Finished it and flipped back to the very first page. Hugely tempted to just go in for an immediate re-read. It\u2019s an engrossing, brutal book.<\/p>\n
I found the first 100 pages or so a really mixed bag\u2013my one real criticism is that the book itself sometimes seems\u2026 bewildered and amused?\u2026 by the existence of people who aren\u2019t white. There are definitely exceptions. The Hugs Not Drugs\/\u201dshit down your neck\u201d scene is fantastic, and feels real, or rather feels exaggerated in the way both life and the rest of the novel are exaggerated. But other sections, like the treatment of the Muslim diplomatic medical guy, felt really exoticized in a pointless and off-putting way. However, 90% of that stuff is in the first 100 pp so you can push past it. And the dawning horror of the Canadian sci-fi subplot gives a really gripping portrayal of how political oppressors turn the defeated sufferers into a stigmatized class. (Man, I feel weird even saying that much about it, since a lot of its effectiveness for me came in the way you start out like, \u201cLOL Canada, why is Canada all over this novel?\u201d, and then slowly start to feel sick and soiled.)<\/p>\n
Anyway Infinite Jest<\/em> is funny and horrifying. Its themes and obsessions include:<\/p>\n * iconic womanhood in the Sister Death mold (Madam Psychosis)<\/p>\n