Comments on: Marcus Sakey: Decoding Infinite Jest; or, Don’t

By: Infinite Jest – finite « …blah blog blah…

Infinite Jest – finite « …blah blog blah… — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:26:14 +0000

[...] on in the project I read this post by Marcus Sakey: Still, I labored through the rough spots, and found more than enough to tickle me [...]

By: Van

Van — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:37:51 +0000

Marcus – thank you for writing this. I have read IJ twice & my sister is reading it for the first time with this group. I was trying to give her advice about how to read IJ and couldn’t quite put the words together but you said exactly what I was trying to explain. The novel as a whole leaves the reader with an experience that is fulfilling in itself. I have no urge to place the events in order, or focus on connections to Hamlet. Passages such as Kate in the hospital and Erdedy waiting at home for his delivery are so moving that I have no desire to try to dissect any one character, plot, or theme. The poignant descriptions of humanity scattered throughout the novel create a montage of what it is to suffer and survive and they are the passages that I have learned the most from.

By: Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » Through All The Dead Ends And Bad Scenes

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:50:14 +0000

[...] have dropped out already. I was thinking about them as I read my friend Marcus Sakey’s guest essay on [...]

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:25:22 +0000

I love how partway through the book (around 360ish somewhere) DFW mentions anticonfluentalism, which if you pay attention, more or less tells you how the book is going to end (or rather how it isn’t going to end).
The ending felt intentionally the way it was, and I rather liked it that way the first time even as I felt disconcerted by its basic violation of expectation (which DFW points out in his essays, the David Lynch one at least, tends to make people upset)
Plus it allows for a great IJ=IJ theory someone came up with in which people addictively search for a meaningful code with all the answers. Which isn’t any more right than any other way to read the book of course.

By: Robert Sharp » Blog Archive » Infinite Jest and Attempts on Her Life

Robert Sharp » Blog Archive » Infinite Jest and Attempts on Her Life — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:43:59 +0000

[...] I’ve taken the plunge and started reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, using the Infinite Summer blog as a handy pacemaker and reading aide to what I am beginning to understand is a supremely complex book. It’s only annoying if you look at the novel as a code to crack, if you see everything as a clue. – Marcus Sakey: ‘Decoding Infinite Jest; or, Don’t’ [...]

By: Dan Summers

Dan Summers — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:56:03 +0000

Thank you for this post/advice, which is so true that it’s almost heartbreaking. (And I’ll stand by having said that, even though it looks mawkish in the extreme.) I’ve read IJ in full twice (I started it once, and lost it the first time, thus having to start over again). And, as desperate as I may be to know WHAT HAPPENED to a couple of characters I love as truly as friends, I know that’s not the reason to read it, or to think about it, or to love it.

By: ray gunn

ray gunn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:44:37 +0000

It’s a shame your formative years left you with such narrow ideas about genius, but the rest of us are probably in relatively loose agreement about what constitutes genius, and while none of us have his IQ scores in front of us there is little doubt that Wallace qualifies as one.

So I doubt you’ll get anyone to stop using the word, although you’re free to censor yourself any way you like.

By: Marcus Sakey

Marcus Sakey — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:22:14 +0000

I’m psyched by all the comments here, and by how many people are obviously enjoying this book. I’m honestly a little envious–wish I was reading it for the first time.

Hope everyone enjoys!

By: Ann

Ann — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:17:24 +0000

This is my first reading of IJ. I’m glad I decided not to get it on Kindle. Pages 200 to 205 are my
favorites so far. Truth as one-liners. Going to enjoy this book!

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:58:10 +0000

Markus,
Thank you for that post. You wrote what I think.