hwithumalut

Man this is one crazy book. I really like long books they make me really happy. Books that take months on end to read. When you read one chapter[1] a day everyday you get something special. Something that lets you get to know the characters. Infinite Jest is one of those nice long books. With characters that do actually feel like people you could meet. People who have weird and quirky things about them[2] then they have personalities that are totally unrelated[3]. Not saying that people in real life do not make their hobbies their personality, it’s just that often in stories it is also the case that people become the first thing they do.

When I read a book, hopefully I also deep dive into the author’s brand and the interviews around them. I let all media from this influence my book reading. Reading for me is not just a book with words and footnotes. Admittedly I allow myself to hold a parasocial bond[4]. I watch countless interviews. I try to see why they wrote the book. Reading a book for me starts with me skimming the author’s Wikipedia page. Then I pick up the book. The profile of the author is a lot of fun to dig into. Feels like there's conversation going when I read books like this. There was someone on the other end of the art, rather than just me absorbing content. Someone is serving the content over the tennis net[5] for me to be broken down by[6].

This book is obsessed with certain things within itself[7]. It looks at things relating to these things, especially in places where these intersect. This book does not have conclusions merely by getting to the themes straightforwardly but it draws connections and finds the meeting places, then gets its results. It is a net of stories and pathways that all lead into each other. Every plot falling out onto a theme and every theme leading to a plot or character. The author said the book is structured like a Sierpinski Gasket[8], when it is also a web of ideas coming together. When reading it starts like a deep sea in which nothing makes sense and you keep gasping for air but becomes coherent through learning to find the connections and the repetitions of sandbars.

Footnotes

1. not exactly one chapter a Day, just enough reading everyday to make me feel like something has happened.
2. like when you meet someone and they tell you their hobbies.
3. like if a person meets you tells you they kill at drawing but being good at drawing has nothing to do with their mannerisms and habits. Like when people are not just what super power they have.
4. Although I always remember that all book authors are not real and are made by the elder gods that control the internet.
5. This is a reference on my part to the fact that a huge chunk of the book takes place at a tennis academy highschool.
6. I am very bad at Tennis and this book made me cry a few times.
7. Obsessed with Québeckers, a fictional film titled Infinite Jest, drug addicts, alcoholics, academia, formal grammar, addiction in general, sad families, television, disabilities, drugs in general (legal and illegal), philosophy (both literal academic philosophy and pop philosophies) American media consumption and many other things.
8. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpi%C5%84ski_triangle In what way is a matter for debate and a longer, more spoiler heavy review. Buf in general the novel has a fractal quality where certain things keep repeating.