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Infinite Jest
Infinite Jest - Spine 2012
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Discussion - Week Three - Infinite Jest - Page 198 - 299
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As I read the 100 pages this weekend, I yet again realize how consciousness can be a curse. The characters in IJ think too much! Or perhaps they're too emotional about thinking. Or is it digging into the subconscious? Or is it the equation of consciousness with memory of abuse? The brain is a big symbol in this book. And many of the characters plan on destroying their own ones. Himself literally explodes his in the microwave. Joelle would do it with drugs. Hal is planning his trip on November 20. In some ways, the pages with Gately are kind of a relief. He’s not stupid, not ignorant, don’t get me wrong—but he seems to cut through the B.S. of intellectuals. That said, only an intellectual could read this book. T.S. Eliot said something like only somebody with a personality knows what it’s like to want to get rid of it. Full disclosure: I am depressed but somehow with meds, meditation, and cultivating my garden, live on. And I can “enjoy” IJ. Go figure. Another thing that’s coming back: When I was young I used to love going to the SF Cinematheque to see art films. I actually know all these references and it makes me laugh. My favorite art film was called Wavelength by Michael Snow in 1967. A forty-five minute zoom shot without any action. In another words, the kind of movie Himself might make. The little action in it actually interrupts the style. That is, the narrative is not the point.
Page 291: "What metro Boston AAs are trite but correct about is that both destiny’s kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person’s basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life."This before Orin kicks his first football. I kinda liked this part about the unpredictablility of quantum physics. The unpredictable choices atoms inside us. I think determinism vs. free will is a big theme of this novel. Even in playing the game of tennis.
Mod
Yes Indeed! A related theme is repetitive behavior of the addict versus the repetitive behavior of the athlete in training. Addict is forced to repeat the behaviors due to the physiological demands of chemical addiction while the athlete is forced to repeat behaviors to accomplish the ego-goal of making it to the Show.
Both groups are damaging their bodies and playing serious mind games with themselves. One group needs a higher power to stop their behavior, the other needs a higher power (the tennis staff) to continue the behavior. In a sense, both groups are controlled by outside forces.
I liked the passages where Wallace describes Schacht's acceptance of his "lower power" i.e. his Crohn's disease and blown-out knee, and finds peace by accepting his future as a dentist instead of a tennis star. Accepting a sober life over user life. It's interesting that Hal sees this as weakness. (266-270)
This reminds me that Jim gets tennis instruction from his father who says he’ll never be great, before he ruined his knees in the Winter B.S. 1960 in Tucson, AZ. Father says “Head is body.” Thinking is just “neural spasms.”He explains all is bodies.
James’ father blamed his misfortunes on Marlon Brando and method acting, which is the technique of “internal” vs. father’s classical approach of “external” acting.
All that is rather hilarious when you think about it.
Oh, another thing. How ‘bout Head Coach Schtitt (Shit?) who dresses like a military a “good Nazi,” German philosophical, proto-fascist. Talk about giving up free will for the State (Tennis).
I think the over-thinking is one of the connections with Hamlet-as well as a symptom of our time.But Madame Psychosis is doing me in, prose-wise. I was doing well until I hit this section. :(
Mod
Are you talking about the DMZ planning or the Joelle preparing for the Too Much Fun?
Joelle preparing for Too Much Fun did seem to get rather tedious. I was much more interested in the section where Orin calls Hal to find out more about what actually happened two years earlier when their father killed himself. Hal's description of grief therapy, and his approach to grief therapy, and what finally "sold" his therapist that the therapy had been successful, was all very engaging. I found myself wondering what kind of experiences David Foster Wallace had lived through with whatever therapists he had seen up to that point.
Mod
This New Yorker article from 2009 addresses some of the treatments and struggles DFW went through prior to his suicide:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...
I suppose Wallace wanted to keep the reader in suspense about Joelle's attempted suicide to give it the weight and gravity that such a decision demands. It's not a snap decision, in general, and requires the individual to go against the hard-wired survival instinct to flee from danger and avoid death.
Jim, thanks for the link to the New Yorker article. I particularly liked the quotation from Wallace: Good writing should help readers to “become less alone inside.”Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...
"I liked the passages where Wallace describes Schacht's acceptance of his "lower power" i.e. his Crohn's disease and blown-out knee, and finds peace by accepting his future as a dentist instead of a tennis star. Accepting a sober life over user life. It's interesting that Hal sees this as weakness. (266-270) "I liked this passage too! Infact,except for the Joelle part,the 198-299 portion is very absorbing. Hal fears Schacht's decline but he also " in a weird and deeper internal way almost somehow admires and envies the fact that Schacht's stoically committed himself to the oral professions..."
Stoicism seems to be the philosophy behind IJ,(till now atleast) & Don Gately personifies it.
And going by "destiny's kisses" & "its dope slaps", Schacht's premonition abt a "psychic credit-card bill for Hal in the mail" is ominous.
So my two cents.This week's pages SERIOUSLY turned me on to this book. I’m not sure why, but something really clicked with me this week. So a few thoughts:
<<Also, given the connections with Hamlet, did the uncle put Himself's head in that microwave?
There are so many new questions about what happens now I can't wrap my head around it, and I love it! These could be major stretches or over thinking (again with that theme!) But this book now has my undivided attention!
(Obviously, y'all have finished the book as I'm writing this, so will probably have a wee chuckle as I continue to "catch up".)
Mod
This week's pages SERIOUSLY turned me on to this book. I’m not sure why, but something really clicked with me this week. So a few thoughts:
"
Glad to hear that IJ has its hooks in you! The level of skill in involving the reader in IJ is a testament to Wallace's mastery of fiction. I've found this skill on display in a lot of his non-fiction writing as well.
One thing you will find as you continue the book is that you will come to certain conclusions about events and outcomes, but when you are finished with the book, you may discover there is no support for your conclusions in the actual text of the book. Somehow Wallace is able to guide our natural instinct for completing narratives that have not been written. You'll discover what I mean as you read the discussions here... Enjoy!!
Jim wrote: "Caleb wrote: "So my two cents.This week's pages SERIOUSLY turned me on to this book. I’m not sure why, but something really clicked with me this week. So a few thoughts:
"
Glad to hear that IJ ha..."
I love that idea of IJ leading us to conclusions that are not substantiated by any text. In that was, I found IJ to be a little like Gravity's Rainbow in that there is an hallucinatory aspect to the work.
Begins: 6 NOVEMBER YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT 1610h. Weight Room.
Pumping iron, Pemulis whispers “pussy”. Things you learn in rehab. Tiny takes a tour of Ennett House tatts. Pemulis plots Madame Psychosis strategy with Axford and Hal. Enveiled Joelle van Dyne prepares to eliminate her own map with Too Much Fun. Orin forcin’ Hal to recount the events of Himself’s final microwave dinner massacree. Pemulis pukes while Hal and Wayne pound their ‘pponents down Port Washington way. Gately surveys the room and senses that Geoffrey Day may not exactly be committed to the program. Orin goes to B.U. with a little help from C.T., who doesn’t really need a Thank You, all things considered. Late-September has Orin punting his way into P.G.O.A.T.’s heart, and three famous personages emerge from the sound.
To avoid spoilers, please restrict your comments to page 198 – 299 (and the earlier pages).