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July 2009

The Archives

• Guests

  Matt Earp: Standing Witness

  07.31.09 | Permalink | 20 Comments

  Matt Earp lives in San Francisco and creates electronic music under the name Kid Kameleon. The Basics ’97: I’m 18, a freshman at Wesleyan in Connecticut. My best friend gets me to read A Supposedly Fun Thing. I go to see DFW speak at the Harvard Film Archive. I fall in love. ’99: Coming back [...]

• Avery Edison

  I Am Not Enjoying this Book

  07.30.09 | Permalink | 122 Comments

  (Note: This post was not a reaction to Kevin’s post from yesterday, but works in tandem with it, I think. Although it’s safe to say that we each draw very different conclusions.) I am not enjoying Infinite Jest. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not going to quit. I’m going to read the whole thing [...]

• Kevin Guilfoile

  Cause I Got the Real Love, The Kind That You Need

  07.29.09 | Permalink | 26 Comments

  When I started writing my second novel,54 I imagined it would be structured like a teraktys, an ancient Pythagorean symbol that plays a role in the story. Specifically, the second section would be twice as long as the first, the third three times as long as the first, and the final section four times as [...]

• Eden M. Kennedy

  P.S. Allston Rules

  07.28.09 | Permalink | 7 Comments

  I have to admit, I had doubts that I would reach the point where I’d have the privilege of telling you that I have finally, really started loving this book. Speaking as a somewhat emotionally stunted adult, a lot of the ETA scenes are my favorites, how the gravely serious roots of an Eschaton scenario [...]

• Matthew Baldwin

  The Bully Pulpit

  07.27.09 | Permalink | 25 Comments

  A few weeks ago I was speaking to a journalist and struggling to explain how a novel so revered by people who have read it could also be so off-putting for those wading through it for the first time. I mentioned the length of course, and the endnotes, and the 84¢-words, and the sentences that [...]

• Elsewhere Jest

  Roundup

  07.26.09 | Permalink | 12 Comments

  Gerry Canavan continues to crank out stellar essays on the novel. Ditto for Paul Debraski, The Feminist Texican, and Aaron Riccio. In the Crossover Event of 2009, Andrew of Blographia Literaria posts on Scott’s Conversational Reading, about DFW’s habitual use of parenthetical names in many of his (Wallace’s) more convoluted sentences. Ray of “Love, Your [...]

• Summaries

  Infinite Summery – Week 5

  07.25.09 | Permalink | 15 Comments

  Milestone Reached: 369 (37%) Chapters Read: Page 306: An overview of the prorectors’ weekend courses (including “The Toothless Predator: Breast-Feeding as Sexual Assault”!), plus a description of some anti-O.N.A.N. activity by the separatists (mirrors across the road). This section includes the 14 112 17-page “endnote 110″, a conversation between Hal and Orin regarding the true [...]

• Guests, Guides

  Michael Wendling: Good Old Wireless

  07.24.09 | Permalink | 10 Comments

  Michael Wendling is a writer and producer. He is currently producing From Our Own Correspondent for the BBC World Service, and is working on a novel. Pretty much every form of media gets slammed in IJ, even the forms that don’t actually exist. The students at Enfield T.A. and the addicts at Ennet House mong [...]

• Guests, Guides

  Andrew Womack: Love

  07.23.09 | Permalink | 22 Comments

  Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. I grew up in a tennis household, amidst gleaming trophies of miniature champions immortalized in mid-serve. In my house, tennis dominated our television viewing, closets were stuffed with retired racquets, and the hampers always reeked. To this day, my father is a tremendous player, with [...]

• Guests, Guides

  infinitedetox: Waving the White Flag: Reading as Rehabilitation

  07.22.09 | Permalink | 45 Comments

  infinitedetox is blogging about addiction and Infinite Jest at infinitedetox.wordpress.com. My name is infinitedetox and I am an addict. Some time around May, 2004, I willfully entered into a relationship with pharmaceutical opiates. It began as a sort of experiment, quickly escalated into a recreation, and from there vectored toward present-day dependency on a straight [...]

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the challenge

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages¹ ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

1. Plus endnotes^a.
a. A lot of them.

The Sponsors

The Queue

In October we are reading Bram Stoker's Dracula in October. See the announcement.

In January & February of 2010 we are reading 2666, the paperback of which was just released.

At some point in between we are reading a novel TBD.

The Search

The Last 10 Posts

• Infinite Index
• Acknowledgements
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part IV
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part II
• Summer’s End Roundtable, Part I
• The End
• Roundup
• Greg Carlisle: Reading Infinite Jest Changed My Life (and Now It Will Change Yours)
• Mission Improbable

The Last 10 Comments

• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Mission Improbable: Ooh, I’m thinking maybe Gately’s ginormous head has to do...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on I Got This Fire In My Heart, Won’t Let Me Sleep, Can’t Concentrate…: Nucks...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III: I just realized that Mario reminds me a bit of Owen...
• Pemulis' Yachting Cap on Summer’s End Roundtable, Part III: I’m finished! I’d started last summer...
• Tao Joannes on Infinite Index: So, are we doing it again this summer as an official thing? I’ve got some...
• Melissa on Infinite Index: Thanks, Matthew. I was keeping pace with y’all last year up until August, when I had...
• Peer on Acknowledgements: Thanks for the link. I will check it out. I was just hoping for some announcements here...
• Prolixian on Acknowledgements: Peer – if you are interested in 2666, check out bolanobolano.com. A group read...
• Peer on Acknowledgements: When will we start the new book?
• Todeswalzer on Acknowledgements: RIP Infinite Summer. It was great while it lasted.

The Directory