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I look forward to the day another book makes me feel like IJ - even with the mathematical flaws :)
by FL33TW00D 1y ago
I look forward to the day another book makes me feel like IJ - even with the mathematical flaws :)
- lemonberry 1y agoHave you read "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon? If not, it's worth checking out.
- chamomeal 1y agoInherent Vice is such a fun whacky read too. I kinda wanted to read Gravity’s Rainbow but my friend (who also recommended Inherent Vice) said I probably wouldn’t have the patience for it lol. He’s usually right
- spondylosaurus 1y agoBleeding Edge is another fun, (relatively) short read if you want to go back for more Pynchon.
- lemonberry 1y agoInherent Vice was great too. Gravity's Rainbow took me a few times to get into but it was a wild ride. His early book "The Crying of Lot 49" was also really good.
- igor47 1y agoAs detective Blanc says in Glass Onion, "nobody has read" Gravity's Rainbow
- Boogie_Man 1y agoWhat race is Hal?
- dpig_ 1y agoNot sure, but his dad's got a microwave for a head.
- Boogie_Man 1y ago[flagged]
- dpig_ 1y agoI only read it once, in 2016. So the details are fuzzy. Hal's dad cooks his own head in the microwave, right? And Hal comments on how it smelled good or something?
- sanderjd 1y agoAgreed. It was really a revelation to me. Looking back now, it's clear that I started reading it as a status seeking thing. I thought my intellectual friends (and especially girlfriends) would think it was cool that I actually read the whole thing (which nobody else in our circle had actually managed yet). But then it turned out to really affect me deeply. I read it again about a decade later after all those games were over for me, just for myself, and loved it even more that time. For some people, it just really does hit a nerve!
- gowld 1y ago> I thought my intellectual friends (and especially girlfriends) would think it was cool that I actually read the whole thing Interesting though, considering the popular meme among women, that men think reading IJ makes them look smart. https://reductress.com/post/why-im-waiting-for-the-right-man-to-tell-me-to-read-infinite-jest/ https://reductress.com/post/why-im-waiting-for-the-right-man... https://www.reddit.com/r/davidfosterwallace/comments/evsylv/dear_men_please_stop_recommending_david_foster/ https://www.reddit.com/r/davidfosterwallace/comments/evsylv/...
- scyzoryk_xyz 1y agoIt's a Bildungsroman for the 90's Americana age. Whoever is reading it is eager to come of age, but is likely super obnoxious because they're not there yet. At least that's how I think of myself reading it at 25.
- sanderjd 1y agoha, well put!
- sanderjd 1y agoI hoped it was clear from my comment that this was a youthful indiscretion and should not be used as any indication that I was right about any of my motivations for this at the time :) Though I dunno, this was a long time ago, much closer to the publication date of the book (like a decade and a half before either of these articles were published), and I'm not sure this cynicism had quite taken off yet. Also, I'm a bit skeptical of the gender lens on this, at least at that time period. From reading these articles, I think the girls I was trying to impress were likely themselves "typical DFW asshole[s]" by the judgement of these authors. Men don't actually have a monopoly on "I am so smart" vanity (though I'd agree we seem more prone to it).
- 11101010001100 1y agoYes, once you read IJ, it is very hard to find another book like it. It is almost as if IJ refers to itself.
- jrm4 1y agoHouse of Leaves, perhaps?
- timonofathens 1y ago[dead]
- slimeinthe21stc 1y agoPale Fire