REDDIT TALKS IJ

ANHEDONIA.
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I thought the quote was profound too, but seeing it on Reddit makes me think of the quote right after.

goodreads.com/quotes/172107-it-s-of-some-interest-that-the-lively-arts-of-the

Damn, if that quote follows the OP one then that's just a really solid page or two from that book.

>I imagine the guy sitting there, fancying himself some kind of intellectual for "having the intellectual capacity to understand" such super deep hidden gems as Infinite Jest
Welcome to Veeky Forums.org/lit

The quotes before are even better.

>tfw people start posting my pictures

a-am i becoming a meme?

No shit, Wallace can be a genuinely good writer and stylist when he wants to be. Even the quote in the OP is very well written stylistically.

The hilarious part of IJ's reception on Veeky Forums is:

1. we only talk about it so much (along with Ulysses and GR) because people call them memes and make fun of them constantly, leading curious people to read them, and thus make threads about how they actually liked it or didn't: "Wtf? this makes no sense why the fuck do you guys like this fuck this board" etc, leading to an infinite loop where people get angrier at these threads and make fun of them, along with trolls/spamming like these 2.) He's actually a talented writer, he just purposely made the book a huge shaggy-dog story with fractal-type shaggy-dog stories within it for some deep mumbojumbo type of message about how we're all addicted to entertainment and also to force the reader to work hard for the book, causing people to get mad and call him gimmicky 'cuz fuck working that hard for a book

3.) ??? I dunno, it's still funny how obsessed this board is with IJ and also GR and Ulysses, it probably wouldn't be so bad if people didn't make fun of them constantly, negative attention is still attention. Why not just as well make fun of Mason and Dixon or Finnegans Wake or McElroy's Women and Men or The Recognitions etc? Why?

>linking reddit
Fuck off.

>mad
>at websites

>negative attention is still attention.

Spam doesn't benefit it much t b h. It's already famous enough so that people don't have to advertise it in order to gain an audience.

If people spammed The Recognitions in that way, at least one idiot would eventually decide to read it and then make some comment about "wtf this book is pretentious and impossible to read fuck you guys", or "damn this book is actually good why do you guys call it a meme" leading to a Recognitions shitstorm.

Anyway, you may be right, I dunno. We actually go through a Recognitions shitstorm periodically, just not as much and as consistently as IJ.

There was a week or two sometime ago where people were talking about Underworld and The Recognitions and I decided to read and have since finished Underworld and will tackle Gaddis some time soon.

Good has come from the shitposting, don't you fret :)

Someone link this thread to Reddit so they can talk about us.

Lurk more newfag.

don't trigger the alcohols pls

>mad
>at time

I like where ths is going..

You're just a chink avatar fab

Dude..WHAT AGE ARE YOU IN

>mad
>at memes
(the original)

Hello Veeky Forums,

I see a lot of people interested in Infinite Jest here. Some people are eager to jump in, others are intimidated. I've read the book about eleven times, so I just want say a few words and address people who are thinking about reading it or are just beginning.

Before you embark on your journey into the mind of a genius, you have to understand a few things that are very important. When we talk about David Foster Wallace, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. We can’t measure it. When it comes to Wallace-tier geniuses, the standard tests simply don’t apply. You see, Wallace could have entered any field he wanted. He was a real-life Will Hunting. He could’ve been a doctor or a lawyer, or both, if he wanted. He could’ve been a pioneer in physics. He could’ve been a codebreaker for the NSA. But no. He decided to be a writer. He decided to devote his life to aesthetic beauty and to illuminating for us the way to live. That was the beauty and the tragedy of his life. In one way, it’s a blessing to have been born in Wallace’s time, to be able to hear his voice in interviews, to hear him delivering his famous commencement speech, which is already transforming people both intellectually and spiritually. On the other hand, I will surely die before we know even half of the secrets buried within the labyrinth of Infinite Jest. That I consider a curse.

It’s been eighteen years since Infinite Jest was published and scholars have only begun to come to terms with its full implications. This is what you must understand. Wallace reverse-engineered not only the novel, but all of Western literature as well as language itself. Packed within Infinite Jest is Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, and everything else. Hell, it even serves as an overview of human history, from dawn to today. It’s a book you could spend a lifetime studying. A lifetime spent in bliss, no doubt. It would be more worthwhile to spend one’s life reading and rereading Infinite Jest than to achieve being “well-read” in the traditional sense.

You must understand that, on your first time through, you will not understand everything Wallace is trying to communicate to you. Don’t worry. He knew things about life that we won’t discover for decades. Your job is merely to get on the road. In the decades to come, we may, if we’re lucky, discover scientific applications for the new ways of thinking Wallace gave us. We may have to throw out science altogether. We simply don’t know. For now, we have to be content with our vanguard roles. We are the ones who will break the ground and loosen the soil for Wallace’s future interpreters. This is not only our pleasure, but our duty. And for that, as Wallace famously said, "I wish you way more than luck."

What does this mean?

>lol guys isn't reddit really shit
>check out this link i found on reddit
>no i wasn't browsing reddit why would i do that i hate reddit
>lol reddit is gay

copypasta attempt? I do agree though, did you know if you take the third letter of every characters name who appears 3 in every 3rd scene then you get dlamrma, which is of course amrmald backwards, which in Middle ( I.E Shakespearean) English meant nothing.

i dont ever want to read his shit

Ah man that's a really good post. Thanks for that.

>copypasta attempt?

Don't let the internet destroy your brain son.

>When we talk about David Foster Wallace, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. We can’t measure it.

>that subtlety

posts like this are the only reason I keep going on Veeky Forums

...

>lol guys isn't reddit really shit
>no i wasn't browsing reddit why would i do that i hate reddit
>lol reddit is gay
where did i say this?

why are you linking to reddit threads if you don't like reddit? how did you even come across this discussion in the first place?

where did i say i don't like reddit?

we both know you don't like it. don't pretend that you didn't link the thread because you found the discussion to be typical reddit cringe.

i browse reddit all the time man, it's great

youtu.be/oYj7q_by_2E?t=4m18s

lel well done

You try lifting that book on a diet of 500 calories and heroin.

Holy Shit
dailydot.com/unclick/redditor-infinite-jest/

How do you make a link that starts at a specific point? :O

lmao

A man walks into a bar and says, "David Foster Wallace was not the greatest writer who ever lived."

>:O
Are you awaiting a penis?
Pause the video at any point, click "share" at the bottom, beneath the url it provides is a check box to have it start at a certain spot.

DAE impossible? :^)

Do you consider The Pale King to be literature, even if it is unfinished?

how about a little life?

...

lol that guys looks like a raging pretentious homo

Infinite jest is incredibly reddit so its no sort of bizarre mystery that theyre talking about it

You're cancer. You have a strict and superficial materialist understanding of the world, but believe there is "stuff to be learned" from spiritual viewpoints, as long as you don't take things literally. You're easy to get along with in general but not really idealistic, and all of your philosophical knowledge and interest is geared towards pragmatism; towards how to get along in the world. You think the only real absolute truths are scientific ones, which you regard as mostly settled, but you're very fond of the word "subjective" in other contexts; when you can't insert some ridiculous semi-scientific explanation into the matter like evo-psych, which you love doing. You have faith in the institutions of society and regard as ridiculous and suspicious people who complain overly much about them. If someone challenges you, you tend to ignore them or deflect good-naturedly, even if they have a point. You're disinterested in discussions of "truth" because you know that outside of material truth, there is no such thing. You're incapable of recognizing when your own positions are built on a kind of faith, and you're prone to superficial reductions of everything. You're doing well for yourself and are generally regarded as a happy person.

kek

Okie dokie

Never forget. DFWfags on suicide watch.

reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3shfd1/was_david_foster_wallace_the_greatest_writer_to/

the whole thread

>DOOD IT GETS BETTER BRAH XD

No it doesn't.

t. 35 years with severe treatment resistant depression

>Still using "XD" to ridicule
that might be your problem

Go away normiefaggot. The thread is filled to the brim with useless platitudes that are utterly meaningless.

At first I found myself laughing along with this quite frankly wonderful bait, then it brought on an acute- existential crisis

Nice shitpost

>I do agree though, did you know if you take the third letter of every characters name who appears 3 in every 3rd scene then you get dlamrma, which is of course amrmald backwards, which in Middle ( I.E Shakespearean) English meant nothing.
kek

FUCK OFF
GOD DAMN IT
THIS BOOK FUCKING SUCKS
SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY

That's what happens when you self-post pictures of yourself on the internet, Michael Nguyen.

I am Michael Nguyen :^)

I love this board. One guy argues that another guy likes Reddit and then turns his point around completely when the other user agrees with him so that it can continue to be an argument.

Well I mean
at least they actually talk about books

You're a fucking dork, Michael.

interesting

>It's the same fear that your grandfather faced in the camps in Germany.

I could do it.

Well I mean
you could always just starts browsing reddit then, if you legitimately think it's better than Veeky Forums

>reading about The Broom and the System on the internet
>stumble into a reddit thread
>''J.K. Rowling also grows a lot as a writer specially her prose''

D R O P P E D
R
O
P
P
E
D

Why did he eat the mold?

>Veeky Forums shitposts DFW constantly
>sucks the dick off sincerity
>bunch of idiots sincerely share their thoughts about DFW
>cool kids on Veeky Forums lose their sunglasses

out-sincered by reddit, congratulations

Infinite Jest is a fucking meme user, that is it, just as your greentext mockery is.

Why haven't we fucked with r/books yet?

Psssh… Nothin Personnel… Kid…

>dailydot.com/unclick/redditor-infinite-jest/
id like to think its Pynchon behind that troll account

does the old Pynch-meister post here, that card?

we r lejun

CHING CHANG BING BANG BONG

There's enough to say, without being racist to the cute twink!

Whoops

I'm not a god damn twink. I'm a str8 boi OK?

Being straight has nothing to do with being a twink, it's just a physical description created by gay people.

>inb4 Waldine be cly

>I am handsome, smart, athletic and virile.

*slow claps*
*steps out of the shadows*
Heh... not bad, kid. Not bad at all. Your meme, I mean. It's not bad. A good first attempt. It's plenty dank... I can tell it's got some thought behind it... lots of quotable material...
But memeing isn't all sunshine and rainbows, kid. You're skilled... that much I can tell. But do you have what it takes to be a Memester? To join those esteemed meme ranks? To call yourself a member of the Ruseman's Corps? Memeing takes talent, that much is true. But more than that it takes heart. The world-class Memesters - I mean the big guys, like Johnny Hammersticks and Billy Kuahana - they're out there day and night, burning the midnight meme-oil, working tirelessly to craft that next big meme.
And you know what, kid? 99 times out of a hundred, that new meme fails. Someone dismisses it as bait, or says it's "tryhard," or ignores it as they copy/paste the latest shitpost copypasta dreamt up by those sorry excuses for cut-rate memers over at reddit. The Meme Game is rough, kid, and I don't just mean the one you just lost :^). It's a rough business, and for every artisan meme you craft in your meme bakery, some cocksucker at 9gag has a picture of a duck or some shit that a million different Johnny No-Names will attach a milion different captions to. Chin up, kid. Don't get all mopey on me. You've got skill. You've got talent. You just need to show your drive.
See you on the boards...

>The gimmick didn't die in this thread. Ever since this auspicious debut, jeremy1122 has only ever used his Reddit account to wax pretentious about Wallace and his body of work, regularly provoking even more pretentious replies from other readers (the Joseph McElroy name-check above is a prime example).

>Eventually, he comes to expose the weird insulation and monomania of reading itself—a motif worthy of a Jorge Luis Borges or Enrique Vila-Matas.

Daily Dot is so fucking unaware