Jason’s Comments (group member since Aug 06, 2012)

Jason’s comments from the Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace group.

Ennet House Residents:

• Kate Gompert
• Pat Montesian
• Ken Erdedy
• Randy Lenz
• Bruce Green
• Tiny Ewell
• Geoffrey Day
• Calvin Thrust

et. al.

This thread is for discussions of the Enfield Tennis Academy in IJ. Please note that there are likely to be spoilers throughout the thread, so first-time readers may want to delay reading and posting until after they have finished their first read of IJ.

This thread is for discussions of Ennet House in IJ. Please note that there are likely to be spoilers throughout the thread, so first-time readers may want to delay reading and posting until after they have finished their first read of IJ.

i.e. Avril ("the Moms"), James ("Himself"), Orin, Mario, Hal, and Charles Tavis.

This thread is for discussions of the Incandeza family in IJ. Please note that there are likely to be spoilers throughout the thread, so first-time readers may want to delay reading and posting until after they have finished their first read of IJ.

Lucille Duquette!

It's interesting how the narrative voice, which is supposedly semi-omniscient third, changes with respect to the predominant character in the scene. For example, in Hal's scenes, the narration is very polished with respect to grammar and yet conversational in tone, similar to the way Hal speaks to his friends, while the Marathe scenes, meanwhile, are written in a narrative voice that seems poorly translated from another language! It is very awkward, with misplaced words and obviously botched English phrases.

While I think DFW's decision to write his book this way is interesting, and much could be discussed about that choice—and I love those Marathe scenes!—it also brings me to one of the major faults I have with the book, which is that the characters themselves don't all have a nuanced way of speaking, as people do in real life. Marathe is clearly different, and the 'yrstrly' narrator of some of the PTK scenes stands out, as well. But the rest of them still do speak in that Hal Incandeza mode of highfalutin-brought-down-to-earth-with-an-"and-but-so"-conversational-yet-simultaneously-pretentious way of speaking that even a lot of the Ennet House residents speak with, which is pretty ridiculous, I think.

Refraining from these puns is my solemn vow.

They don't stand a prayer.

That nuns can be kick-ass sometimes?

Oh yeah, I can see the Tunnel Club being an allusion to It in that way. Cool.

Happy birthday, Shmuli! I love this concept of being "de-mapped." I might try to insert that into my daily lexicon.

(And in Hamlet, pretty much everybody dies.)

What worries you about PGOAT?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de...

Oh my god, I am so stupid. Ignore message 10, please.

On page 675, one of the paragraphs starts "Steeply was adjusting the long peasant skirt and crossing legs so he was inclined away from deLint..."

To whom does the pronoun "he" refer exactly?

obfuscations wrote: "An element of IJ that I appreciate tremendously is the wide & even distibrution of meticulously rendered physical descriptions of urban landscapes. I have spent virtually no time in Boston so can't..."

Also, I'm from Boston, and I think most of the city descriptions (i.e. the Duck Pond, the Green Line split at Brighton & Comm. Aves., etc.) are accurate; but I've never heard anybody call it the Greenie.

This morning I came to vent again about how I hate this book (the long, dull scene in the mess hall where NOTHING. FUCKING. HAPPENS) and then I read more at lunch and I'm back to loving it again. I do not understand 5-star reviews of this book because I find it so uneven.

For me, unless a scene DOES SOMETHING (i.e. furthers the plot, draws out a character, builds suspense, foreshadows something, or otherwise presents a plot device), it is useless. That whole mess hall scene was useless.

And then you get the Steeply–Marathe M*A*S*H scene which beautiful exemplifies IJ's theme of entertainment-addiction (among other addictions) and his father's "curiosity struggle" which leaves him feeling lost. I loved that. (And thanks for answering that question for NMC, Mala. I agree with your take completely.)

Glad you decided not to give up, Shmuli. I'm liking it better now, too. :D