Jesse Gehring’s Reviews > Infinite Jest > Status Update

Awesome! I just picked a copy up I'm excited to read it.

It’s very good! Some parts are super complex and kind of go over my head but it’s worth it for the beautiful passages and the comedy aspect alone. It takes a lot of dedication but so far I’m loving it.

yeah we will definitely have to read it multiple times in our life. It's fun to understand something the next time you read it that you didn't the first time. I'm sure I wont understand most of it lol.

Next time you do decide to though here is a recommended reading list before reading Infinite Jest I have compiled from a couple different sources.

Hamlet by Shakespere
Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth (a short story)
“The Balloon” by Donald Barthelme (a short story)
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker (a very short novella)
“Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way” by David Foster Wallace (a short story/novella)

also saw this on reddit

"I bet somebody put together a reading list of books/movies referenced in Infinite Jest, but some that stuck out to me:

Brother's K, Dostoevsky (Maybe just The Great Inquisitor scene is enough)
Some Sylvia Plath (Bell Jar's a good start)
Some David Lynch - we know DFW love love loved Blue Velvet, although I'm partial to Twin Peaks
Greek mythology of Medusa if you're not familiar
Genesis ch 1
1984, Orwell"

Thank you for that list! I screenshotted it. I actually wasn’t aware DFW loved Blue Velvet but that’s one of my favorite films. Just finished up Twin Peaks recently and the series blew me away. I tried watching it in the past and it wasn’t an optimal time in my life but this time I couldn’t get enough.

I’ll have to check that reading list out soon. I’ve read 1984 and heard of some of the others. I’m sure he had a ton of influences from other works. Now that you mention it, the dialogue does seem very lynchesque at times.