Style

Infinite Jest

by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest: Style 1 key example

Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:

The novel's style can be difficult and alienating, making liberal use of stream-of-consciousness, footnotes, dialect, obscure vocabulary, and disjointed storytelling. For most readers, the novel gets easier and more rewarding as it goes on. The writing style does not change so much as become more decodeable. Wallace claimed that he modeled the narrative structure on a Sierpinski triangle. This fractal is an equilateral triangle that is subdivided into equilateral triangles, each of which is again subdivided into equilateral triangles, and so on and so forth. In Wallace's narrative, this means that there is an overall, cohesive plot that repeats itself over and over again in the subplots that make it up. The more the reader understands about any of the subplots, the more filled-in the overarching plot becomes. The reverse is also true: understanding the shape of the overarching plot helps the reader better understand the subplots.