The anti-Entertainment & the book-as-samizdat family (compact)

In plain terms: the family of readings around a "counter-cartridge" -- whether an anti-Entertainment exists in the story, and whether Infinite Jest itself is that anti-Entertainment (or, conversely, is the samizdat).

Where the text lands: whether an anti-Entertainment exists in the story is unresolved, and the affirmative form is a stretch; the meta-reading that the novel itself performs one is an open, design-level question; the book-as-samizdat-versus-antidote pair is a genuine even split. Among readers: a growing minority for the meta-reading; an even split on the samizdat question.

Inside the story the existence stays foggy by the text's own posture (a character calls the rumors evidence-free; Joelle denies JOI ever mentioned an anti-version, p. 941). The book's working title was A Failed Entertainment, and on the 1996 tour tapes Wallace explained it himself: the book is structured as an entertainment that doesn't work -- an author-stated design that feeds the meta-reading without deciding the in-story question. See Entertainment and the Self.