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What's your take on Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace?
It's hard to know where to begin with this. The book is an interesting read, but not everyone will appreciate it for the same reasons. Some people won't like it because they don't take pleasure in reading difficult books or being asked to think about things too much (or at all). I'd probably place myself somewhere in between these two extremes.
One of the things that I found most interesting is the main character, Hal Incandenza. He struggles with addiction throughout much of the book and eventually succumbs to it at a very young age.
There are various theories about addiction, and I think that this book reflects some of those in a very interesting way. The main theory (from psychology) that the book seems to be playing with is the idea from Freud's 'Civilization and its Discontents' which states that people must give up certain things in order to live socially harmonious lives.
The main argument is that if we want to live in society, we must give up our aggressive and sexual instincts. When people are forced to give those things up for their whole lives, the person becomes resentful.
In Infinite Jest, the main character Hal Incandenza gives up his sexual instincts by taking a medication called 'Substance D.' Without it he is unable to experience pleasure and thus becomes depressed.
Also, the fact that he has to take this medication in order to live a normal life seems wrong. It sounds like the type of thing people would be resentful about.