No clue, he seems to be in any IJ thread that moves past plot gayging and has been for years and he is even in some of the plotgay threads, it is fun to watch him run the plot gays in circles, must have the book just about memorized.
You could just ask a question, he tends to post on the weekends so should be about soon.
I tend to exaggerate my drinking, I just don't post much unless drunk and I go with it. Most days I don't go further than an end of the day beer. I hope I am not the last effort poster, more because of what that says about me than the board.
Hey drunken DFW guy, I'm assuming you're very familiar with his material. Do you think infinite Jest is his finest work? In your opinion, what is his finest work?
I'm trying to go through his bibliography but I'd like to start with the best stuff, in case I burn out.
I would go with The Pale King with a caveat. I don't think I am a fan of Infinite Jest for a long and complicated reason which I am not anywhere near drunk enough to attempt expressing in IQfy speak (moron (not you, IQfy)). The short of it is that I think IJ fails as a novel, which is not to say it is bad just that it fails as a novel and weirdly it fails for the same reasons it is great; everything in IJ serves theme (literally everything, I can't find a single thing in its 1100 pages and 100+ characters and all the major and minor plot lines which does not and I have put in a good amount of time trying to find something which doesn't) and yet most people fail to understand. I think most of the fault lies with DFW and not the reader, he addressed this with TPK and lack of understanding I think is more the fault of the reader in that case.
But when he wrote IJ who he was writing for was a vague notion of an audience, audience was a real and tangible thing when he wrote TPK, the goalposts moved.
I would say that IJ, TPK, String Theory (collected tennis essays), Quack this Way and Incarnations of Burned Children are his important works. The tennis essays cover most everything he attempted with his essay writing but with more nuance, the personal nature of the material allows him more insight and leaves him with a few blind spots, he is not just a detached observer offering his insights. Quack this Way gives a good deal of insight into Wallace and his writing, mostly about language and literature in a more generic sense but we get to see considerably more. Incarnations of Burned Children is Wallace at his more concise and he manages to sum up the general thrust of his writing in a little over a page, we are all burned children. I am not sure if those last two can be appreciated without having read IJ and/or TPK first, I think they may be dependent on having a good understanding of the context of Wallace the author.
With that said, IJ is probably where you want to start if you are worried about burning out.
The 3000 character limit is a real issue for me when I am not drunk, I end up trying to edit 50 pages worth of stuff down to 3000 characters.
1 month ago
Anonymous
>The 3000 character limit is a real issue for me when I am not drunk, I end up trying to edit 50 pages worth of stuff down to 3000 characters.
Thank God for character limits.
1 month ago
Anonymous
>t. plotgay
Completely missed the point for a weak jab. Could have done much better if you took 10 seconds to think before posting.
1 month ago
Anonymous
Thanks for the insight. I'm working my way through IJ now and will follow up with TPK.
I just got done with Moby Dick and this was next on my list but I'm hesitant to commit to 1100 pages+tip l. Is it worth the effort or should I read something lighter as a break? I'm just not sure what I'd read instead. The last books I've read since I started reading again (after stopping as a teen) were War and Peace, The Lord of the Rings, and Moby Dick. Hence my hesitancy to start another giganovel. On the other hand I clearly enjoy these types of books, and the first 60 or so pages of IJ I've read have been very enjoyable.
IJ was actually the first book I picked up when I started reading seriously again in uni. Really influenced me, not because the book has anything particularly mindblowing to say but because it articulated a lot of feelings I had about the world that I didn’t really know how to explain. If you’ve gotten through the first sixty pages you’ll have a good idea of about how obtuse the book can get, which imo isn’t that much, and most of the book is written in very conversational prose. And plus the plot is pretty expansive so it’s not like you’re getting a thousand pages plus endnotes about one person.
Been waiting for a while for a paperback with new cover art to hit the streets before finally taking the plunge to buy / read this bad boy … there’s just something about the current windows 95 screensaver looking edition that I find very off putting
It's ok (1)
(1) And by ok, I mean it's shit with lots of footnotes
You'll know Brando when you watch him, and you'll have learned to fear him. Brando, Jim, Jesus, B-r-a-n-d-o.
Is alcoholic DFW anon IQfys last effort poster?
Archive links? I greatly enjoy DFW effort posting.
No clue, he seems to be in any IJ thread that moves past plot gayging and has been for years and he is even in some of the plotgay threads, it is fun to watch him run the plot gays in circles, must have the book just about memorized.
You could just ask a question, he tends to post on the weekends so should be about soon.
I tend to exaggerate my drinking, I just don't post much unless drunk and I go with it. Most days I don't go further than an end of the day beer. I hope I am not the last effort poster, more because of what that says about me than the board.
Hey drunken DFW guy, I'm assuming you're very familiar with his material. Do you think infinite Jest is his finest work? In your opinion, what is his finest work?
I'm trying to go through his bibliography but I'd like to start with the best stuff, in case I burn out.
I would go with The Pale King with a caveat. I don't think I am a fan of Infinite Jest for a long and complicated reason which I am not anywhere near drunk enough to attempt expressing in IQfy speak (moron (not you, IQfy)). The short of it is that I think IJ fails as a novel, which is not to say it is bad just that it fails as a novel and weirdly it fails for the same reasons it is great; everything in IJ serves theme (literally everything, I can't find a single thing in its 1100 pages and 100+ characters and all the major and minor plot lines which does not and I have put in a good amount of time trying to find something which doesn't) and yet most people fail to understand. I think most of the fault lies with DFW and not the reader, he addressed this with TPK and lack of understanding I think is more the fault of the reader in that case.
But when he wrote IJ who he was writing for was a vague notion of an audience, audience was a real and tangible thing when he wrote TPK, the goalposts moved.
I would say that IJ, TPK, String Theory (collected tennis essays), Quack this Way and Incarnations of Burned Children are his important works. The tennis essays cover most everything he attempted with his essay writing but with more nuance, the personal nature of the material allows him more insight and leaves him with a few blind spots, he is not just a detached observer offering his insights. Quack this Way gives a good deal of insight into Wallace and his writing, mostly about language and literature in a more generic sense but we get to see considerably more. Incarnations of Burned Children is Wallace at his more concise and he manages to sum up the general thrust of his writing in a little over a page, we are all burned children. I am not sure if those last two can be appreciated without having read IJ and/or TPK first, I think they may be dependent on having a good understanding of the context of Wallace the author.
With that said, IJ is probably where you want to start if you are worried about burning out.
The 3000 character limit is a real issue for me when I am not drunk, I end up trying to edit 50 pages worth of stuff down to 3000 characters.
>The 3000 character limit is a real issue for me when I am not drunk, I end up trying to edit 50 pages worth of stuff down to 3000 characters.
Thank God for character limits.
>t. plotgay
Completely missed the point for a weak jab. Could have done much better if you took 10 seconds to think before posting.
Thanks for the insight. I'm working my way through IJ now and will follow up with TPK.
I just got done with Moby Dick and this was next on my list but I'm hesitant to commit to 1100 pages+tip l. Is it worth the effort or should I read something lighter as a break? I'm just not sure what I'd read instead. The last books I've read since I started reading again (after stopping as a teen) were War and Peace, The Lord of the Rings, and Moby Dick. Hence my hesitancy to start another giganovel. On the other hand I clearly enjoy these types of books, and the first 60 or so pages of IJ I've read have been very enjoyable.
How long did it take you to read War and Peace?
IJ was actually the first book I picked up when I started reading seriously again in uni. Really influenced me, not because the book has anything particularly mindblowing to say but because it articulated a lot of feelings I had about the world that I didn’t really know how to explain. If you’ve gotten through the first sixty pages you’ll have a good idea of about how obtuse the book can get, which imo isn’t that much, and most of the book is written in very conversational prose. And plus the plot is pretty expansive so it’s not like you’re getting a thousand pages plus endnotes about one person.
I can't imagine typing so many words in a futile effort to disguise the fact that I had nothing to actually say. It's deranged.
SNEED
Been waiting for a while for a paperback with new cover art to hit the streets before finally taking the plunge to buy / read this bad boy … there’s just something about the current windows 95 screensaver looking edition that I find very off putting
Get the 20th anniversary addition. I like this cover.
It's the most mid-90s book ever written, embrace the aesthetic and cheap hardbacks. At least they won't snap in half on the second read.
I despise hardback fiction.
>ypepo and their society are so WEIRD right XD???
: the book
It's a good book. Engaging plot, interesting themes. Worth a read. People sperg out about it way too much.
I love this cover so much.
i don't like that cover so much since the family depicted there isn't even in the book, i don't know what were they trying to convey
That family may not be in the book but that is the family the book is about.