无尽的玩笑 (1996)

《无尽的玩笑》（英语：Infinite Jest），是美国作家大卫·福斯特·华莱士于1996年创作的小说。该小说以其大部头、非常规的叙事结构与大量的注脚闻名。它被归类为百科全书小说，并被《时代》杂志列入1923年至2005年出版的100部最佳英语小说清单。1996年逢出版便售出44,000份精装本，目前全球销量已突破一百万。

中文版

2023年4月，上海人民出版社(世纪文景)终于推出本书首本简体中文翻译版（ISBN 9787208161757），共1,138页，译者是俞冰夏。本书亦为亚洲的首个翻译本，此前未有译成其他亚洲语文。

Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Often considered Wallace’s magnum opus, the book has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel due to its unconventional narrative structure and hundreds of extensive endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.

A literary fiction bestseller after having sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication, Infinite Jest has since sold more than a million copies worldwide. Since its initial publication it has been published with forewords by Dave Eggers, Tom Bissell, and Michelle Zauner for its 10th, 20th, and 30th anniversaries, respectively.

Development

Wallace began Infinite Jest, "or something like it", several times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive; by the end of 1993, he had a working draft of the novel.

From early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including Harvard Review, Grand Street, Conjunctions, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Harper's Magazine, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

The book was edited by Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown and Company. Pietsch made suggestions and recommendations to Wallace, but every editing decision was Wallace's. He accepted cuts amounting to around 250 manuscript pages from his original submission. He resisted many changes for reasons he usually explained.

The novel gets its name from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Prince Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester, Yorick, and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"

Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment.

Setting

In the novel's future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American superstate known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. (an allusion to onanism). Corporations are allowed the opportunity to bid for and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing traditional numerical designations with ostensibly honorary monikers bearing corporate names. Although the narrative is fragmented and spans several "named" years, most of the story takes place during "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" (Y.D.A.U.).

On the orders of U.S. President Johnny Gentle (a germaphobic singer and politician who campaigned on the platform of cleaning up the U.S. while ensuring that no American would be caused any discomfort in the process), much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a giant hazardous waste dump, an area "given" to Canada and known as the "Great Concavity" by Americans due to the resulting displacement of the border.

Plot

There are several major interwoven narratives, including:

A fringe group of Québécois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (lit. 'The Wheelchair Assassins'; A.F.R.), planning a violent coup to free Quebec from O.N.A.N.

Addicts living in Boston reaching "rock bottom" with substance abuse before entering a residential drug-and-alcohol-recovery program, Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, where they progress in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).

Students training and studying at the Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.), founded by James Incandenza and now run by Avril Incandenza and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis.

The personal drama of the Incandenza family, centering around Hal's struggles to live up to high expectations of academic and athletic success amid wider dysfunction.