“Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace
September 5, 2010
I purchased this book in 2007, after reading on a blog that his writing is the “voice of an* generation.” I added this novel to my bookshelf, and there it sat for 3 years. I tried picking it up several times. And, I was never afforded the opportunity to just sit down in order to plow through all of the overly descriptive scenes. This summer (2010), I started working a job that put the Internet at my fingertips, with a web filter that was more like an Iron Curtain. So, what could I do on a 12-hour shift except to at least try and read this monster of a story just sitting on my to-do list?
That being said, “Infinite Jest” is not an easy book to read. Too much is the best way to sum it up.
I just needed to keep plowing through the pages one at a time, and I discovered the part that really got to me about reading this book is I have fought with my own demons over several addictions in my past. The first person accounts of the characters and their differing battles with various substances tended to be too similar to my own misadventures when I was a mid-twenties Generation X’er through the early 90s. Way before, I became a husband and a father. If my responsibilities hadn’t kept me sober I could of just as easily been one of the many addicts in this novel. It pained me to read all these tails of addiction.
So, let’s see what we learned… Mr. Wallace had a grasp on the psyche of a millennial Politically Correct and overly medicated nation of addicts, and every scenario that the main characters encountered were enough to keep me tuned in through out the entire novel. Several stories were running parallel with each other like flipping the channels on a TV, and the next episode was always 20 to 30 pages away from where each story left off. Paragraphs would tend to cover 3 or 4 pages at a time, and it just seemed like there was never a break in the length/depth of each characterization. Gradually each tale of woe, made me feel less inclined to care about the characters as “good” people. Deep down I just had a need just to see what happened to them next. It was like rubbernecking at a highway pile-up, the deeper each character got the more I had to read. The novel itself became addictive by about page 200.
SHORT SUMMARY: Most of the story takes place in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (YDAU), several years after the Organization of North American Nations (ONAN) allows sponsorship of years. This is explained briefly that somewhere around the turn of the century television just becomes so saturated with the 1000’s of channels, that consumers just start DVR-ing out all the ads. Eventually, the 4 major networks collapse, and all forms of “entertainment” are now delivered via TP. Scarily similar to current HDTVs, and Internet streaming media. In order to balance the budget, and continuing the advertising corporations now sponsor industry years through the government.
Anyways, there are three main plots in this 1000+ page novel. 1)The Family Incandenza, 2)The Ennett Rehab Center, and 3)a fringe terrorist cell of wheel chaired assassins. Slightly interwoven over top of each other, so it feels like the reader is playing the Kevin Bacon Game.
SPOILER: Infinite Jest is the name of an unpublished “entertainment” piece created by James Incadenza that upon viewing makes the viewer give up everything to watch it until they succumb to being amused to death.
That was Infinite Jest; this book is a very long story. Each plot element places the reader in a part of the story that is so descriptive, and yet I felt just empty at the same time. The more I read the book the more I just wanted it to end. It was insanity. Life is not easy, and after reading this book I found my head full of the ideas of David Foster Wallace. It seems almost unfair the author took his own life in 2008. We will never get to see what else could have been in store for the many rich characters I was just introduced to. What a waste of talented and descriptive writing. It passed the time of my current menial job, and I feel literary richer for doing it. Yet, the emptiness from getting to the end makes me feel like I was just “Waiting for Godot.” Not like all the literary Hamletting that this book has been compared to by so many other critics I have read. Comparing Wallace to Shakespeare just seems so overrated.
Posted at: 08:28 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| 
| 
del.icio.us
Following BLIND!
July 11, 2010
The hardest part about going VIRAL is you need "blind" followers. People that know you, or "OF"you will gladly take the time to click a "LIKE" button. These same people are happy to know you are, OKAY and still alive.
What I bring to the Internet is the ability to keep learning, and to not have a fear of learning more. I have been on-line for a longtime, since the time of mIRC, FTP, and free NAPSTER. There is no shortage of people in the on-line world, and along with that comes accountability. I like Facebook, but I love BUZZ. It has the "blind"!!! If they take the time to get this far, and read an Anonymous Blog, then perhaps they will start to see the REAL me.
"Drops in the bucket..." is a survival guide for me! I am trying to MAKE MONEY - this morning, I shared a story with my wife about a LOCAL Teachers Union. In summary, the district overpaid unionized teachers, and now the district needs the money returned (we are talking about tens of thousands of dollars). My 9-yr-old overheard the conversation and chimed in with MONEY CAN'T BUY LOVE.
Well, for a 9-yr-old, that is nice but by age 10 my father stopped giving me an allowance, and I was given a Paper Route for my 11th Birthday. I can't do that to my kid so I need to make a plan for her????
First step assessment - I told her the next time she is REALLY HAPPY, and it is the BEST day of HER LIFE to ask me how much it costs. In a matter of seconds this precocious child said to me, "How much does the tire swing cost?" UGH - If Daddy could get paid to swing on the tire swing ALL DAY I probably wouldn't have to worry so much about money.
Tags:
money tire swing drops
Posted at: 07:33 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| | del.icio.us
Powerball $252 Million!
April 21, 2010
Oh what I would do? The lives that would change - I could make the world different with the turn of a page.
The beutiful tale of dragons and queens - seems pale in comparison, but more than a dream.
As, pen goes to paper, and Dark into dawn - none of my thoughts are going according to plan.
First Off - Annuity rule #1 at age 37, plus 20 thats only 57 :-) I can retire!!!
So, that leaves payday #1 - for 12.5 million, Amazing. who's with ME!
Funny thoughts I had this week. Peeps in the microwave & Anti-freeze on an Engine fire, always use adult supervision and SAFETY FIRST.
Posted at: 03:39 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| | del.icio.us
Happy Birthday to me!
April 19, 2010
The night of the ride of Paul Revere, April 18, 1775... http://poetry.eserver.org/paul-revere.html Google yersef: "The shot heard around the world."
So, this drop in the bucket has made me realize, I can hear what I want.
The red ball is bouncing, and I think I might need to get a job ASAP.
<---- Sory for the buzz kill, but my life is a bit on edge at the moment.
In the past year, I began a sort of SPIRITUAL journey that has not completed its course. This means I need to re-evaluate my Current Goals. And SEE what I see. Amazing -
http://www.pgatour.com/2010/tournaments/r012/04/19/davis-emails/index.html
WELP - - anyways: 4/19 is Timothy McVeigh Day (1995), and perhaps the official start of the Revolutionary War (1775). No matter what the poets may tell ya.
Talk to ya tomorrow...
Tags:
random thoughts drops in the bucket
Posted at: 06:59 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| | del.icio.us
Speed Week
February 9, 2010
Daytona Countdown
Speed, 200 M.P.H.
Valentine’s Day, too.
I wish there was a way to say, it’s easier to live ONE DAY at a TIME. But, the real world keeps getting in the way. I want to make everybody all better.
Give the kid’s the remote, keep’em fed, clean and happy.
It really isn’t too difficult, and making it easier for others is the hard part.
God grant me the SERENITY to
accept the things I cannot change
COURAGE to change the things I can
and WISDOM to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things
right if I surrender to His Will
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen
Breathe In the good, and Out the bad – “OM”
The money talk is coming soon…
Posted at: 06:34 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| | del.icio.us
