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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2881 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 12, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on The Eternal Dissident.

I'm really locking into Infinite Jest, a work of unrealistic genius and prescience, so good that I don't even know what to say about it.

On audiobook I finished Two Weeks, Eight Seconds which was exactly what I wanted at the time that I wanted it. A perfect sports book.

In between I've been reading the Fort Bragg Cartel about drug running in the specops world in the South. It's good, but the author is just such a weenie. I'm antiwar as they come, but the book is so preachy about it when it is irrelevant to the action in the book.

I've heard Infinite Jest is quite the doorstopper. Are you finding it difficult to read?

I did not enjoy Infinite Jest. The author is a gifted wordcel: he has nothing worthwhile to say, but he is very good at saying it. It's just Reddit philosophy, dressed well.

When I read it around age 17 (circa 2002), I found it really invigorating. I got a kick out of the detailed detours (especially the footnotes) and it struck me as novel and true. I reread it 2-3 years ago and it was a bit of a slog (though I still finished it--I just wasn't excited each time I picked it up). Sometimes you have to be in the right place in life for a book to speak to you, and sometimes you've already seen the tricks that make a book notable that the charm wears off.

I no longer feel compelled to continue reading books that don't hold my interest though. Give it 100 pages. It should be clear at that point if it currently resonates with you.

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