Genre
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Infinite Jest is notoriously difficult to read and follow, in part because it is an encyclopedic novel. It has a central fictional narrative, but it also explains and represents a massive array of scientific and cultural knowledge through footnotes and digressions. This genre stretches back to works like Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which teaches readers more than they ever wanted to know about the whaling industry while also telling a compelling story about people within that industry. Postmodern novels like Infinite Jest take this encyclopedic approach to the extreme as they try to convey a sense of how complicated the world is—there is no hope of ever understanding it fully. While often disorienting and distracting, the digressions are always relevant to the narrative. However, they usually raise more questions than they answer.