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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it clocks in at more than a 1000 pages, but Infinite Jest is worth it. Spectacular writing. But it's a difficult book. Your brain will be working.[/quote]
Not worth it. I feel sorry for people who are in denial about how bad it is that they have to convince themselves it was a great work. [/quote]

Ha! Totally. I read that back in 1999 or 2000. Such pretentious self conscious ramblings [/quote]
The one-star goodreads reviews are more entertaining (and better written) than the book itself.

[quote] Infinite Jest is a symptom of something wrong in the literary world: is there nothing else out there with meaning people can find to adore? It's neither a work of genius, nor is it insightful. There are serious things wrong with this book. I think the bigger problem here is why anyone, anywhere, thinks this is brilliant. Somehow the advent of smarmy advertisement and sterile, banal corporate living over the past one hundred and fifty years has invaded our literature, and we think it's wonderful and genius and metaphorical... why? Because it is self-referential, because it's mocking us on a deep level? I thought good literature was something people could access (or at least should be able to), that ideas should be understandable, and should have real content. As many a wiser human being has pointed out, if it's not even mildly coherent, it's probably bogus.

Critics rave about this novel for many reasons, one of which I suppose is so they don't have to talk about the concrete and tremendous problems we are actually facing... God forbid literature should be anything more than a ridiculous competition between whose work is the most ground-breaking and incoherent. It shouldn't be a surprise, I guess, but it's depressing anyway. It was only a matter of time before our publishing companies started thinking something like this was a good idea. [/quote]

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