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Agreed. 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 (a

Agreed. 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 ago
  It'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 ago
    ha, well put!
- sanderjd 1y ago
  I 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).
- filoleg 1y ago
  Realistically, I feel like most women (and men) have never even heard about IJ, even those who read books on a regular basis and would call themselves readers. The only crowds I know of where IJ has truly become a mainstream piece of knowledge are /lit/, some specific subreddits, some specific twitter circles, a bunch of edgy hipsters, and HN. I bet there are more of those, ofc, but imo IJ absolutely isn’t something most people would recognize or be able to appreciate those memes about it that you shared (which I actually think are funny and hit the mark well). Maybe I am just in the wrong circles irl, but I often enough get to hang out with people who read way more books than an average person (or me) does, and I am yet to encounter any who actually read IJ. And even those who are aware of it are relatively minor in numbers.

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 ago
It'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 ago
  ha, well put!
sanderjd 1y ago
I 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).
filoleg 1y ago
Realistically, I feel like most women (and men) have never even heard about IJ, even those who read books on a regular basis and would call themselves readers. The only crowds I know of where IJ has truly become a mainstream piece of knowledge are /lit/, some specific subreddits, some specific twitter circles, a bunch of edgy hipsters, and HN. I bet there are more of those, ofc, but imo IJ absolutely isn’t something most people would recognize or be able to appreciate those memes about it that you shared (which I actually think are funny and hit the mark well). Maybe I am just in the wrong circles irl, but I often enough get to hang out with people who read way more books than an average person (or me) does, and I am yet to encounter any who actually read IJ. And even those who are aware of it are relatively minor in numbers.