Hear me out, probably not the first one to point this out, I feel like the book and the Modest Mouse album have a lot of artistic and conceptual overlap.
I came to this conclusion right after finishing Infinite Jest, coincidentally I listened to a lot of the album at the same time as reading this year and it was the first thing I put on after staring into space at the end of the book.
Then I found out about the artistic current “Hysterical realism” and how Dave Eggars’ Staggering Work is also considered to be in the category alongside Infinte Jest (highly recommend if you liked IJ!!) and it dawned on me! Modest Mouse’s approach and ideas on the album are cut from the same cloth, not to mention culturally/historically happening at the same time, the late 90s.
All American loneliness, technological “progress”, addiction and a higher power are all major themes, but delivery wise, the singing is also in a way the sonic equivalent of the frantic and jolting vulnerability that comes at you in the book when you least expect it.
I’m not the biggest Modest Mouse fan, nor of the emo-tinged indie/alternative/post-hardcore of the era, but I must admit, having an album that I can put on when I’m grieving the loss of IJ, a.k.a. one of my best friends this year, makes me feel a lot better, that it’s even more infinite, as it’s actually very tethered to the spirit of the times.
FAX???

Is "You can see everything" actually Infinite Jest VI?

after almost two months. I don’t want to say goodbye to these characters so give me motivation to finish her!!

Finished this frustrating behemoth on the shores of an alpine lake in Kyrgyzstan (looks almost exactly like Boston right?), after a couple of months of slog. Had a lot of time to think hiking for 10 days through the mountains.

For me, Infinite Jest is the equivalent of one of those mythical mountain treks like the Appalachian Trail, PCT or the GR5 through the Alps. It's a long, hard journey that requires a sort of mental discipline and resilience that other, more normal and accessible hikes don't. There are ups and downs, valleys, peaks, lakes and lots and lots of little side trails that take you off the main trail. A LOT of people who enjoy hiking have tried the IJT and a LOT have not made it to the end, either because they were unprepared or the road just proved to sinuous and they got lost, or bored, or both.

Almost everyone who has ever finished the Infinite Jest Trail will tell you it's one of their greatest accomplishments. You don't get a badge or a trophy, but you join a small club that gives you bragging rights in the hiking world (but only in the hiking world) and you are allowed to kind of look at other hikers with a smirk and say 'yeah I hiked the IJT solo' or tell them 'you HAVE to try it'.

The truth is, the hike isn't actually all that beautiful. Most of the time, you're walking in foggy, wet, miserable conditions and can't see 5 meters ahead of you. Every few kilometers, you're forced to take a side trail that takes you most of the time to nowhere, sometimes you spot a small clearing or a cool boulder or a ridiculous waterfall. There are no signposts or rangers or little cabins to rest in. There's basically no wildlife except a few feral hamsters. Most of the vegetation is gray and dull. The slopes are sleep, rocky, slippery. It's even quite dirty with litter. Every time you think you're safe, there's another hill to climb and every time you reach the top of the hill expecting a reward, the fog ruins everything.

But for some mystical reason, because all these other hikers in the IJT club are saying that it's one of the hardest, most unique, most memorable hiking experiences they've ever lived, you keep walking. For days and days and days, spiralling in on your own thoughts, getting the howling fantods, wondering if you should quit. There are so many other beautiful trails you could be walking. Nobody is forcing you to do this. Nobody will know if you give up, but you can't.

And after walking 1,088 kilometers in the fog, up and down, with blisters on your feet, you start getting used to the conditions. It doesn't get more beautiful, on the contrary, but sometimes the fog dissipates and you glimpse another distant peak you have to walk to and you just keep walking because that's what you do now, you walk and you think and you know there's no reward.

So by the very end of the IJT, when you begin to realise there's no end, it doesn't really come as a surprise. There is no glorious lake or breathtaking view at the end of the IJT, nothing worth walking for really. The trail just stops, one day, when you're least expecting it. And somehow you've made it, through the fog, back to beginning and you can just start again.

There are no celebrations, no one is waiting for you at the end of the trail with balloons and a finisher's medal, your name doesn't go up on a wall w/r/t to finishing the trail. No one will remember you did this, no one will praise you for it, because no one really knows anything about the Infinite Jest Trail and the apparently genius hiker who trailblazed it before demapping because it was such a unique hike to find that apparently no other hiker in the history of ever could create.

All that happens is that you join this weird, obscure finisher's club and you're a tiny bit proud of yourself, but still asking why did I do that. You're a bit mad at everyone for tricking you into thinking it would be such a great hike so you go back to hiking normal, more beautiful trails and swimming in alpine lakes and finding amazing mountain vistas. Sometimes you meet a hiker and you can discreetly ask if they've heard of the IJT, but most haven't. And sometimes, sometimes, one of those hikers smiles at you and nods and starts interfacing with you but it never lasts long because there isn't much to say about the trail and everyone's experience was so different. But what's funny is that fucking stupid, long, gray trail is always somewhere in the back of your mind and a fucking stupid part of you just wants to go back and walk it again because you HAVE to have missed something if every fucking finisher tells you it's the greatest fucking hike on Earth and so it will never leave your mind and probably at the very end of it all when your map's about to be erased, you'll probably be thinking about this goddamn ridiculous trail instead of your wife and kids and whatnot.

Fucking hated the IJT.

Probably will go back one day though, just let me see some real mountains for a few decades first.

I’m reading through the latter title for the first time and found that the protagonist’s undercover identity chose the pseudonymous middle name Postlethwaite which of course I have seen exactly one other place. Anyways, just wanted to share and see if that sparked any connections in anyone.

Experialism isn’t that great either!

Still breaks my heart to know he’s no longer with us, but this book, whether it be being called out by Hal’s behavior or almost “seeing” Don talk to me at the AA meeting, truly helped me overcome my pot addiction. Just expressing some gratitude. Take care everyone.

Loved it, read it in german and I'm starting my second time soon to get all the details

I've never seen Lucien Antitoi listed as anyone's favourite character, but that shouldn't mean he doesn't get a break.

I'm not sure what to make of the description of Lucien's leaving life, the USA, and his physical body. As his spirit soars northward after his murder, is the writer saying he's a loser to the end, still trapped in a child's view of insurgency and terror? Is it meant to be funny, is it an open door to the spirit world where nothing is like it is in the physical world? Is the author just giving him a moment of beauty to compensate for how badly he's treated Lucien and his pointy-handled broom?

The transformation oddly reminds me of Larkin's Whitsun Weddings,

"A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower

Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.", and other bits besides.

I found JOI's monologue to his son about the world of objects, and much else, an exquisite piece of writing. The next time he appears to demonstrate his mastery of objects, he ends up nose down in a pool of his own blood and vomit having failed to silence a squeaking bed.

The first time I read this passage I took it to be the last, and most hilarious, word on dealing with objects in a domestic setting. In my second reading I'm more conscious of it as part of joi junior's growing up, his awareness of the fallible parent, and a trajectory which ends with Hal's appearance at the beginning of the book. I assume DFW wrote it to be both, and possibly lots of other things. What do other readers make of it? I've seen several comments about how funny others have found it. The other angle that occurs to me is the common element of JOI''s costume as the man from glad and randy lenz' final, mad ineffective disguise with a white wig and moustache.

I have about 100 pages left in my first read of Infinite Jest. This book has been such a part of my life for months now. I don’t want it to end. What do I do now?

Consider myself Entertained.

Why can some emotions make more sense as metaphors.

Apologies if this has already been covered/litigated but I’m on my ninth readthrough and have been playing with this idea of JOI’s suicide having been potentially brought about by prolonged exposure to The Entertainmet during its production process. We know, for instance, that JOI committed suicide “during post-production,” which could potentially mean the film is technically an unfinished product but does definitely mean the product we see was the last one JOI ever set eyes on. Did this final product drive him to eliminate his map instead of turn him into one of the typical victims of the film?

What’s more, Marlon Bain tells Steeply two separate times in endnote 269 that he believed JOI’s last film was “driving Dr. Inc insane” and “driving him to a breakdown,” which sounds kinda like someone being exposed for a long time to something like mold or some other substance until it finally does them in.

DFW keenly places this a stone’s throw away from Steeply talking about how his own father eventually died of a “transmural infarction” tied to hereditary heart issues after years of obsessing over M.A.S.H wherein he neglected his life totally and was a shell of himself.

DFW is definitely pointing to neglect of one’s life in both cases as being a fatal flaw for both men, but I’m curious: was JOI a bit of a Patient Zero in terms of The Entertainment? In the lab tests that the US military ran to study the film’s process of lethality (from Steeply’s recounting), would JOI have been an exceptional test subject?

If you look at the wall after you can see the faint reverse image of the thing which fell, a thing so obvious it doesn’t even have to be described.

Evidence:

- Stars a wirey drug addict with a signature yachting cap in a grimey post-industrial city.

- That's it.

Maybe this is a case of "boss baby vibes" but but there's some overlap between Disco Elysium and Jest; namely focus on addiction, modern alienation, and suprise magical realist elements towards the end.

Maybe this is just me wanting closure in Michael Pemulis's story. I know he was an asshole but his fate is pretty bleak at the end of the story and would love to see how he manages to sink or swim in metro Boston.