I finished this yesterday. Obviously I have nobody to talk to about it IRL.
Was the wraith JOI?
I didn't get half the plot points I read about online after I finished it. Am I retarded?
I normally don't mind non-resolution type endings, but a book this long should be satisfying on the first read
Did Orin dig up the master? How did the master still work if JOI microwaved his head a.k.a. it exploded?
What's a good starting tennis racket?
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What and where is the ending implied
depends what you mean by ending. The beginning is technically the ending, chronologically, but I guess Gately digging up JOI with Hal and Joelle seemed to be the conclusive moment
When how and why do they meet together
Read it literally over 20 years ago so don't remember most of it but iI'll try to answer
>Was the wraith JOI?
You would have benefited from reading Hamlet. Yes the ghost is Hal's father.
>I didn't get half the plot points I read about online after I finished it. Am I retarded?
No, this is common. Unless you're an astute reader, you'll likely miss some points.
>I normally don't mind non-resolution type endings, but a book this long should be satisfying on the first read
Re-read the first few chapters, there's your ending. Also a big theme of this book (and postmodern literature in general) is lack of closure - there are many story fragments that have zero relation to the main plot, they're simply there to give (I think) the feeling that you're just peering into a period of time as an observer and you only get limited information, not as some omniscient entity. That's just my interpretation anyway.
>Did Orin dig up the master? How did the master still work if JOI microwaved his head a.k.a. it exploded?
aaronsw.com
That I am not completely sure of.
A posh student ended up at Ennet House at some point, but he was unnamed in the chapter, although I am pretty confident it was Hal. He could've met Gately or Joelle there. Either him or Joelle would have recognised the other for sure.
Or Hal ends up in the hospital room next to gately.
Otherwise this is one of the main things I think I completely missed.
>orin digs up JOI's grave
>JOI's ghost comes out
>the ghost starts dicking around at the tennis academy
>somehow gets hal to take DMZ
>hal ends up in hospital
>gately ends up at the hospital after getting shot
>joelle goes to visit gately
>sees hal (remember joelle used to date orin)
that's how the three end up together.
my personal theory is that Avril is behind the whole thing.
Look for a summary of the plot of this book. The ones I've found are so long they'd be considered book-length in their own right.
>should be satisfying
op you ungrateful fuck. you're -possibly- retarded. its hard to tell because you're obviously in your early 20s maybe younger.
FFS
>a book this long should be something something
i knew that book was special since the start when hes tripping about the bug on the shelf. you are tripping about the ending while the rest of the book is outstanding
Yeah to be fair I assumed it was JOI before he started mentioning his son/the entertainment because I remembered the story is essentially hamlet.
I just re-read the beginning and understand a lot better now. although that link is kind of infuriating because I think the author used a different edition of the book to me so the page numbers aren't right
This is pretty much what I got.
Overall I enjoyed the book, although I find it funny that DFW called himself a realist when a ghost is of the main plot devices of his book.
okay
the wraith thing really threw me off because I wasn't sure if it was a metaphor, or some kind of dream alluding to Hamlet's father's apparition, or the characters just coming up with supernatural explanations for weird events that happened
but no, it was an actual ghost lmao
>but no, it was an actual ghost lmao
I liked the wraith scene a lot but it half-ruins the book for me, because I love the writing style as this realistic maximalism that took everything in and engaged with the real world... but the ghost is real
This is pretty helpful.
thanks
I went on here but I still don't really see the answer to my microwave question.
>Was the wraith JOI?
Yes.
>I didn't get half the plot points I read about online after I finished it. Am I retarded?
No. It can be difficult to follow all the different subplots and characters and the climax is essentially inferred.
>I normally don't mind non-resolution type endings, but a book this long should be satisfying on the first read
It was satisfying to me once I understood t all. But I totally get that sentiment.
>Did Orin dig up the master? How did the master still work if JOI microwaved his head a.k.a. it exploded?
IIRC yes he did before Hal and Gately got to it. It was put in his head (or what remained) afterwords. By his special request.
>What's a good starting tennis racket?
Now this I do not know!
It really is an incredible work of fiction. I recommend reading it again someday now that you get the gist of it.
Cross it off the list and move on to one of other big four.
I recommend Gravity's Rainbow after IJ
>It was put in his head (or what remained) afterwords. By his special request.
Ah I see. I definitely want to read it again at some point, even just for the great prose alone.
I've got gravity's rainbow up next, but I am going to read some shorter books in between. Got some Hemingway and Dostoevsky (Notes) lined up.
I don’t understand how it’s implied the AFR toppled the ONAN. In the first chapter it’s implied the ONAN is still functioning, though Hal hears an “ultra-mach fighter” overhead. To me that just implies war. Am I missing something?
It's assumed AFR overthrew ONAN because the Year of Glad was the last subsidized year
>look mom I posted it again
>No war and peace
>le critique
no matter how many times you post this, it will never happen. it won't. it never will. even if you post it every day for the next 100 years it won't happen.
>year of glad was the last subsidized year
where does it say that?
Footnote 114
>Footnote 114
cheers
still though, footnotes 78 & 114 state that it was a "ratification of final contract between G.F.R Co." and basically Unspecified Services. It was changed December 15th YDAU which fits into the timeline of events, and GFR could be a cover-up for AFR, but even in the first chapter they mention ONAN and Hal hears a fighter plane. I feel like I'm lacking a piece of info that would completely convince me that the AFR dissolves ONAN