Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Infinite Jest in the App Store

To the left, the App Store rating for the iOS version of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. The most hilarious element, for a novel with a halfway house as a principal setting: “Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References.” O RLY? No one who’s read the novel could possibly describe the drug use therein — or sexual content or violence, for that matter — as infrequent or mild. Unless, of course, they were on drugs.

That must be it: the App Store is on drugs.

I don’t mean to suggest that those under twelve not be permitted to read Infinite Jest. Nor do I mean to suggest that the novel should be available with a higher age restriction. I would salute any reader inspired to try Infinite Jest. But I don’t think a youngster would get very far. Matters of syntax, vocabulary, and range of reference would have something to do with it.

Related posts
All David Foster Wallace posts (via Pinboard)
The Daily v. NYTimes for iPad

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