Infinite jest by david foster wallace chapter 3, 1 april year of the tucks medicated pad, chapter 4, 9 may year of the depent adult undergarment, chapter 5, year of the depend adult undergarment, and chapter 6, year of the trialsize dove bar summary and analysis. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives. Which line from the excerpt best reflects a subjective narrative voice. He might be riffing on the powers of two expressed in base ten notation, but instead of 256 28, he has started with 233, a prime number. A novel by wallace, david foster the story of an intelligent but zany dysfunctional family is set in a drugandalcohol addicts halfway house and a tennis academy and follows such themes as heartbreak, philosophy, and advertising. You meet characters, discover their world, live on their side, and in the end you close the book, leaving them behind, dead or alive. Most of the action of the novel takes place in the year of the depend adult. And while that classic is not a great book, its a damned sight better, as well as more narratively daring than this book. A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything new york times wallace is a superb comedian of culture. Jonathan franzens the corrections 2001, national book award and freedom 2010, both family portraits. A multilayered postmodern saga of damnation and salvation. I read every night before i go to bed but this book. There are tons of characters and the point of view changes at the drop of a hat. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace.
Favorite sentences and paragraphs from infinite jest ben. Wallaces particular conceit in infinite jest is that the events described are taking place in the indeterminate future, possibly. Infinite jest, in that sense, is a very easy read, almost as light and gay as victor hugos les miserables, which is even longer. Below are my favorite sentences from a truthfulness perspective. Catch22 and brave new world seem to have influenced wallace in writing this book. In 2006, little brown published a 10th anniversary edition of david foster wallaces infinite jest that featured a foreword by dave eggers. Npr coverage of infinite jest by david foster wallace. Excerpt from infinite jest david foster wallace 3no7y355wyld. David foster wallaces postmodern voices flashcards quizlet. At the time the book was written, such numbers were commonly encountered in the names of computer hardware, the context here. Buy infinite jest 01 by foster wallace, david isbn. Favorite sentences and paragraphs from infinite jest ben casnocha. I am not sure what to make of a book where i skip over several pages at a time and. In the book, infinite jest, by david foster wallace, a young tennis prodigy is learning how to transcend his limitations, develop his talent and manage his fear in this case talking about tennis and how to improve your game but at the same time talking about hope, fear, understanding, fathers and sons, parents, the long waking dream.
Why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book. He received a masters of fine arts from university of arizona in 1987 and. Eggerss introduction observed that infinite jest was 1,067 pages long and there is not one lazy sentence. How is the experience of reading infinite jest on a kindle. Buy infinite jest book online at low prices in india. One issue with measuring vocabulary size is that suffixes may artificially inflate the number of distinct words in the set e. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in. Crimes fiction, fiction subjects, nook books, new this. Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. Infinite jest, a friend of wallaces commented to me when i was researching every love story is a ghost story, the biography of wallace that i wrote, reads like a valentine to a. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following.
But the novel still contains many highly entertaining and provocative sections. More information about this seller contact this seller 4. This document was uploaded by user and they confirmed that they have the permission to share it. Personally, i hated infinite jest and i cant imagine ill ever want to reread any of it. I was talking to my roommate about infinite jest, and he asked me how it compared to illuminatus. In an instant of sudden clarity i realized he was right, that they were basically the same book the same fractally complex narrative of broken meandering plots about an endlesslyawaited but never arriving apocalypse. Some readers have found it useful to rip the book in half for easier reading on the subway or on the beach. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Ive seldom been more engrossed in a novel, and more willing to put in the time of. The novel is a interconnected sequence of events, told out of timeline order, that focuses on addiction in all its forms. The demographic of those likely to read a novel like infinite jest, wallace. If you do this, you also need to tear the footnotes from the back half and tape them to front half. Infinite jest is a novel written by david foster wallace.
It leaves me with sadness, the same sadness as losing a friend, left behind with memories, but alone. David foster wallace and bryan a garner on writing. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Having said that, i feel pretty confident in asserting that it is not the greatest book. Copyright 1996 david foster wallace all right reserved. He had already experienced literary fame with his college novel, the. Book has light shelfedgecorner wear else bright and clean, tight and square with no markings or tears. Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. Infinite jest chapter 3, 1 april year of the tucks. Treasure island nook edition by robert louis stevenson. David foster wallace infinite jest 1996 year of glad audiobook excerpt.
It is an exuberant, uniquely american exploration of the passions that make us human and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do. First edition stated first printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 of late authors magnum opus. He gives a good picture of its fictional counterpart in infinite jest. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Infinite jest is an extraordinary book, but it is difficult and you do have to want it. Which line of text from infinite jest best illustrates subjective narrative voice. David foster wallace was born in ithaca, new york, in 1962 and raised in illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. My transcript for the last year might have been dickied a bit, maybe, but that was to get me over a rough spot. Infinite jest by david foster wallace turns 20 today, and im still confused by it all these years later. Infinite jest wallace, david foster 9780316920049 hpb. Whether its drugs, sex, or fame, the novels primary goal is to examine the need for these addictions and show that it is possible to addicted to addiction itself. If we restrict to the first 35,000 words, infinite jest contains 4,923 unique words more than most rappers, but still less than the wutang clan while the brown corpus contains 2,708. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. I just finished a book, and i realized reading is as painful as life itself. I dont know what the numbers mean, but the first is half of the second.
158 490 1640 936 541 405 613 653 1139 1568 1241 114 979 461 1530 1139 248 1124 352 526 476 1157 842 1243 1574 816 1530 1455 648 698 1185 1177 712 566 599 1105 259 1183 660 470 635 493