2026 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s monumental, notorious, and exquisite novel about commitment, addiction, and what it means to be a self in an era of endless entertainment. Its themes are still essential, and writers can learn a lot from its approach. In this course, we’ll read the novel's first 321 pages (the full text is way too long to tackle in four weeks), which are designed to be its most challenging. We encourage folks to continue with the rest after class, as it gets increasingly more satisfying and rewarding. This is a class premised as much on support as it is close reading. Together, we’ll find our footing among the novel’s polyvocal complexity, learning from the text, and preparing ourselves to not only read the remainder of the story (on our own time) but to learn from its structure, syntax, and massive thematic ambitions. There is simply no other novel like it, and no better way to wade into its pages than with the support and guidance of a group.
Required Test: Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
