Comments on: That’s Entertainment

By: Schtitt on Two Worlds (vs. Buddhism) « Infinite Tasks, Infinite Summers, & Philosophy

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:24:43 +0000

[...] evacuation of the self and its desires is sometimes seen by readers as a uniquely Buddhist vibe or Zen moment, since the post-AA self is now better imagined as a contrivance of external [...]

By: Holy Schtitt, a Revenant! « Infinite Tasks, Infinite Summers, & Philosophy

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:52:31 +0000

[...] ranking is achieved). For these problems, ETA has its very own Dr. Delores Rusk, M.S. Ph.D., though anyone with any sense goes to see Lyle (p. 437). But when Hal says “The human head, sir,” there is something [...]

By: InternetJake

InternetJake — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:43:25 +0000

I randomly read and loved Postman’s book a few months before I started IJ and was delighted to see the connections right away. I love when that happens. I also read a ton of Donald Barthelme in the interim and noticed a lot of parallels to Postman’s ideas.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:52:36 +0000

Another Zen association I think of is the simple Zen art of Enso (the painted circle), w/r/t DFW’s placement of “annular” all over the novel.

By: stephanie

stephanie — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:40:23 +0000

I’m glad you guys will read Postman’s book! And Lonita, I’m glad you brought up the topic to begin with, because the more I think about it, the more sure I am that DFW must have been directly influenced by Postman.

By: Joan

Joan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:36:29 +0000

I’m definitely feeling the pull – I find it hard to put the book down, I’m ahead of schedule and very attached to it. When friends or colleagues ask me what I’m doing this summer I start to gush on about the book and Infinite Summer and then realize that they just want to go back to watching their reality tv shows so I stop! I also want to thank Stephanie for posting the cartoon – I’m adding the Postman book to my list. And another big thanks to Matthew for adding the most recent comments sidebar to the main page that brought me back to this conversation after I’d originally read it!

By: Lonita

Lonita — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:10:48 +0000

Stephanie: I don’t know that I’d characterise my attachment in quite that way, but I am oddly pulled, compelled. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t want to admit that I’m sucked in.

I was talking with a coworker recently, one who’s opinion of reality TV is about as forgiving as my own (read: nearly nil), and he observed that he found it interesting that all the others we work with who are devotees of the “reality” style are completely compelled by them but tend also to make excuses for their adoration.

There was something I wanted to say in regards to Plato, but it’s a half-formed thought. It’ll keep.

Thank you also for posting that link to the item on “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. That was, in fact, the very thing that had prompted my comment. I’m now more interested than I had been in reading that book after I’m finished IJ.

By: dioramaorama

dioramaorama — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:48:56 +0000

thanks for posting the enlightening/terrifying cartoon!

By: stephanie

stephanie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:43:11 +0000

One last thing.

“At the heart of Infinite Jest is an entertainment so alluring that people are literally unable to pull themselves away.”

Does anyone else feel that same kind of pull toward the book itself? Because I definitely do. I guess it’s different, for obvious reasons, but I do feel irrationally attached to it, as if it’s a person.

By: stephanie

stephanie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:33:13 +0000

Don’t forget to mention Second Life, where people abandon everything in their actual life to live in a simulated world and spend real money on simulated products for their simulated person, and even commit simulated crimes…