It is said that ‘Infinite Jest’ by David Foster Wallace is the defining work of the 1990s. The second novel of the author is set in an abusrd near-future, and addiction, entertainment, pleasure, commerce, technology, and tennis are some of the themes explored.
Here are ten facts you may ignore about the novel:
– Wallace said “I wanted to do something sad” after his publication in 1996.
– He began writing ‘Infinite Jest’ in earnest in 1991.
– Pietsch suggested that the novel should be cut as it was too long and people would find excuse not to read it.
– By March the book was already in its sixth printing.
– It is said that Wallace used a vocabulary of 20,584 unique words to write the 577,608-word ‘Infinite Jest’.
– ‘But and so and but so’ is considered to be the longest unbroken series of conjunctions in the text.
– Wallace hated ‘Infinite Jest’s’ original cover and he said that it looked like the safety booklet on an American Airlines flight.
– Wallace wanted a specific photograph of Fritz Lang directing the cast of ‘Metropolis’ to be used as Infinite Jest‘s cover.
– Michael Pietsch, Wallace’s editor at Little, Brown, told Wallace’s agent, “I want to do this book more than I want to breathe.” after reading 200 pages of ‘Infinite Jest’.
– Wallace said in 1996: “I’ve never been on the Internet,” although ‘Infinite Jest’ can be seen as prophetic regarding the Internet.
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