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No. 4815
Anonymous
4th October 2012 Thursday 12:50 am
4815
Finished Infinite Jest a couple of weeks ago and really fucking enjoyed it. I can understand why a lot of people don't, it's pretty hard going in a lot of places and it probably took me until about a third in to start really enjoying it but I honestly thought some of the prose was just beautiful. Haven't enjoyed reading a book that much for a while.
I get that people find him pretentious and whatnot but I liked it, the ending is I guess unsatisfying but that seems pretty intentional and it didn't personally take away from the book as a whole for me.
Have only skimmed the link in >>4707 but will read it properly at some point, all seemed a bit immature and personal on a first skim though.
Also I'd really disagree that he had contempt for mankind, I mean on one level I'm sure he does just as much as any reasonably intelligent person does, but to say that's all there is too him is just a bit blinkered I think. His writing strikes me as intensely humane, he seems to feel deeply for people and the general mess that humans are or can be and in my opinion articulates that really well. Even just hearing him in interviews he seems to genuinely give a shit about people and wants to try and communicate quite subtle and complex ideas about what it is to be a human being living on the planet Earth at this time.
Anyway it's obviously all pretty subjective, especially with a writer like Wallace. I get that he's going to alienate a lot of people with his style but I think if you enjoy that type of writing then he really is fucking great. If anyone is thinking about reading some and is a bit daunted by Infinite Jest then I'd recommend some of his collected essays, a lot easier to get into and just really well done.
Anyways sorry for the long rambling post, been meaning to write something about it here for ages and could only just now be arsed.
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