Infinite Jest; DFW

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Infinite Jest; DFW
Tweet Topic Started: Sep 15 2012, 03:28 PM (762 Views)
~~Nimbo-Bimbo lord of all noobs~~	Sep 15 2012, 03:28 PM Post #1
Posts: 2,687 Group: GTFO Member #6,954 Joined: November 6, 2011	Has anyone else read Infinite Jest or any of DFW's works? It's been 3 weeks since I finished it about, and I can say it's one of the best books I've ever read. It's huge, 1,079 pages in the edition I read. It's basically about tennis, addiction, and Quebec. For anyone who wants my synopsis (it may have slight spoilers, but nothing huge): It's kind of a parody of modern America. At the time of it's publishing, the story was 10 years into the future (arguably), which is about now, but it's not sci-fi or anything like that. Basically, in the IJ world, Mexico, USA, and Canada have all merged into one "Organization of North American Nations", or "O.N.A.N". Not only this, but the name of years themselves have been bought by companies, hence years named "Year of the Glad", "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment", "Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad", et cetera... Military time is used instead in this world (as in 0000 to 2400), and broadcast television does not exist anymore; it's replaced by "entertainment cartridges", which is basically like a physical Netflix. IE, you watch whatever you want by choosing the cartridge you want. It's more explained in the story. Most synopsises are kind of misleading since they usually place emphasis on the master copy of a film called "Infinite Jest" made by the eccentric film-maker James Orin Incandenza, who is dead by the main events of the story. It centers more around the Incandenza family (Hal, Orin, and Mario Incandenza, his sons, and Avril Incandenza, his wife) and their exploits at the Enfield Tennis Academy (except for Orin, who lives in another city I forget as of now). Avril is the headmistress of ETA. Hal is the #2 tennis player at ETA, 17 years old, and addicted to marijuana (bear w/ me here). Mario is deformed and doesn't play tennis, but lives in ETA (as Hal and Avril do), and is interested in film-making like J.O.I. About Infinite Jest, it's a movie so addicting that anyone who watches it won't do anything else but watch it, w/o food, drink, sleep, or moving to urinate or defecate, effectively killing anyone who watches it. The novel, besides following the Incandenza family, follows the "A.F.R" (Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents, or "Wheelchair Assassins"), a Quebecois terrorist group in their attempt to find the master copy of Infinite Jest so they can replicate it and distribute it. It also follows the U.S.O.U.S (a new CIA/FBI-esque branch of the US government, standing for United States Office of Unidentified Services) in their attempts to stomp the A.F.R and destroy remaining copies of Infinite Jest, and get the master copy themselves (to destroy or to use is made vague). And finally, the other equally important part of the story follows Don Gately, a live-in-staff member of the Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (redundancy sic), a halfway house for recovering addicts. It follows not only Gately in his own efforts to deal with addiction and recovery, but also what he does as he must be something of a counselor for the other addicts at Ennet House and also has to watch over them. As the story goes on, these three plots become intertwined in ways none of them quite know. It's non-chronological at parts, but Y.D.A.U in November-ish is the most prominent time of the story. Whew, that was my lengthy thingy-ma-bob. If you're thinking of checking it out, I'd say go for it. It's a challenging read, but really rewarding.



~~Nimbo-Bimbo lord of all noobs~~	Oct 31 2012, 02:47 PM Post #2
Posts: 2,687 Group: GTFO Member #6,954 Joined: November 6, 2011	Just going to bump this a lil'. Edited by Nimbo-Bimbo lord of all noobs, Oct 31 2012, 02:47 PM.



Sasuke	Nov 1 2012, 05:48 PM Post #3
Posts: 1,922 Group: Member Member #7,745 Joined: June 11, 2012	Sounds like a interesting book. If my library has it I'll give it a read. Not sure if I could read the whole thing though as I've never read that much.



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