Discussion Seven – Infinite Jest - Page 593 - 698

[Jim]

This discussion covers Page 593 – 698


Begins: “Live-in Staffers’ duties are divided pretty evenly between the picayune and the unpleasant.”

Gately performs his picayune duties. Orin answers a poll after poling a subject. Midnight car moving goes postal when the Nucks arrive, but at least Gately figures out where he knows Joelle from. The WYYY engineer is scooped-up on pond cleaning day. A tense evening in the dining hall finds Hal building defenses on his plate. Steeply recounts his father’s decline into M*A*S*H-obsession to Marathe as the sun rises – could this signal the end of their meeting? The Tunnel Club makes an olfactorally-shocking discovery. Helen Steeply and Thierry Poutrincourt discuss les étoiles de E.T.A. en français. Matty Pemulis snaps to the memory of his own Da. Hal Bob-Hopelessly watches a mini-festival of Himself’s cartridges. Poor Tony Krause strolls post-seizurely towards the Antitoi’s shop. Geoffrey Day misses Lenz’s Hog. Kate Gompert can see the map but not the territory. In the middle of a passage supposedly about Hal and Kate Gompert and anhedonia and clinical depression and “It”, David Foster Wallace makes an appearance to speak about the U.S. arts and hip-ennui.

It appears we have reached the point where the various characters and story lines are beginning to merge. Can you feel it?

To avoid spoilers, please limit your comments to page 593 – 698 (and the earlier pages).