Day 31: A day too important for an ordinary title.
Finished?! No! It can’t be true!
The *THUMP* that Infinite Jest made when I tossed it onto my bedroom floor this afternoon was satisfying – the ending, not so much. I don’t want to give anything away, but the last 2/300 pages felt feverish (haha) until the, errr, abrupt conclusion…
I was actually sad when I reached the last page, not necessarily because I was devastated by the fact that I was finished with the book, but because I felt like I was just starting to figure out what the main characters were really all about, or, to be honest, even exactly who the “main characters” were supposed to BE. Hal and Gately actually felt HUMAN to me in the last few-hundred pages, all read in the past three days. So do I have to start again at the beginning and read it all again to figure out what happened? I was thinking this evening that DFW does seems to have a fondness for the elegant but aggravating Mobius strip and that the book viewed from afar sort of resembled one. A later Google search revealed that (hooray!) it seems I’ve finally made a relevant/meaningful observation about this book – or at least one that has been made before by people who seem to know what they’re talking about.
A few thoughts for future first-time readers that I hope will be encouraging:
-Don’t freak out about it. Most of the advice in the comments section on Day 25 seems pretty solid. I’m sure I missed tons of stuff, but whatever. I enjoyed it more when I tried not to care.
-The book gets more readable as you go along. Honestly!!! I don’t think it was just a matter of getting used to the style. There weren’t as many wildly-different things going on in the second half of the book and the chapters seemed to get longer.
-In defense of the schedule and pace: I found that I enjoyed the book a lot more when I read it in large sections. I really had to read it in hour-long (minimum!) sessions to make much sense of it, so the pace worked well for me. Also, I’m not sure that I ever would have finished it if I had been reading it over a longer period of time. Even if I had been captivated by every single page, which I wasn’t, the distraction of the growing pile of “to-reads” on my bedside table would have eventually proved an irresistible temptation. Once I started something else, I’m not sure I would have been able to figure out what was going on in IJ again when I returned to it and probably would have abandoned it.
-I’m also not sure I would have made it through – or enjoyed the process as much – if I hadn’t been reading and blogging it with a friend. Okay, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place. Thanks Aaron and faithful readers/commentators! I hate the thought of abandoning this little blog – I’ve grown quite attached to it. *sniff* 
and we’ll miss reading it!
rejoyce
February 19, 2008 at 3:09 am
Congrats! I knew you’d come to enjoy it at least a little bit.
When I hadn’t seen either of you posting or commenting in a couple of days, I knew that you must’ve been furiously reading to catch up and complete the challenge.
I don’t want to give away anything either for those who haven’t read it, but… if you turn back to the beginning, in Year of Glad, you’ll see the one and only time that Hal’s and Gately’s story connects (until near the very ending). If you’re interested, here is my extremely brief post immediately after finishing IJ.
Who says it has to end? I haven’t started Gravity’s Rainbow yet. Read it with me! We can turn “Infinite Jest Challenge” into “Gargantuan Landmark Novel of the Month Challenge”! After that one, there’s Finnegan’s Wake, Underworld, and The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Those are just the ones sitting on my shelf. (Okay, so I have Ulysses instead of Finnegan’s Wake. Sue me.) The list goes on and on. Readers can opt-in for a month or sit out… we’ll have our own online book club/blog.
What do you think?
Billifer
February 19, 2008 at 8:30 am
this is a great blog! I’m about 400 pages into IJ, major props for finishing it in a month! plus, that aaron boy is easy to look at.
and i agree with Billifer’s “gargantuan landmark novel of the month challenge” but Finnegan’s Wake? Really? bleh.
veege
February 19, 2008 at 9:42 am
@ veege — Yeah, Aaron is a looker.
We could skip Finnegan’s Wake. Maybe go for Atlas Shrugged instead?
Billifer
February 19, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Billifer, I’m looking forward to reading some very straightforward non-fiction for at least a few weeks.
Veege, Aaron would be even easier to look at with an Infinite Jest place mat in hand, right? I think so.
eazzolini
February 19, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Hehe no worries Liz. As I mentioned before, I had to intersperse some “throw-away” reading (Boy Culture, Harry Potter 7, etc.) with IJ in order to not drown in it all.
I think we haven’t heard from Aaron in a while because he’s either hard at work on that placemat…. or he’s still reading the last 300 pages. Wagers?
Billifer
February 20, 2008 at 3:59 am
Congrats, Elizabeth. After I finished IJ, I didn’t read anything at all for a couple months. Then I started slowly again with some Chuck Palahniuk stuff.
Anyway, you’re the cutest girl whose blogged her experience reading IJ I’ve come across. You have a future in this, I think.
Ryan
February 20, 2008 at 4:46 am
@ Ryan — *Phew* Thankfully a straight guy came along to comment-flirt with our fair blogmaiden. I didn’t want her to feel left out while Aaron got all the winks and stares.
Billifer
February 20, 2008 at 7:19 am
I’m here – still deleting wacky comments received from lobster farmers and Johnny Depp fans. Please divert all future winks and stares to Elizabeth. She loves it. A lot.
As for my reading, I’m with Liz. I dived into a pile of non-fiction I had waiting for me. Like jumping into Lake Issyl Kol after an hour of banya.
By the way, I hope none of you were annoyed by our constant referencing to our Peace Corps service – we just can’t help ourselves. We’re like those people at dinner parties now who say “Oh, well, when I lived in (very impressive foreign country), I was very fortunate to see blah blah before blah blah blah happened…”
aaronjoseph
February 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm
@ Aaron — No more winking from me! Oops… almost winked.
Reading IJ in a month has to be a taxing undertaxing. The best I can relate to that is my undergrad dramatic lit class where we started with the Greeks and worked through mid-90s drama. (Hey, it was the mid-90s.) A play a day for a semester. The worst part was Marlowe — worse than Shakey. [If I ever hear someone suggest reading Faust again, I'll maim.] I was so thrilled to see Neoclassicism if for no other reason than the satire!
As for the Peace Corps references, you’ve done what I always wanted to do. I know that there’s a camaraderie that comes with that, sort of like old war buddies, and far be it for anyone to take that away. But you should really read Mailman sometime.
Billifer
February 24, 2008 at 3:18 am
Hey!
I realize this comment comes long after the other comments and long after the conclusion of your challenge however, I’ve too just finished Infinite Jest and I’m thinking about going into the Peace Corps.
Admittedly, this is totally random and I would have sent you an email…I just couldn’t find the contact information (I’m a wordpress newbie). So! I have a couple questions about the Peace Corps and wanted to say that I can totally Identify (har) about understanding the characters at the end of the book and wanting more. If you want to drop me an email that would be awesome, but if not, I at least enjoyed reading through your blog.
spikespike
November 13, 2008 at 2:56 pm