'Infinite Jest' Has Turned Thirty

A few stanzas from the end of Chaucer’s long poem “Troilus and Criseyde,” the author interrupts his story to indulge in a bit of reception anxiety. “Go, litel book,” he bids the manuscript that’s soon to be out of his hands. “That thou be understonde I god beseche!” Had Chaucer stuck around to witness the ensuing six hundred-plus years of literary discourse—and the past few decades in particular—he might have concluded that, when it comes to being understonde, the litel books aren’t the ones you have to worry about. It’s the big ones that’ll get you.