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🇫🇮 Finland /Culture & Society

Amid the World’s Noise, I Changed My Mind About Giant Novels

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Finnish writer Tommi Melender reflects on changing attitudes toward very long novels.
  • He uses David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and a joke about recommending it as the starting point.

It was once stylish to see genius in David Foster Wallace’s enormous novel Infinite Jest. Later, it became just as stylish to view the book with suspicion.

Now, amid the noise of the world, Tommi Melender asks who still has the energy to get excited about giant novels. The piece opens with a joke: two female students talk on an American university campus, and one asks the other whether she is still dating the guy who tells her to read Infinite Jest. The joke was once funny, and accurate.

Are you still dating the guy who tells you to read Infinite Jest?

· Unidentified student in the opening jokeThe line captures the article’s playful skepticism toward the cultural status of giant novels.
About this summary

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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