Infinitely Jesty

Tl;Dr: It ain’t for everybody, what’s in it for me?

A friend who reads was asking what I’d been reading. It’s been a while since I’ve been through Infinite Jest, but it’s something I return to regularly. I mentioned it to my friend, he read it.

Last time we met one of the first things out of his mouth was how frustrated (mad?) the book made him. It’s all over the place, the story arc’s seem only vaguely related, there’s no closure, and… well… It’s huge.

On further discussion, he found some parts more enjoyable – Erdedy and the bug for example. The tennis parts seem believable and accurate. The prose is skillful. But his reaction is pretty common – frustration.

And I’ve been there – I gave up around page 300 on the first time because: WTF is it just a collection of disconnect short stories?

Man – there are so many thing I like about it. It has the most palpable descriptions of depression I’ve ever read. The politics stuff is hilarious (You know how Idiocracy seems more and more real every day? It’s like that). The depiction of addiction is… Wow. And recover – I’ve never been to A.A. but I feel like I know it well.

And the mystery of the tennis academy – what is happening with all the super natural stuff? The film elements and Mario. The ethical posture of the school – educating these athletes to survive the big show.

Gately is a great character (So is Hal, The Darkness, and Pemulis). (Oh and so many more).

I love the technological innovation – he’s basically describing YouTube and Zoom Meetings. Plus the annular fusion stuff is hilarious.

I was hoping in writing this that I’d come to some concise summary of what I find so compelling. No luck.