Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace discussion

This thread is for discussion of pgs. 227-306 in Infinite Jest. Page 306 → Kindle location 7281 (28%)

Schititt said that about Orin (P 293-94). Did he say the same thing abt Pemulis too?

Orin's comparison of Joelle to his mom is clearly Freudian-- the girlfriend replacing the Moms in his life/affections :" She made the Moms look like the sort of piece of fruit you think you want to take out of the bins and but then once you're right there over the bins you put back because from close up you can see a much fresher and less preserved-seeming piece of fruit elsewhere in the bin." (P290).
So who is Hamlet here- Hal or Orin?
I keep seeing Marion Cotillard as Joelle- I think she'd look great in a transparent veil & she can do that whole tortured thing so well!
Why IJ hasn't been made into a movie!

Poor Tony Krause's seizure on a Gray Line train is the stuff of nightmare,infact the whole scene (P299-306) --- Foster Wallace makes you care even for dregs of society like him. Powerful writing!

No problem- with a book this long & endless characters (I'm simply losing track), happens all the time!

Being a Bostonian, I thought it was interesting DFW's choice to create a future fictional Gray Line train that goes from Watertown to Inman Square. Currently you have to take one of those hideous trackless trolleys.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck4049/4...

I wish I'd had a Bostonian's insight when I was reading this --- all those detailed descriptions of the various sections of town...

Mala, the comparison of Joelle & the Moms is interesting. The passage you quoted struck me, too. As well, there's a comparison of Joelle & the Moms both being compulsive and "sterile" in their housecleaning, with the only difference being that Joelle isn't as "in your face" as the Mom's and does the cleaning during the night.

The description of Poor Tony's withdrawal was brutal. DFW is a genius at how he can get across the horror, pain and loneliness of an addict's worst moments.

There's some interesting dynamics between Orin, Joelle and James. Is this the Hamlet part of IJ? I haven't read Hamlet.

On page 298 is the line "Of particular interest are the eyes" (last line of the chapter/section). Orin is watching a film that Joelle had made of him (Orin) playing football, so the eyes he's seeing are his own. What did he see when Joelle was filming? It's interesting how DFW puts in this clues (or red herrings?) so casually.

Idon't think the whole thing is patterned after Hamlet, just some of the elements... the uncle/mother aspect, dead farher and all... the digging-up- the-head-in-the-ggaveyard scene... like the whole troubled young prodigy thing. I have come to the conclusion that its hard to over think this plot. there are so many overlapping themes and plot lines that it makes your brain itch, even on the third reading.

Petra wrote: "Mala, the comparison of Joelle & the Moms is interesting. The passage you quoted struck me, too. As well, there's a comparison of Joelle & the Moms both being compulsive and "sterile" in their hous..."

In his sexual jealousy towards his mother's various partners,Orin is Hamlet-like whereas Hal's attitude,as you'll later get to see,ah well,you'll see it for urself. I'm not spoiling it for you!
Joelle does wonder if Orin chose her for certain similarities to his mom.
As for the JOI-Orin-Joelle dynamics,it's something completely different. The text will show you :-)

Thank you, Mala...I love the hints while not giving out spoilers. This book's enticement are all the hints and innuendos and possibilities. It's a mystery, with all the red herrings, hidden clues and suspicious people, waiting to be solved.

Should I feel bad if I laughed when reading this part "A dim woman all the kids had known of in Boaz had put her cat in a microwave to dry it after a tick-bath and set the oven just on Defrost and the cat ended up all over the woman's kitchen's walls."

Anyone who is anyone who has goner through, seen, helped, undertaken, or observed the pain of heroin or alcohol addiction would be able to feel the fear and taste the laborious and painful descriptions of Poor Tony. DFW could only have reasoned such a tribute to opiate withdrawal through first hand knowledge of this powerful and baffling disease. This section made me cringe with perverse sympathy (or was it empathy). Either way, makes you never want to pick up a drug (ever again).

I agree. Reading that, I got the distinct impression that someone who's been there would totally get it.