Infinite Summer #14: So, You've Finished Infinite Jest...oh, wait you haven't!?

Neither have I...

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...

I feel like it's cheating to come out of blog hibernation to talk about a book I've yet to finish. I'm stuck somewhere around page 725. Life happens...ya know...

What I do know is that I lovely this book...strangely I do. Every time I pick it up I wonder why it took me so long to pick it up. I will finish it. Hopefully I finish it in 7 days...

Of note:

1. I'll predate #12 and #13, so they go in the proper spot on the blog. I just didn't want you to think I was cheating when I do this.
2. Teaching is kicking my butt right now...hence the lack of post to even talk about how much it's kicking my butt...so I'll catch up, post some reviews, talk about Summer (sigh I remember Summer) and finish this danged book!

Infinite Summer #13: Gabe Habash's Take on the Top 10 Characters

I have a bit of a nerd-girl crush on Gabe Habash. It all started innocently enough with his post about reading 55 books in 2011, grew to laughing about his absurd taste in silly books and continues through his nerd love of all things literature. Imagine my surprise when I noticed all these posts he written about IJ, just at the point when my friends and I had decided to make it our summer challenge! I've saved the best for almost last...

Anyway, enough gushing...Gabe has posted on Publisher Weekly's blog, PWxyz, his Top Ten characters in the novel. Here's what he has to say:

One of the many joys of Infinite Jest, made possible because of its tremendous length, is its massive cast of characters. The deeper you go, the more characters you encounter and, as you go even deeper, the intersecting lines between the characters become apparent. Just take a look at this diagram. To celebrate the book’s huge ensemble, we’ve counted down the 10 best characters. For the list, we’re excluding the book’s two “main” characters, Hal and Gately, because they’re given time and consideration that the rest of the characters don’t get, and thus can’t be evaluated in the same way. Be sure to tell us whether you agree of[sic] disagree with our selections in the comments!

Anyway, here's his list
(click on the character name to be taken to an individual post about said character)
10] Barry Loach
9] M. Hugh Steeply (aka Helen)
8] Mrs. Waite
7] Bruce Green
6] Ortho ("The Darkness") Stice
5] Avril Incandenza
4] Joelle van Dyne
3] Michael Pemulis
2] Eric Clipperton
1] Mario Incandenza

Out of the characters listed above who is your favorite? Did he miss someone? Would you rearrange the order? Tell me and then go to his post (linked above) and tell him. Oh, and here's a poll, if you like that sort of thing...goodness knows I do!

Like what Gabe Habash has to say?...follow him on Twitter @gabehabash

Can you believe we're almost finished?!

Infinite Summer #12: Should this book be considered science fiction?

OK, so we've read enough of this book to argue the point.

Here are some interesting view points

1] Infinite Summer #7: Is Infinite Jest Science Fiction?
2] Is Infinite Jest Science Fiction?
3] Why IJ Doesn't Really Count as Science Fiction

This is a hand-out that I give the students when we talk about SF.
No, we don't even begin to talk about all the sub-genres only those we will come across throughout the school year.

Here's what I say
I suppose it does fall under some sort of alternate or futuristic type of SF. And, it does thoroughly follow the definition...I don't know where I found that definition:

1. Takes a scientific hypothesis (there are several for this book...I'm focusing on one for this exercise)
Our need for technology really doesn't plug us in and help us to communicate. It just gives us one more piece of entertainment to be addicted to and this addiction alienates us even more from our fellow man.

2. Vision of what life would be like if the hypothesis were true
People would be selfish and narrow minded. Even those that had feelings, even those that bothered to think would be squashed by society and by 'the machine' (cue Pink Floyd). To beat 'the machine' we have to join it? It hurts me that I am part of 'the machine'...and, yet, I don't want to be like Thoreau and live in the woods either.

                                                         "Welcome To The Machine"

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.

3. Uses scientific imagination to tell a story about consequences and holds a mirror up to tomorrow in order to examine contemporary life
The world of this novel is so similar to our own that I find myself questioning basic idioms I've always believed to be true. You know "It's no longer recreational if you have to do it to survive. It's an addiction."...it seems that DFW would argue if it ever was recreational at all. We just allowed ourselves to think that. I also wonder about television addiction and Facebook and even blogging. Am I communicating or am I just glorifying myself. What aspects of new technology help us to become more global and what aspects hinder our growth.

Hmmm...so Infinite Jest is Science Fiction.

What do you all think?

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?

Infinite Summer #10: Topics of Discussion

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...

Please pick one...write about it and let's get keep this party going!!!

[Source]

And, person #2 has finished reading the book.

Congratulations Kate!!!

House-keeping:
1] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

2] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
3] Come join in on the convo even if you haven't caught up with the reading. Just comment on the post for the weeks you have read. I miss the conversation.

Infinite Summer #9: Endnotes

[Source]

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...

Watch it above.
Read about it here.
Comment about it below.

House-keeping:
1] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

2] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
3] Come join in on the convo even if you haven't caught up with the reading. Just comment on the post for the weeks you have read. I miss the conversation.

Infinite Summer #8: Was DFW a genius?

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...
First, I know that many of us are behind or have quit to pick back up later/never again, but we have one person who has finished.

Congratulations Tamera!!!

Although she is finished and I'm am just now half-way, we have both read enough of the book to talk about DFW's genius and the myriad ways it presents itself in the novel and in the media with those that love to love his genius, those who think he was nuts and not so genius. There are even those who think he was a one-hit wonder so to speak.

If you've gotten far enough in the book to even read this post you can comment. Genius has so many meanings:

gen·ius

(dictionary.com) noun

1. an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially asshown in creative and original work in science, art, music,etc.: the genius of Mozart. Synonyms: intelligence, ingenuity,wit; brains.
2. a person having such capacity.
3. a person having an extraordinarily high intelligence rating ona psychological test, as an IQ above 140. Synonyms:mental giant, master, expert; whiz, brain, brainiac.Antonyms: idiot, imbecile, half-wit, dope, moron; fool,simpleton, dunce, dullard, dolt; numskull, blockhead, nitwit,ninny.
4. natural ability or capacity; strong inclination: a special geniusfor leadership. Synonyms: gift, talent, aptitude, faculty,endowment, predilection; penchant, knack, bent, flair,wizardry.

gen·ius

(urbandictionary.com)

1. Being both Intelligent, and being able to tap all one's intelligence at the right time. 
2. something original that no one has thought of before
3. One who is both blessed and cursed with superior intelligence. Most geniuses are pretty f***ed up, but a small few can rise from the failures of their peers and end up being accepted by society through some factor of conformity. There is no shame in this, for if you do not conform, you'll end up chasing street cars for the rest of your life. 

Does DFW and/or his works fall under any of these?

House-keeping:
1] Many of you have messaged me about needing time to catch up. Do I need to add another week onto our schedule? Do I need to exempt a Sunday convo day?

2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
4] Come join in on the convo even if you haven't caught up with the reading. Just comment on the post for the weeks you have read. I miss the conversation.

Infinite Jest #7: Metropolis, The Dark Knight Rises and Infinite Jest

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...
Ok, so last weekend was our 3rd year anniversary and in true Gen X meets Millennial fashion we celebrated with a movie, but not just any movie though...we celebrated with The Dark Knight Rises. Without giving anything away, hopefully, I got a little misty-eyed at the ending. OK, actually, I may have had real tears. Then I had to research the whole lot and in doing so I stumbled upon an interesting sub-point. Although Nolan claims no political affiliation, many believe that this movie has a fascist agenda. Heck, many believe that all comic book tales lean toward fascism. From The Dark Knight Rises is a Pro-Fascist Movie:

A note for clarity: I’m going to be using the words fascism and fascist a lot in this review. Since, as Orwell warned us, those terms have come to be used as synonyms for “stuff I don’t like”, I should pin down the sense in which I use them here. Fascism is a political ideology fixated on authoritarianism, militaristic imagery and action, and the use of authoritarian force against internal and external Others who are defined as threats to the continued existence of society. Fixations on nationalism and national or racial purity and unity are also common. Fascism is a phenomenon of the political right, and has always been fanatically anti-communist, communism being what happens when the political left gets equally douchey. 

That said, there has always been an intrinsically fascist subtext to all superhero mythology. These stories, which I have grown up on and still love, are predicated on creating a situation of such exaggerated threat that fascist solutions, i.e. strongmen acting outside due process to restore order by violent force, become not only plausible but desirable. To put it another way, citizens of Metropolis might be uncomfortable with having a nearly-omnipotent alien living in their city, answerable to no authority but himself, but when a week can’t go by without a giant robot trying to level the city, you’ll accept the alien as preferable to the robots.

I read the whole article and thought about it and wanted to talk about it, but couldn't. If you read the whole article be warned that it contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie. I watched it again with a friend a couple of days later and had the same reaction (only this time I was anticipating the ending). We talked about whether it was fascist or not. I'm still on the fence, she says 'No.'. And, there was still something at the back of my mind, right out of sight, but I knew it existed.

I started thinking about Metropolis (from Wikipedia):

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film directed by Fritz Lang. The film was written by Lang and his wife Thea Von Harbou, and starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. A silent film, it was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by UFA. 

Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the attempts of Freder, the son of a wealthy intellectual, and Maria, whose background is not fully explained in the film, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classist nature of their city.Metropolis was filmed in 1925, at a cost of approximately four million Reichsmarks.^[2] The film was met with a mixed response upon its initial release, with many critics praising its technical achievements while deriding its simplistic and naïve storyline. Due both to its long running-time and footage censors found questionable, Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere; large portions of the film were lost over the subsequent decades.

So, finally, this morning I googled 'Dark Knight Rises and Metropolis'...who knew?

How Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' Inspired Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises'
The Dark Knight Rises, A Tale of Two Cities, and Fritz Lang?

And, this post from the LiveBlog has tied it all together.

Blue

And, the connections just keep on coming...

What would DFW think about all that?!

House-keeping:
1] Many of you have messaged me about needing time to catch up. Do I need to add another week onto our schedule? Do I need to exempt a Sunday convo day?

2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
4] Come join in on the convo even if you haven't caught up with the reading. Just comment on the post for the weeks you have read. I miss the conversation.

Infinite Summer #6: I'm not enjoying/I am enjoying/I want to enjoy this book

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...
I'm sorry this post is a few hours late in coming.

I am behind.

I can't seem to catch up.

It started the week I figured out I was behind and I just haven't found/made the time to catch up.

I thought I would last week while I was in Chicago, but we did other things...a lot of other things. I thought I'd catch up a few weeks ago in Las Vegas, but, alas, I read other things in Las Vegas. 

It's not that this book is hard to read, it's just that I want it to be quiet when I read it and I want to be alone when I read it and I want to read every word...when I read it.


And, then I found this article on the Infinite Summer website:

I Am Not Enjoying this book

It seems to be singing the tune that many of you have talked to me about.
Avery Edison says:
1] I will finish this book, but I am not enjoying it.
2] I dislike the endnotes.
3] I dislike the long paragraphs.
4] I dislike the technical explanations of subjects that don't really need it.
5] I don't hate this book or I'd quit.
6] I just wish I were enjoying it.


And, people, I'd really like to have a conversation to help me over this little hump. Let's talk about anything...why you're behind, how your getting over the hump, what you like/dislike...anything. I need the conversation to sustain my reading.


About the book
Let's talk Politics
On ONAN-ite Politics 

Let's talk Fractals and format
Cause I Got the Real Love, the Kind that You Need

Let's talk dependency and just showing up
PS. Allston Rules

House-keeping:
1] Many of you have messaged me about needing time to catch up. Do I need to add another week onto our schedule? Do I need to exempt a Sunday convo day?

2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
4] Come join in on the convo even if you haven't caught up with the reading. Just comment on the post for the weeks you have read. I miss the conversation.

Infinite Summer #5: BREAK

Well, it seems that many of us are either behind on the reading or just not commenting at all, so let's take a break for posting this week and we'll be all caught up for next Sunday...right?....right?

Get caught up on your reading and I'll see you next week.

If you'd really like to comment about something...

What part of this book do you like the best? What part could you do without?

Infinite Summer #4: DFW w/r/t style ... "The library, and step on it."

[Source]

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...
"If a writer does his job right, what he basically does is remind the reader of how smart they are. Wake the reader up to stuff that reader's been aware of all the time." ~David Foster Wallace


Footnotes and Endnotes
Detail
Complex Vocabulary


Pick one to talk about...add more to my meager list. Feel free to reference sections, add video or add favorite quotes...let's get to talkin'!!! 


House-keeping:
1] Many of you have messaged me about needing time to catch up. Do I need to add another week onto our schedule? Do I need to exempt a Sunday convo day?

2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.

3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.

Infinite Summer #3: The McDonald's of the Soul and a thing about water

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...


OK, so I've been reading Infinite Jest and some YA fiction for a Goodreads group I'm in and...well, I've been watching Jim Gaffigan and I am finding so many connections...my brain is full of Hal and the gang. Thank-you very much DFW.

“I’m tired of people acting like they’re better than McDonald’s. It’s like, you may have never set foot in McDonald’s but you have your own McDonald’s. Maybe instead of buying a Big Mac you read Us Weekly. Hey, that’s still McDonald’s, it’s just served up a little different. Maybe your McDonald’s is telling yourself that a Starbucks frappuccino is not a milkshake. Or maybe you watch Glee. It’s all McDonald’s. McDonald’s of the soul.”— Jim Gaffigan, Mr. Universe

What connections to DFW and everyday life have you noticed?

I deviated off-course (yeah, it's that darned book for $3.99)
I think we're far enough along in the book that we can start seeing how it's changing us...or, should I say, I can start seeing how it's changing me...If you haven't, read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (the link is to the Harper's article; I printed it just in case it will be taken down later)

And, then there's this beautiful thing...the LiveJournal (every time I get finished with a section I read its LiveJournal counterpart, I am loving the LiveJournal!) talks about DFW's Kenyon Commencement Speech and finally I broke down and read and listened to it and teared up (thinking about my own life, the lives of those around me and, of course, DFW, a man who I will never meet, but who feels like someone I know).

Transcript here, and you can listen to it (I would suggest you do both; maybe simultaneously):

Then, I wanted to watch these movies again (both of which I only have on VHS, bummer):

And, I wanted to be in college again...except for I'm not really sure that's exactly what I'm feeling it's just the best way of summing it all up.

If we must talk about the book...
I love how the movies keep coming back and it's fun to have something to imagine while rereading some of their descriptions. I also love looking at the pictures again.

I am finding that I like Michael Pemulis. I hope that he isn't a shady character.

"Tennis and the Feral Prodigy"...wow...

"...talent is its own expectation: it is there from the start and either lived up to or lost." 

"By repeating this term over and over, perhaps in the same rhythm at which you squeeze a ball, you can reduce it to an empty series of phonemes, just formants and fricatives, trochaically stressed, signifying zip." 

"If you are an adolescent, here is the trick to being neither quite a nerd nor quite a jock: be no one." 

"It is easier than you think." 

"This is also how not to fear sleep or dreams. Never tell anyone where you are. Please learn the pragmatics of expressing fear: sometimes words that seem to express really invoke."

 "But in the interval, if it is an interval: here is Motrin for your joints, Noxgema for your burn, Lemon Pledge if you prefer nausea to burn, Contracol for your back, benzoin for your hands, Epsom salts and anti-inflammatories for your ankle, and extracurriculars for your folks, who just wanted to make sure you didn't miss anything they got."

Finally, a little house-keeping:

The ereader and physical copy
of this edition are not the same...

1] Thank-you Deana for noticing...it would seem that the ereader and physical versions published from the same year do not have the same page numbers. I used my ebook, the physical book one time (yes, in the bookstore, no I do not own two copies of the book), and the information from infinitesummer to calculate the page numbers.
Amanda, who owns the physical copy, and I, poured over it to figure out the flaw. The physical book does it at 981 which means in essence we don't need the last two weeks, my book ends at 1203 (which I thought was a bit odd, but calculated it up to the transfer to ereader). When I did the math (to convert % to page number) it all worked out, based on my limited knowledge of the book and I didn't notice the error until Deana mailed me and then AGD was talking about something in the section I hadn't gotten to although I read all the pages. If you go by infinitesummer index (I used it to figure out where I should be and realized that I was about 100 pages in the red), you should be fine and heck! being ahead in the reading, must be better than I am...behind (less than I was on Thursday and hopefully caught up on the plane) on the reading. I can fix the page number thing (so it aligns in perpetuity), but can't now because I am reading the book and don't want to look ahead. I've been very good at not spoiling things for myself. Sorry, if this has caused anyone confusion!
2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.
3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
4] All of the books on this list are $3.99 on the Nook, including A Supposedly Funny Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments ...go snag it while it's there to be snagged!
5] And, keep the convo coming, I am loving it and it helps me to understand the book and my viewpoints so much more.
6] I will not be coming back here until after the 12th (I will still post daily, but will not be on Twitter or Facebook, or able to reply to comments or such), as I'll be at a conference in Las Vegas learning about high school journalism and hanging out with my husband sans the tiny person. And, when I'm away I like to be away...and, I'm sure I'll have work to do and places to go anyway...

I wish you way more than luck.

Infinite Summer #2: Obsession and Love and the wheelchair assassins

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...

When I first read Bridget Jone's Diary (um, yeah, I just connected Bridget Jones to this book...I'm such a girl sometimes) I read it in it's original setting, London, England. It was the coolest experience, she'd talk about something and I'd look out the window and see it, or go down on the sidewalk and walk to it, I could smell what she smelled and taste was she tasted, it made the whole experience of reading about her surreal and marvelous. There's something so cool about reading a book immersed in the world in which the book was created. I love it when a fictitious world collides with a real one.

I also love people who are obsessed with something and need for it to be fleshed out to the fullest. I can get obsessed and must know every bit about a thing (think The X-Files for those who even slightly know me) until I am fully satiated. I'm not going to lie I feel this way about IJ and I am so glad that there are others out there who are compelled to write about, sing about ("Calamity Song"), draw about, talk about it until my heart and mind are over-flowing. I only vaguely knew about this book before Nicole talked to Amanda and I about it one evening and I am excited to see that there are whole communities and groups of people who feel this book is mind-altering. My favorite so far is the Poor Yorick Entertainment Tumblr (going to the Tumblr directly may contain spoilers. I first found it here).


As its creator, Chris Ayers, states:

Only a few of the films in Incandenza's body of work have any real substantive relation to the central plot. Some are described in detail while others are only mentioned in passing. 

This project is an attempt to bring some kind of visual life to the fictional filmmaker's body of work, as well as the world of Infinite Jest.

There really are some priceless gems (he's created a film poster for the films I was most curious about, a lovely poster of subsidized time and he found ETA school t-shirt logos) and you can download them all for free here. Some fun things to laminate for my classroom, no!?

Favorite quotes from this section

"'Our attachments are our temple, what we worship, no? What we give ourselves to, what we invest with faith.'"

"'What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love'"

"'Welcome to the meaning individual. We're each deeply alone here. It's what we all have in common, this aloneness.'" [sure, he's talking about tennis as a sport, but...]

"'Nothing brings you together like a common enemy.'"

Thoughts...

I need to share something with you all...it's pretty important. I am not skimming. I have not skimmed one word of this book. This is rare for me as I am truly one of the most impatient people you will ever meet, and, yet here I am reading every footnote and every word...the words are just that good, even the part about the feral hamsters.

The part about Marathe quadrupling because his wife needs medical attention probably wouldn't have been so pointed had it not been for our current Healthcare situation in The States.

I also love the conversation with the boys post school and work-out on the floor of the locker room. I was there. How?/Why? Because DFW gives us so much to see (this may be my favorite part from this section...maybe).

Then, of course, there's Schtitt and 'urine luck'...it's nice to know that really smart make me gasp with their word-smithing writers can still have low-brow boy humor. *chuckle*

Oh, and if you want to truly understand solipsism...here's a great essay by Ander Monson titled, well, Solipsism. It reads much better in The Best American Essay 2008. After reading this essay again and clicking on all the links again...it would seem I've been preparing myself to read DFW for a long while now...'curiousier and curiouser'...

And, finally, a little house-keeping:

1] I will be out of town next weekend, but, if you are in the area, please feel free to come over and chat today. My family is in town for the 4th, but I'm sure I can spare an hour.
2] If you haven't signed up officially, please do so here.
3] Catch up on all of our IJ stuff and things here.
4] All of the books on this list are $3.99 on the Nook, including A Supposedly Funny Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments ...go snag it while it's there to be snagged!
5] And, keep the convo coming, I am loving it and it helps me to understand the book and my viewpoints so much more.

What would you like to talk about?

Infinite Summer #1: What the *BLEEP* have I gotten myself into?

First, if you are reading with us and haven't read the first post, please sign-up and do so here.

If you want to read all our pre-reading post, click on Infinite Summer 2012 to be taken to a complete list of all things IS12, so far.

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.

I don't know about you all, but I spent the first few pages wondering what was going on...and, then I googled and googled some more.

Setting (from the IJ wiki)

In the novel's future world, North America is one unified state comprising the United States, Canada, and Mexico, known as the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.). Corporations purchase naming rights to each calendar year, eliminating traditional numerical designations; for example, "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" and "The Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland". Much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a hazardous waste dump known as the "Great Concavity" to Americans and as the "Great Convexity" to Canadians.
The novel's primary locations are the Enfield Tennis Academy, Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (footnoted "Redundancy sic" in the text), and a conversation between a Quebec separatist and a U.S. double agent outside of Tucson, AZ. Enfield Tennis Academy ("ETA") and Ennet House are separated by a hillside in suburban Boston, Massachusetts. Many characters are either students and faculty at the school or residents and staff at the halfway house.

For more information about the setting check out this lovely post by Book Drum beyond the page. And, I'm sure, Brain Pickings' 3 Ways to Visualize David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, will come in handy later, as it breaks down characters, settings and the whole book by diagram.

I enjoy that DFW has given us such rich settings, they just make things (such as Orin's chapter with the roaches) more realistic and in some ways sympathetic. By far my favorite chapter this section is with Erdedy and the long wait for his favorite addiction. What do you guys think? For me, knowing the fact that it's set sometime in the future helped, and I'm glad to have a visual foundation as I continue reading. However, I do wonder what will be at the end of this rabbit hole.

I also really liked this, too bad nobody got to hear it!:

[Source]

Preparing for Infinite Jest: Reader's Companions and Guides

Infinite Summer talks about...
Infinite Jest: A Scene by Scene Guide

I found or I was pointed to...
Mr. K's Infinite Jest Blog
Words, Words, Words: The Infinite Jest LiveBlog
IJ Wiki

There are two books, that everyone seems to feel are the definitive IJ books...if you want to buy something...

David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: A Reader's Guide (2nd Edition)

Price:  $13.43 at BN

ISBN-13: 9781441157072

Publication date: 4/19/2012

Pages: 144

Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 0.50 (d)

from Goodreads:
This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years from The Remains of the Day to White Teeth . A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

• Price: $24.95 or $9.99 on the Kindle (it doesn't seem to exist on BN at all!)
• Publication Date: 11/30/07 
• ISBN-13: 978-0976146537 
• Pages: 524 pages
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches

from Amazon:

Elegant Complexity is the first critical work to provide detailed and thorough commentary on each of the 192 sections of David Foster Wallace's masterful Infinite Jest. No other commentary on Infinite Jest recognizes that Wallace clearly divided the book into 28 chapters that are thematically unified. A chronology at the end of the study reorders each section of the novel into a sequential timeline that orients the reader and that could be used to support a chronological reading of the novel. Other helpful reference materials include a thematic outline, more chronologies, a map of one the novel's settings, lists of characters grouped by association, and an indexed list of references. Elegant Complexity orients the reader at the beginning of each section and keeps commentary separate for those readers who only want orientation. The researcher looking for specific characters or themes is provided a key at the beginning of each commentary. Carlisle explains the novel's complex plot threads (and discrepancies) with expert insight and clear commentary. The book is 99% spoiler-free for first-time readers of Infinite Jest.

And, I've linked points of interest on my main page here at IS'12. Please know it is a work in progress and I post things as I find them and mention them on the blog.


In taking on the task of reading Infinite Jest, what have you found useful?

Don't forget! If you are reading with us and haven't read the first post, please sign-up and do so here.

Preparing to Read Infinite Jest: "To Be or Not To Be" or "Brush Up Your Shakespeare"

Hamlet at Project Gutenberg (if you want to read it for free)

The novel derives its name in part from a line in Hamlet, in which Hamlet refers to the skull of Yorick, the court jester:

HAMLET

Let me see. (takes the skull) 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? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.—Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

So, I was going to reread Hamlet to be in it while reading IJ, but decided I didn't have to when I came upon this website, Enjoying "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. In this website you will find:

• The play broken down scene by scene
• The major themes in the play broken down and analyzed
• Background information to the story of "Hamlet"
• Links to various clips and teaching tools

The only thing this website is missing are the various ways that Shakespeare's play relates to the novel Infinite Jest and for that you can go to Infinite Jest & Hamlet:similarities from Library Thing and there's some more stuff here...just so you know I don't know if there are any *spoilers* or not because I didn't read either site too thoroughly, just in case there were, you know...*spoilers*.

Another site that has been beyond helpful as I've been reading is The Infinite Jest LiveBlog:

I'll be doing my best to call out whatever Hamlet Sightings I notice. It’s safe to assume our updated Hamlet is Hal (also, not safe to assume he is a stand in for David Foster Wallace), who opens the book with a mysterious freak out at a rigged college application interview. Can’t say much more without giving away way too much, but pay attention to this chapter. It’s, well, riddled with with important clues about what happens in the rest of the book, and even the smallest things are deliberate.

And, he has so far, all I have to do is ctrl-f "hamlet" and then read the parts that pertain to the pages I've read thus far to see what he believes are Hamlet connections. Love it!

And, if you're looking to watch Hamlet, THE GUARDIAN gives us the top ten in 2010 to choose from or you can just look at my lovely collage above...Ethan Hawke as a modern day Hamlet with the setting in New York City? Yes, please.

Oh! And, if you are reading with us and haven't read the opening post or joined up, here it is!