Infinite Befuddlement, a valiant struggle with David Foster Wallace pg 1-50

In this I will be blogging my attempt to get through the 1000+ page postmodernist epic by David Foster Wallace.
Page 1-50
So I have finally bowed to pressure from my sister and associated siblings and bought Infinite Jest. The introduction by Dave Eggers fills me with even more foreboding and dread, the description about it being a spaceship that cant be deconstructed, and an epic which one will struggle valiantly with, made me feel I was in over my head. But alas I soldiered on.

first impressions.

A short preface when I am going to use spoilers (which I will try to keep to a minimum), I will denote them with *SPOILERS* Luke is Darths father *END SPOILERS*, I that simple enough for you?
From the very beginning I am assailed with a plethora of characters from the interesting (Hal) to the slightly less interesting (Secret agents). It is difficult as character after character is introduced, with no backstory or introduction. All this happens on an unclear timescale that leaves one feeling out of the loop. As far as I can tell the only recurring plot elements involve drugs and tennis (bear in mind early days, my friend).
Now you may have gotten the idea from my rambling post, that I dislike the book, no thats not true, though I am less than amicable to postmodernist books, I find myself loving the writing style, it seems that just as the dialogue or scene threatens to become boring or repetitive it lets out a little humour or a change of direction. The situations more often than not are compelling. I felt bored and slipping in the first twenty pages or so, but once it hit forty I was in. Wish me luck and above all comment!

"What do you get when you cross an insomniac, an unwilling agnostic and a dyslexic?" ".." "you get someone who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not there is a dog" That made me laugh.


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