Quote Porn
JPod
"TV and the internet are good because they keep stupid people from spending too much time out in public."
"Here's my theory about meetings and life: the three things you can't fake are erections, competence and creativity."
“Remember how, back in 1990, if you used a cellphone in public you looked like a total asshole? We're all assholes now.”
Infinite Jest
"That, perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it.
That if you do something nice for somebody in secret, anonymously, without letting the person you did it for know it was you or anybody else know what it was you did or in any way or form trying to get credit for it, it's almost its own form of intoxicating buzz.
That anonymous generosity, too, can be abused.
That having sex with someone you do not feel for feels lonelier than not having sex in the first place, afterward.
That it is permissible to want.
That everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.
That this isn't necessarily perverse.
That there might not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels.
That God—unless you're Charlton Heston, or unhinged, or both—speaks and acts entirely through the vehicle of human beings, if there is a God.
That God might regard the issue of whether you believe there's a God or not as fairly low on his/her/its list of things s/he/it's interested in re you."
"Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you."
"And Lo, for the Earth was empty of form, and void.
And darkness was all over the Face of the Deep.
And We said: 'Look at that fucker Dance.' "
A Few Thoughts
I am going to consider it a personal challenge to write about Infinite Jest without just fawning all over it.
Infinite Jest's first big draw is the surreal setting. It takes place in alternate universe Boston, where only part of Canada that hasn't joined the U.S. & Mexico in O.N.A.N. (think the E.U. with a masturbation pun); the other part of Canada is a messy, blown-up, literally irradiated political situation; corporations have begun "subsidized time" wherein year numbers are done away with and each year instead is named by its corporate sponsor; the most horrific active terrorist group are a bunch of French Canadians in wheelchairs... it's almost not set in reality at all. It's got this duality about it, though: it's real enough to feel familiar and intuitive, but then suddenly there's rabid feral hamsters and I'm like okay this sure is fiction.
The themes in the book are many (I bloody well hope so in almost 1100 pages): depression, addiction, the nature of entertainment, pop culture, addiction again, corporatism... those are the major recurring ones that resonated with me, anyway.
It's not just that the book boasts these themes, but Wallace's words are just so phenomenal and correctly chosen that he's spot on each and every time. Like, a sentence will be 15 words long but the precise definition of two or three of those words will simultaneously imply six different things and sentences that would take a couple seconds to read in any other book require a full minute to mull over and then bam something profound just jumped off the page. It's a reading experience I haven't had before or since.
The themes actually extend so far that, after his meditation about the nature of entertainment and passive reception thereof, Wallace ends the book on a seeming nonpoint—but when quizzed about it in a later interview, he was insistent on the fact that there is a definite ending. Then, upon rereading passages (and more importantly asking Google), an ending emerges from parts that seemed semi-recollected and unimportant. While this approach is definitely take-it-or-leave it, it seriously illustrates one of Infinite Jest's central points.
I can't think of a book where the point(s) the author's trying to make permeate every aspect of the book so much. It's like paper enlightenment: it makes ya earn the enjoyment, but once you've attained it, it was so, so worthwhile.
...Okay, too far. I love this book.
For what it's worth, JPod is a riot. I'm definitely due for a reread, but I remember it being the only book that I'd class with the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy in outright sincere laughing out loud while reading. It follows a group of video game designers who've just been informed that their skateboarding video game is going to contain an attitude-bearing turtle based on Jeff Probst, and the nerdy foolishness and score of Simpsons references that they find in their life.
The book doesn't have a heavy scope: beyond the hilarity, it feels very episodic and pointless. There's a greater overall plot, but more memorably, there are 45 consecutive pages with several thousand digits of pi written out and one intentional error (no, seriously). I read one reviewer liken JPod to Arrested Development in terms of the characters' adherence to their insane traits, and that's where much of the humour comes from. I can definitely see that: stuff happens and there's an overarching plot, but the draw of the book is definitely in Coupland's characters and their interactions.
Speaking of characters, perhaps my favorite thing Douglas Coupland does in writing JPod is his method of character sketch: early in the book, the six main characters are coerced to write mostly-homoerotic love letters to Ronald McDonald, and their traits & backstories are elaborated upon in those. I didn't include this quote above because it's inane out of context, but one of said letters states (and I quote):
"I'll bring over a loofah and a bottle of Noxzema, and we'll take off your paint. If it turns out that you're really Liv Tyler, we can even make it, too."
That's about the best endorsement I can give the book.
Head-to-Head
Characters: JPod's characters are funny, and almost the entire draw of the book. Infinite Jest has a much bigger, deeper cast that are plenty hilarious when given the chance, too.
Advantage: Push.
Plot: Infinite Jest manages over a thousand pages of mostly stuff happening. JPod has 45 pages that are literally pi.
Advantage: Infinite Jest.
Ending: At first blush, it's a non-ending, but that's among the most clever cards pulled by Infinite Jest for reasons way too long to get into here.
Advantage: Infinite Jest.
Language/Writing: Hands down, DFW writes my favorite prose ever. I will read IJ again someday just to re-experience it and try and catch myriad things I definitely missed.
Advantage: Infinite Jest.
Philosophy: JPod is largely without a philosophy, although it definitely holds a mirror up to the Google era. If you're not thinking intensely during IJ, you're either a savant or you're not getting it.
Advantage: Infinite Jest.
Winner Winner Turkey Supper
Uh... sorry JPod.
Infinite Jest breezes through to round 2.
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