7 ms·

The first time I read Infinite Jest I was expecting something as inaccessible as Ulysses or Gravity’s Rainbow but ended up finding the book pretty readable and

The first time I read Infinite Jest I was expecting something as inaccessible as Ulysses or Gravity’s Rainbow but ended up finding the book pretty readable and a total delight. And but so I would highly recommend it, just take the off-beat sci-fi setting at face value and skip the footnotes if you feel like you want to focus on the story. You can always return to those later.

boucher 4y ago
I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  You just need a second bookmark, and then you're good to go…
  - boucher 4y ago
    Yeah, or read it on a Kindle like I did and the jumping is pretty easy.
- jbmny 4y ago
  I've been roughly halfway through the book for years, so take this for what it's worth, but if they were actually footnotes I might have read them. Instead they are endnotes, meaning you have to pick up a solid pound of book and flip to the end each time you encounter one. And there are many. I just found that dehumanizing. Lol
  - JonathanMerklin 4y ago
    The endnotes are fundamental to the experience. There are some key plot points divulged or hinted at there first (and sometimes there exclusively, IIRC). Pemulis' funniest moments are back there. I still find my mind drifting to the description of Cage III: Free Show from J.O.I.'s filmography from time to time. If nothing else, I once read a comment somewhere online that noted that the constant back-and-forth from text to endnotes and back is physically analogous to a back-and-forth in a tennis match. If thematic consistency in the third dimension was actually something DFW was going for, it's a shame you're only seeing half of the court.
  - numlocked 4y ago
    DFW said somewhere (I can't recall where) that he wanted the reader to have the physical experience of moving back and forth, and that the process of moving and flipping sort of echoed the jumping between the years of the chapters and story. Or something :) I found it annoying initially, but after I read that (when I was maybe 1/3 through), I did come to appreciate it a bit more. Maybe I'm just impressionable.
  - nemo44x 4y ago
    Cut the book in half, literally. Or even just cut the footnotes out and make them a separate book.
- rintakumpu 4y ago
  I was so immersed in the book on my first read-through I ended up skipping the footnotes because I found jumping between them and the main text a bit jarring. At that point I was certain I’d read this one again so it was also fun to have something saved up for later!
havblue 4y ago
I think it helps to read summaries or explanations of infinite Jest and not just dig into it. Eventually you get a good mental picture of the entire timeline, the rough details of how the dystopia works and how the story is told in a loop.
rockostrich 4y ago
Yea, I don't really get the take that it's inaccessible. The footnotes are sometimes annoying, but usually they're hilarious. I haven't read it in ~10 years but I think it's even more relevant, poignant, and hilarious today as it was then since we're just seeing more and more of his predictions about consumerism and self-image come to life.
- zerbin 4y ago
  I agree, quite accessible, despite its length. I personally would not recommend skipping the footnotes. Though they are a pain, they frequently add so much color and deeply-nested, parenthetical humor to the book. Occasionally you need to look up a word (which is always worth it, because he really knows how to pick the right word), occasionally you get bored in the middle of one of "those" chapters (likely an inevitability that you get some ups and some downs in a 1,000+ page book). But I totally agree that it just gets more and more relevant and poignant. And completely hilarious. I think that part of the book (and his writing in general0 is undersold. Some of the passages are amusing because of their literary references and wordplay, some are laugh-out-loud funny, the type of stuff that you'll have to read back to someone else immediately because of the extreme mirth you just experienced reading it.
  - numlocked 4y ago
    As Dave Eggers says in his introduction to the 2006 version of the book: > A Wallace reader gets the impression of being in a room with a very talkative and brilliant uncle or cousin who, just when he's about to push it too far, to try our patience with too much detail, has the good sense to throw in a good lowbrow joke.
    - gizajob 4y ago
      Gotta love the diddle checks
- rintakumpu 4y ago
  Entertainment, addiction, corporate-sponsored years and tennis. It’s still pretty relevant!
jrm4 4y ago
Okay, I want to discuss a major thing in the book, but it's really spoilery. I don't know if hacker news has a thing for that? I'll ROT-13 it and if anyone wants to respond please do. Again, you shouldn't try to read this if you haven't read the book and dont want to be spoiled: V'ir arire frra guvf zragvbarq naljurer -- ohg vg frrzf gb zr gung gur npghny vasvavgr wrfg va gur obbx, nxn gur ivqrb gung ulcabgvmrf rirelbar, vf rffragvnyyl whfg na nfze ivqrb naq qsj unq uvf svatre ba gur pbaprcg orsber nfze orpnzr n guvat?
- frostburg 4y ago
  Vg'f infgyl zber cbjreshy guna gung, ng yrnfg nccneragyl, ohg bar pbhyq frr n cnenyyry. Vs V erzrzore pbeerpgyl vg qbrfa'g "jbex" ba crbcyr gung xarj Wbryyr crefbanyyl naq vg unf fbzr xvaq bs pbaarpgvba gb gur zlfgrevbhf qeht QZM, gbb.
  - jrm4 4y ago
    Bs pbhefr. Ohg V'ir whfg orra fgehpx ol ubj 'nfze' qvqa'g ernyyl rkvfg nf n guvat ng gur gvzr naq V guvax vs gur obbx unq pbzr bhg gbqnl vg jbhyq or boivbhf gung guvf vf jung vg jnf irel zhpu yvxr vs abg vqragvpny gb, naq ntnva -- fb sne V yvgrenyyl unir frra ab bar znxr gung pbaarpgvba. V whfg svaq gung cneg ernyyl fgenatr.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  Vg'f GvxGbx.
nemo44x 4y ago
I found Gravity's Rainbow more accessible and maybe that's because Infinite Jest was clearly inspired by it. They're both very similar in that you just have to power through the first 150-200 pages and then somehow everything starts making sense.
npilk 4y ago
That’s fair. I ended up sort of skimming through it the first time reading the parts I could connect with and then picked up more of the detail (and the end notes) on later re-readings. For The Pale King, I was able to read it in depth from the jump. But that may also be because I was more mature and had read DFW before…
syndacks 4y ago
Infinite Jest reads like See Spot Run compared to Gravity’s Rainbow.
dizhn 4y ago
"And but so" If you write like this yourself it's no wonder you'd find it readable. Or in other words I see what you did there.

boucher 4y ago

I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.

iggldiggl 4y ago
You just need a second bookmark, and then you're good to go…
- boucher 4y ago
  Yeah, or read it on a Kindle like I did and the jumping is pretty easy.
jbmny 4y ago
I've been roughly halfway through the book for years, so take this for what it's worth, but if they were actually footnotes I might have read them. Instead they are endnotes, meaning you have to pick up a solid pound of book and flip to the end each time you encounter one. And there are many. I just found that dehumanizing. Lol
- JonathanMerklin 4y ago
  The endnotes are fundamental to the experience. There are some key plot points divulged or hinted at there first (and sometimes there exclusively, IIRC). Pemulis' funniest moments are back there. I still find my mind drifting to the description of Cage III: Free Show from J.O.I.'s filmography from time to time. If nothing else, I once read a comment somewhere online that noted that the constant back-and-forth from text to endnotes and back is physically analogous to a back-and-forth in a tennis match. If thematic consistency in the third dimension was actually something DFW was going for, it's a shame you're only seeing half of the court.
- numlocked 4y ago
  DFW said somewhere (I can't recall where) that he wanted the reader to have the physical experience of moving back and forth, and that the process of moving and flipping sort of echoed the jumping between the years of the chapters and story. Or something :) I found it annoying initially, but after I read that (when I was maybe 1/3 through), I did come to appreciate it a bit more. Maybe I'm just impressionable.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  Cut the book in half, literally. Or even just cut the footnotes out and make them a separate book.
rintakumpu 4y ago
I was so immersed in the book on my first read-through I ended up skipping the footnotes because I found jumping between them and the main text a bit jarring. At that point I was certain I’d read this one again so it was also fun to have something saved up for later!

havblue 4y ago

I think it helps to read summaries or explanations of infinite Jest and not just dig into it. Eventually you get a good mental picture of the entire timeline, the rough details of how the dystopia works and how the story is told in a loop.

rockostrich 4y ago

Yea, I don't really get the take that it's inaccessible. The footnotes are sometimes annoying, but usually they're hilarious. I haven't read it in ~10 years but I think it's even more relevant, poignant, and hilarious today as it was then since we're just seeing more and more of his predictions about consumerism and self-image come to life.

zerbin 4y ago
I agree, quite accessible, despite its length. I personally would not recommend skipping the footnotes. Though they are a pain, they frequently add so much color and deeply-nested, parenthetical humor to the book. Occasionally you need to look up a word (which is always worth it, because he really knows how to pick the right word), occasionally you get bored in the middle of one of "those" chapters (likely an inevitability that you get some ups and some downs in a 1,000+ page book). But I totally agree that it just gets more and more relevant and poignant. And completely hilarious. I think that part of the book (and his writing in general0 is undersold. Some of the passages are amusing because of their literary references and wordplay, some are laugh-out-loud funny, the type of stuff that you'll have to read back to someone else immediately because of the extreme mirth you just experienced reading it.
- numlocked 4y ago
  As Dave Eggers says in his introduction to the 2006 version of the book: > A Wallace reader gets the impression of being in a room with a very talkative and brilliant uncle or cousin who, just when he's about to push it too far, to try our patience with too much detail, has the good sense to throw in a good lowbrow joke.
  - gizajob 4y ago
    Gotta love the diddle checks
rintakumpu 4y ago
Entertainment, addiction, corporate-sponsored years and tennis. It’s still pretty relevant!

jrm4 4y ago

Okay, I want to discuss a major thing in the book, but it's really spoilery. I don't know if hacker news has a thing for that? I'll ROT-13 it and if anyone wants to respond please do. Again, you shouldn't try to read this if you haven't read the book and dont want to be spoiled: V'ir arire frra guvf zragvbarq naljurer -- ohg vg frrzf gb zr gung gur npghny vasvavgr wrfg va gur obbx, nxn gur ivqrb gung ulcabgvmrf rirelbar, vf rffragvnyyl whfg na nfze ivqrb naq qsj unq uvf svatre ba gur pbaprcg orsber nfze orpnzr n guvat?

frostburg 4y ago
Vg'f infgyl zber cbjreshy guna gung, ng yrnfg nccneragyl, ohg bar pbhyq frr n cnenyyry. Vs V erzrzore pbeerpgyl vg qbrfa'g "jbex" ba crbcyr gung xarj Wbryyr crefbanyyl naq vg unf fbzr xvaq bs pbaarpgvba gb gur zlfgrevbhf qeht QZM, gbb.
- jrm4 4y ago
  Bs pbhefr. Ohg V'ir whfg orra fgehpx ol ubj 'nfze' qvqa'g ernyyl rkvfg nf n guvat ng gur gvzr naq V guvax vs gur obbx unq pbzr bhg gbqnl vg jbhyq or boivbhf gung guvf vf jung vg jnf irel zhpu yvxr vs abg vqragvpny gb, naq ntnva -- fb sne V yvgrenyyl unir frra ab bar znxr gung pbaarpgvba. V whfg svaq gung cneg ernyyl fgenatr.
nemo44x 4y ago
Vg'f GvxGbx.

nemo44x 4y ago

I found Gravity's Rainbow more accessible and maybe that's because Infinite Jest was clearly inspired by it. They're both very similar in that you just have to power through the first 150-200 pages and then somehow everything starts making sense.

npilk 4y ago

That’s fair. I ended up sort of skimming through it the first time reading the parts I could connect with and then picked up more of the detail (and the end notes) on later re-readings. For The Pale King, I was able to read it in depth from the jump. But that may also be because I was more mature and had read DFW before…

syndacks 4y ago

Infinite Jest reads like See Spot Run compared to Gravity’s Rainbow.

dizhn 4y ago

"And but so" If you write like this yourself it's no wonder you'd find it readable. Or in other words I see what you did there.