Infinite jest turns 21 today and still, over two decades. These are the endnotes to david foster wallaces infinite jest, a gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america. Listen to infinite jest by david foster wallace at. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. Infinite jest by david foster wallace part 22 unabridged version. Im trying to pursue reading infinite jest, i was curious though because there are 4 editions of it including the iii. Ive read infinite jest three times the second reading being immediately after the first, of course, since the narrative is circular and the first part makes full sense only when you cruise into it from the last bits. 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. David foster wallace 19622008 was the new york times bestselling author of infinite jest, the broom of the system, and girl with curious hair. If youve never read it, starting infinite jest can be a little intimidating. I cant recommend the purchase of the what at first appears to be the amazing ive heard good things about the audio, excellent vocal performance audio book of infinite jest.
I was thinking of getting infinite jest, since i could not make any headway with my paperback version. I got the audible trial through prime and am on my 2 nd free month. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered cleveland, ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland. I received an email earlier today from a reader who had excitedly received their unabridged audio book of. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Goodreads members who liked infinite jest also liked. I kind of strongly disagree with alexs post about the endnotes. Infinite jest is one of those books that a lot of people know of but have never read. The dazzling, exhilarating san francisco chronicle debut novel from the bestselling author of infinite jest, available for the first time as an audiobook. Find books like infinite jest from the worlds largest community of readers. The broom of the system audiobook david foster wallace.
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. The pale king remained unfinished at the time of david foster wallaces death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything wallace ever undertook. While i cant read the book not even the end notes for you, i. I guess this is a first for me and ill get straight to the point. Calling to mind that infinite jest was published in 1996, dont think crystal meth is a new phenomenon. Audiobook hd audio david foster wallace infinite jest 17. To those who readlistened to infinite jest on audible.
Though published in 1996, david foster wallaces infinite jest appears to be the defining novel of the twentyfirst century, both in the questions it raises and in the way it attempts to answer them. Infinite jest by david foster wallace part 1 i am 647 pages into david foster wallaces infinite jest, a tome of 1,079 pages. I thought id post about it now and perhaps again when im finished since its so freaking long and i am about 60% of the way finished. He received numerous awards, including the whiting award, the. The good news is that it is not a thousandpage paragraph or even a thousandpage story. The audiobook is in three parts, with part three just being the notes. This is the first joe lansdale book i have ever read and i was floored. Infinite jest is a gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america.
Academics explain david foster wallace to me the outline. Infinite jest by david foster wallace audiobook 77 duration. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction, the novel explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to dominate our lives, about how our desire for entertainment. On the three pages between location 724 and 749 i found 1 2 typos on every. Infinite jest is a grandly ambitious, wickedly comic epic on par with such great, sprawling novels of the twentieth century as ulysses, the recognitions, and gravitys rainbowwith a sophisticated lexicon and mesmerizing syntax reminiscent of william gaddis and william t. Most people trashing it i can assure you havent actually read through the entire book. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy. I really havent seen like active hate for it though. Infinite jest audiobook, written by david foster wallace. Infinite jest by david foster wallace audiobook 37 duration. Listen to infinite jest audiobook by david foster wallace, narrated by sean.
Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. Infinite jest audiobook by david foster wallace, read by. Partly since it makes the book more accessible and partly because it lets you enjoy the flow of wallaces prose. The author has a gift for characterization that makes you really care about what happens to the principals involved, and he also has a real flair for dialogue exchanges and which is the primary format that this story is told by, via the perspective of its 16 year old protagonist. Theyre only getting infinite jest preloaded on mp3 players, so it will be worth spending the credits to get that one downloadable. Why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book. Wallace was exhaustively and intersectionally flayed for another 20 or so minutes.
Infinite jest works well in audiobook form and this is in no small part helped by sean pratts fantastic reading complete with impressive changes in accent, tone and characterisation. What its like to record the audiobook version of infinite. Vollmann, infinite jest is our most thorough dissection of america. The depressed person by david foster wallace 1998 pdf. Anyway, im guessing the venn diagram of people who know enough about internet culture to understand 4chans thoughts on infinite jest and also irrationally hate infinite jest. Wallace wrote to a friend that the fuckers cut by 600 pages from the first version. Not certain if this is the right place for this, let me know if theres another place to post something like this.
One thing about ij is that there really isnt one coherent plot. I didnt know what i was getting into with that, he says. In terms of pages spanned, there are two main plots that are on the whole fairly disjoint. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Infinite jest might be the most polarizing novel ive ever read. David foster wallace infinite jest audiobook part 3 youtube.
It grapples directly with ultimate questions questions of lifes meaning and of the value of work and society through characters. At the center of the broom of the system is the betwitching and also bewildered heroine, lenore stonecipher beadsman. If one of your reading resolutions is to finally finish infinite jest, david foster wallaces mammoth novel, im here to help. Infinite jest arrived on the scene just as a dominant cultural narrative began to take hold with a vise grip, strangling all other ways of approaching human meaning. Once you reach the end make sure to go back and reread the first chapter, its structured in such a way that it becomes a kind of loop and what made little or no sense before suddenly leaps off the page. Anyway, im guessing the venn diagram of people who know enough about internet culture to understand 4chans thoughts on infinite jest and also irrationally hate infinite jest is pretty small. It seems to fall in and out of favor on 4chan, going in the usual cycle of circlejerk to anticirclejerk circlejerk back to circlejerk.
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