Brain Pain discussion
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Infinite Jest
Infinite Jest Re/Read - 2015
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Discussion One – Infinite Jest - Page 3 - 109
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Also important, for the discussions, try to keep your comments focused on the text. If you’d like to talk about extra resources, or maybe general biographical stuff about Wallace, or if you have links to cool IJ websites, maps, diagrams, videos, and such, there is a special thread for collecting all those resources, called, “Questions, Resources, and General Banter – Infinite Jest”. This is our catch-all thread for auxiliary information of all kinds. You can find the thread here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thanks for following these guidelines and welcome to the group!!
I'm about 50 pages in and love the book so far. I am taking it in slowly, making notes along the way, and underlining interesting words and phrases. Hal appears to be a very complex character so I'm anxious to learn more about his past and what events shaped him into what he's become. The supporting cast and other events are very intriguing as well. Much more readable than expected, but I'm still taking my time to digest it all.
I was all set to read this with you guys but my mom has had some serious health problems these past few weeks and I'm going to have to bow out. I'm so sorry! I was really looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll have some great discussion threads to peruse when I can get back to it. I hope you all have a wonderful discussion!
Cleo, I hope your mom is ok!---
I'm in about page 70. I really liked the beginning of the book, the scene of the interview of Hal in the University of Arizona. I thought it was very remarkable and well written! Another highlight was Hal and Mario's talk before they slept.
The description of James O. Incandenza and the footnotes of his large body of cinema work were very funny to me and reminded me a bit of Ulysses.
The only thing that bothers me a little is that my copy is large and has a very small print, so I read and read and I've only gone through 5 pages, and this gives me the sensation that the book is endless, so I'm struggling a bit with that, but going slowly through it.
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It is, after all, called Infinite Jest...
This my second reading and I'm really enjoying the language, especially the dialogue between Marathe and Steeply. Wallace switches writing style very frequently, and you do get a sense of Joyce's Ulysses.
Mod
The first appearance is on page 89, where we find Note 39. Note 39 has two footnotes, a and b (page 994). Footnote b refers us to Note 304, which is one of the longest notes in the book. This note contains a scene between two ETA students discussing a term paper about the Quebeçois separatist movement and a game called Le Jeu du Prochain Train. This game is what put Marathe in his wheelchair. It is important to know this story, so be sure to read Note 304 in its entirety.
The second reference is Note 45, on page 108. In this case, Note 45 sends us directly to Note 304. Naturally, it isn't necessary to reread Note 304 so soon after a first reading. However, Note 304 will appear in the text on page 732, again in reference to Marathe, so it might be a good time to reread it then, which will be Week Eight of our discussion.
Note 304 is a very entertaining part of the narrative! I actually had a dream about Le Jeu du Prochain Train having read the note right before I went to bed.Jim, it's been a couple of days since I read the note, but isn't the scene only about Jim Struck who's looking for material to plagiarize for his paper? I don't remember there being a second student.
Mod
Yes, you're right. There's a paragraph at the top of page 1061 that begins "What's interesting to Hal Incandenza about his take on Struck, sometimes Pemulis,..." I imagined Hal might have been in the room observing Struck, but now that I think about it, the narrator isn't necessarily Hal. So yes, it's just Struck in the room.
BTW, I don't know if you read Hamlet at the beginning of the month, but did you see the connection to Hamlet in the graveyard holding poor Yorick's skull and the sentence on page 16 and 17 "I think of John N.R. Wayne, who would have won this year's Whataburger, standing watch in a mask as Donald Gately and I dig up my father's head." This sentence will create a lot of interesting discussion when we get to the end of the book.
Jim, I remember thinking of the scene in Hamlet, but I didn't make much of it. I may have to reread some of the beginning of the book (already!) as some of the passages are now a bit confusing to me. Perhaps because of so many new characters and different time frames...
I did not remember the first mention of Donald Gately when I read of him some scenes later (with the VIP incident). Now that I realize who he is, the sentence Jim quoted above makes matters quite interesting and intriguing! Thanks for pointing it out, Jim!
the passage Jim quoted is sneaky. For fear of spoilers, that's all I'll say until closer to the end.
A proposed map of the ETA:
Mod
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Nice image! Could you repost this over in the Questions and resources thread? Thanks....
I've just finished reading up to p 109. Still a bit confusing for me, because it took me a long time to get through some passages, while others read quite easily. I still can't make head or tails of the chronological sequence.I'm intrigued by the story, especially the parts related to drug use. I really liked Kate's story and the incident with the burglar. Hal seems a very interesting character, with a lot of potential, but only potential so far. I guess some of the references will only make sense at the end of the book. Wallace makes very interesting use of language, but it takes some getting used to.
Its been a good slow read, has some characters for sure, and one story was kinda depressing but am sticking with it. One tibbit of information I went very interesting was the tennis players using Pledge for sun block, was a laugh out loud moment..
I'm clearly running behind schedule, but this is the 3rd time I've read this chunk of IJ, and I get more out of it each time. He spends a lot of energy in the game of shaking you off his trail, but hoping you'll keep trying, but looking past that is a really thoughtful and considered use of language, though again, he loves to kick and squirm with what could be extraneous usages. Hal gives him a great excuse to go semantically crazy to his heart's content, but if you filter that out, you have to admit an incredibly compelling ability to create color in as few words as necessary, then follow it up with a spray of words to disguise himself with again as he darts into the underbrush with a giggle.
Year of Glad
"I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. My posture is consciously congruent to the shape of my hard chair.”
Hal howls and wows the University Admissions staff. Erdedy’s waitin’ for the (wo)man. Hal’s dad can’t jive him with that conversational drag. Orin calls to say how much he has to say. The medical attaché watches an unmarked cartridge while his wife has her gal’s night out. Wardine show her stripes. Bruce Green and Mildred Bonk bunk together. Mario tries to have some pillow talk with Hal. Orin battles the fauna of Arizauna. Hal tours the tunnels with his one hitter and his secret fans. Don Gately expounds his theories of Burglary and the Burgled in Modern Times. Jim Troeltsch enters a fugue state while a random “I” longs for home. Some background ‘fo on “himself” daddy’o, while Orin comes in for a landing. Pemulis shares secrets of shrooms to a room of disinterested youths while the random “I” is dreaming alone. Kate Gompert makes a shocking plea. Mario engages in Socratic dialogue with Gerhard Schtitt. Tiny Ewell changes his Florsheim’s and his address. An endless-loop party is under way at the medical attaché’s place. Marathe and Steeply practice for their dinner theater performance of “Dr. Strangelove meets Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: A Love Story” while J.A.L. Struck Jr. cheats his way through l’histoire de la Game of the Next Train (in vain). Descendants of Ward and June raise a little dust in the Great Concavity. Tard and exhausted, jr. players hold a bitch session on the blue crush carpeted locker room floor while little buddies watch from the sidelines. Marathe and Steeply debate: Love v. Country – which should you die for?
And so we enter the world of Infinite Jest, where dysfunction is the norm and “To hear the squeak” means the end of the line. Structured in discontinuous, non-chronological, yet somehow engaging segments, Wallace takes us on a highbrow tour of the slimy underbelly of the Post-Syndication O.N.A.N.(istic) psyche. Lots of characters to track and lots of leaping forward and backward in time, but somehow, Wallace holds it all together as best he can. After the first 109 pages, a big question looms “Where might all this be headed?”
To avoid spoilers, please restrict your comments to page 3 – 109