Infinite Jest

UPDATE: Given the Corona situation, let's continue to hold this in abeyance. I know some groups are meeting through Zoom or Teams, but I'd rather just wait until we can do this in person even if that means it will be a couple of months or more. At least it will be something to look forward to once things return to semi-normalcy, assuming they ever do.

NOTE: The listed date is a placeholder. The date and time for our first Infinite Jest discussion are TBD.

While it will be a couple of months, we are approaching the time to start Infinite Jest. I've gathered that some people are interested in joining our discussions once we start IJ, so I'm putting this here as a placeholder. If you want to join this crazy journey, please sign up.

I'll update this as we get closer to the start time, which, again, won't be for a few months.

Infinite Jest is a difficult and sometimes exasperating book. But it's also brilliant, moving, frequently hilarious, and definitely worth the effort. We'll pace things slowly to minimize frustration.

The above photo, which is of Fritz Lang directing Metropolis, was Wallace's preferred cover art for the book. While the publisher rejected it for obvious reasons, it's a good visual expression of the IJ's major theme. While not popularly thought of in these terms, IJ is a dystopian warning like 1984 and Brave New World and, if anything, is even more relevant than those books to our present moment.

Infinite Jest is widely regarded as a modern classic and made Time Magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. More useful info, as always, is available at Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest