What does "year of glad" mean? (Infinite Jest)
I didn't choose well what book to read, so I ended up buying David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, I found out that I can't understand a lot of words in it, and that makes me unable to enjoy the book.

So I decided to read it slowly, I won't turn to the next page until I fully understood the present one, and I've downloaded a pdf Spanish version of the book.

So I have a problem already at the title of the first chapter "Year of Glad" I don't get it, I looked up the definition of "glad" and I've only found it as an adjective of verb, and I can't figure out how that makes any sense here, because if I'm not wrong in this sentence "glad" is a noun. Can someone explain to me what does that phrase mean?

Question

What does "year of glad" mean? (Infinite Jest)
I didn't choose well what book to read, so I  ended up buying David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, I found out that I can't understand a lot of words in it, and that makes me unable to enjoy the book.

So I decided to read it  slowly, I won't turn to the next page until I fully understood the present one, and I've downloaded a pdf Spanish version of the book.

So I have a problem already at the title of the first chapter "Year of Glad" I don't get it, I looked up the definition of "glad" and I've only found it as an adjective of verb, and I can't figure out how that makes any sense here, because if I'm not wrong in this sentence "glad" is a noun. Can someone explain to me what does that phrase mean?

Answer

The grammar is not standard and so this is a good literary device which is designed to make the reader curious about the contents of the chapter.  Is "Glad" a person's name?  Is this is a phrase coined by someone for a special reason?  Who knows?  We just have to read the chapter to find out!

Answer

In the book the years are named after brands or products: Year Of Glad: In the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace the final year of commercially subsidized time is referred to as the "Year Of Glad" in reference to the company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glad_Products_Company). You can use this website for page by page explanations: http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Infinite_Jest_Page_by_Page.

Verpassen Sie nicht die Gelegenheit, bequem von zu Hause aus eine Sprache zu lernen. Stöbern Sie in unserer Auswahl an erfahrenen Sprachlehrern und melden Sie sich jetzt zu Ihrer ersten Unterrichtsstunde an!