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{{short description|1996 novel by David Foster Wallace}}
{{use mdy dates |date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Infinite Jest
| image = Infinite jest cover.jpg
| author = [[David Foster Wallace]]
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre = {{hlist|[[New sincerity]]|[[metamodernism]]|[[literary fiction]]||[[post-postmodernism]]|[[encyclopedic novel]]}}
| publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]]
| pub_date = February 1, 1996
| media_type = Print ([[hardcover]]{{·}} [[paperback]])
| pages = 1,079
| isbn = 978-0-316-92004-9
| dewey = 813/.54 20
| congress = PS3573.A425635
}}
'''''Infinite Jest''''' is a 1996 novel by American writer [[David Foster Wallace]]. Categorized as an [[encyclopedic novel]],<ref>Burn, Stephen J. [http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4235/ Abstract.] ''"At the edges of perception": William Gaddis and the encyclopedic novel from Joyce to David Foster Wallace.'' 2001, doctoral thesis, Durham University.</ref> ''Infinite Jest'' is featured in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.<ref name="Time">{{Cite magazine |last1=Grossman |first1=Lev |last2=Lacayo |first2=Richard |date=16 October 2005 |title=TIME's Critics pick the 100 Best Novels, 1923 to present |magazine=TIME |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/infinite-jest-1996-by-david-foster-wallace/}}</ref>

The novel has an unconventional [[narrative structure]] and includes hundreds of extensive [[endnote]]s, some with footnotes of their own.

A literary fiction bestseller after having sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Holub |first=Christian |title=Infinite Jest, 20 years later |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/26/infinite-jest-20th-anniversary}}</ref> the novel has since sold more than a million copies worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winter |first=Infinite |date=2016-04-06 |title=Michael Pietsch Interview |url=http://infinitewinter.org/michael-pietsch-interview/ |access-date=April 7, 2016 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122121334/http://infinitewinter.org/michael-pietsch-interview/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

==Development==
Wallace began ''Infinite Jest'', "or something like it", several times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive;<ref name="burn webs">Burn, Stephen J. "'Webs of nerves pulsing and firing': ''Infinite Jest'' and the science of mind". ''A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies''. 58–96</ref> by the end of 1993, he had a working draft of the novel.<ref>Steven Moore, "The First Draft Version of ''Infinite Jest'' " (2003 [https://www.thehowlingfantods.com/ij_first.htm]), in Moore's ''My Back Pages: Reviews and Essays'' (Los Angeles: Zerogram Press, 2017), 684–712.</ref>

From early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including ''[[Harvard Review]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Spring 1992 |title=How Don Gately Found God (Excerpt from Longer Work-in-Progress |journal=Harvard Review |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=95–98 |jstor=i27559357}}</ref> ''[[Grand Street (magazine)|Grand Street]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=April 1, 1992 |title=Three Protrusions |journal=Grand Street |volume=1 |issue=42 |pages=102–114 |jstor=i25007548}}</ref> ''[[Conjunctions (journal)|Conjunctions]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=1993 |title=From "Quite a Bit Longer Thing in Progress" |journal=Conjunctions |volume=1 |issue=20 |pages=223–275 |jstor=i24514389}}</ref> ''[[Review of Contemporary Fiction]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Summer 1993 |title=From Infinite Jest |url=http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/product/vol-xiii-2-w-t-vollmann-d-f-wallace-susan-daitch/ |journal=Review of Contemporary Fiction |volume=13 |issue=2 |isbn=9781564781239 |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=September 1993 |title=The Awakening of My Interest in Annular Systems |url=https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1993-09-0001400.pdf |magazine=Harper's Magazine |volume=287 |issue=1720 |pages=60–73 |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> ''[[The Iowa Review]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=1994 |title=It Was a Great Marvel That He Was in the Father without Knowing Him (II): Winter, 1962: Tucson AZ |journal=The Iowa Review |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=229–243 |doi=10.17077/0021-065X.4728 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Fall 1994 |title=It Was a Great Marvel That He Was in the Father without Knowing Him (I): April: Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad |journal=The Iowa Review |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=114–119 |doi=10.17077/0021-065X.4773 |doi-access=free}}</ref> ''[[The New Yorker]]''<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=19 June 1994 |title=Several Birds |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/06/27/several-birds |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=30 January 1995 |title=An Interval |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/01/30/an-interval |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> and the ''[[Los Angeles Times Magazine]]''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=4 June 1995 |title=Adventures in Regret IV |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-04-tm-9346-story.html |magazine=Los Angeles Times Magazine |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref>

The book was edited by Michael Pietsch of [[Little, Brown and Company]]. Pietsch made suggestions and recommendations to Wallace, but every editing decision was Wallace's. He accepted cuts amounting to around 250 manuscript pages from his original submission. He resisted many changes for reasons that he usually explained.<ref name="infinite summer">{{Cite web |last=Pietsch |first=Michael |title=Michael Pietsch: Editing Infinite Jest |url=http://infinitesummer.org/archives/569 |date= July 3, 2009|access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=infinitesummer.org |archive-date=August 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150820062134/http://infinitesummer.org/archives/569 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The novel gets its name from ''[[Hamlet]]'', Act V, Scene 1, in which [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] holds the skull of the court jester, [[Yorick (Hamlet)|Yorick]], and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, [[Horatio (Hamlet)|Horatio]]: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1 – Alas, poor Yorick! The grave-diggers' scene |url=http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet_5_1.html |access-date=May 30, 2020 |website=www.shakespeare-online.com}}</ref>

Wallace's working title for ''Infinite Jest'' was ''A Failed Entertainment''.<ref name="TRS1">{{Cite magazine |last=Lipsky |first=David |year=2008 |title=The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace |pages=6 of 11 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23638511/the_lost_years__last_days_of_david_foster_wallace/6 |url-status=dead |access-date=2011-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503094120/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23638511/the_lost_years__last_days_of_david_foster_wallace/6 |archive-date=May 3, 2009}}</ref>

==Setting==
In the novel's future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American [[superstate]] known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. (an allusion to the [[Bible|Biblical]] character [[Onan]]). Corporations are allowed the opportunity to bid for and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing traditional numerical designations with ostensibly honorary monikers bearing corporate names. Although the narrative is fragmented and spans several "named" years, most of the story takes place during "The Year of the [[Depend (undergarment)|Depend Adult Undergarment]]" (Y.D.A.U.).

On the orders of U.S. President Johnny Gentle (a germaphobic singer-cum-politician who campaigned on the platform of cleaning up the U.S. while ensuring that no American would be caused any discomfort in the process), much of what used to be the [[northeastern United States]] and [[Southeast Canada|southeastern Canada]] has become a giant [[hazardous waste]] dump, an area "given" to Canada and known as the "Great Concavity" by Americans due to the resulting displacement of the border.

==Plot==
There are several major interwoven narratives, including:<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2012 |title=Multiple narrative disentanglement: Unraveling ''Infinite Jest'' |encyclopedia=Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies |publisher=Association for Computational Linguistics |last=Wallace |first=Byron C. |pages=1–10}}</ref>
* A fringe group of [[Québécois people|Québécois]] radicals, {{Lang|fr|Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents}} ({{Lit|The Wheelchair Assassins}}; A.F.R.), plan a violent coup to free Quebec from O.N.A.N.
* Addicts living in Boston reach "rock bottom" with substance abuse before entering a residential drug and alcohol recovery program, Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, where they progress in recovery through [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] (AA) and [[Narcotics Anonymous]] (NA).
* Students train and study at the Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.), founded by James Incandenza and now run by Avril Incandenza and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis.
* The personal drama of the Incandenza family centers around Hal's struggles to live up to high expectations of academic and athletic success amid wider dysfunction.

These narratives are connected via a film, ''Infinite Jest'', also called "the Entertainment" or "the [[samizdat]]". The film is so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die. It was James Incandenza's final work. He completed it during a period of sobriety that was insisted upon by its lead actress, Joelle van Dyne. The Québécois separatists seek a replicable master copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (O.U.S.) aims to intercept the master copy to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations, or else to find or produce an anti-entertainment that can counter the film's effects. Joelle seeks treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House. A.F.R. member (and possible O.U.S. double agent) Rémy Marathe visits Ennet House, aiming to find Joelle and a lead to the master copy of "the Entertainment".

Wallace compared the novel's structure to a [[Sierpiński triangle|Sierpiński gasket]], a type of [[fractal]]. He said the book's "chaos is more on the surface" and that it had a coherent structure despite its seemingly disjointed plot.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/26/infinite-jest-david-foster-wallace-20th-anniversary-20-things-need-know | title=Infinite Jest at 20: 20 things you need to know | work=The Guardian | date=February 26, 2016 | last1=Leith | first1=Sam }}</ref>

==Major characters==

===The Incandenza family===
* '''Hal Incandenza''' is the youngest of the Incandenza children and arguably the novel's [[protagonist]], as its events revolve around his time at E.T.A. Hal is prodigiously intelligent and talented, but insecure about his abilities (and eventually his mental state). His friend Michael Pemulis calls him Inc, and his favorite thing to do is secretly smoke marijuana in the seclusion of the E.T.A. tunnels. He has difficult relationships with both his parents. He has an [[eidetic memory]] and has memorized the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', and like his mother often corrects his friends' and family's grammar. Hal's mental degradation and [[Social alienation|alienation]] from those around him culminate in his chronologically last appearance in the novel, in which his attempts at speech and facial expressions are incomprehensible to others. The origin of Hal's final condition is unclear; possible causes include marijuana withdrawal, a drug obtained by Michael Pemulis, a patch of mold Hal ate as a child, and a mental breakdown from years of training to be a top junior tennis player.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Happens at the End of Infinite Jest? |url=http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend |access-date=2014-02-06 |publisher=[[Aaron Swartz]]}}</ref>
* '''Avril Incandenza''', née '''Mondragon''', is the domineering mother of the Incandenza children and wife of James. A tall (197&nbsp;cm, or 6&nbsp;ft. 5.5 in.), beautiful [[Québécois people|francophone Québécois]], she becomes a major figure at Enfield Tennis Academy after her husband's suicide and begins, or perhaps continues, a relationship with Charles Tavis, the school's new head, also a Canadian and Avril's either adoptive or half-brother. Her sexual relationships with men are a matter of some speculation/discussion; one with John "No Relation" Wayne is depicted. Avril has phobias about uncleanliness and disease, closed doors, and overhead lighting, and is also described as [[agoraphobic]]. She has an obsessive-compulsive need to watch over E.T.A. and her two younger sons, Hal and Mario, who live at the school; Avril and Orin are no longer in contact. James Incandenza believes that he can connect with his children only through her. Orin believes she runs the family with ingrained manipulation and the illusion of choice. Her family nickname is "the Moms".
* '''James Orin Incandenza Jr.''', Avril's husband and Orin's, Mario's and Hal's father, is an optics expert and filmmaker as well as the founder of Enfield Tennis Academy (though he increasingly leaves E.T.A. business to Charles Tavis). The son of small-time actor James O. Incandenza Sr. (who played "The Man from [[Glad (company)|Glad]]" in the 1960s), James Jr. created ''Infinite Jest'' (also known as "the Entertainment" or "the [[samizdat]]"), an enigmatic and fatally seductive film that was his last work. He used Joelle van Dyne, his son Orin's strikingly beautiful girlfriend, in many of his films, including the fatal "Entertainment". He appears in the book mainly either in [[flashback (literary technique)|flashback]]s or as a "wraith", having killed himself at the age of 54 by placing his head in a [[microwave oven]]. He is an alcoholic who drinks [[Wild Turkey (bourbon)|Wild Turkey]] whiskey. His family nickname is "Himself". Orin also calls him "the Mad Stork" or (once) "the Sad Stork".
* '''Mario Incandenza''' is the Incandenzas' second son, although his biological father may be Charles Tavis. Severely deformed since birth—he is [[Macrocephaly|macrocephalic]], [[homodont]]ic, [[bradykinesia|bradykinetic]], and stands or walks at a 45-degree angle—as well as mentally "slow", he is nonetheless perennially cheerful and kind. He is also a budding [[auteur]], having served as James's camera and directorial assistant and later inheriting the prodigious studio equipment and film lab his father built on the academy grounds. Somewhat surprisingly, he is an avid fan of Madame Psychosis's dark radio show, partly because he finds her voice familiar. Hal, though younger, acts like a supportive older brother to Mario, whom Hal calls "Booboo".
* '''Orin Incandenza''' is the Incandenzas' eldest son. He is a [[Punter (American football)|punter]] for the [[Arizona Cardinals|Phoenix Cardinals]] and a serial womanizer, and is estranged from everyone in his family except Hal. It is suggested that Orin lost his attraction to Joelle after she became disfigured when her mother unintentionally threw acid in her face during a Thanksgiving dinner, but Orin cites Joelle's questionable relationship with his father as the reason for the breakup even though he later admits he knows there was no romance. Orin focuses his subsequent womanizing on young mothers; Hal suggests that this is because he blames his father's death on his mother. Molly Notkin, a friend of Joelle's, says that Orin has numerous "malcathected issues with his mother". Orin's relationship with his father was tense. His father tells Joelle "he simply didn't know how to speak with either of his undamaged sons without their mother's presence and mediation. Orin could not be made to shut up."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |title=Infinite Jest |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-316-92004-9 |location=New York, NY |page=743}}</ref>

===The Enfield Tennis Academy===

* '''Michael Pemulis''', a working-class teenager from an Allston, Massachusetts family, and Hal's best friend. A prankster and the school's resident drug dealer, Pemulis is also very proficient in mathematics. This, combined with his limited but ultraprecise lobbing, made him the school's first master of Eschaton, a computer-aided [[Turn-based game|turn-based]] nuclear [[Wargaming|wargame]] that requires players to be adept at both [[game theory]] and lobbing tennis balls at targets. Although the novel takes place long after Pemulis's Eschaton days (the game is played by 12- to 14-year-olds), Pemulis is still regarded as the game's all-time greatest player, and he remains the final court of appeal for the game. His brother, Matty, is a gay hustler who as a child was sexually abused by their father.
* '''John "No Relation" Wayne''', the top-ranked player at E.T.A. He is frighteningly efficient, controlled, and machine-like on the court. Wayne is almost never directly quoted in the narrative; his statements are either summarized by the narrator or repeated by other characters. His Canadian citizenship has been revoked since he came to E.T.A. His father is a sick asbestos miner in Quebec who hopes John will soon start earning "serious $" in "the Show" (professional tennis) to "take him away from all this". Pemulis discovers Wayne is having a sexual relationship with Avril Incandenza, and it is later revealed that Hal is also aware of the relationship. Wayne may be sympathetic to, or actively supporting, the radical Quebec separatists.
* '''Ortho "The Darkness" Stice''', another of Hal's close friends. His name consists of the Greek root ''ortho'' ("straight") and the anglicized suffix ''-stice'' ("a space") from the noun ''interstice'', which originally derived from the Latin verb ''sistere'' ("to stand"). He endorses only brands that have black-colored products, and is at all times clothed entirely in black, hence his nickname. Late in the book Stice nearly defeats Hal in a three-set tennis match, shortly after which his forehead is frozen to a window and his bed appears either bolted or mysteriously levitated to the ceiling. There are indications that Stice is being visited by the ghost of James Incandenza.
* '''Lyle''', E.T.A. weight room guru. He spends most of his time perched atop the towel dispenser in the lotus position. Lyle licks the sweat off the boys' bodies after they work out and in turn gives them life advice. His behavior is described by the narrator as unusual but "nothing faggy". Lyle is close to Mario, whom he sometimes employs to speak to players who struggle with self-esteem.

===Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House===
* '''Don Gately''', a former thief and [[Demerol]] addict, and current counselor in residence at Ennet House. One of the novel's primary characters, Gately is physically enormous and a reluctant but dedicated [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] member. He is critically wounded in an altercation with several Canadian men, and much of the later part of the novel involves his inner monologue while he recuperates in a Boston hospital. Gately had a complicated childhood. His stepfather abused his mother. During his middle-school and high-school years, Gately's size made him a formidable football talent. During his period as an addict and burglar, he accidentally kills M. DuPlessis, a leader of one of the many separatist Québécois organizations featured in the novel. Gately is visited by the ghosts of James O. Incandenza and Lyle.
* '''Joelle van Dyne''', also known as "Madame Psychosis" (cf. [[metempsychosis]]), a stage name she received from James Incandenza when she starred in his films (and later her on-air name in her radio show "60+/−"). She became acquainted with James through her college relationship with Orin Incandenza, who referred to her as "The Prettiest Girl of All Time", or P.G.O.A.T. She appears in the lethally addictive Entertainment, reaching down toward a wobbly "neonatal" lens as if it were in a bassinet and apologizing profusely, her face blurred beyond recognition. Extremely beautiful as a young woman, Joelle later becomes a member of the Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed (U.H.I.D.), and wears a veil to hide her face. According to Molly Notkin, Joelle's face was disfigured by a beaker of acid her mother threw, intending to hit Joelle's father, who had just revealed he was in love with her (Joelle). Joelle says she wears the veil because her superlative attractiveness plagued her throughout her life, causing her to suffer social and romantic isolation until she met Orin. Joelle tries to "eliminate her own map" (that is, [[suicide]]) in Notkin's bathroom by massive ingestion of freebase [[cocaine]], which lands her in Ennet House as a resident. Gately and Joelle develop a mutual attraction.
* '''Randy Lenz''', a "small-time organic-coke dealer who wears sportcoats rolled up over his parlor-tanned forearms and is always checking his pulse on the inside of his wrists". An Ennet House resident, he constantly asks the time but refuses to wear a watch and regularly violates the sobriety rule.
* '''Geoffrey Day''', an Ennet House resident who struggles with the clichés of AA. He comes to Ennet House after putting his car through a sporting-goods store window.<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Foster Wallace, 'Infinite Jest' And Lessons In Empathy-The ARTery |url=http://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/03/07/david-foster-wallace-empathy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001235857/http://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/03/07/david-foster-wallace-empathy |archive-date=2018-10-01 |access-date=2019-07-29}}</ref>

===Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents===

Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (A.F.R.), the Wheelchair Assassins, are a Québécois separatist group. (The use of "rollents" where "roulants" would be correct is in keeping with other erroneous French words and phrases in the novel.) They are one of many such groups that developed after the United States coerced Canada and Mexico into joining the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.), but the A.F.R. is the most deadly and extremist. While other separatist groups are willing to settle for nationhood, the A.F.R. wants Canada to secede from O.N.A.N. and to reject the United States' forced gift of its polluted "Great Concavity" (or, Hal and Orin speculate, is pretending that those are its goals to put pressure on Canada to let Quebec secede). The A.F.R. seeks the master copy of ''Infinite Jest'' as a terrorist weapon to achieve its goals. The A.F.R. has its roots in a childhood game in which miners' sons would line up alongside a train track and compete to be the last to jump across the path of an oncoming train, a game in which many were killed or rendered legless (the group's wheelchair-bound members all lost their legs in this way).

Only one miner's son ever (disgracefully) failed to jump—Bernard Wayne, who may be related to E.T.A.'s John Wayne. Québécoise Avril's liaisons with John Wayne, and with A.F.R.'s Guillaume DuPlessis and Luria Perec,<ref>p.30</ref> suggest that Avril may have ties to the A.F.R. as well. There is also evidence linking E.T.A. prorector Thierry Poutrincourt to the group.
* '''Rémy Marathe''' is a member of the Wheelchair Assassins who secretly talks to Hugh/Helen Steeply. Marathe is a quadruple agent: the A.F.R. thinks that he is a triple agent, only pretending to betray the A.F.R., while Marathe and Steeply know that he only pretends to pretend to betray them. He does this in order to secure medical support for his wife (who was born without a skull) from the Office of Unspecified Services. Late in the novel, Marathe is sent to infiltrate Ennet House in the guise of a Swiss drug addict.

===Other recurring characters===

These characters cross between the major narrative threads:
* '''Hugh Steeply''', an agent who assumes a female identity ("Helen") for an operative role, with whom Orin Incandenza becomes obsessed. Hugh works for the government Office of Unspecified Services and has gone undercover to get information out of Orin about the Entertainment. He is the U.S.O.U.S.'s contact with the A.F.R. mole Marathe.
* '''"Poor Tony" Krause''', a cross-dressing junkie and thief who steals a woman's exterior heart, causing her death, and later robs Ennet House residents.
*  '''Marlon Bain''', a former E.T.A. student who was close to Orin. His obsessive-compulsive disorder has made it nearly impossible for him to leave his apartment. Steeply contacts him for information about Orin and the Incandenzas.

==Style==
''Infinite Jest'' is a [[postmodern literature|postmodern]] [[encyclopedic novel]], famous for its length, detail, and digressions involving 388 endnotes, some of which themselves have footnotes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Infinite Jest Summary |url=https://www.supersummary.com/infinite-jest/summary/ |access-date=May 30, 2020}}</ref> It has also been called [[metamodernism|metamodernist]] and [[hysterical realism|hysterical realist]]. Wallace's "encyclopedic display of knowledge"<ref name="burn webs" /> incorporates [[media theory]], linguistics, film studies, sport, addiction, science, and issues of national identity. The book is often humorous yet explores [[Depression (mood)|melancholy]] deeply. The novel's narration mostly alternates between [[Narration|third-person]] limited and omniscient points of view, but also includes several [[First-person narrative|first-person]] accounts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Where's Wallace? Infinite Jest's Return to Reality |date=October 27, 2014 |url=https://qc-writers.com/2014/10/27/796/ |access-date=August 4, 2023}}</ref>

Eschewing chronological plot development and straightforward resolution—a concern often mentioned in reviews—the novel supports a wide range of readings. At various times Wallace said that he intended for the novel's plot to resolve, but indirectly; responding to his editor's concerns about the lack of resolution, he said "the answers all [exist], but just past the last page".<ref name="burn webs" /> Long after publication Wallace maintained this position, stating that the novel "does resolve, but it resolves ... outside of the right frame of the picture. You can get a pretty good idea, I think, of what happens".<ref name="burn webs" /> Critical reviews and a reader's guide have provided insight, but Stephen Burn notes that Wallace privately conceded to [[Jonathan Franzen]] that "the story can't fully be made sense of".<ref>Burn ("Webs...") quoting Franzen, email.</ref>

In an interview with [[Charlie Rose]], Wallace characterized the novel's heavy use of endnotes as a method of disrupting the linearity of the text while maintaining some sense of narrative cohesion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An interview with David Foster Wallace |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ytSdSM-Kk |access-date=2015-08-19 |publisher=Charlie Rose}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}}</ref> In a separate interview on [[Michael Silverblatt]]'s radio show ''Bookworm'', Wallace said the plotting and notes had a fractal structure modeled after the [[Sierpiński gasket]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Kyle |title=Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace |date=November 25, 2012 |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/infinite-proofs-the-effects-of-mathematics-on-david-foster-wallace/#!}}</ref>

English critic [[James Wood (critic)|James Wood]] called the novel an exemplar of "[[hysterical realism]]", a term he also applied to works by [[Zadie Smith]], [[Thomas Pynchon]], and [[Don DeLillo]].<ref>{{cite magazine | title=Human, All Too Inhuman | magazine=The New Republic | url=https://newrepublic.com/article/61361/human-inhuman }}</ref> He criticized these novelists for seeking to "turn fiction into social theory" and as "evasive of reality".

==Themes==
The novel touches on many topics, including addiction (to drugs, sex, and fame), withdrawal, recovery, [[twelve-step program]]s, death, family relationships, absent or dead parents, mental health, suicide, sadness, entertainment, [[film theory]], [[media theory]], [[linguistics]], science, [[Quebec sovereignty movement|Quebec separatism]], [[national identity]], and [[tennis]] as a [[metaphysical]] activity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Steven |year=1996 |title=David Foster Wallace. Infinite Jest. Little, Brown, 1996. 1,079 pp. $29.95. |journal=Review of Contemporary Fiction |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=141–142}}</ref>

The book's various plot threads, including Hal's struggle to succeed in a competitive academic and athletic environment, Gately's recovery from addiction, and the film ''Infinite Jest'' as an all-consuming form of entertainment, are tied together by an overarching theme of addiction and devotion. Conversations between Marathe, a [[double agent]] betraying the Quebecois separatist movement for the sake of his wife, and Steeply, an American agent and Marathe's contact, serve as a chorus for the story, with interludes where the two discuss the nature of entertainment and worship in American culture. A form of addiction or devotion is central to nearly every character's life; literary critic Paul Curtis argues that addiction, "however abnormal, is the ''norm'' of the novel."<ref>CURTIS, PAUL M. "'Yo Man so What's Your Story': The Double Bind and Addiction in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 49, no. 4, 2016, pp. 37–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030596. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.</ref>

Worship and addiction remained a central theme of Wallace's work. In his 2005 [[commencement speech]] at [[Kenyon College]], he said: "Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/ | title=This is Water by David Foster Wallace (Full Transcript and Audio) | date=April 28, 2012 }}</ref>

==Literary connections==
''Infinite Jest'' draws explicitly or allusively on many previous works of literature.

As its title implies, the novel is in part based on the play ''[[Hamlet]]''. Enfield Tennis Academy corresponds to [[Denmark]], ruled by James ([[Ghost (Hamlet)|King Hamlet]]) and Avril ([[Gertrude (Hamlet)|Queen Gertrude]]). When James dies, he is replaced by Charles ([[King Claudius|Claudius]]), the uncle of Avril's gifted son Hal ([[Prince Hamlet]]). As in the play, the son's task is to fight incipient mental breakdown in order to redeem his father's reputation.<ref>{{Citation |last=Walsh |first=James Jason Jr |title=American Hamlet: Shakespearean Epistemology In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest |date=August 2014 |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?p10_etd_subid=98834&clear=10 |publisher=Cleveland State University |access-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-date=June 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610193847/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?p10_etd_subid=98834&clear=10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another link is to the ''[[Odyssey]]'', wherein the son [[Telemachus]] (Hal) has to grow apart from his dominating mother [[Penelope]] (Avril) and discover the truth about his absent father [[Odysseus]] (James). (That pattern is also reproduced in the novel ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'', set in a realistic version of [[Dublin]] populated by a wide range of inhabitants, just as ''Infinite Jest'' is mostly in a realistic Boston with a varied population.<ref name="burn readers guide">{{Citation |last=Burn |first=Stephen |title=David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: A reader's guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJ6U1VK3SRcC |year=2003 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0826414779 |access-date=7 June 2016}}</ref>) In one scene, Hal, on the phone with Orin, says that clipping his toenails into a wastebasket "now seems like an exercise in telemachry." Orin then asks whether Hal meant [[telemetry]]. Christopher Bartlett has argued that Hal's mistake is a direct reference to Telemachus, who for the first four books of the ''Odyssey'' believes that his father is dead.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bartlett |first=Christopher |date=8 June 2016 |title="An Exercise in Telemachry": David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and Intergenerational Conversation |journal=[[Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction]] |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=374–389 |doi=10.1080/00111619.2015.1113921 |s2cid=148474511}}</ref>

Links to ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' have been analyzed by Timothy Jacobs, who sees Orin representing the nihilistic Dmitri, Hal standing for Ivan and Mario the simple and good [[Alyosha Karamazov|Alyosha]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Max |first=D. T. |title=Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTzmRoY3z_IC&pg=PA288 |page=288 |year=2012 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1101601112 |access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref>

The film so entertaining that its viewers lose interest in anything else has been likened to the [[Monty Python]] sketch "[[The Funniest Joke in the World]]", as well as to "the [[experience machine]]", a thought experiment by [[Robert Nozick]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sloane |first=Peter |year=2014 |title=The Divided Selves of David Foster Wallace |journal=Tropos |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=67–73 |doi=10.14324/111.2057-2212.011 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Critical reception==

''Infinite Jest'' was marketed heavily, and Wallace had to adapt to being a public figure. He was interviewed in national magazines and went on a 10-city book tour. Publisher Little, Brown equated the book's heft with its importance in marketing and sent a series of cryptic teaser postcards to 4,000 people, announcing a novel of "infinite pleasure" and "infinite style".<ref>Aubry, Timothy. ''Reading as Therapy: What Contemporary Fiction Does for Middle-Class Americans''. University of Iowa Press, 2006. 120</ref> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' sent reporter [[David Lipsky]] to follow Wallace on his "triumphant" book tour—the first time the magazine had sent a reporter to profile a young author in 10 years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kalfus |first=Ken |date=May 30, 2010 |title=Wish You Were Here |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/review/Kalfus-t.html |access-date=July 19, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603110520/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/review/Kalfus-t.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=June 3, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> The interview was never published in the magazine but became Lipsky's ''New York Times''-bestselling book ''[[Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself]]'' (2010), of which the 2015 movie ''[[The End of the Tour]]'' is an adaptation.

Early reviews contributed to ''Infinite Jest''{{'}}s hype, many of them describing it as a momentous literary event.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Birkerts |first=Sven |date=February 1996 |title=The Alchemist's Retort |work=The Atlantic Monthly |url=http://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic/issues/96feb/alchem/alchem.htm |access-date=July 19, 2025 |archive-date=November 16, 1996 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961116145615/http://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic/issues/96feb/alchem/alchem.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the ''[[Review of Contemporary Fiction]]'', [[Steven Moore (US author)|Steven Moore]] called the book "a profound study of the postmodern condition".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Infinite+Jest.-a018540930|title=Infinite Jest. - Free Online Library|website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}</ref> In 2004, [[Chad Harbach]] wrote that, in retrospect, ''Infinite Jest'' "now looks like the central American novel of the past thirty years, a dense star for lesser work to orbit".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-07-15 |title=N+1 |url=http://nplusonemag.com/david-foster-wallace}}</ref> In a 2008 retrospective, ''[[The New York Times]]'' called the book "a masterpiece that's also a monster—nearly 1,100 pages of mind-blowing inventiveness and disarming sweetness. Its size and complexity make it forbidding and esoteric."<ref name="best mind">{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=September 21, 2008 |title= The Best Mind of His Generation  |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/weekinreview/21scott.html|access-date=July 19, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210194708/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2008/09/21/weekinreview/21scott.html?pagewanted=all|archive-date=December 10, 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.<ref name="TIME">{{Cite magazine |last1=Grossman |first1=Lev |last2=Lacayo |first2=Richard |date=16 October 2005 |title=TIME's Critics pick the 100 Best Novels, 1923 to present |magazine=TIME |url=http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051019053903/http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html |archive-date=October 19, 2005}}</ref>

As Wallace's ''magnum opus'', ''Infinite Jest'' is at the center of the new discipline of "Wallace Studies", which, according to ''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'', "... is on its way to becoming a robust scholarly enterprise."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Howard|first=Jennifer|date=January 6, 2011|title=The Afterlife of David Foster Wallace|url=http://chronicle.com/article/The-Afterlife-of-David-Foster/125823/|journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education|access-date=July 19, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108173421/http://chronicle.com/article/The-Afterlife-of-David-Foster/125823/|archive-date=January 8, 2011|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Not all critics were as laudatory. Some early reviews, such as [[Michiko Kakutani]]'s in ''The New York Times'', were mixed, recognizing the inventiveness of the writing but criticizing the length and plot. She called the novel "a vast, encyclopedic compendium of whatever seems to have crossed Wallace's mind."<ref>{{cite news|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=February 13, 1996|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/13/books/books-of-the-times-a-country-dying-of-laughter-in-1079-pages.html|title=A Country Dying of Laughter. In 1,079 Pages.|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 19, 2025|page=C17|url-access=limited|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110212093306/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1996/02/13/books/books-of-the-times-a-country-dying-of-laughter-in-1079-pages.html?pagewanted=all|archive-date=February 12, 2011}}</ref> In the ''[[London Review of Books]]'', [[Dale Peck]] wrote of the novel, "... it is, in a word, terrible. Other words I might use include bloated, boring, gratuitous, and—perhaps especially—uncontrolled."<ref>Peck, Dale (18 July 1996) [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v18/n14/dale-peck/well-duh "Well, duh."] ''London Review of Books'' (retrieved 4-23-2013).</ref> [[Harold Bloom]], [[Sterling Professor]] of [[Humanities]] at [[Yale University]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Faculty – English |url=http://english.yale.edu/faculty-staff/harold-bloom |website=english.yale.edu}}</ref> called it "just awful" and written with "no discernible talent" (in the novel, Bloom's own work is called "turgid").<ref>{{Cite news |last=Koski |first=Lorna |date=2011-04-26 |title=The Full Harold Bloom |work=Women's Wear Daily` |url=http://www.wwd.com/eye/people/the-full-bloom-3592315?full=true |access-date=19 October 2012}}</ref><ref>On page 911 of the novel, Hal Incandenza describes a scene in one of his father's films in which a professor reads "stupefyingly turgid-sounding shit" to his students; endnote 366, to which this passage refers, adds: "Sounding rather suspiciously like Professor H. Bloom's turgid studies of artistic ''influenza''."</ref> In a review of Wallace's work up to the year 2000, [[A. O. Scott]] wrote of ''Infinite Jest'', "[T]he novel's [[Thomas Pynchon|Pynchonesque]] elements...feel rather willed and secondhand. They are impressive in the manner of a precocious child's performance at a dinner party, and, in the same way, ultimately irritating: they seem motivated, mostly, by a desire to show off."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Scott|first=A.O.|date=February 10, 2000|volume=47|issue=2|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/02/10/the-panic-of-influence/|title=The Panic of Influence|magazine=New York Review of Books|access-date=July 19, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100514165011/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2000/feb/10/the-panic-of-influence/?pagination=false|archive-date=May 14, 2010|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Some critics have since qualified their initial stances. In 2008, A. O. Scott called ''Infinite Jest'' an "enormous, zeitgeist-gobbling novel that set his generation's benchmark for literary ambition" and Wallace "the best mind of his generation".<ref name="best mind"/> [[James Wood (critic)|James Wood]] has said that he regrets his negative review: "I wish I'd slowed down a bit more with David Foster Wallace."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wood |first=James |date=August 18, 2015 |title=A Conversation with James Wood |work=Slate |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/08/james_wood_interview_the_new_yorker_writer_on_how_technology_is_changing.html}}</ref> ''Infinite Jest'' is one of the recommendations in Kakutani's book ''Ex Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread''.<ref>Kelley, George (November 23, 2020) [http://georgekelley.org/ex-libris-100-books-to-read-and-reread-by-michiko-kakutani/ "EX-LIBRIS: 100 BOOKS TO READ AND REREAD By Michiko Kakutani"]. GeorgeKelley.org (retrieved 12-7-2020).</ref>

==Adaptations==
Playwright [[Ken Campbell]] worked on an adaptation of ''Infinite Jest'' for the Millennium. His concept was to have 1,000 performers who each paid $23 to take part in the event, which would last a week. It did not come to fruition. German theatrical company [[Hebbel am Ufer]] produced a 24-hour [[avant-garde]] open-air theatre adaptation in 2012.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Earley |first=Michael |date=June 22, 2012 |title=A day in dystopia |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/3e80b10a-b95c-11e1-b4d6-00144feabdc0}}</ref>

''Infinite Jest'' was adapted in [[Finnish language|Finnish]] for radio and broadcast in six episodes by [[Yle]] in January 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://areena.yle.fi/podcastit/1-64550862|title=Päättymätön riemu &#124; Yle Areena|website=areena.yle.fi}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
* The ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' episode "Partridge" contains various references to the novel. For example, Ann and Chris take the "Incandenza-Pemulis Parenting Compatibility Quiz", and Ann's fertility counselor, Dr. Van Dyne, works at the C.T. Tavis Medical Center.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Temple |first=Emily |title=An Annotated Guide to Last Nights 'Parks and Recreation' David Foster Wallace References |url=https://www.flavorwire.com/382473/an-annotated-guide-to-last-nights-parks-and-recreation-david-foster-wallace-references |access-date=2020-11-26 |website=Flavorwire |date=April 5, 2013 |language=English}}</ref>
* The video for [[The Decemberists]]' "Calamity Song" recreates the novel's Eschaton chapter.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Decemberists recreate David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' with help from 'Parks and Recreation' show runner Michael Schur |url=https://ew.com/article/2011/08/22/the-decemberists-calamity-song-video-infinite-jest/ |access-date=2020-11-26 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |language=English}}</ref>
* The music video for [[MC Lars]] and [[Wheatus]]'s "Finite Jest" recounts the plot of Wallace's novel from Hal's perspective, recreating scenes from the book.<ref>{{cite web |title=MC Lars - Finite Jest ft. Wheatus (Music Video) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--i0O9vskR0 |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=YouTube | date=March 22, 2022 |language=English}}</ref>
* The [[Infinite Summer]] project, an online book group with the goal of reading ''Infinite Jest'' over a single summer, took place in 2009. It included daily commentary from well-known writers, musicians and media personalities.<ref>{{cite web |title=David Foster Wallace lives on for an "Infinite Summer" |url=https://www.salon.com/2009/07/14/infinite_summer/ |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=Salon |date=July 14, 2009 |language=English}}</ref>
* The rock band [[We Are the Fury]] named its 2006 EP ''[[Infinite Jest (album)|Infinite Jest]]'' after the novel.
* The hardcore punk band [[Fury (American band)|Fury]] named its album ''Failed Entertainment'' after the novel's working title.
* The indie pop rock band [[The 1975]]'s song title "[[Surrounded by Heads and Bodies]]" was inspired by the novel's opening line. The band's lead singer, [[Matty Healy]], was reading the book while in rehab.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-27 |title=The 1975's Matty Healy Dissects Every Song on A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/the-1975s-matty-healy-dissects-every-song-on-a-brief-inquiry-into-online-relationships/ |access-date=2023-09-22 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}</ref>

==Translations==
''Infinite Jest'' has been translated:
* {{Cite book |last=Blumenbach |first=Ulrich |title=Unendlicher Spaß |publisher=Kiepenheuer & Witsch |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-462-04112-5 |location=[[Cologne|Köln]] |language=de |ref=none}}
** In 2010, Blumenbach received the [[Leipzig Book Fair Prize]] and the [[Kurd Laßwitz Award]] for the translation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 18, 2019 |title=Archive Leipzig Book fair Prize |url=http://www.preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/Archiv/ |access-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-date=July 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705030326/http://www.preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/Archiv/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 18, 2019 |title=KLP 2010 |url=http://www.kurd-lasswitz-preis.de/2010/KLP_2010_Beste_Uebersetzung.htm |access-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-date=May 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512110008/http://www.kurd-lasswitz-preis.de/2010/KLP_2010_Beste_Uebersetzung.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* {{Cite book |last1=Nesi |first1=Edoardo |title=Infinite Jest |last2=Villoresi |first2=Annalisa |last3=Giua |first3=Grazia |publisher=Fandango Libri |year=2000 |isbn=978-88-87517-10-1 |location=[[Rome|Roma]] |language=it |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Telles de Menezes |first1=Salvato |title=A Piada Infinita |last2=Teles de Menezes |first2=Vasco |publisher=Quetzal |year=2012 |isbn=978-989-722-063-0 |language=pt |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Covián |first1=Marcelo |title=La broma infinita |last2=Calvo |first2=Javier |publisher=Mondadori |year=2002 |isbn=978-84-397-0236-8 |location=[[Barcelona]] |language=es |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last=Galindo |first=Caetano W. |title=Graça Infinita |publisher=Companhia das Letras |year=2014 |isbn=978-85-3592-504-3 |ref=none |language=pt-BR}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kerline |first=Francis |title=L'infinie comédie |publisher=Éditions de l'Olivier |year=2015 |isbn=978-28-7929-982-2 |language=fr |ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Kemény |first1=Lili |title=Végtelen tréfa |last2=Sipos |first2=Balázs |publisher=Jelenkor Kiadó |year=2018 |isbn=978-9-636-76614-6 |language=hu |ref=none}}
* Polyarinov, Alexey; Karpov, Sergey (2018). ''Бесконечная Шутка'' (in Russian). AST. {{ISBN|978-5-17-096355-3}}.
* Valkonen, Tero (2020). ''Päättymätön riemu'' (in Finnish). Siltala / Sanavalinta. {{ISBN|978-952-234-653-7}}.
** In 2021, Valkonen was awarded the Mikael Agricola Prize.<ref>[https://www.sktl.fi/?x18668=2603468 SKTL:n vuoden 2021 käännöspalkinnot Tero Valkoselle ja Jussi Palmusaarelle.] Suomen kääntäjien ja tulkkien liitto 9.4.2021. (In Finnish.)</ref>
*Kozak, Jolanta (2022). ''Niewyczerpany żart'' (in Polish). Wydawnictwo W.A.B. {{ISBN|978-83-83180-26-7}}.
* Književnost, Svetska; Naslovi, Novi  (2022). ''Beskrajna Lakrdija'' (in Serbian). Kontrast. {{ISBN|9788660361655}}.
* {{Cite book |last1=Yu |first1=Bingxia |title=无尽的玩笑 |publisher= 上海人民出版社 (Shanghai People's Publisher) |year=2023 |isbn=9787208161757 |language=zh-cn |ref=none}}
* Sapir, Michal (2023). "מהתלה אינסופית" (in Hebrew). Hakibutz Hameuchad.
* Farrokhi, Moeen  (2024). "مزاح-بی‌پایان" (in [[Persian language|Persian]]). Borj.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* ''[[Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself]]''
* ''[[The End of the Tour]]''
* ''[[Something to Do with Paying Attention]]''
* [[Infinite Summer]]
* [[Hysterical realism]]
* [[Postmodern literature]]
* "[[The Zahir]]"

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==

===In-depth studies===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Bartlett, Christopher. "'An Exercise in Telemachry': David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest'' and Intergenerational Conversation". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 57.4 (2006), 374–389.
* Burn, Stephen. ''David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest'': A Reader's Guide''. New York, London: Continuum, 2003 (Continuum Contemporaries){{ISBN|0-8264-1477-X}}
* Bresnan, Mark. "The Work of Play in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 50:1 (2008), 51–68.
* Carlisle, Greg. ''Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest'''. Hollywood: SSMG Press, 2007.
* Cioffi, Frank Louis. "An Anguish Becomes Thing: Narrative as Performance in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''". ''Narrative'' 8.2 (2000), 161–181.
* Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Put the Book Down and Slowly Walk Away': Irony and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction''47.3 (2006), 309–328.
* Hering, David. "''Infinite Jest'': Triangles, Cycles, Choices and Chases". ''Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays''. Ed. David Hering. Austin/Los Angeles: SSMG, 2010.
* Holland, Mary K. "'The Art's Heart's Purpose': Braving the Narcissistic Loop of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 47.3 (2006), 218–242.
* Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' and David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' 49.3 (2007): 265–292.
* Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' and David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Contemporary Literary Criticism'' Vol. 271. Ed. Jeffrey Hunter. New York: Gale, 2009. 313–327.
* Jacobs, Timothy. "American Touchstone: The Idea of Order in Gerard Manley Hopkins and David Foster Wallace." ''Comparative Literature Studies'' 38.3 (2001): 215–231.
* Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''The Explicator'' 58.3 (2000): 172–175.
* Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace’s ''The Broom of the System''." Ed. Alan Hedblad. ''Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction''. Vol 15. New York: Thomson-Gale, 2001. 41–50.
* LeClair, Tom. "The Prodigious Fiction of [[Richard Powers]], [[William Vollmann]], and David Foster Wallace". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 38.1 (1996), 12–37.
* Nichols, Catherine. "Dialogizing Postmodern Carnival: David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''". ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 43.1 (2001), 3–16.
* Pennacchio, Filippo. "What Fun Life Was. Saggio su ''Infinite Jest'' di David Foster Wallace". Milano: Arcipelago Edizioni, 2009.
{{refend}}

===Interviews===
* Lipsky, David, ''Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace.'' New York: Broadway, 2010.
* {{Citation |last=Miller |first=Laura |title=David Foster Wallace |url=http://salon.com/09/features/wallace1.html |work=Salon |volume=9 |year=1996 |type=interview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991013045003/http://salon.com/09/features/wallace1.html |archive-date=1999-10-13}}.
* {{Citation |last=Goldfarb |first=Michael |title=David Foster Wallace |date=25 June 2004 |url=http://www.theconnection.org/2004/06/25/david-foster-wallace/ |type=radio interview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911075817/http://www.theconnection.org/2004/06/25/david-foster-wallace/ |publisher=The Connection |archive-date=11 September 2010 |url-status=dead}}.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20160323034412/http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1 NPR interview about Infinite Jest]''
* [http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw960411david_foster_wallace Wallace talking about his novel] on [[Michael Silverblatt]]'s "Bookworm" radio show

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/ The ''Infinite Jest'' Wiki]
* [http://www.thenewcanon.com/infinte_jest.html "''Infinite Jest'' by David Foster Wallace"] by Ted Gioia (The New Canon)
* [http://infiniteatlas.com/ Infinite Atlas] An interactive map of all the characters, places, and events in Infinite Jest

{{David Foster Wallace}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Infinite Jest}}
[[Category:1996 American novels]]
[[Category:American sports novels]]
[[Category:Books about film]]
[[Category:Encyclopedic and systems novels]]
[[Category:Experimental literature]]
[[Category:Little, Brown and Company books]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:Metamodernism]]
[[Category:Nonlinear narrative novels]]
[[Category:Novels about consumerism]]
[[Category:Novels based on Hamlet]]
[[Category:Novels by David Foster Wallace]]
[[Category:Novels set in Arizona]]
[[Category:Novels set in Boston]]
[[Category:Novels set in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Novels set in Tucson, Arizona]]
[[Category:Postmodern novels]]