You’ve been meaning to do it for over a decade. Now join endurance bibliophiles from around the web as we tackle and comment upon David Foster Wallace’s masterwork over the summer of 2009. The festivities begin on June 21st and run through September 22nd.
Until then, attend to your to do list:
- Buy or borrow the novel. To find or provide tips on copies in local bookstores, visit the forums.
- Follow us on Twitter, and see what others are tweeting.
- Join the Facebook group.
- Check out Infinite Tumblr. (We may not do anything with that, but urging people to “check out” your newly created Tumblr is required by federal and municipal law.)
- Bookmark this site, or subscribe to the XML feed.
- Finish or abandon all books, hobbies, and/or relationships before June 21st.
Tomorrow: The rules.
I thought nothing could make me attempt reading this book again…I was WRONG! Gimmicks get me every time! I got the book today and I am in. Please excuse me if my comments are all negative since I’ve read 1/8 of the book before and hated it, but I’m wondering if having a group to talk about it with may change things. I hope others join!
I’m so excited to read this book and to share the experience with the Infinite Summer community. 🙂
shoot… I already started it cuz I though this ish was gonna start TODAY, not in 20 days… I imagine I already broke the rules.
BUT: to redeem, a story:
I was at a sake bar reading the tome when the bartender (hot lady in hot pants) was like, “I just started reading that too!” So I tells her about the website and how now we HAVE TO DO IT.
She’s all about it. AND gave me her number (you know to keep up on reading OF COURSE).
Already, this project is paying off.
and, hrm, she will likely read this comment. I am awesome.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. I’m in!
Looking forward to reading it for the second time, and I’ll be interested tosee how the experience differs with you lot watching me!
I’m so glad I found Infinite Summer! I bought Infinite Jest the summer I graduated high school (’03) intending to read the whole thing. 6 years later and I still haven’t got past the second chapter! That changes this summer 09..
Only in italian, at this moment. I traslate later, if aided.
Avrei voglia, ora che posso rileggerlo con calma, di fare due o tre liste, da arrichire insieme.
1) i personaggi, man mano che compaiono. Prima una semplice lista in ordine di apparizione, poi commentarli.
2) gli acronimi, di cui è pieno il libro.
3) gli anni sponsorizzati, in modo da fare una mappa cronologica.
4) i luoghi, con delle bandierine su google maps.
Anni sponsorizzati: (sponsorized years)
Inizia a pagina 9 con l’ANNO DI GLAD (deodorante?)
Poi a pag. 29 l’ANNO DEL PANNOLONE PER ADULTI DEPEND
Pag. 41: ANNO DEI CEROTTI MEDICATI TUCKS
Pag. 54: ANNO DELLA SAPONETTA DOVE IN FORMATO PROVA
Qualcuno ha provato stabilire l’ipotetica corrispondenza con gli anni “normali?
Personaggi (characters):
Charles Tavis; zio di Hal.
Aubrey F. de Lint; prorettore E.T.A.
Harold Incandenza; il soggetto principale. Non narra con l’io, viene raccontato da narratore esterno onnisciente.
Tavis
Orin Incandenza; fratello maggiore di Hal.
Erdedy
Mario Incandenza; fratello dalla testa grande. L’operatore alla macchina da presa. Dai grandi dialoghi.
Principe Q____; Ministro saudita dell’Home Entertainment; mangia esclusivamente Toblerone.
Acroimi (acronyms);
C’è ua piccola difficoltĂ supplementare: gli acronimi sono tradotti in italiano; bisognerebbe fare anche una tabella di corrispondenza con la versione inglese. qualcuno lo sta leggendo in inglese?
O.N.A.N.C.A.A.
E.T.A : Enfield Tennis Academy, Enfield, Massachusetts. Fondata da Lui in Persona.
Luoghi (places);
Enfield, Massachusetts. Sede dell’E.T.A.
Weston, Boston. Prima casa, infanzia di Hal Incandenza e della famiglia.
Québec. Regione del Canada.
This book has great rewards. Dive in. DFW said “Fiction’s about what it is to be a f—— human being,” and good writing should help readers to “become less alone inside.” For me, this book made clear what he meant.
This wiki will help define some of the words that DFW:
http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com
I wish I had it when I was reading IJ. Now I occasionally contribute to it because it gives me a chance to open part of the book and dive back in.
I hope you enjoy the book.
I’m in. I’m hoping I can man up to this.
I don’t know. I just don’t think reading a book should be a “challenge.” It doesn’t make the book any more appealing that people speak about it as if it’s something one should do, but with the undertone that one has been dreading doing it — like eating more fiber, cleaning up the garage or exercising more.
I purchased the 10th anniversary edition about three years ago and have been meaning to get around to reading it, but never could manage to get past the first 30 pages or so. As some above have commented, sometimes it just takes a gimmick. This is a great idea and will get me to finally read the book. I have already started last night, but since there are no rules…
Ok, I find all I need in http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/
tanks.
This is going to make me a better man. Or woman, we’ll see.
@Mario I’ll see what I can do. N.B. I’ve never read the book before, so I don’t have all the background information to translate everything you wrote.
—–
Now that I can read it at my own pace, I’d like to make two or three lists that we can write together.
1) The characters, one by one as they appear. First a simple list in order of appearance, and then commentaries.
2) Acronyms, which the book is full of.
3) The sponsored years, so that we can make a timeline.
4) Settings, with tags on Google Maps.
Sponsored years:
Start on page 9 with GLAD YEAR (deodorant?)
Then p. 29 THE YEAR OF DEPENDS ADULT DIAPERS
p. 41: YEAR OF TUCKS MEDICATED WIPESUCKS
p. 54: YEAR OF TRIAL SIZE DOVE SOAPS
Has anyone tried to establish the hypothetical correspondence with “normal” years?
Characters:
Charles Tavis, Hal’s uncle.
Aubrey F. de Lint, ETA prorector.
Harold Incandenza, the main character. He doesn’t narrate in first person. The story is told by a third person omniscient narrator.
Tavis
Orin Incandenza, Hal’s older brother.
Erdedy
Mario Incandenza, brother with big head. Movie camera operator. Great dialogues.
Prince Q____; Saudi Minister of Home Entertainment; eats nothing but Toblerone.
Acronyms;
There’s another little difficulty: the acronyms are translated into Italian. We would have to make a table of correspondence with the English version. Is anyone reading it in English?
O.N.A.N.C.A.A.
E.T.A : Enfield Tennis Academy, Enfield, Massachusetts. Personally founded by him.
Places;
Enfield, Massachusetts. Site of the E.T.A.
Weston, Boston. Childhood home of Hal Incandenza and his family.
Québec. Region of Canada.
Great idea, this has been in my to read pile for years and i’ve never made it past page 3 in about 4 attempts so looking forward to getting started.
The Daily Splash
Infinite Summer…
Just discovered a great way to pass the summer, which can hopefully happen even when the weather is rubbish as it surely will be in the UK:
Reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, surely one of the least read “must read” books of al…
Lamar’s absolutely right. If you’re about to read IJ out of a sense of obligation, you probably shouldn’t bother. Read it because you’re fascinated by the idea or because you already love it. Or at least spend the next couple of weeks reading Girl With Curious Hair, to get a feel for DFW’s style.
Sto rileggendo il libro in questi giorni. Mi piacerebbe razionalizzare la lettura facendo una versione italiana di http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com. Dovremmo creare un team italiano.
[…] I came across a website named Infinite Summer via a Paste Magazine email. You’ve been meaning to do it for over a decade. Now join endurance bibliophiles from around the web as we tackle and comment upon David Foster […]
Nice! I’m very excited to use this book as something other than a coaster for the water on my nightstand and the object I vaguely wave towards when mentioning wheelchair assassins.
I am so in. This is one of my all time very favorite books which I consider to be excellent and also profound in addition to hilarious. Can’t wait to finish what ever crappy books I’m currently reading so I can dig into IJ again as part of a vast internet community of love for DFW.
Brian Roessler
zellmer_roessler[at]macDOTcom
http://www.brianroessler.com
http://www.fantasticmerlins.com
Well, I’m in but I refuse to abandon my other books for the duration. I can’t get by without around 4 on the go. Seriously, how difficult can this thing be…
I bought the paperback edition, oh, can’t remember when, probably in 1998, thought it looked very literarily cool to carry around such a tome, then gave up reading it after about 200 pages. I just this minute tried to find that paperback and discovered that I must have given it away when I moved the last time. (I probably knew then that I would never read it.) But spurred on by the challenge – I’ve just downloaded the whole shebang into my Kindle.
This book is looking at me from the floor as we speak, and while there is a handy bookmark next to it that I just printed out, I can promise nothing. As one who couldn’t even get through Wuthering Heights, I admit that I doubt my reading stamina.
That being said, let’s do this thing!
Got the first 100 pages down and find them hilarious. Gotta return this copy to the library and buy a new one.
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