lindsaykap:

flavorpill:

From 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years:

No, not everyone has read Infinite Jest. That’s a fact. But just about every literary reader has at least heard of David Foster Wallace’s freakishly huge and profoundly amazing opus. Those who’ve read it twice say it’s four times as good the second time. Those who’ve read it three times don’t say anything, stuck as they are in an endless feedback loop of footnotes and narrative curlicues. Wallace’s lush language, his brilliant cultural satire, and his encyclopedic vocabulary propel this fascinating tale about a dystopian America. Central issues range from drug addiction to family functionality, and from depression to junior sports.

“It now lately sometimes seemed like a kind of black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe. God or Satan, politics or grammar, topology or philately—the subject seemed incidental to this will to give oneself away, utterly. To games or needles, or to some other person. Something pathetic about it. A flight-from in the form of a plunging-into.”

hopefully i’ll find time to re-read this soon.