Let's settle it once and for all. Is it genius, garbage or something else entirely?

That's for you to decide for yourself.

It's bad

The book is really, really fucking good.

In my opinion.

But of course you'll find plenty of dissenting opinions here and elsewhere, ranging from mild indifference to outright hatred and vitriol.

Some of it comes from simple contrarians who just like to hate anything perceived as popular/good; some of it comes from people who simply didn't 'connect' or 'get it', most likely due to not sharing enough life experiences in common to identify with any of the characters or thematic elements or some other personal reason; aesthetic tastes; you'll also see quite a bit of dismissals coming from ppl who work in bookstores who've seen one too many pseudo-intellectual try-hard college kids buy a copy to conspicuously read around campus; or ppl posting on online lit forums who didn't actually read the enough of the book to form a legitimate perspective on it (maybe read like 100 pages before giving up) and then just jumped on the 'DFW-bros are stupid' meme-train.

Also I've seen some tumblrina blogs who hate it simply because they can't separate the art from the artist and focus on examples from DFW's biography of him being an asshole irl and being outraged that he's not the pure saint dispensing valuable wisdom that some media outlets make him out to be and thus the work has no merit.

Look, the only opinion that's really going to matter is your own. If you're young/immature, I doubt you'll like it very much, and also doubt that you'd have the attention span to get very far into it.

But if you're in your mid-20's-to-mid-30's, connect with the narrative and find a lot of capital T Truth in his prose, then you'll love the book and see why it's so highly regarded by so many people.

The book is really, really fucking good.

In my opinion.

But of course you'll find plenty of dissenting opinions here and elsewhere, ranging from mild indifference to outright hatred and vitriol.

Some of it comes from simple contrarians who just like to hate anything perceived as popular/good; some of it comes from people who simply didn't 'connect' or 'get it', most likely due to not sharing enough life experiences in common to identify with any of the characters or thematic elements or some other personal reason; aesthetic tastes; you'll also see quite a bit of dismissals coming from ppl who work in bookstores who've seen one too many pseudo-intellectual try-hard college kids buy a copy to conspicuously read around campus; or ppl posting on online lit forums who didn't actually read the enough of the book to form a legitimate perspective on it (maybe read like 100 pages before giving up) and then just jumped on the 'DFW-bros are stupid' meme-train.

Also I've seen some tumblrina blogs who hate it simply because they can't separate the art from the artist and focus on examples from DFW's biography of him being an asshole irl and being outraged that he's not the pure saint dispensing valuable wisdom that some media outlets make him out to be and thus the work has no merit.

Look, the only opinion that's really going to matter is your own. If you're young/immature, I doubt you'll like it very much, and also doubt that you'd have the attention span to get very far into it.

But if you're in your mid-20's-to-mid-30's, connect with the narrative and find a lot of capital T Truth in his prose, then you'll love the book and see why it's so highly regarded by so many people.

>listening to Veeky Forums
its already bad

>"This isn't working out. It strikes me that EXIT signs would look to a native speaker of Latin like red-lit signs that say HE LEAVES."

The book does little to bring the reader in. While most great books begin to feel like a conversation in which the writer attempts to reach its hand out to the reader and guide him along, Dave Wallace instead chooses to run as fast as he possibly can, only once in a while looking back to see if the reader is close. Ultimately, what makes the book so interesting is that it somehow remains fun to read. While there's a general disconnect between Wallace and the reader, the reader can't help but gaze wide-eyed at the magnificent Dave masturbating onto the page. In that way, Wallace himself is a genius -- though, the book is not.

"turgid-sounding shit"

>>>/dfw/

i know im gonna come across as a dick for saying this but this sounds like the opinion of a younger reader lacking in some of the per-requisite knowledge that makes IJ so enjoyable for the more experienced reader.

I'm srsly not trying to belittle you here, but based on your opinion am I accurate in guessing that you're probably no older than like 21-22? at that age, i guess some sections of IJ will resonate with you and be amusing, but i'd imagine that a whole lot of it really isn't going to make much sense or seem to fit together thematically in a well-crafted and intentional structure (unless you were as precocious as Hal was as a teenager).

like some of the things i think help in 'getting' IJ and i doubt most ppl really get into until a little later in young adult-hood:
having read and understanding most of the 'literary canon' (speaking from a modern Western academic perspective); understanding American culture of the late 20th century; having a decent handle on undergraduate-level philosophy (but especially Wittgenstein's philosophy of language); having a basic understanding of American drug and rehab culture (or perhaps having experienced substances first hand and or had a brush with addiction of some kind yourself); having a basic understanding of art filmography (but especially 60s french new-wave and auteur film theory) etc.

if you seriously find DFW's prose difficult to follow, the deficit isn't with the writing.

basically, as opposed to your view of DFW as sprinting ahead of the reader and leaving cryptic clues behind, I see him as more of like a benevolent eccentric, who despite functioning on a few levels higher than most, is still able to 'lower a rope ladder' down from his zeppelin of insight and help the reader climb up to see things from his genius perspective.

if i cared more i would go back and edit this to come across as less patronizing but i think the general gist comes across no?

what about those of us who didn't take circlejerk classes in uni? what is the required reading (and watching, it seems) for ij?

i'm not saying you literally need to complete a liberal arts education to fully appreciate IJ. all of the stuff i listed could be understood by a dedicated teenager with enough free time, determination and access to the internet.

but to just narrow in on one of my examples specifically, not understanding the general ideas related to Wittgenstein's philosophy of language is going to make the sections dealing with Hal's communication problems incredibly strange. I guess someone could cobble together some bizarro crackpot theory, but they'd basically be guaranteed to be missing the mark of even approaching an outline of its underlying framework.

look i'm not saying that every section of IJ is some sort of veiled message that requires a ton of esoteric trivia, and in fact the majority of its overarching message is delivered in pretty basic, direct prose without any emblematic metaphors.

but i also dont think its much of a stretch either to appreciate that having watched some jean-luc godard or werner herzog films makes the allusions in Himself's filmography footnote a lot more meaningful.

we voted it s our favorite book on nearly every poll. It's definitely enjoyable

its cool but hes just another author

clever dude

not worth obsessing over tho

The fact that every meme in this book comes from the first 20 pages is pretty indicative of how far into it lit has actually read

>Let's settle it once and for all.
are you a retard? you better be

Infinite Jest is the Nic Cage of books, sometimes it is great, other times piss poor, we don't know whether it's genius or just outright shit but manages to impress us every step of the way in every direction it fires all cylinders.

I want inner infant to turn into a meme

This was probably my least favorite book I've read in the past 15 years. I read 450 into it before I felt repulsed with the book and myself for wasting so much time with it. I've scarcely ever felt as relieved as when I put this book down for the last time. There were some funny parts to be sure, but the most of it was dry and neither entertaining or educating. The prose is a bloody fucking mess too. The story didn't make much sense and seemed largely to meander. Plus, he puts important parts of the story in the footnotes. Who fucking does that? Really, I only read it because Veeky Forums dotes on it like something divine, and Veeky Forums probably likes it because it's weird, pseudo-intellectual, and unread by the majority.

In short, I didn't like the book. Not the worst book ever, but not a good on imo.

This comparison is partially correct, but far from entirely.

IJ's overall quality is way higher, basically the entire work is based around this very sincere-yet-ironic style of scepticism towards narratives etc

While Cage... has simply bad moments. Bland, empty bits. No comparison. That's it.

It's fine

Its just okay.
I might go back again and re-read it. But I'm just indifferent on it. Probably because i can't relate to anyof it's themes like depression, anxiety, suicide, or cronic drug use.

I think it's garbage and I haven't even read it

Moreso like TV Tropes, mein gut man

>IJ's overall quality is way higher, basically the entire work is based around this very sincere-yet-ironic style of scepticism towards narratives etc
Ugh

hella fucking epic