Infinite Summer

I'm definitely in! I'll mull over these ideas and come back with some concrete thoughts but just wanted to say let's go for it. Bravo to you Matthew for putting this all together - it has been a fantastic experience.
Joan

I've added another post here that I also put in the main post comment section.

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Forget your troubles, c'mon, get happy...
-Leland Palmer

In spite of having posted only twice before, I love IS and many times a day I visit it with various needs and curiosities about IJ and DFW. When I suggested IJ to my book group, three others agreed to read it as a "summer break" novel and here, at the end of August, I am the only one who has (happily) stuck with it! That is what led me here: no one I know was remotely interested in reading it. I am attracted to the idea of taking on challenging, "always-meant-to-read" books that I will probably (yeah, right... definitely) never get to unless challenged/supported by some external force. I like the idea of continuing, but as a member in a long-standing, friendly, book group that reads good, literary novels/pieces (and I read a lot on my own) I honestly would not continue with more of the same in this space. So, my suggestion is that the master plan must go beyond a "book club" approach when choosing texts...* I'm not sure WHAT it looks like... maybe one great, "quirky", "always-meant-to-read" "masterpiece" each summer? One, too, in the winter, perhaps? Maybe the Tunnel Club is called to assemble when there is good reason, ie a book can no longer be ignored... All I know is that I came here because it offered something I couldn't find anywhere else at a time when I needed it most. Can the momentum live on?


*In an effort to make a point, gently: With all due respect, think Oprah for titles like The Kite Runner and Beloved.

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Brookline, MA

However things go forward, I definitely think the content on this site should remain DFW and Infinite Jest focused as a kind of rolling database of information about IJ and his other works.

My love and understanding of this book has been greatly amplified by the discussions this website, and I'd hate to see it get muddled by attempts to do the same in the future on the same platform. Right now, my girlfriend is planning on reading IJ next summer and it would be great to archive it in a way that would allow future readers to somehow follow along with the flow of these posts and discussions retroactively, even if it's just navigating to the first posts and starting there.

So basically, I would definitely support another Infinite Summer-ish reading again, but just do it at a different url and leave this one to continue to grow as it is.

// Jason

I would *love* it if the book was JR, as I've started it a few times and always really like it but never stick with it.

2666 or Gravity's Rainbow is also good.

To stick with DFW, we could read Thomas Harris' Red Dragon as a palate cleanser and then JR or Broom of the System.

The title of this thread is kind of deceptive. I thought it was going to be about another book reading site started based on William Gass's The Tunnel. In fact I'm going to push for The Tunnel as the next book to get the IS treatment.

We need a poll based on the options you've given us matthewbaldwin in order for this to get anywhere.

Please consider reading Brother's Karamazov. It's not post-modern, but it is related to IJ. In fact, Timothy Jacobs argues in his article Brothers Incandenza that "Infinite Jest is patterned so meticulously after Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov that ..it is a rewriting or figurative translation of The Brothers Karamazov into the contemporary idiom or context."

In addition,DFW has spoken and written about BK in ways that make the book and characters seem like ones we will all live with forever, much like those in IJ. I would be happy to email you more arguments and details in favor of BK but please at least consider this book that many say is the best novel ever written.