Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace discussion

This thread is for discussion of pgs. 755-827 in Infinite Jest. Page 827 → Kindle location 19,741 (77%)

P.774-82- Kate Gompert's meeting with Marathe in a bar:
This scene is remarkable in that it shows IJ's curious blend of tragi-comic humour. Marathe's is moved to help Kate cause she reminds him of his sick wife back home (which Kate understandably doesn't take as a compliment)- his desire to open up to a stranger & yet keep to his bogus 'Swiss" background & more tellingly Kate's total ignorance of world geography ( Americans see themselves as the center of the world & don't know what's happening outside America.) leads to laughs & at the same time readers get to know what it's like for the Québécois back home- it humanises the enemy.
It also shows how our ideas of love and beauty are shaped by the popular media- Kate can't comprehend Marathe's love for his wife as by conventional standards,she is hideous & their lovestory doesn't fit into a comfortable,conventional mould either.

Yeah,I too faced that epub page number problem so switched to a paperback.
So you read that endnote! Keep on reading,your q's will be answered in the text.

Hal's first anonymous meeting part is hilarious. It kind of reminded me of DFW cruise ship essay in A supposedly fun thing.

Poor Hal,atleast he tried! I loved the description of his going to the Ennet House & asking for help in a roundabout manner.
In the movie Magnolia,Tom Cruise's character conducts similar Male Empowerment meetings- there was nothing funny abt that though.

I felt really bad for Pemulis, too, but have faith that he'll somehow pull through this. He's one resourceful kid. He may have a lot of tricks up his sleeve but in this incident he's blameless.
I really loved his math announcement. What a hoot!
The whole "experiment" issue with the Entertainment and the Engineer was creepy. That the AFR are looking for more subjects is rather disturbing.
Hal is one determined kid. Going to get help that way is quite courageous, as is going to a meeting like he did. Too bad it wasn't the right meeting. High five to him for trying. That shows guts.

Thanks for clarifying, Mala. I thought "Katherine" might be "Kate" but wasn't sure whether to make that connection or if DFW was messing with us about perceptions and assumptions.

Hey Petra,long time!
Yeah I like Pemulis too,he's one tough kid with a good heart & yeah that Math announcement was wickedly hilarious!
Hopefully you'll be finishing this soon & then perhaps will give us a heart-warming review.
I'm currently in Bleak House read though woefully behind schedule. Finish it soon & join me there :-)

Oooh....Bleak House is on my mental list to read "soon". I'm not sure if I'm up to another whopper of a book so soon. How far along in the read is the group?

As for IJ, I've got no idea how to review this book. I'm kind of hoping that the last 150 pages will steer me in some direction. Right now, all I can say is how much I'm enjoying it and how brilliant DFW seems to be. Other than that, my review may be as chaotic as the events in this book.

How is it that Poor Tony is a resident of Ennis House (or did I get that wrong somewhere along the road?) and yet, with only 150 pages left to read he's still out on the street? I thought he'd wind up there after his seizure; it surprised me that he left the hospital to go back on the street.

Poor Tony is not a resident, but yrstruly, from the first narrative featuring Tony, is a resident.

@ Petra: "Bleak House is on my mental list to read "soon". I'm not sure if I'm up to another whopper of a book so soon. How far along in the read is the group? "

The read started from Feb 18 & will continue till April. It's in its third week & they are reading abt 8 chapters per week. I've been able to do only one week's reading till now but it's such a fantastic book that I'm going to race ahead now.

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.

Jason, you've raised an interesting point. Maybe DFW had everyone speaking this way (I won't even attempt to paraphrase your memorable description of it) as a means of demonstrating the deterioration of language in America. TV commentators, politicians- even entertainers- have all contributed to a general dumbing down in our national conversation. People have spoken about JFK's eloquence. Compare his speeches to those of Ronald Reagan (the great communicator) or Bill Clinton (his bastard son) and the contrast is stark. Certainly language fails Hal on multiple occasions, most notably in the first chapter when he is reduced to gurgles and grunts. So in the not too distant future we will all sound like Cheech and Chong (Did I spell that right?)

So you're saying it's an intentional decision to showcase a devolution of language? I guess I'd buy that except in the case of Infinite Jest it seems like just the opposite. Don't you think a lot of these characters speak with a way higher degree of...I dunno, eloquence? (for lack of a better descriptor) than the average person does in your daily encounters?

I guess that depends on who is conversing. Hal's conversations with Orin are most notable for the silences. In fact, none of the Incandenzas seem capable of communicating effectively with one another. When the guys at the academy speak to each other, their conversations are infused with a distinctly American idiomatic English. Likewise, at Ennis House. He captured the speech patterns of the street addicts beautifully. I guess eloquence was a poor choice of words. To me, DFW seemed to suggest that words have lost the power they once had to convey meaning in a general sense-so that everyone gets what is being said. He even invented a bunch of new words which can only be understood in context-if you're lucky! I finally abandoned trying to look them up. Anyway, nice chatting with you...

Gary,you are being very eloquent...;-) Full points to you!

Jason wrote: "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...which is pretty ridiculous, I think. "

you nailed it, Jason! And Gary, full points to you indeed.

IJ is all abt excess- heightened reality,the same applies to language usage too. The kids at the tennis academy are smart ones or they wouldn't be there,some of the recovering druggies in the Ennet House like the professor Geoffrey (the most voluble one),Randy Lenz etc are extremely intelligent ones. And don't forget,when we are talking abt average person here,that is 'average' from DFW's standard- so not average at all or perhaps a new kind of median level!
P.S. No wonder I'm fond of John N.R. Wayne– he only eats & grunts & whatever dialogue is attributed to him,happens off the record/camera as it were!

I think we deserve a group hug!