Infinite Summer #11: If I Were Going to Teach this Novel

Think of these Sunday posts as jumping off places...discuss what I've posted, post something yourself, answer questions, ask questions, add links...do whatever it takes to make this experience enjoyable and understandable for you!

These post will be CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS for the reading for that week (Just in case you didn't already know that!). I think knowing this will stop those of us that aren't at a certain place from reading on and will enable those of us who are writing to do so without worrying if someone knows that fact or not. If you are reading ahead and want to post about the pages ahead please wait and if you want to talk about other books, not Infinite Jest and are giving spoilers please indicate that in some fashion...even a *spoiler* before the comment would be nice.

And, finally, if there is anything I can do to make this run more smoothly please don't hesitate to message me on here, on twitter or on Goodreads and I'll see what I can do.

Let's begin the discussion...

10 Thing I Would Do If I Was Going to Teach Infinite Jest
There are several articles that talk about teaching this novel. I'd like to note that in my world teaching this novel is soooo not in the cards. I'm not even sure I'd want to teach it even if I could, as it would take a long time and I'm sure that the students (even if they were in college) would lose interest somewhere in the middle. How would I keep them motivated? I promise you I think there are very few up to the challenge.

1. I'd want to talk about David Foster Wallace as a person
2. I'd want to steer clear of his suicide. I understand that I could not. I also understand that I'm not sure I should
3. I'd consult Kathleen Fitzpatrick and the blog her students created
4. I'd take a whole semester
5. I'd make the book the backbone of the class, but we'd read other works either by him or about him before/during/after the reading
6. I'd try not to have this crush on Hal...yes, I may love Hal...
7. I'd read the book again, taking a better look at it's chronology
8. I'd also take better notes...most of my notes now are focused how I feel, not why I feel or what DFW did to make me feel this way
9. I'd have to be much braver than I am now
10. Heck, I'd probably have to be a little stronger too

What would you do if you were teaching it?