Just finished a David Foster Wallace kick. I listened to the new 30th anniversary audiobook of Infinite Jest (twice) and then The Pale King (twice). Then I listened to "Of course you end up becoming yourself" which is a long-form interview with Wallace by David Lipsky, traveling with him on the Infinite Jest book tour.
I had to listen to the books twice because there are a lot of details that you won't get the first time through unless you're extremely intentional and detail oriented, but I found it was worth it to listen again. I'll probably listen to Infinite Jest again sometime soon, even though it's 64 hours long. IJ is actually really great sci-fi with some important questions for our time.
I attempted infinite jest and really tried to like it but I hated it. The prose is extremely smart, interesting and insightful and wildly connective. But the overall tone is so oppressively nihilistic I decided life's too short and put it down.
it's not for everybody, but there were some specific things going on in my life when I started it that deeply connected to the subject matter for me
I have had about a hundred pages to go for three years now. I should knuckle down and finish it. It wasn't for me either. A shame because I have enjoyed some of Wallace's other writings.
I finished it and thought it was overall good but I don’t know if I would say it’s good “bang for buck” in terms of what you get for the time commitment
There are definitely long books I've read where I didn't feel like I got enough out of them for it to have been worth it, like I read (listened to) Gravity's Rainbow right after and a lot of the characters and plot lines just annoyed or disgusted me, but I'm sure that book means a lot to a lot of people. In the interview "Of course you end up becoming yourself," the author talks a lot about how in avant-garde literature you have to make the payoff good enough to reward the reader for doing the work, and that equation is going to be different for everybody.
jerkstate · · focus · HN ↗
I had to listen to the books twice because there are a lot of details that you won't get the first time through unless you're extremely intentional and detail oriented, but I found it was worth it to listen again. I'll probably listen to Infinite Jest again sometime soon, even though it's 64 hours long. IJ is actually really great sci-fi with some important questions for our time.
simpaticoder · · focus · HN ↗
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