Postmodernism and Infinite Jest

After reading this part of Infinite Jest, I first came to the conclusion that it might only advisably be read in small portions, much as I would imagine it is with the ingestion of arsenic. After partially recovering from the experience that made me come to that conclusion, I next wondered whether the very existence of postmodernism is a significant sign of the possible decline and fall of western civilization, and whether it is intellectually valid only as a target for shooting practice. On reflection (and post-recovery), I think that the book may in fact be trying to make a statement about that. It has been fun to read the various passages of I.J. when not trying to analyze it as if it were a "normal book" in structure whose meaning were straightforward, and I particularly enjoyed parts like the description of the Harvard beach party on page 584. In his use of collectively incoherent stream-of-consciousness passages that do not seem so maddening individually, I think that David Foster Wallace may be parodying the intellectual incoherence and indulgent expression-sans-logic of postmodernism, showing how absurd and nonsensical a philosophical and intellectual system it can be when taken seriously.