What’s The Deal With Infinite Jest?

One does not simply read Infinite Jest

I just finished Infinite Jest, and I have questions.

I finished the book early one morning, before the kids were awake. The first thing I did was Google “what happened in Infinite Jest.” The second thing I did was Google “Infinite Jest WTF” and my own blog was the fourth result. Gulp.

I started to read some blog posts and critical reviews, and quickly realized that if I just read what other people think, I’m not going to draw my own conclusions. So, I quickly wrote down my questions and impressions so they’re as fresh as possible. I don’t want to sound smarter than I am because I’ve read a bunch of other people’s thoughts.

(As an aside, 101 Books identifies this, reading reviews before forming an opinion, as a sign that you might be a book snob. Well… I’ve come to terms with my book snobbery, so I’m okay with that!)

This post is for other people who finished Infinite Jest, and, like me, were like “WHAT HAPPENED,” so you’ll feel better; for people who finished it and totally understood everything, so you’ll feel smart; and for people who haven’t read this book, so that maybe you’ll be intrigued enough to pick it up. Despite not understanding everything, I think this is an important book for all of us borderline millennials  and, well, everyone. To paraphase DFW himself, this book is about what it is to be a fucking human being.

In no particular order, here are my questions, impressions, thoughts, and feelings upon finishing Infinite Jest. Spoilers, etc:

  • What is the significance of TEETH in this book? Off the top of my head, the ADA forgives Gately for causing his wife’s obsession with cleaning her teeth, one of Himself’s films was about teeth, one of ETA staff is obsessed with teeth, Mario is “homo dental” which I don’t even know if that’s a thing, and every time I read “Ortho Stice” I thought of braces. This may seem like a weird thing to fixate one, but it is really bothering me!
  • These is a serious lack of female characters in this book. The settings are primarily male: A tennis academy and a drug recovery house, both of which of course have female residents, but are male dominated. The primary females are damaged or physically different – Joelle’s face (both as PGOAT and UHID), Avril’s height, Pat’s limp. Continue reading →

Mo’ Kobos, Mo’ Problems

I was hoping to get this review out before Christmas for gift-giving purposes, but perhaps you Boxing Day shoppers can make some use of it.

I got a Kobo Glo for my birthday and was pretty excited, and not because it came in pink (well, not only.) My first generation Kobo was slow, glitchy, and poorly designed, but it served me well over the years. The Kobo Glo addresses a lot of the issues I had, and some that I didn’t even think of, but after a few month’s use, I’m frustrated again.

Most of the new features are great. Obviously it’s better to have a touch screen and wireless capability. It handles footnotes and moving between sections with ease (Infinite Jest style footnotes are an exception, probably.) The battery life is great. The built in light is a GODSEND. And it’s FAST.

BUT…

  • The touch screen is too sensitive one moment, and totally unresponsive the next. I’ve had five pages skipped because I brushed my sleeve against the screen, and I’ve had to touch the screen five times to make it turn, within the same chapter.
  • The annotation feature. I WANT to love it. It’s got such potential. But the highlighting and typing is ATROCIOUS. Like, I can’t imagine someone, or more likely, many someones, signed off on this as good to go. It’s nearly impossible to highlight text with any precision, and once you do, good luck typing up your thoughts. The keyboard is slooooow. And you have to flip to the alternative keyboard for periods or commas.
  • It’s glitchy. Sometimes annotations work, sometimes they don’t. Turning it off and on fixes it, but it’s super annoying.

I’m in love with e-readers as a product because they allow me to read while co-sleeping with a baby. But the Kobo Glo just hints at their true potential. I don’t know if I’ll stick it out through another generation (or two) to see if they can get it right.

Reading Roundup: November 2012

The Fault in Our Stars John Green

All I Want For Christmas?

Am I allowed to do a round up post when I’ve obtained and read zero books this month? I do need a way to publish my Christmas wish list for certain secret Santas, so I’m going to say, “yes!”

Books Obtained and Read

  • None. That was easy.
  • Okay, I did read like 350 or 400 pages of Infinite Jest over November. That’s pretty much a book.

Books I Want to Read

Here are the top ten books I’d like to own in the near future, i.e. Christmas!*

  1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I want this to be my next read, so it’s first on my list. Have I mentioned that I have a fangirlish crush on this guy? I mean watch this. Or this. Love him.
  2. 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2012 Edition) – I own the original, but I’d love to have the updated version. These are beautiful books with lots of colour pictures. Great gift idea for anyone bookish!
  3. Strange Heaven by Lynn Coady – my local author pick, and sounds right up my alley in terms of troubled kids, family dysfunction and the East Coast setting.
  4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – I don’t own this book, which is ridiculous considering it’s my favourite read of like the past two years (pending completion of IJ).
  5. Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards – I gave my copy away at a book swap. I need to own this book.
  6. Dear Life by Alice Munro – After a year of long reads, I think I’ll be in the mood for some short stories. Nobody does it better than Alice Munro… unless…
  7. Astray by Emma Donoghue – I’m a huge fan of Emma Donoghue and she released a short story collection this year.
  8. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir – Because: feminism.
  9. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – I’m going to read more classics written by female authors next year. I loved the mini-series, so this seems like a good place to start.
  10. When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman – Something about this book keeps nagging at me. Strange title.

*I’ve been joking that reading Sleeping Beauty made me want to read 50 Shades. If someone buys it for me, I will read it. But I reserve the right to make snarky blog posts/live-tweet my disgust/roll my eyes with abandon!

The Month Ahead

  • Finish Infinite Jest. There will be much rejoicing.
  • Submit a story to The 40 Below Project. This is a stretch goal for me and my first time submitting anything! Check out the website and wish me luck! I’m (trying) to write about what it’s like to experience a sudden 20 degree drop in temperature. Also about teenage drama (what else?)
  • Get through the week-long extravaganza that is Benjamin’s 3rd birthday and Christmas.

Search Terms

Just for fun, here are some interesting search terms that have landed on the blog.

  • “erotic exerpts from the claiming of sleeping beauty anne rice” – yeah… getting a lot of these since my review went up…
  • “adult words with friends” – um, do I want to know?
  • “i enjoyed reading heart of darkness” – well, that makes two of us!
  • “runny romantic letters for him” – it is the season for runny letters!
  • “how you know you are a book snob” – if you have to ask….
  • “invisible woman sex fanfic” – sorry to disappoint you.

REVIEW: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

I post on a women’s forum that runs very much to the mainstream. The posters tend to be married with children or heading that way. When a poster went “undercover” to post about her secret life as a submissive, it caused a bit of a sensation. She has a “taken in hand” marriage, which means her husband calls ALL the shots. They discuss things, but he has the final say. Period. And that might mean deciding what car to buy, where to live, or it might mean whether they have sex tonight.

It doesn’t much concern me what consenting adults do in their homes. However, the definition of consent in this scenario makes me nervous. The poster said that she gave her husband “blanket consent” for sex, whenever, where ever, and however he wants. But is consent still consent when it’s given in advance? How do you get out of this agreement if you want – isn’t it sort of, too bad, you gave your consent, so now what I say goes? To me, consent is rooted in the present tense. I can consent to sex now, but I can’t give consent for sex that’s going to happen tomorrow. Anyway, Drama Ensued. There were even accusations that this poster couldn’t be for real, but, a quick search of the internets tells me that “taken in hand” is a thing.

As I read The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, I thought about consent quite a bit. Sleeping Beauty was my first erotic novel. I admit to reading the odd, shall we say, flash fiction erotica, but it’s not a genre I ever considered for a literary experience. I chose Sleeping Beauty because it has a reputation as a literary Fifty Shades (I know, I know).

I knew that the story was based on Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, and that it would have a BDSM element, but I was not expecting so much cruelty and so little tenderness. I don’t have a problem with BDSM, and I understand this is fiction; however, when presented with non-consentual, penetrative sex with a minor, or if you wanna get real, a child being raped, on PAGE TWO I was taken aback. Context: “Beauty” is fifteen and unconscious.

He mounted her, parting her legs, giving the white inner flesh of her thighs a soft, deep pinch, and, clasping her right breast in his left hand, he thrust his sex into her. Continue reading →

Infinite Jest broke my Kobo. And my brain.

Once I got over my initial fear, I’ve been pretty cocky about reading Infinite Jest. It’s been WAY easier than I thought it would be. I’m able to pick it up here and there without backtracking to remember what happened. DFW’s quirks and tics aren’t bothering me much (though starting sentences with “and but so then” just doesn’t make sense to me.) It’s just SO much easier to read something written in and about a culture you’re familiar with, than say 19th century Russia. My shiny new Kobo Glo is really helpful, too. I can look up words right on screen (my new favourite word is postprandial) AND I can jump back and forth between main text and end notes (good thing because there are a ton of them).

So I’m thinking I’m quite SMRT. Then this happens:

Calculus in Infinite Jest

CALCULUS!

Calculus was by far the most difficult subject I’ve ever learned. In an academic career marked by minimum effort and honour roll results, calculus was just beyond my brain’s capabilities. I worked harder  than any of my other classes and barely passed. Having to think about calculus again was like a big smack down, reminding me that I’m not that smart after all.

And THEN the end notes started to get out of control. The Kobo works great until you have footnotes within an end note. Then it just sort of shrugs and says “yeah, I don’t know, you find your own way back.” And end note 123 splinters into its own chapter for some reason. I guess it takes a book like Infinite Jest to expose the limitations of the technology (DFW probably would have LOVED that. You know his BFF Jonathan Franzen would.)

So, what’s the point of all the fussy words, strange constructions, copious end notes, and mathematics? Is DFW just messing with us? Trying to make the reader feel dumb? Weeding out the riff raff? Showing off? I think it’s a bit of all of these, but there’s probably some meta stuff going on… like, life isn’t a straightforward narrative, or something. I don’t know. I’m feeling pretty dumb right now.

But, I will soldier on! I’m one third of the way through after 23 days of reading, so I’m on track to finish in less than three months total. For the record, though, this is the ONLY way I want to deal with calculus from now on:

Reading Roundup: October 2012

Wuthering Heights Penguin Deluxe Edition

Oh Heathcliff. Pop that collar.

A slow month, but a few things to remark on:

Books Obtained

  • Wuthering Heights, Penguin Deluxe Edition. I gave away my copy, so I needed a new one. I’m trying to collect nice copies of my favourite books. So far, I have a hardcover Love in the Time of Cholera and this paperback Wuthering Heights. Next might be Grapes of Wrath. I had so much fun following the readalong that I want to flip through it again!

Books Actually Read

  • The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice. If I get it together and write a real review of this book, I might guest post it on Reading in Winter (After Dark), which you should definitely check out in the meantime if you enjoy a steamy read now and then. But this book. Wow. I knew it was erotica but I guess I didn’t expect to be bombarded with penetrative, non-consensual sex with a minor on PAGE TWO. And that was the LEAST risque scene in the book.

Books I Want to Obtain

The Month Ahead

  • Keep plugging away at Infinite Jest. I’m nearing the 25% mark!
  • SEE ANNA KARENINA. AM A LITTLE EXCITED. Paraphrasing a tweet I saw somewhere: How pissed is Jude Law that they didn’t make this movie ten years ago so he could play Vronsky? I’m pretty meh on Keira playing Anna, too. I saw the original 1935 movie with Greta Garbo and that’s a hard act to follow. But NO MATTER because COSTUMES and DRAMA and DOOMED LOVERS and EXCELLENT HATS.
Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina

Greta Garbo is not amused by the casting of the new Anna Karenina.

Heart of Darkness

Two times this year, a book has let me down by not being dark enough. I felt like the authors held back to make things a little more palatable – The main characters got off too lightly. There wasn’t enough at stake. Things resolved themselves a little too neatly.

I don’t like it when a story feels reigned in. I want the characters to hit bottom and keep falling.

I do feel a little guilty about this. Why do I want bad things to happen to good characters, and why do I roll my eyes at a happy ending? Schadenfreude? Shock value? Or, am I not quite over my goth phase of 1996-1997? I think it’s a bit of all of those things. I need an emotional connection to really enjoy a story, and the dark and depressing route is the easiest way to my heart.

Here are the two examples that came up this year, the darker alternatives I found, and even more dark recommendations for the long winter nights ahead. BONUS: All four books featured below are by Canadian authors!

Continue reading →

Meet the Edmonton Book Bloggers! Spotlight on Reading in Winter

Reading in Winter is having a month-long first blogiversary celebration! This week’s feature is a profile of Edmonton book bloggers, including yours truly. Today, I’ve turned the tables and asked Kristilyn the same questions she asked each of us. Here’s a look at one of Edmonton’s most prolific readers and bloggers. Enjoy!

Psst… Are you a book blogger in the Edmonton area? Head on over to Reading in Winter and get in touch with Kristilyn if you’d like to be added to the Edmonton Book Bloggers Directory!

Continue reading →

REVIEW: From Away by Michelle Ferguson

From Away by Michelle Ferguson

“There is no law past here.”

My husband (then boyfriend) and I passed the hand-lettered sign on a dark stretch of highway on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. The whale watching tour we’d planned was cancelled due to rain, so we decided to go off the tourist path to Dark Harbour. This side of the island was rough and isolated. After passing the sign, the road simply ended at a beach. This was not a tourist spot. The people there were working – getting on or off a boat while dulse was drying on racks. No one said hello or smiled. There was something about the situation that screamed “leave,” and we did.

Dark Harbour, Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick

Dark Harbour, NB. I took this picture just before the road ended. This place gave me the creeps.

The rest of our trip was all quaint B&Bs, cafes and gift shops. But we’d seen something else. Something that wasn’t meant for us. Some of my family had told us about a group of local vigilantes who burned a drug house down recently. Did the sign have something to do with that?

I thought about this experience as I read From Away. I share a lot in common with Marion, the main character. We are both from Alberta, but feel some claim on the East Coast, because “our people” are from there. Like Marion, I visit every couple of years and consider myself an honourary Maritimer. The premise of this book, an outsider trying to find her place in a small maritime
community, was interesting. Continue reading →