this was pretty sad though... (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "I honestly don't have a lot of deep meaningful thoughts on this. Especially days after finishing.

Don Gately's POV was my favorite. It made the most sense more often than other storylines. It was ..."

I thought of a lot of connections that I would like to explore if I have a hundred years!

(view spoiler)[
Maybe all the chemical diagrams of each one of the drugs. Were they all based on carbon? What were they based on? The history of the pharmacudical companies. How does this compare to India amd the East India Company and China and the opium wars?

How is alchemy a big part of this story?





What do all the products and companies have in common? All trade on the stock exchange?

Why is the cover of a blue sky with clouds? Is this the infinite jest!!

Telling people they need to invest in solar while making the sky hazy and not good to receive any solar?

I think that Gates story and even Hal's and Mario's story was moving. (hide spoiler)]

I apologize for not being able to read this in April. Just too much real-life things requiring my time last month! I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll get to it at some point in the future!

I was also unable to finish in April. Going to keep reading in my own time though :)