Infinite Jest came out ten years ago. Oh, Infinite Jest. I love that book. If that book was a woman? I'd totally be too nervous to ask it out on a date. Which is okay because I'd probably just spill my coffee on it anyway. Oh, Infinite Jest, you, you.
Anyway I happened to be in the bookstore yesterday and I saw that the tenth-anniversary edition is out now. So I took it off the shelf and my first thought was, wow, how on earth do you make a 1100 page novel feel flimsy? That thing flip-flopped harder in my hand than Congress did this last election! Zing! But for real, when I got home I dug up my paperback copy, the classic orange-tinged cover all the latter-day hipsters own, and yes, it felt much sturdier, more monumental, the way I remember. But I guess, hey, for $10, you can deal with thin covers and cheap paper.
Did I say thin covers? I meant thin, ugly covers. Definitely the worst version of the Infinite Jest cover yet. Seriously, you look at cover number one and then cover number two and then cover number three, and you have to wonder if the royalty rights for images of clouds have gone up with each printing. (Book cover number four is going to be a shot of some dude sneezing while not covering his mouth.) While I think cover number one is the classiest of the three, you really can't beat the springy populist vibe of cover number two. Plus, DFW's name is smaller than the title on number two, which is something I generally prefer in a good cover design. Cover number three? It's just not pretty. Like the intern who designed it got real excited when they found the morph functions in Microsoft Word's "word art" feature. "Woo! It's like three-dee! Like infinity!"
Whatever. Ten bucks, for real. Plus I love that book and I'd read it even if it was covered in poo. Dog poo.
So while I had it in my hands at the bookstore, I stood there in the aisle and read the foreword Dave Eggers supplied, and it was pretty good. Plus I sort of felt like I was stealing from the store. Which is always pretty good. Then I got home and found out I'm a tool, because I could have read the whole intro right here on my computer.
2 comments:
I hate that you mention things like this. Because it really makes me feel inferior for not reading it, and yet, I just can't do it. Grad school man, Grad school! I mean, think of the children!
The children will be fine for a while...they should be reading Infinite Jest, too! It'll keep 'em busy while you slack off for a while.
Did I mention you shouldn't listen to me? Like, ever?
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