Infinite Ephs Week 6*

I realize that the last post might have turned some people off because of the number of pages, but hopefully people are still hanging in there and focusing more on the reading experience than where they are in the book (I am certainly not as far as I should be). The scheduled reading is *442-527 for anyone keeping up with the schedule. I also don't know if the prompts are helpful at all so this week I'm just going to throw out one thing, but if you get a chance to respond also comment on your experience with the posts and if there is anything that should be done differently. Any all feedback is greatly appreciated, and it's still not too late to join in:

• There is a lot of talk in this book about paying attention, whether it is Don Gately who can switch his attention on and off like a light or people just watching a tennis match. Sometimes it's so difficult to pay attention to everything that's going on in the book (did everyone catch "The Spider" being named as addiction...remember Week 1?) that I feel like Infinite Jest is a book about paying attention. Paying attention to our problems, taking an active stake in our entertainment...but paying attention is hard work. To me this makes perfect sense considering DFW's last, unfinished work ("The Pale King" to Publishers, "The Big One" to him) focuses on boredom. Thoughts?

Hopefully the reading is going well. Be sure to post any of your thoughts or sections from the reading that interest you and we can talk about them. Enjoy!