Infinite Jest
E77986
Infinite Jest is a sprawling, postmodern novel by David Foster Wallace known for its complex structure, extensive endnotes, and darkly comic exploration of addiction, entertainment, and contemporary American life.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Infinite Jest canonical | 13 |
| Infinite Jest (1996 novel) | 1 |
| Infinite Jest (the film) | 1 |
| Infinite Jest universe | 1 |
| follows Infinite Jest | 1 |
| novel "Infinite Jest" | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T622741 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Infinite Jest Context triple: [Little, Brown and Company, notableWorkPublished, Infinite Jest]
-
A.
Gravity’s Rainbow
Gravity’s Rainbow is a dense, postmodern novel by Thomas Pynchon that intertwines World War II-era espionage, science, and paranoia in a sprawling, experimental narrative.
-
B.
The Crying of Lot 49
The Crying of Lot 49 is a short postmodern novel by Thomas Pynchon that follows Oedipa Maas as she uncovers a possibly conspiratorial underground postal system, exploring themes of communication, entropy, and paranoia.
-
C.
Around the World in Five Chapters
"Around the World in Five Chapters" is a section of Jared Diamond’s book *Guns, Germs, and Steel* that organizes its global historical analysis into five thematic geographic chapters.
-
D.
Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 drama film, based on Richard Yates's novel, that explores the disintegration of a suburban 1950s marriage and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
-
E.
Wise Blood
Wise Blood is a darkly comic Southern Gothic novel by Flannery O’Connor that follows a disillusioned war veteran who founds a bizarre anti-religious ministry in a decaying Southern town.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Infinite Jest Target entity description: Infinite Jest is a sprawling, postmodern novel by David Foster Wallace known for its complex structure, extensive endnotes, and darkly comic exploration of addiction, entertainment, and contemporary American life.
-
A.
Gravity’s Rainbow
Gravity’s Rainbow is a dense, postmodern novel by Thomas Pynchon that intertwines World War II-era espionage, science, and paranoia in a sprawling, experimental narrative.
-
B.
The Crying of Lot 49
The Crying of Lot 49 is a short postmodern novel by Thomas Pynchon that follows Oedipa Maas as she uncovers a possibly conspiratorial underground postal system, exploring themes of communication, entropy, and paranoia.
-
C.
Around the World in Five Chapters
"Around the World in Five Chapters" is a section of Jared Diamond’s book *Guns, Germs, and Steel* that organizes its global historical analysis into five thematic geographic chapters.
-
D.
Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road is a 2008 drama film, based on Richard Yates's novel, that explores the disintegration of a suburban 1950s marriage and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
-
E.
Wise Blood
Wise Blood is a darkly comic Southern Gothic novel by Flannery O’Connor that follows a disillusioned war veteran who founds a bizarre anti-religious ministry in a decaying Southern town.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (64)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
novel ⓘ postmodern novel ⓘ |
| author | David Foster Wallace ⓘ |
| considered | one of the major American novels of the late 20th century ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticalReception | acclaimed ⓘ |
| dedicatedTo | his parents ⓘ |
| explores |
contemporary American life
ⓘ
substance abuse and recovery communities ⓘ the culture of entertainment ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
Avril Incandenza
ⓘ
Don Gately ⓘ Hal Incandenza ⓘ James O. Incandenza ⓘ Joelle Van Dyne ⓘ Mario Incandenza ⓘ Orin Incandenza ⓘ |
| featuresConcept |
Subsidized Time
ⓘ
the Entertainment (lethal film cartridge) ⓘ |
| followedBy | The Pale King ⓘ |
| follows | The Broom of the System ⓘ |
| genre |
encyclopedic novel
ⓘ
literary fiction ⓘ postmodern literature ⓘ satire ⓘ tragicomedy ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation | stage adaptations ⓘ |
| hasNotableFeature |
complex narrative structure
ⓘ
dark humor ⓘ extensive endnotes ⓘ footnotes and endnotes as narrative device ⓘ multiple narrative voices ⓘ nonlinear timeline ⓘ |
| hasSetting |
Enfield Tennis Academy
ⓘ
Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House ⓘ Greater Boston ⓘ
surface form:
Greater Boston area
near-future North America ⓘ |
| includedInList |
Time 100 best English-language novels list
ⓘ
surface form:
TIME magazine’s 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005
|
| influenced | contemporary American fiction ⓘ |
| isbn10 | 0316920045 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
American consumer culture
ⓘ
addiction ⓘ depression ⓘ entertainment ⓘ entertainment as control ⓘ family dysfunction ⓘ free will ⓘ loneliness ⓘ pleasure and pain ⓘ recovery ⓘ spectacle and media ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person limited ⓘ |
| narrativeTechnique |
shifts in point of view
ⓘ
stream of consciousness ⓘ |
| originalMediaType | print ⓘ |
| pageCount | 1079 ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication |
Boston, Massachusetts
ⓘ
surface form:
Boston
|
| publicationDate | 1996-02-01 ⓘ |
| publisher | Little, Brown and Company ⓘ |
| setInPeriod | late 20th century ⓘ |
| titleOrigin |
Hamlet
ⓘ
surface form:
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
|
| titlePhraseFrom | “Alas, poor Yorick” speech in Hamlet ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Infinite Jest Description of subject: Infinite Jest is a sprawling, postmodern novel by David Foster Wallace known for its complex structure, extensive endnotes, and darkly comic exploration of addiction, entertainment, and contemporary American life.
Referenced by (18)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
David Foster Wallace
this entity surface form:
novel "Infinite Jest"
this entity surface form:
follows Infinite Jest
this entity surface form:
Infinite Jest universe
subject surface form:
The Entertainment
subject surface form:
The Entertainment
this entity surface form:
Infinite Jest (the film)
this entity surface form:
Infinite Jest (1996 novel)