u/WigglyLimpo

For a good long while up until recently, I had been searching for a singular book. The one that I could re-read for the rest of my life, that I could ponder endlessly, that I could let wash over me. At first, I thought that would be Gravity's Rainbow, so I tried that and could not get into it. Infinite Jest is really nothing like GR, but it's sort of in the same sphere, so I tried IJ. I'll be honest, I went into it not expecting to enjoy it, as, before I had sat down with it myself, I had heard many people talk bad about it and a few talk directly to me about why it should be avoided outright. I still gave it a shot.

That decision is probably the most important literary decision I have ever made, save for reading my very first book and discovering that joy when I was a child. I've laughed, experienced vivid depictions of that certain "weirdness" that IJ does so well, felt horror, sadness, as well as pride, strength, and a certain heroism through these chatacters. I have been more intrigued than any other book has managed to do, and have a thirst for more; and I've not even fully finished it yet.

I was daunted by the footnotes etc. in the back at first, but now I simply wouldn't have it any other way. This is *the* book for me, and while I know there are many other amazing novels out there, I feel content with just this *one*.

Thank you all for being here and please pass the Toblerone this way if you will.

I think Bram Stoker's *Dracula* may be my favorite novel of all time. I won't spoil anything here (I know the book is incredibly old, but I only finished it relatively recently myself. I'll avoid any major spoilers here in case others have yet to get around to it), but it's far from what you may be expecting.

Some of the visuals in the novel were what I would describe as "gothic psychedelic", especially when we are first journeying with Dracula to his estate; it's a whirling, spinning, foggy mess of blue flashing lights and wolves. From our first glance at the count when he picks Jonathan up, we know something is horribly off about him. He makes very little effort to conceal this as well, as if he enjoys making the townspeople afraid of him.

That one scene with the brides where Jonathan is staring out of a window, seemingly entranced, thinking that what he's looking at is some dust moving around only for the brides to suddenly burst in was also pretty "psychedelic" in its visual. Jonathan's encounters with the brides are uniquely terrifying in that he understands they mean him great harm, but he can't resist *wanting* to be with them, which seems to add to his descending madness at the beginning. It's a portrayal of both the vampiric allure and man's desire to "draw nearer to the flame".

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the epistolary layout, but now I think it's my favorite writing scheme. *Dracula*, in a way, is almost like a found footage horror film. Honestly, I think a neat film idea for an adaptation of the novel would be something akin to *The Blair Witch Project*, where things start off normal but soon descend into dread and uncertainty.

Dracula himself brings destruction and disease wherever he goes, and the book is a prime example of creeping dread. Even before anything major happens, the dread is immediate. It's like watching a storm approaching and being unable to avoid it any way.

I also love how the book can be interpreted in many ways; you can absolutely take it as just a horror novel, but it also represents "fear of the other/the unknown", gender roles of the time it was written, and of course the classic setup of "good vs. evil", "faith vs. nature", as Dracula is almost like a force of nature or a virus personified, spreading slowly through wherever he happens to be.

(This part may be a minor spoiler if you haven't read the book, so just a heads up)

You even get a nice treat in the "Demeter" section of the book, which is essentially a story within the grander story. The visual of that ship floating out on the horizon as we come to find out that everybody is dead on it is horrifying. It's made even more unnerving when the dog leaps off of it and runs into the town (I won't spoil what was going on there, if you've yet to read it).

If it isn't clear, I wholeheartedly recommend *Dracula*. It's re-readable (especially when you read it day-by-day as the notes are dated in the book) and there's a lot to "chew" on, pun intended. What do you guys think?

I am a janitor at my local TJ Maxx and am the only one who speaks or reads English. I promise I'm not a racist prick, I'm bringing this up for a reason, lol.

Ooh boy, where do I even start? Firstly, why does TJ Maxx have a fetish for isles the width of a gant's attention span? I can't get the buffing machine down half the isles without it ripping down 27 trillion clothing items or whatever to the floor because it always gets snagged.

"Just spot mop, you idiot", you are no doubt screeching as you rip the hair out of your head. That's a fine and dandy suggestion, at least it would be, if I didn't have only two hours to dust mop the store and clean the floors after; doing those things to any meaningful extent with customers around is impossible.

"Why does that stop you from just spot mopping?", you continue to screech. Partly because:

(1) It's always a hunt for wet floor signs, so I have to dedicate extra time to tracking them down since there's never enough in the supply closet.

(2) The BOH crew is just as mindless as the customers and will walk right through wet areas, even with signs, and make a muddy mess of what I tried to clean, creating even more work for me to tend to before the store opens.

The buffing machine is always the preferred option, since I can dedicate one hour to dust mopping and one hour to cleaning the floors, in addition to it sucking up the water and allowing the area to dry way quicker than a regular mop. The buffing machine is also old and management doesn't want to replace it AND I'm the only one who knows how to disassemble and clean it; management can't effectively communicate with the other janitors and either tell them to do that or show them how because they can't speak English. And probably because they just expect me to do it. Because of this, I have to spend more time, often going over, sometimes well over my time to clock out to clean it and change the pad.

In addition to THAT, the other janitors put the wrong chemicals in the wrong spray bottles because they can't read the labels, so it's hard to tell what's Citra Cut and what's Restroom Cleaner because they're both orange but are both very different chemicals. The other janitors are great despite that, though. I just wish I was given more time to actually clean the store and not simply maintain it's current state which is not great.

Oh, and how could I forget, cleaning the bathrooms when the store is open is a NIGHTMARE. It's also a nightmare before it opens as well! Do you go into the Walmart bathroom when they're cleaning and tell them "sorry, you need to stop cleaning so I can lay a massive log"? Oh, you do? Well. Don't! It's annoying and both my coworkers and customers constantly come in (even when I have a sign up not to enter) and make me leave so they can (usually) stink it up. And that's not even mentioning the horrors of what I've seen in the bathrooms. Seriously, how do you ladies manage to get pee on the seat so much?! And the period pad bins AREN'T TRASH CANS! Don't put your doodoo wipes in there!

Anywho, this isn't even all of it, but it's the gist of it. Four measly hours, only two of which is before the store opens, isn't enough to meaningfully clean a store that attracts the dirtiest people imaginable.

One of the reasons I love this franchise so much is the deep lore and the room it leaves for further exploration. My favorite film of the series is the first one, which had more of a slasher/horror feel. With the success of things like Backrooms and the uncanny ideas touched on in Obsession (even though those are two very different films from anything in this franchise), I feel like this series should return to its already uncanny roots.

The T-600 is great for further exploration into this concept. Something that only vaguely looks human from a distance and when you're close enough to see that it is far from that, you're already minced meat. For all the film's problems, I think Terminator Salvation's exploration the future more would fit well into a low-fi, psychological, uncanny valley film. Everything feels off, and you could incorporate elements from The Thing where nobody can trust anyone anymore (especially if you touch on the expanded lore of the humans trying to work with SkyNet, which we haven't really seen fully fleshed out in a film before), and I think Salvation's visual of the T-600 standing in the distance is some of the imagery that would further compliment this idea. Or perhaps a scene where one is sprinting toward you, full synthetic latex blank expression and all, sort of like the alley chase after Tech Noir in the first film.

In my opinion, this franchise was at its best when it wasn't a meat-headed action series, and I feel a pivot like this is already baked into the lore. It's inherently uncanny and horrifying.

I'm not sure it's realistic to expect that at this point, but I think it would be cool! What do you guys think?

I'm about 50 pages in (rookie numbers, I know, but I only just started and am already compelled to talk about it) and I was not expecting it to be this funny so far (the scene with young Hal and his dad pretending to be a conversationalist made me laugh out loud). I was told that it takes a while to get going and is confusing at first, but I haven't really felt confused so far and I actually really enjoy how the book challenges your expectations to be constantly "entertained" by a story. It's only a book in technicality, in that it's bound and has pages, but it really is like another world you step into. I feel like the way it presents itself is like it's saying "You don't expect to be entertained every second when you're outside in your world, do you? And if you do, here's a thousand pages why you shouldn't". But even then, it's far from boring, at least to me.

Hal's antics, that whole scene with the marijuana addict and the absurd lengths he's willing to go just to blaze up (I do understand it's just a quick glimpse of many to come into addiction in general) and the Saudi guy who only eats chocolate and needs a whole entourage to tend to him because he's in such poor health because of his diet; even though I'm just at the beginning, it's given me a lot to digest and think about. Like, I'm certain the Saudi guy is an allegory for something.

When I first set out to find a single book that I could re-read and really carry with me for the rest of my life, I wasn't expecting Infinite Jest to fit the bill so perfectly.

I don't really know why I felt the need to post this, but I don't remember the last time I was this excited about a single novel!