Preparation

so I finally decided to read Infinite Jest. are there any essential/recommended books/essays to improved the experience?

I have read
>consider the lobster
and plan to read
>authority and american usage
>federer as religious experience
>the depressed person
>the nature of fun
and
>a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
ps. I am not reading those essays purely to 'prepare' for IJ, but I've been meaning to read at least some of them anyways
as I haven't read all those essays I can't tell for sure, but it seems to me that they are all themes touched in Infinite Jest.

Waste of time. Read Lacan's Ecrits instead

You really don't need to read anything. Maybe Hamlet and some Borges, but it doesn't matter.

you might read Broom or stories from Girl with Curious Hair to see how IJ develops his style/shtick

i read it and im pretty illiterate
just enjoy the memes dont think too much of it

you mean that IJ is a waste of time or the essays?

Is IJ even going to be a big deal 100 years from now?

yes, if we keep memeing it

you don't need to know anything to derive pleasure from the book. With that said there is a lot of 80s postmodern critical theory type of stuff going on. Thankfully lit is not familiar with most of theory, otherwise the board would be total shit. Reading pic related is pretty much what was dfws bible and what he wants to shit on in IJ, yet summons it on every page

If you are already familiar with his style it should be a breeze to read. I took notes while I was reading because I thought I was going to lose details early on that might be important later, but as long as you read at a decent pace it isn't necessary, only mildly helpful.

IJ is awful

Read Good Old Neon, it's his best short story.

That or Oblivion. It depends on if you want a lonely story or him at his best literary gamesmanship

What exactly is good about this book? I plan to give it a spin later.

I like Hamlet, does IJ cover similar themes or something?

>title of the book
>probably referenced the most of all

?? could you elaborate? Does it have ghosts and sword fights and stuff?

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?"

hamlet is a beep deeper than 'ghosts and sword fights and stuff"

Also Hal is Prince Hamlet, CT is Claudius, Avril Mondragon is Gertrude

oh shit my man i totally thought it was all about ghosts and swords, I didn't know the phrase 'infinite jest' was in the book either, that's something i definitely didn't already know and you didn't already point out earlier. I thought shakespeare was famous for his sword fights and things? Ah i'm so dumb, please enlighten me more

~XD

True. And it is because all of the work of Will I Am Shake Speare is a wisdom text, containing many layers of information for him with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Bring only what you have to the table, friend, there is no universal interpretation or preperation for a work. You are reading I-J with the blue glasses, but what if i told you that you could see the work even without the glasses? Unless you're getting paid by a man who wears the blue glasses there's no reason to feel unqualified to judge the work against your own merit. Amen

Just read it OP, no prep.