Tag Archive: DFW


INFINITE JEST by David Foster Wallace (First published 1996)

infinite_notesInfinite Jest was written over two decades ago but is still remarkably topical in an age where the line between entertainment and ‘real life’ is increasingly blurred.

It is, by any standards, a big novel and a daunting proposition to all but the most dedicated reader. It stretches to 981 pages with a further 96 pages of footnotes to push it beyond the 1000 mark.

Footnote is probably a misnomer since many are more than just clarifications or references. One runs to 17 pages. This is not a novel you’d pick up lightly or cast aside easily (unless you wanted to do someone harm!). Continue reading

FICTION vs TV by DFW

dfwOn the virtues / vices of reading (books – not off computers) compared to watching TV,  I pretty much agree with this quote I found in an interview with David Foster Wallace  for Stim e-zine from May 1996 :

 “I watch my fair share of movies and television, and they’re powerful in their own ways. But I think fiction is more powerful. [It’s certainly] a more powerful anodyne for loneliness. I enjoy TV, but I always feel lonelier after I’ve watched four hours of it. I feel like I’ve pretended to be with people but I really haven’t. In fiction you both feel like the writer is talking to you and [that] you are intimate with people in a book; you can be inside their heads; you can hear their brains’ voice[s]. I’ll never be that intimate with anyone in person. When I’m bored or restless I will watch television. When I want to feel like I’m talking to someone, I will read, and not read anything, I mean stuff that works”.