Editing Infinite Jest (section)

==Development==
Wallace began ''Infinite Jest'', "or something like it", at various times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive;<ref name="burn webs">Burn, Stephen J. "'Webs of nerves pulsing and firing': ''Infinite Jest'' and the science of mind". ''A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies''. 58–96</ref> by the end of 1993, he had a working draft of the novel.<ref>Steven Moore, "The First Draft Version of ''Infinite Jest'' " (2003 [https://www.thehowlingfantods.com/ij_first.htm]), in Moore's ''My Back Pages: Reviews and Essays'' (Los Angeles: Zerogram Press, 2017), 684–712.</ref>

From early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including ''[[Harvard Review]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Spring 1992 |title=How Don Gately Found God (Excerpt from Longer Work-in-Progress |journal=Harvard Review |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=95–98 |jstor=i27559357}}</ref> ''[[Grand Street (magazine)|Grand Street]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=April 1, 1992 |title=Three Protrusions |journal=Grand Street |volume=1 |issue=42 |pages=102–114 |jstor=i25007548}}</ref> ''[[Conjunctions (journal)|Conjunctions]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=1993 |title=From "Quite a Bit Longer Thing in Progress" |journal=Conjunctions |volume=1 |issue=20 |pages=223–275 |jstor=i24514389}}</ref> ''[[Review of Contemporary Fiction]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Summer 1993 |title=From Infinite Jest |url=http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/product/vol-xiii-2-w-t-vollmann-d-f-wallace-susan-daitch/ |journal=Review of Contemporary Fiction |volume=13 |issue=2 |isbn=9781564781239 |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=September 1993 |title=The Awakening of My Interest in Annular Systems |url=https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1993-09-0001400.pdf |magazine=Harper's Magazine |volume=287 |issue=1720 |pages=60–73 |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> ''[[The Iowa Review]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=1994 |title=It Was a Great Marvel That He Was in the Father without Knowing Him (II): Winter, 1962: Tucson AZ |journal=The Iowa Review |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=229–243 |doi=10.17077/0021-065X.4728 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=Fall 1994 |title=It Was a Great Marvel That He Was in the Father without Knowing Him (I): April: Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad |journal=The Iowa Review |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=114–119 |doi=10.17077/0021-065X.4773 |doi-access=free}}</ref> ''[[The New Yorker]]''<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=19 June 1994 |title=Several Birds |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/06/27/several-birds |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=30 January 1995 |title=An Interval |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/01/30/an-interval |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref> and the ''[[Los Angeles Times Magazine]]''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Foster Wallace |first=David |date=4 June 1995 |title=Adventures in Regret IV |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-04-tm-9346-story.html |magazine=Los Angeles Times Magazine |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref>

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 that he usually explained.<ref name="infinite summer">{{Cite web |last=Pietsch |first=Michael |title=Michael Pietsch: Editing Infinite Jest |url=http://infinitesummer.org/archives/569 |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=infinitesummer.org |archive-date=August 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150820062134/http://infinitesummer.org/archives/569 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The novel gets its name from ''[[Hamlet]]'', Act V, Scene 1, in which [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] holds the skull of the court jester, [[Yorick (Hamlet)|Yorick]], and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, [[Horatio (Hamlet)|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!"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1 – Alas, poor Yorick! The grave-diggers' scene |url=http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet_5_1.html |access-date=May 30, 2020 |website=www.shakespeare-online.com}}</ref>

Wallace's working title for ''Infinite Jest'' was ''A Failed Entertainment''.<ref name="TRS1">{{Cite magazine |last=Lipsky |first=David |year=2008 |title=The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace |pages=6 of 11 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23638511/the_lost_years__last_days_of_david_foster_wallace/6 |url-status=dead |access-date=2011-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503094120/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23638511/the_lost_years__last_days_of_david_foster_wallace/6 |archive-date=May 3, 2009}}</ref>