Book Review: Infinite Jest 

The sheer size of Infinite Jest gives many people the howling fantods.

Funny thing about the german translation of this masterpiece: it took the translator 8years to properly translate it and do the work of art as much justice as possible, and also is the german version a teensy bit longer,1410 pages plus 137 pages sidenotes.hmm. All i know is when i first read the book i slowed down my pace to the end and almost cried when it was over....this book will go with me when i die

This is by far the best review of Infinite Jest. Spot on. If you're thinking of reading it, you should. I disagree with the fact that it's unenjoyable. It was definitely the most entertaining and challenging book I have ever read.

“It’s as if he feels the work is more important than the enjoyment of it” - reminds me of a certain mad stork! Thanks for the review. I’m going to need weeks to wrap my head around what I’ve just read.

Honestly, I've always primarily been a reader of text books with the odd fiction every so often. Then I jumped into Infinite Jest on a recommendation, and after about 100 pages I fell in love with it. I simultaneously didn't want it to end and wanted to finish it so I could read it again to pick up things I missed. It's actually piqued my interest in literature to an incredible extent. Not to mention, I've become extremely interested in proper English usage and precise communication. It's an incredible book if your goal isn't to just be entertained passively...which is obviously a major theme within the book itself. As was mentioned in the video, this thing has layers of complexity that create a pretty amazing experience.

The range of vocab of IJ is stupendous hence an extremely difficult book, probably wouldn't have started it if I had known that beforehand. I was lured into reading it by someone talking passionately about it and had no idea how dark this book would turn out to be and how specifically it would address addiction. It's by no means lighthearted for it wasn't created by a lighthearted mind. I'll finish the book anyway because I have a feeling it's worth it.

I'm with you, I struggled my way through this, and it was at the end that I truly became awed by what I had just read, and I went back to the beginning and started seeing all the clues he had left. I mean throughout the book he was blowing my mind with his understanding of the trajectory of technology and American culture, with his understanding of depression, but jumping between all those characters or the descriptions of things like eschaton can really cut your momentum for reading. But standing at the other end of reading this, I don't think anything about it should be changed. Do you think you will reread it someday? I feel it would be way easier the second time around, understanding the thing as a whole. I didn't read it with the wiki but now I'm curious to see what it would add.

your humble honest and reasoned take is appreciated. Super helpful

If you're interested in exploring the Philosophy of Infinite Jest, you can check out my most recent video.

This was a brilliant video Sophie, I think you did an excellent job communicating your experience with IJ. I definitely want to read this in the future, but not sure when I'll be ready for it...

This book is my "Ulysses", the kind of book I want to talk about with a group of other fanatics and pick out all the threads, discuss the different characters as if they were the center of their own novels, etc...I read it two times, listened to it once, reading it again, and watching RU-vid interviews of him I while eat crisps. That being said, I don't know if I'll ever meet, in person, anyone who has ever read it once, and would read it again. The book's fans live far apart , and unless fans live in a major city, there will be little opportunity to discuss this book face to face with anyone. Your review was very good. Very good. I couldn't have written anything like your review, and I'm crazy about the book. You took time, thought, and notes.

I've been reading IJ for the past 4 months. I'm on Pg 90. The amount of emotions and thoughts whirling I've felt, cripiling dread especially the introduction Kate Gompert which was so sad it wretched me on every page, boredom which I think is deliberate on Wallace's part; Marathe and Steeply convo which is quiescent in contrast to prior parts, which I find however is expositionally beautiful in staging and humor. I'm experiencing that sometimes I go without reading for days, and somehow it feels like I'm doing a disservice of not reading it, but this book has been extremely hard on me functionally cause it brings up so many questions about myself, and consummates it so well I ponder for days on mere wording and sentences. Extremely moving at times. I find works that makes really make you think and tremble are the stuff of genius.

I found that the very beginning was a struggle; I assumed the entire novel would be full of language of the kind that Hal's first internal monologues consisted of, huge words I had to stop and look up every two lines. It does get better though, and for the most part you can kinda piece together what an unknown word means through context and just barrel through without getting too caught up. I finished it this morning and while I'm absolutely exhausted it definitely had an effect on me I haven't yet experienced from a novel.

Love this commentary. Especially when you said, "there were points where i thought, "I just can't anymore". That is how I felt about for about 60% of reading it. The prestige of reading it definitely is a high for me too. I completely agree, I didnt like reading it, but I like that I read it.

Maybe 4/5 of the way through the book, I was feeling something very similar to what you’re describing, just like I couldn’t make myself finish it and it was too much for me to consume and understand. Then I got to the scene where Joelle was telling Gately about her one day at a time realization, and that really struck a cord with me, both in regard to reading this book and in life. The idea of taking difficult things one moment at a time because it will be worthwhile later and not focusing on how much you have to do in total is really powerful and a big thing i took away from this book.

You have amazing communication skills. I am world's away from you in age and experience yet i feel as if I can learn a lot from your videos. I'm going to try infinite jest simply because I enjoy learning new things. Also I recently listened to an old interview with the author during which he read some small snippets of the book. These were fascinating and very insightful word pictures of very complex topics. I think I will maybe read one small section at a time and then pause to chew it over for a while. Thank you for opening a little window into this book for me. All the best,marie.

I'd never heard of this writer till just the other day. He seemed like an interesting guy. Thought I'd try Infinite Jest based purely on an interview I saw. I went for the audio book to make it easier to digest. Glad I did. Enjoying it. Even though it's massively above my usual level shall we say.

"I dont Read for entertainment or relax But I See it like an exercize for the brain". I'm really agree with you. I think that this Book is an exemple of a piece of reality transformed in words And impressed in paper in every single particular feature, so the reader can't enclose its significance in a thought But He can aestime And admire it as long as He finish the act of reading itself. finally I believe this Book is for who wants to ask to himself every day new questions about the world sorrounding him And always hope that someone (like DFW) put himself in a multitude of different point of view in order to find other new doubts And questions. congratulations; )

Infinite Jest? More like infinite pages!

"He's either dismissive of - or unaware of his audience... but doesn't care too much whether or not they're enjoying the work itself." He spoke of the density and difficulty of Infinite Jest ad nauseam (imo because most reviewers have not fully read/understood the book) and stated that he heard so many people gripe about how (American more often) authors never wrote detailed, difficult "intellectual" stories anymore - no Tolstoy, Kafka, Faulkner, etc. Then, he provided something for the truly HUNGRY reader and heard criticism for being elitist. Some of his short essays "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" "Consider the Lobster" or even his commencement speech "This is Water" is something anyone can and should read. I LOVED the review! Great work!

Wow. This is the best and only review of this book I have ever encountered that is useful and informative. Every other review is loaded with pretentious garbage feigning an attempt to be "deep". You are an intelligent, well-spoken person and your videos are well done.

I attempted Infinite Jest while I worked at a Boy Scout camp about 20 years ago. It became so complex that I started keeping notes on an index card which I was using as a bookmark. I ran out of space on both sides of the card after about 250 pages and gave up. I plan to finish it someday before I die, and then I’ll have The Big Ship by Brian Eno played at my funeral. Thanks for your thorough review.

Between the good thoughts on Infinite Jest and the fleeting reference to one of the books on my head (Godel, Escher, Bach) I think I've stumbled on a great channel here.

Lovely review! This book got me through the first bit of the Great International Quarantine of 2020. I think the thing I was not prepared for when reading this was how damn funny it is. No book that I have read before has had this many gut laughs packed into it. But there is a kind of dreadful anticipation packed into there too, because while you're laughing, you know that the book is never more than a few pages away from a truly fucked up and devastating anecdote on a character's past, or a hellish dive into an addict's mind. Compare the passage on withdrawal to the passages on Lyle the sweat guru and it is very hard to believe they come from the same author, let alone the same book. I think this emotional yoyo is what makes the book quite hard to get through at times. But the book justifies its size, and the payoff is huge, and by the end, I was really wishing that he had released those 600 odd pages he had to cut.

I'm very glad I read it. I kinda want to read it again having recently read 'Pale King'.

Good review. Side note: I love The Gigantic Beard that was Evil.

Excellent review, you were about as intricate about the book as one can be without going on for hours. Personally I was reduced to a stuttering mess when trying to tell people what the huge book I was carrying around was actually about.

i just finished reading IJ and wish it was longer. Truly an amazing book

This video didn't come across as snobby at all. If anything, it came across as incredibly sincere and it has encouraged me to pick the book back up from where I set it down last month. Thanks kindly,

I'm glad you liked it! what I love about IJ is how sneakily hilarious it is... there are several laugh-out-loud moments, in between the moments that made me gasp in horror, and the ones that made me weep in awe of the beauty and sadness... that someone like Don Gately can find triumph in cleaning shit for a living after going through so much, the unknowns of whether he relapsed or not after his hospitalization. It's flawed, confusing, complicated; one of the most honest and human works of the modern era. One day I'll reread it with a Infinite Jest guide to catch every possible detail and connection that I missed the first time.

Very good review,regarding a great book.Infinite Jest is a diamond

It's good to hear such an eloquent take on this book. I tried reading this novel in my twenties and put it down (I'd done that three times for Peter Straub's Ghost Story, before completing it, almost a decade later; fantastic novel!) and intended to try it again at a later date, when my vision made it impossible to read books any more. I have an audio edition of Infinite Jest now but and a little doubtful I will be able to properly digest it, in this format (audiobooks are nice but are no replacement for actual reading.)

where did you get your copy? i love that cover but cant find that version anywhere

Thank you for the video. Maybe someday I’ll tackle this one. I’m still working on the Proust masterpiece. Both in English and the original French. Just as you summarized, I try to find that balance between reward and challenge.

There's always a gorgeous edition of Infinite Jest on display at my local bookshop, and everytime I pick it up but I've never had the courage to buy it, let alone read it. And after your very thorough and brilliant review, I don't think I'll be picking it up any time soon. There has to be some enjoyment when I'm reading, even if it's a very hard book, but it seems the enjoyment only comes afterwards from having read the book. Congrats on sticking through it!

I know a friend who claims that any book that is she picks up can be read in one sitting. That may be true but with Infinite Jest how can a reader absorb the information in I.J. before while forfeiting bathroom breaks and preparing-eating meals? I could make the same lousy case with Gravity´s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and or the writings of Proust.

This made me so tempted to read this!! Thanks, Sophie :) xx

Great review! I got through 3/4 of the book reading and recently listened to it on Audiobooks. The reader does a great job voicing all the wild characters and it helped me appreciate the themes and characters. The book is full of dark humor and insightful political satire. And the drug rehab parts are so amazingly sad and at the same time so real and moving. It is evident DFW spent time in facilities like those in the book. It is like 12 books combined into one. He could have written one book for each of the main plots and characters. It’s a brilliant book absolute genius!! And the year of depend adult undergarment feels like where we are now in the U.S.

any Thomas Pynchon book is very dense.

A very good honest review. I have the book and have been meaning to get around to the challenge. After Don Quixote! I read lots and in the end love books that are a joy to read because of the writing style, interesting plot, and developed characters. Recently I completed Gravity's Rainbow.. and it took over 2 months which for me says a lot. There were paragraphs that I could not comprehend. In contrast read The Count of Monte Cristo, a monster of a book, but it took me 4 days. It was a joy to read. Currently slowly ploughing my way through the delightful but very repetitive Don Quixote. Thankfully have been reading some great books along the way! The Children Act, The Vegetarian, Mansfield Park, Americanah, The Crossing......

Just finished, started in January. Thank you for the wiki guide I read it on a ship about 5hrs a day and only partly had wifi to get the guide , had so much time to think about the themes especially entertainment and loneliness and think he has such a good idea or understanding of What s around us . Will have to give it another go sometime as I'm sure I missed a few things.

I’m impressed by the honesty of your review … slightly meta to the point of the book itself BTW, as is the need to focus on something so intently, requiring such patience. Like you, I can’t sat I enjoyed reading it, but I’m happy to have read it (to have taken on a huge challenge and completed that challenge). It’s fun at this stage to understand various reviews and points being made by you and others.

American bibliophile here: I found your review to be incisive and very well composed. You seem like someone I would love to have a very in depth discourse about literature with. :) I, as well as you, had to put the book down for an indeterminate amount of time because of how taxing it could be at times and I got tired of having to flip back and forth from the footnotes to the narrative. Have you ever read anything by Thomas Pynchon? I read “Gravity’s Rainbow” and found it to be analogous to “Infinite Jest” because of how dense and, at times, impenetrably difficult it could be at times but incontrovertibly brilliant and unique it is.

Thank you, your video gave me a clear explanation about your relationship with the book and thereby helped me to know more about Infinite jest. I'm from spain and i've been reading books in english for the last three years (just for practice it) and some months ago i tried to read this masterpiece but i couldn't, i found it just an impossible mission. The only way to reach the core of the book would be to read it in spanish or catalan... Thank you again to share your knowledge and personal experiences....

Wow, you are really intelligent and have a great ability to see and vocally interpret what a book is like.

I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on Infinite Jest. I'm left feeling like this is a book that I very much want to read but also that this is not the right point in my life. It frustrates me that due to ill-health my brain doesn't work very well anymore. I used to love reading books that pushed me and made me think but these days I can mostly only read things that are easy to follow. I'm definitely going to put Infinite Jest on my list for a time when my brain function is improved though. Hope you're doing ok at the moment.

For me such type of challenges are enjoyable)

What copy of Infinite Jest is that? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Absolutely the hardest book ever. Language use is difficult, but you do get used to it... He is so PARTICULAR. Very strange modifiers but always so precise! You are glad it's this short? Did it not feel incomplete? (Granted, that is cool and effective and all), but I would have loved to continue with the story to Hal leading to the University of Arizona, and I wanted more with Gately! And whatever happens to IJ? I love how you broke down the theme of entertainment with audience, player, director, etc. Very cool. Took up 2 years of my life. Mainly 2 months, though, like you. But many times putting it down and picking it back up. I would say you should allow the reader to read through it and then go back and read it again. I really believe (as terrible as this sounds) that skimming is a part of the book. You skim life, at times, no? -- To your thoughts: You have to read more of his pieces. Please read "Forever Overhead". Interesting thought that you think he does not care for his audience... I feel like he is the savior for postmodern America. I feel like he cares about his audience so much. He is trying to tell us something about boredom, entertainment, and addiction. He is trying to tell us to put down hip cynical transcendence and once again be sincere, and not be afraid to be naive and cliche because cliches are the very thing that can save us! Listen to "Forever Overhead" by him. He inserts parts of IJ in it. What?! You have to give it 5! Who cares if parts bored you. It is absolutely brilliant and one of a kind, one of the greatest works ever written. Great review. :)

Fabulous review, thank you. I really urge you to re-read IJ before you die; you’ll get so much more from it.

Thank you so much for the wiki link!

I'm enjoying your review; thanks for sharing your experience of the book.

A good review. Thank you.

Yes! I first read it in 2008 then instantly reread it and then read it every year for 12 years straight. I still am mystified by the book!

is it you, Sigrid?

I've been looking forward to this video, and it was so great and helpful to hear your thoughts on Infinite Jest. I think I will try to read it next summer :-)

I read it last year over 4 months and I personally wouldn't know where to start in a review or even a basic explanation. I totally agree with your trek analogy though. I don't know why I kept going but felt like a learned something by the end (I don't know what though!) It may have helped that I'm into watching tennis, but don't be put off if you aren't - it's about far more than tennis! I also didn't check up on many words I didn't understand so I'm not sure how that effected the experience.

Nice review. Always got to give a nod of appreciation to anyone who reads IJ. I finished it last summer. It's so good. One of my favorite books ever. So worth the effort it takes to get through it.

Thanks so much for this review. It makes me feel a lot better. I've been reading it for more than 3 months and I've never had such a long and difficult experience with one book. After all this time, I'm finally about to finish it. It's brilliant but I'm also not really sure what I'm going to get/what I've gotten from it. It's incredibly hard for me to parse this whole experience or put it into words.

I liked the bit about people cutting off their limbs to see The Entertainment.

Extraordinary. A beacon in the fog. Cheers!

funny you mention esoteric films leading to reading because that's exactly how I came across your review; I just watched "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" directed by Charlie Kaufman (Spotless Mind, Adaptation etc.) and there were several references to David Foster Wallace that I wanted to check up on. I'm honestly afraid to read Infinite Jest, having written a novel about a soldier in the Iraq war driven insane by two sides of America that absolutely detest each other, reminding him of his parents' psychotic nasty divorce...and then falling into horrific depression just after I got published in 2016 because all that i'd written seemed to come true. Wallace was a huge success and an indisputably brilliant writer and surely must have know that he was more than smart enough to research and analyze and rewire his own neurology. Yet he just...ended things. I feel like no matter how sensitive and emotionally fragile authors are -- no matter how much they care about mankind, how inordinately empathetic and deeply concerned they become while they observe and take notes on humans who are basically just killing themselves off -- they, at the very least, have to detach themselves -- not much, i mean just enough -- so they don't absorb that same hopelessness. i think it's best to kind of think like a surgeon: a little full of yourself, deluded enough to believe you're actually saving the world -- when you actually are not -- yet waking up the next day and walking into that operating room to keep trying

i dont know if this is just too obvious, but knowing what i know of Wallace, i think encapsulating everything he touched on in the book - it's sort of a satire or postmodernist deconstruction on the world we live in today - which at its centre obviously has to do with the challenges of being entertained. I think with Infinite Jest he is trying to say we are so overloaded in today's technologically advancing world with options and ways of seeing the world that it inherently leads to us failing to be entertained, and hence we fall into microcosms (or loops) such as drugs abuse/rehabilitation, political frenzy, etc etc just to sort of end up wasting our lives away in infinite jest

This was helpful. 👍👍

hi sophie, a wonderful review. infinite jest is extremely hard to fully comprehend but very rewarding! the structure of meaning and irony is dazzlingly elaborate but there should be no pressure to decode it. i dont get the book up and down but i always look back on the notes and rediscover yet another huge organ of it. there is always something new. feel free to look back and see what you missed!

...one critic called it "Infinite Test". My copy has been next to my bed for three months with the book mark at page 472. The courage to finish it may just lie in having listened to your review. Thanks and well done.

Very honest and unbiased review! You’re very eloquent, it’s evident that you are well-read

Sensible review and unique perspective

Just getting interested into David Foster Wallace. Nice to see your opinion. Subscribed.

Okay, what's the damage formula of that thing? 5d12?! XD

Hi Sophie. I enjoyed your video. I have just begun IJ (40 pages or so) and I am enjoying it. It is quite humorous in parts. It is not always that easy, but effort is sometimes required in life and in Literature. I do not read much contemporary Lit so I was happy to discover this novel. I have read In Search of Lost Time so I feel I can get through IJ. What was the title of the book you mentioned in this video stating it was the most difficult book you ever read. I couldn't understand what you said.

Have you read One Hundred years of Solitude by García Márquez, if not I highly recommend it

I love the fact that you say whether a book is hard to read or not. Not many people do that and i find it hard to get into a lot of books. Kingkiller chronicle is by far the very best books i have ever come across and it flows so easy. Please if you see this or anyone can you give me suggestions of good books that are easy to read?

Great review!

Is there a big difference between a thousand pages and 1500 pages? I mean, once you've committed to a thousand pages, what's another 500?

I have watched your video and because this was recorded 5 years ago I wonder if you have re-read IJ or have been tempted to…?

If a book is tougher then Gravity's Rainbow then I'm out. If you'll excuse the presumption I'd recommend two massive books which I never wanted to end. First is 'Drood' by Dan Simmons, a dark and phantasmagoric novel about Charles Dickens as seen through the eyes of Wilkie Collins. Also 'The Accursed'' by Joyce Carol Oates which is a gothic monster with a devastating ending. I'm both sorry and pleased you warned me off this book that I know that wasn't your intent but it just sounds like a book I wouldn't have the patience for.

Nuanced review. Thank you! Just finished the book last night. :)

Thank you for taking the time to make this! [GxQ=universe]

I know it's been some time you've made this video but thank you so much for it ; I found it through recommandations so I didn't expect it at all but I'm actually currently reading Infinite Jest, I'm just 60 pages into it so not a lot but I was already starting to realize how tiring it was going to be to read and not very enjoyable yet I love the writing and am very interested in it so I just needed a bit of a push to continue on with it, to know if it is actually worth it and you gave me just that!

Good stuff. I'm actually starting IJ real soon. Gonna be fun. GEB is also on my list and I'm anticipating it to be the hardest non-fiction book. I study comp sci and a prof told me that reading GEB would help me out a lot.

What that nonfiction book you mentioned in the beginning? I didn’t catch it

Wow, what a great review of a great book. I couldn't agree more with what you said, I finished IJ about six months ago and was blown away. People ask me what it's about now and again and in the future I'll have to send them your way. I watched hours of DFW interview on RU-vid once I'd finished and I quickly qualified him as a genius as you did. The themes.. His description of suicide with the burning building I see shared on Facebook all the time, it's so eloquent! Not sure how I came across your video today but I'm glad I did.

This was one of the most fair reviews I've come across, thank you!

I started reading this book yesterday night and I was stunned because of its density. I’m at page 30 now and kind of debating giving up because it’s tiring to read but on the other hand I really want to read this book and I’m so curious. I looked up this video because I remembered seeing this thumbnail a few years ago. It’s now helping me understand what I’m reading 😂😊

What do you think about the book's contrast between a) something so engrossing that it disengages audiences from both themselves and their instrumentalising economy to the point of catatonia (Infinite Jest, the entertainment) and b) something insightful and difficult that pushes audiences to engage and empathise with both themselves and their connection-hungry community (Infinite Jest, the book itself)?

15:25 What did it take you approximately as you mention the sheer siZe of İNFİNİTE JEST and wether it is worth it or not.

I’ve never read it and have had it recommended to me by brilliant friends and had me warned against it by other brilliant people. This video is the most lucid, fair and intelligent breakdown of the experience of the book that I’ve seen from anyone. As for myself: I still don’t know where I sit on wanting to read it. I tend to think there are language readers, plot readers and character readers. I’m a language reader, and a serious tennis fan, and a film buff. On the other hand, art that feels created in contempt of or dismissive of its audience - puts me off tremendously. I tend to think of writers and filmmakers who do this as having disappeared up their own asses, and even otherwise brilliant artists can be guilty of it on occasion. Anyway, yes, this video has been very helpful in framing my thinking about Infinite Jest and whether it’s a mountain I’d be willing or able to climb. Thank you for such a clear, thoughtful, objective critique.

This is the best review of Infinite Jest on youtube, however I can't figure out whether I like it or not... been changing my mind on it for a year now.

What is the correct spelling for the “Goletia Bark” book that you mentioned? The hardest non fiction book you have ever read? I can’t find it. “Golesha Bath”, “Kalesha Bark”. Sorry I didn’t quite catch it.

what did she say the hardest book she's ever read was? I couldnt make it out

Quick question, that book on the shelf 'MUNNU a boy from Kahmir' have you made a video about that? Cause I couldn't find one.

I thoroughly enjoyed IJ, and agree wholeheartedly with nearly everything you've said regarding what makes this novel so challenging to so many people. It took me _ages_ to finish (including multiple breaks to allow myself to recover from "reading hangover"), and I too painstakingly went to external sources to research terms/ideas that were foreign to me at the time. (We might, however, have to agree to disagree regarding whether Wallace cared if his readers enjoyed his work or not. Haha.) That said, I'd probably not recommend IJ as anyone's first Wallace. Rather, in my humble opinion, I think Wallace's short stories, and especially his non-fiction, give a much better first impression as to what he is about as a writer. Do you think you'll give "Pale King" a shot? Its incomplete state notwithstanding, I think it might well have been his best fictional work had he finished it. I found it much more approachable than IJ. (Maybe just the result of age and Wallace's greater experience as a fiction writer?)

An excellent review, and thanks particularly for your honesty about the fact of your having read it being more satisfying than the act of reading it. You have now released me from the need to read it myself. I am quite a bit older than you, and I believe that that kind of literary punishment is strictly for the young.

Great and really honest review! Although, i am a bit discouraged to read IJ in the near future :/ it seems hard word. Maybe i should try one of his short story collections? I have "Oblivion", have you read it? and if so, do you recommend it?

I gave it 4 stars as well. deducted 1 star for eschaton 😊 well actually I deducted one star because it felt somewhat sterile... I could never fully lose myself. I'll probably reread it one day and maybe I'll feel differently.

He wrote a book about a movie that people can’t stop watching. How meta in that the book itself became so good that people can’t stop reading it.

I didn’t catch the title of the hardest book you’ve ever read. Could someone tell me what she said?

Would like to know more about your thoughts on theme. Russian dolls is dead right. everything feels like a metaphor for another part. Did you get what Annular Fusion was all about? Thought it was related to Tennis as a metaphor for some kind of exchange...IMO the key thesis is what you get when you unpack M. Knotkin's description of the entertainment. You read about parabolic curves and satellites. still wondering about this book a year after.

"The present eye praises that which is new though it be only gilded dust, rather than praising the ancient gold that is only dusty" We all of us fear what we don't understand, but when we look for understanding, understanding is all we see. Mysteries are only a mystery to those who don't make a friend of Irony. I thought-up a handy saying for maintaining perspective while reading Mr. Wallace ...if you read only to be entertained, then YOU are the very fool of his story. The same can be fairly stated about creative expression in general ...if you're here only for entertainment, YOU are the very fool of history, and THIS, in my opinion, is both the hopeful overarching theme of this book, as well as Irony's infinite jest. From the most profoundly insightful to the most obnoxiously ignorant, every book ever written and every song ever composed and every effort at creative expression are all trying to teach us something about human potential. Confession is good for the soul because all that needs rebuilding must first be torn down. Mr. Wallace is a keenly observant confessor of collective social woes, with a hard-earned gift of gnosis prose. What we don't see collectively is what waits on the other side of natural maturity, thus is genius rendered an anomaly. Art rewards the effort of comprehension in the same way that nature rewards maturity. The eternal genius of creation is the subtly humbling teacher of empathy. ...and Irony too is kin to nature. If the natural purpose of ignorance is to help us feel confident in our environment, is it not then a function of ignorance in our modern age to reflect only a cheap plastic consumable in the mirror? A love of confidence is a lesson of irony unlearned. Emotion tamed is intuition. The intellect humbled is reason. Reason and intuition together are wisdom. Wisdom IS maturity's natural inheritance, but if we don't TAKE responsibility for our own growth then we GIVE it to Nature to hold us responsible, and modern human nature is anything but natural, so she is a cruel teacher. Discipline, work ethic, integrity ...what we create is only Great when we TAKE responsibility for what we GIVE, and when we TAKE responsibility we are GIVEN responsibility over ever Greater things, THIS is Mother Nature's gift, and responsibility is how we truly honor fertile femininity, which lacks for absolutely nothing but the sacred seeds of the Father. When mother's so love their children as to make of wisdom a breed-worthy virtue we will once again live in the light. Wisdom IS integrity, and instruction is the integral duty of the truly wise. Genius is a fire that burns away the dumb ugly clay of your potentially beautiful legacy. Ears that listen for wisdom will hear it; ears that listen only for a chance to defend ignorance will not. Sorry it's so many years later in the saying, but this is indeed a fun review to watch! I sure dig the unblushing honesty of the English.