Finding a Way In

Traveling the publicity circuit in 2025 for For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), the fourth album from her dreamy-indie-pop act Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner talked often about Infinite Jest. As she explained to The Fader, she approached it first with anthropological curiosity: “I started the year in 2023 with Infinite Jest because I … was inspired by things that would typically classify as falling under the ‘incel canon’ umbrella. I guess I just wanted to understand this group of people, and why exactly they gravitate to certain types of art.”