Year: 2009

We here at the I.S.anctuary are happy to serve as the Infinite Summer hub. But we also know that the most interesting and insightful analysis will come from Out There, as participants provide updates on their own sites. Thus, for the duration of the event, we’ll be cheerfully providing links to any commentary that comes to our attention.

For now, here are some of the people and organizations who have publicly declared themselves “in”.

Alison Flood of The Guardian’s “Book Blog” says that Infinite Jest “has been on my reading pile for ages … This is exactly the sort of prompt I need.”

Sean of Discover Magazine’s “Cosmic Variance” blog wrote “I once read through Gravity’s Rainbow with a real-world reading group, and it added a lot to the experience … I’m going to give [Infinite Summer] a shot.”

Ezra Klein, a blogger for The Washington Post (on economic and domestic policy, no less), titled his declaration of intent A Supposedly Fun Thing I Plan to Do This Summer. Margaret Lyons did likewise over at Entertainment Weekly in her post To “Infinite” … and beyond!. (We’re pleased as punch for the press, though mildly irked that we didn’t think of those titles first.)

Two thousand people have joined the Facebook group. (Actually we’re three shy, at 1997 members. Don’t make us beg.) On Twitter, about a zillion tweets a day go by containing the hashtag #infsum.

Lauren created a LiveJournal Community. Sarah created a Infinite Summer Shelfari group. Ellen created a page on goodreads.

Deborah started a discussion on Ravelry, a website devoted to knit and crochet. “You have to be a member to participate,” she notes. “But we’d love to see you there!”

Over in the Twin Cities, a local group that enjoys both reading lit and getting lit is joining the fun. See the discussion over at Books and Bars.

And many of you are here today after Colin Meloy of The Decemberists publicized the event. “I’m going for it,” he wrote. “Who’s with me?”

Here’s a random sampling of additional participants:

• C. K. Sample of Sample the Web (“I’ll probably even talk at length about the book and the process of reading it on my literature podcast, Let’s Talk Lit!“).
• Eric of The Puget News.
• Nichole and Mike of esmon dot com.
• Karen of verbatim.
• Jason of The Strake (although he writes, “the reading starts on June 21st and the idea is to read 7 pages per day,” so he may be thinking of our sister event, “Infinite Lustrum”).
• Kirsten of Now or Never.
• Mary-Lynn of Rockin’ Poncho.
• Greg of Greg Brown.
• Joni of Boxing Octopus.
• Miriam will be blogging about Infinite Summer in Italian. Javier with be doing so in Spanish.
• Kat of Kat with a K.
• Jen of Corrodentia Weekly.

If you intend to join in the festivities, feel free to mention your site in the comments.

So hey, what are you up to this summer?

Oh yeah? Enjoying a novel? Well crazy coincidence: that’s our plan as well.

Four writers who have never before read Infinite Jest will do so for the duration of Infinite Summer. And each will be posting here weekly, not only to report on their thoughts and progress, but also to promote and facilitate discussion.

Here is our schedule, and an introduction to the Guides.

Monday: Matthew Baldwin is the thinker-upper and editor of Infinite Summer. Between his gigs as a blogger at defective yeti and a contributing writer for The Morning News, he has bestowed upon the Internet such 20-minute sensations as The IKEA Walkthrough, The 30 Least Hot Follow-ups to the 30 Hottest Things You Can Say to a Naked Woman, and The Definitive Solution to the 12-13 Man Problem. In his spare time he writes about whatever damn-fool thing enters his head, including but not limited to board game reviews, parental advice, crime fiction, and screenplays for NBC’s “The Office”. He lives in Seattle with his wife, his son, and a handful of good-for-nothing cats.

Tuesday: Eden M. Kennedy, like millions of other terrifyingly average children in the United States, learned to read when she was in the first grade. Growing up as she did in the Great Era of Burt Reynolds Movies, she hoped someday to become a long-haul truck driver. Now, as an adult, she enjoys short fuel-efficient drives to work and back while she listens to her phone, which is full of music. Eden is the proud author of the blogs yogabeans!, where her son’s action figures demonstrate the intricacies of ashtanga yoga, and Fussy, where she writes angry open letters to Justin Timberlake and chronicles her daily life. Her newest website Let’s Panic About Babies (co-authored with Alice Bradley) will be launching soon. She lives in Southern California.

Wednesday: Kevin Guilfoile’s bestselling debut novel Cast of Shadows–called “gripping” by the New York Times and one of the Best Books of 2005 by the Chicago Tribune and Kansas City Star–has been translated into more than 15 languages. He was the co-author (with John Warner) and illustrator of the #1 bestseller My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook by George W. Bush. Guilfoile is a co-founder and commissioner of The Morning News Tournament of Books, and his essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Salon, and McSweeney’s. His second novel, The Thousand, will be published next year by Alfred A. Knopf.

Thursday: Avery Edison is a barely-twenty-something student of Comedy Writing at a university in England, which must be very hard because “university” sounds more intelligent than “college”. When not deeply engaged in her studies or the collection of gold coins in the dinosaur world, she writes a few web–comics and submits things to McSweeney’s. They get rejected. Avery feels very sad for the e-mail system at McSweeney’s HQ, which she assures herself is broken. Although ostensibly on board to provide a younger generation’s perspective on “Infinite Jest”, Avery is — in truth — only here to make sure the adults use appropriate slang, like “awesome”. Avery has been watching the MTV and thinks she’s supposed to be into the word “awesome”. Oh, and also some whiny vampires or something. Avery maintains a tumblog which features photoshopped pictures of the guy from “The Shawshank Redmption”, and thousand-word diatribes against Proprosition 8. When asked about this lack of focus, she simply mumbles “niche audience” and cries a single tear.

Friday is our wildcard slot. We’ve got a few experts on Infinite Jest and David Foster Wallace lined up to provide background information and analysis, and we’ll feature some guest Guides as well. If you’re reading the novel for the first time and would like to become a commentator, be sure to drop us a line. (Well, drop us a line in a month or so–the first few Fridays are booked solid.)

The Guides will be encouraging everyone to join in the conversation. But if an unmoderated free-for-all is more to your liking, the forums will be open for this very purpose. Like we said: however you want to spend your summer is A-OK by us.

And now, at long last, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. We’re pleased to unveil:

• …

Nah, we’re just yanking your chain. There ain’t no rules. Read Infinite Jest, start around June 21st (if you want), finish around September 22nd (if you want), gloat about having completed the novel afterward (required).

Okay! Mailbag!

From: Jesse
To: info@infinitesummer.org
Date: June 1, 2009

Shoot ... I already started the book cuz I though this was gonna start TODAY, not in 20 days. I imagine I already broke the rules.

No worries. Our original plan for June 21st–testing participants for the IJ antibodies, to ensure that no one had premature exposure to the novel–proved too expensive. So you’re totally in the clear.

From: Phillip A.
To: info@infinitesummer.org
Date: June 2, 2009

Do I need to just do 75 pages/week? I could probably read it faster...

Go nuts, Mr. A. You can think of us as a pacecar: you can leave us in the dust, but it’s probably best not to fall behind.

Indeed, some Infinite Jest veterans assure us that 75 pages a week is downright lackadaisical, and that the novel is so engrossing that you will blaze through it in record time. You’ll get no objection from us if you do. We here at I.S. Headquarters, however, will be sticking to our schedule, and moderating the discussion accordingly.

That said, even if you are ahead of the pack you should feel free to join the conversation. All we ask is that you adhere to the Inficratic Oath: First, Reveal No Spoilers. So, apparently, there is at least one rule.

From: Samantha
To: info@infinitesummer.org
Date: June 2, 2009

I wanted to send a note to say that I think this project is AMAZING and am hoping to get a lot of my friends reading IJ along with you this summer.

But against my better judgment I also wanted to say that, in the Infinite Summer sidebar, the footnote to footnote 1 should be marked as 'a' and not '2', in true David Wallace Foster style.

Thanks, and fixed!

That’s just one of many great suggestions we have already received. Here’s another: “Maybe you should have activated the forums before you announced them.” Yeah, well … you know. Hindsight, and so forth.

If you’ve got comments or criticism or complaints, send them to info@infinitesummer.org, mention them in this thread, or propose them in the forums-that-we-totally-turned-on-this-time.