Agreed heavily. I am still mustering up the energy and trying to dedicate time to actually read Infinite Jest. In the meantime, I have been reading DFW’s short stories, and they are fantastic.
I heavily enjoyed the one about playing tennis in midwest, the one about adult industry, and the few other ones I struggle recalling in the moment.
Something about DFW’s writing and train of thought (in his short stories) hits me just right. The musings on how he related certain math concepts to playing tennis in the wind specifically blew me away, as literally nothing about that should be relatable to me (neither from midwest nor play tennis nor have any interest in it), but it feels like it is.
(1) If you're struggling at first, set a goal of just trying to get through the first 200 pages. Things will be confusing at first, especially with the nonlinear-ish plot and, uh... worldbuilding, so it's okay to let some of it wash over you and laugh at the funny parts without totally understanding it all. Things will click later. But there's a scene around 200 pages in that's pretty straightforward and very, very engaging, so if you get that far you're almost guaranteed to get hooked enough to plow through the remaining 800. (Nearly everyone I've given this advice to did end up finishing the book.)
(1a) There's a part about 20 pages in that's verrrrrry dense and slow and hard to get through. ("Where was the woman who said she'd come.") If you can muscle your way through that part, almost everything that follows will feel light and breezy in comparison. The whole book is not like this :P
(2) Not a requirement by any means—I didn't use it on my first read-through—but if you find yourself stopping to Google stuff a lot, the Infinite Jest Wiki is a great resource. They have a spoiler-free page annotations to define some of the more esoteric vocab and explain some of the more niche cultural references. You won't miss a ton by not using it, but there are nice little tidbits.
I heavily enjoyed the one about playing tennis in midwest, the one about adult industry, and the few other ones I struggle recalling in the moment.
Something about DFW’s writing and train of thought (in his short stories) hits me just right. The musings on how he related certain math concepts to playing tennis in the wind specifically blew me away, as literally nothing about that should be relatable to me (neither from midwest nor play tennis nor have any interest in it), but it feels like it is.