Infinite Summer: read Infinite Jest with a few thousand pals this summer
Fri 22 May 2009, 11:58 am
You all know that I’m a David Foster Wallace fan. So I love the idea of Infinite Summer (via Waxy):
The Challenge: Read Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009
You’ve been meaning to do it for over a decade. Now join endurance bibliophiles from around the web as we tackle and comment upon David Foster Wallace’s masterwork, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages1 ÷ 93 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.
They say they’ll have more info at that site on June 1, and you can also hook up with the obligatory Twitter account and Facebook group.
I read the book when it first came out, and it had a big effect on me. I’m hesitant to recommend it to people because Wallce seems like a love-him-or-hate-him kind of author. Plus, you know, 1,000+ pages, tons of endnotes, etc. But assuming I finish Moby Dick by June 21, I might be in on this. I’d like to revisit The Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment, the Eschaton, Madame Psychosis, and The Entertainment, and reading it along with thousands of other people could be a fun way to do it. Plus, this is just the kind of low-overhead mass-participation project I love.
- License:
- File under: Books and reading
- Comments? 3
It makes me happy to see that you’re reading Moby Dick.
Comment by Greg Schwartz — May 23, 2009 @ 8:39 am
I neither loved nor hated Infinite Jest. The thing from it that I think about most often is the way one of the characters watches TV. He tapes everything and watches the shows sped up, because he doesn’t have time to watch them at regular speed, or maybe he prefers them sped up. When the book came out, this seemed futuristic and wild, but now it’s pretty close to reality I think — I find myself fast-forwarding through some DVDs, if I’m bored, rather than just shutting them off. It also reminds me of a story by George Saunders (I think) in which the main character has to make time for the three main activities of life: work, sleep, and entertainment, or something like that. As if entertainment is a requirement, something you HAVE to do, just another burden on you.
Comment by Jessy Randall — May 27, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Steve: Thanks for passing that along! I signed up for the Facebook group.
Comment by Steve Casburn — May 31, 2009 @ 6:13 pm