It seemed like such a brilliant idea at the time. Join an online book club celebrating the 20th anniversary of David Foster Wallace's brilliant post-modern magnum opus Infinite Jest. While the book can certainly be intimidating with the Pynchon-esque feel and the daunting 1079 pages, including 150+ pages of footnotes, I was in. After all, how hard could it be to read 75 pages a week. And, it being 1991 and the quarter-century mark for the establishment of "Generation X," via three brilliant pieces of pop culture from Coupland, Linklater, and Cobain, the reading of IJ seemed so poetic. How hard could it be?
Apparently, quite the challenge.
I am now hundreds of pages behind in my reading, and feeling overwhelmed by the mere thought of trying to keep up with the posts at InfiniteWinter.org, which were going to be the key to making sense of this beautifully intricate but infinitely challenging novel. That said, you haven't lost me yet peeps. This week is my spring break, and while I have a tremendous amount of work to do, and plenty of reading and writing I want to catch up on, this could be my chance to make a run and catch up with the story of Hal Incandenza and the Enfield Tennis Academy.
That much I know so far. There is the brilliant savant-like and tremendously athletically talented Hal - love the connection to both 2001: A Space Odyssey and the young prince of Shakespeare's Henry IV. The intricate tale of these talented athletes and the complicated world of being elite is somehow wrapped up in a conspiracy tale of Quebecois separatists, drug addiction, and a movie that no one can stop watching. I'm getting there ... slowly.
But, I'm trudging back in.
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