Is it worth reading Infinite Jest for a non - American (non - anglo...

Is it worth reading Infinite Jest for a non - American (non - anglo, and even non - European for that matter) or would not being able to get most of the cultural references ruin it for me?
t. Third world dweller

Frankly no, it is a meme, and consumed ironically by a post-hipster nu-male """""intelligentsia"""". I had always thought the phrase "no discernible talent" was a meme itself until I read this book, and realized that it had neither prose nor plot merit.

no

most references are explained in the footnotes. it is a good book. you should read it.

these 2 haven't read it

it is the atlas shrugged of Veeky Forums

>Is it worth reading Infinite Jest
no

>user reads for the plot.
My sides

what board is atlas shrugged the atlas shrugged of

atlas shrugged is the atlas shrugged of frequently discussed literature
infinite jest is the atlas shrugged of frequently discussed literature on Veeky Forums

I never heard of this book until I visited Veeky Forums, and Bret Easton Ellis stated that David Foster Wallace is the most overrated author of the 90s - I'll take his coked up opinion as truth.

I've heard about it on many other chans and boards, and it seems to have a reputation of the ultimate hipster meme book. I asked one philologist acquaintance of mine whether I should read it and he told me I shouldn't because I'm not immersed in the US pop-culture since childhood and therfore won't get all the references. That guy is not an American as well, and I forgot to ask whether he read it himself. Though he's quite knowledgeable in postmodernist literature and I value his opinion.

There's less pop-culture references in IJ than in Pynchon, but there's some. Honestly there's a lot more general literature references that you might miss, but it's not a big deal if you do

I don't even know anything remotely about the content of Infinite Jest, but the title alone doesn't appeal to me. Titles like The Idiot, Moby-Dick or: The Whale, American Psycho, Demons or Starship Troopers are simple but impactful titles, and give me a good idea about what the book is about and are to be taken, uhm, seriously.

Infinite Jest is a line from Hamlet, but also the name of the thing the entire story revolves around (a videotape, basically)

Funnily enough dfw hated Bret Easton Ellis, and the Brat Pack as a whole for their moral nihilism

i think anyone who has had problems with drugs, regardless of their upbringing, will be able to find some worth to the gately sections.

the hal parts definitely are written towards upper-middle class americans.

Read anything you want, just don't be like this guy.

...

If there ever was an overrated author it's bret easton.

Well, I only read American Psycho so far, but I gotta say your statement has no merit.

>muh endless descriptions of expensive suits

>all the burgers ITT don't realise IJ is filled with pop-culture references because they don't even see them, for such references are the very fabric of their thoughts

White suburbanites don't have anything else. That's their culture.

>muh illiteracy

Book should be about 600 pages. For whatever reason DFW really wanted to keep talking about addiction and depression and there's way too fucking much Don Gately.

He talked about them so much because they're fundamental to the book's overall summation of American culture.

Woah! Nice, cool. Six hundred pages of addiction and depression aren't enough, we need to drive it home. BUT THATS THE POINT. No, it's onanism.