Comments on: How Did I Get Here?

By: Mrs. Kennedy

Mrs. Kennedy — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:28:12 +0000

If you’ve read any John Hodgman recently you might agree that the judicious use of footnotes and endnotes can be used to quite a humorous effect. So don’t fling your baggage at me! I’m just having fun.

By: Janey

Janey — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:45:05 +0000

I happened to read “Shipping Out” when it was published in Harper’s a couple of years or so before Infinite Jest was published. (Shipping Out was later re-named A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again when it was republished in somewhat expanded form in the eponymous book of essays.) I remember it vividly. I had never read anything like it. I was flying home from a business trip & had picked up the Harper’s in the airport and I spent a good part of the flight literally laughing out loud as I read the essay, to the consternation of my fellow travelers. I immediately sent copies to my best friends, one of whom remembered well enough to follow up a couple of years later by sending me an LA Times interview with DFW shortly before IJ was published. I bought IJ on its release date, which happened to be during a very busy time in my work schedule, but even on days when I was working crazy hours, I would still get in some reading before I fell asleep at night and just when I arose in the morning. I remember I even dragged that massive hardcover with me on a plane when I was going to a deal closing, on the theory that I would have several uninterrupted hours for reading. I couldn’t get enough of it.

A few years later, at a time when I was very depressed, I picked it up again for a whole host of reasons. In large part, I remembered with how much gentleness the topic of addiction/depression is held by DFW.

I think it was Jay MacInerney who reviewed it for the NY Times on its release, saying you’ll hate DFW by the end for being a genius and for not letting you skip a single word. That’s definitely how I feel.

On this day when so many people are feeling overwhelmed by the loss of a generation’s icon, I’m still harboring great sadness for our loss last September. The world is a harder place to live in after DFW’s death.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:01:46 +0000

Matthew, I hope you continue to do the “words I looked up” part of your posts!

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:40:10 +0000

Wikipedia does that too, right? Not a bad idea.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:02:43 +0000

I was an English major at Chico State until I dropped out and I used to smoke a lot of pot.

Do I have a chance in hell of finishing this novel?

By: Kate Andrews

Kate Andrews — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:43:11 +0000

So happy to find out about this (through Let’s Panic About Babies)! I received a copy for Christmas, and have been avoiding it.
Of course, it’s going to be an Infinite Winter for me here in Sydney, but I figure that will help.

By: Anthony Cooper

Anthony Cooper — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:28:51 +0000

Please rest assured it is worth it.

For what it is worth, reading this novel a few years ago took me back to when my brain got stretched reading novels I was not quite ready for, the first of these brain stretching novels Crime and Punishment.

Now, prompted to re-read IJ so I can relive my college days through discussion here, this second time is much breezier. Granted it’s been a good five or six year since, but it is going so much easier this time.

With fiction, the feeling that my brain is being stretched, and the near orgasmic pleasure of sudden, hard earned realizations, it rarely happens anymore.

By: Ilene

Ilene — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:48:38 +0000

I purchased the book two months ago and I am just hanging on. I believe myself to be reasonably intelligent, yet I am having a difficult time getting through the book! I am fascinated by the novel: so many delightful, horrifying, raw, humorous and insightful characters but at the same time I am so frustrated by the complexity of the writing. And I keep picking it up and soldiering on. Amazing writer – yet tortuous! Would somebody please assure me that this arduous journey is worth the pain?

By: Steph

Steph — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:41:26 +0000

wholeheartedly agreed.

By: Infinite Jest as the source of all (of my) fiction « pura pinche agua (DFW and sailing)

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:32:31 +0000

[...] at Infinite Summer, the guides are telling us about where they got to Infinite Jest [IJ] (here, here). This post is about where IJ got [...]