Garima’s Comments (group member since Aug 11, 2012)

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

Mala wrote: "And then out of the blue,comes an account of Matty Pemulis,Mike P's elder brother (P.682-86)- almost all the characters in IJ have had abusive/damaged childhood- Orin,Joelle,Kate,Millicent,Bruce Gr..."

Kill Bill was the first thought that struck my mind while reading about the Blood sister and LOL at the horrible bosses reference.

About 'Caius Is Mortal' this is what wallace wiki suggests:

This is a variation on an older Greek syllogism used to demonstrate deductive logic:
Major Premise: All men are mortal
Minor Premise: Caius is a man
Conclusion: Caius is mortal
Caius was Julius Caesar's first name.

Also I found Poor Tony being chased by Ruth scene hilarious.

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Yes - that's the one. I was laughing so hard I had tears! Jerry says it was mentioned somewhere else - and clearly I missed it. If you happen across it, keep me in mind! I'd really like to know..."

Hope you're still interested in knowing this Sunny! So the claim was filed by Mr. Doony R. Glynn and there is a mention of the accident on page 543.

Mala wrote: "Antitoi Entertainent"- yes that's right,it's not 'entertainment' but that's how we all read the word- the mind self-corrected it...."

There is an end note with it that either it's a spelling mistake or Quebecois solecism.

On Page 510, there is reference to Nabokov's Lolita in relation to coach R.Billy and how one Dr. Dolores Rusk keeps check on young girls not to be victimized of any kind of paedophylic episodes.

David Lynch factor was the first thing that came to my mind..Yes! Here's the link: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/dfw12fall/...

It's a critical view of course but definitely one that I found interesting and with book this encyclopedic, there tend to exists varied thoughts and interpretations.

I loved THE JOKE. It's one of the films I would like to see being made or at least experimented. Though on a different note, I encountered arguments that suggests that the 'audience' in the JOKE are readers of IJ and James is DFW himself.

Jazzmin wrote: "Was anyone else struck by the passage on page 367 where it says,

"NNYC's harbor's Liberty Island's gigantic Lady has the sun for a crown and holds what looks like a huge photo album under one iron..."

It's an interesting passage. And I agree with your point of corporatism too.

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Yes - that's the one. I was laughing so hard I had tears! Jerry says it was mentioned somewhere else - and clearly I missed it. If you happen across it, keep me in mind! I'd really like to know..."

It features on page 139 in my IJ copy and yes! it's hilarious. And here's a link that will throw some light on that part: http://infinitesummer.org/archives/608

That shall be explained further, but for now, you can refer to this:
http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/d...

NMC wrote: "I'm reading from the epub format on my ereader, so my pages seem slightly different than everyone else's. Anyway, there are two things I'm intrigued about:

1) Hal's communication issues. When we f..."

As for Hal's communication issues in the beginning, it is from year of glad, so keep your eyes on those years.

Megha wrote: "Garima wrote: "Megha wrote: "Les wrote: "I have become a complete convert in regard to the endnotes. If you skip them, you think they are unnecessary and a nuisance. The more you read them the mor..."

That's great and you'll be joined with many others I reckon.

Megha wrote: "Les wrote: "I have become a complete convert in regard to the endnotes. If you skip them, you think they are unnecessary and a nuisance. The more you read them the more you see how integral they a..."

Shall I happily assume that you're reading IJ Megha?

Mary wrote: "I think I've found my groove with this book after the first 80-ish pages...the Kate Gompert part was my favorite from this first section, closely followed by Hal's opening sequence."

Agreed! I loved Kate's part. Though many other favorite sections followed thereafter.

Never stall looking-up an end-note by thinking I'll get to that after finishing this sentence. In some cases, it could take forever for the full stop to appear ;)

Traveller wrote: "Now that we're on the pomo bandwagon, i STILL cannot figure out the difference between a lot of modernist and pomo novels, although i've figured out that the latter tend to be more playful and meta..."

It's an ambiguous term for me too and gets all the more confused whenever I try to understand it. Going by this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

I'm mostly reading post-modern literature but now Mitchell doesn't feature in it so there! more confusion.Wallace comes under the literary movements like Postmodern literature, hysterical realism, metamodernism i.e post-postmodernism which can be applied to his essays and since I'm yet to read a huge part of IJ, I really can't say how 'modern' it is.

Jim wrote: "Garima wrote: "If this will be of any help Mala:

He explained that endnotes “allow . . . .."

Where is the quote from?

He certainly got #2 correct and #4 is a reason to read the book and not use ..."

It's from The New Yorker article Jim. Here's the link

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...

Mala wrote:Is this a technique of metafiction or is DFW doing something like the Brechtian alienation effect? If it's indeed to keep things real then Shakespeare did it centuries ago! Bottom,during the performance of the tragedy of Pyramus .."

If this will be of any help Mala:

He explained that endnotes “allow . . . me to make the primary-text an easier read while at once 1) allowing a discursive, authorial intrusive style w/o Finneganizing the story, 2) mimic the information-flood and data-triage I expect’d be an even bigger part of US life 15 years hence. 3) have a lot more technical/medical verisimilitude 4) allow/make the reader go literally physically ‘back and forth’ in a way that perhaps cutely mimics some of the story’s thematic concerns . . . 5) feel emotionally like I’m satisfying your request for compression of text without sacrificing enormous amounts of stuff.” He also said, “I pray this is nothing like hypertext, but it seems to be interesting and the best way to get the exfoliating curve-line plot I wanted.”

Melody wrote: "I'm reading it with this open on my computer while I read my 1079 page book. Very comforting."

Same here Melody. Till now I've experienced less panic attacks (or none actually) with the help of that wiki.

Kai wrote: "Garima wrote: "one never know if there will be a second-time ;) :)"

What do you mean one never knows? Are you telling me that there are people in this world who don't read the same book multiple t..."

I don't believe it either. I wish you multiple re-readings of this book with and without end notes.

Kris wrote: "Thanks Garima! The last two weeks have been crazy -- I'm not sure which end is up anymore. :)"

Hope you'll soon get great deal of time to relax and read more Kris. And also take care of yourself to gear up for the Christmas :)

Kai wrote: "Personally, I recommend reading the novel without the endnotes if this is your first time. While the endnotes do add to the novel, it does add more to keep track of the first time. And if you're like me, you might as well have something to come back to your second time around..."

I don't think so there is any fun without those endnotes, especially like that 9 page long footnote and many others and one never know if there will be a second-time ;) :)

Kris wrote: "That's right -- I was too lazy to add relevant page ranges for notes and errata. I'm assuming people will discuss notes in the sections for the relevant pages. If there's a better way to do it, please let me know! .."

Yes Kris! notes can be discussed as they appear along those page ranges, that would be most convenient.