Infinite Summer 2014 discussion

Anyone want to play some Eschaton?

SO CONFUSED. Too many abbreviations--I had to read that section twice.

They are all just abbreviations for combinations of countries, but it definitely threw me at first. The combinations were pretty funny, I have to say

I've read the Eschaton section 4 times. It gets funnier each time.

The part after the Eschaton part is one of my favorite things in the book so far.

Both those sections were great.

One of the things that makes this book so fascinating to me - but makes it hard to discuss in sections - is that there are so many interesting threads introduced, and they are interesting to read, but you don't really connect all of those dots until another little piece of the puzzle is - very unobtrusively - mentioned maybe 100 pages later.

For example, let's take when Kate Gombert is talking to the doctor about her depression and addiction to Bob Hope (page 75). She mentions how she buys it: "It's like a code. One kid makes you ask him to please commit a crime" - which you find out later is the code phrase invented by Pemulis. Then, in the same paragraph, she says "And one particular guy with snakes in a tank in a trailer in Allston..." - and you know this is Erdedy's source.

It's such a tangled spider web, an enormous jigsaw puzzle. All the characters, as we read further into the novel...all come together in multiple ways.

Ok, I'm backtracking, but I'm behind in posting comments so it's easier for me to dump them all here :).

I love the section entitled: SELECTED TRANSCRIPTS OF THE RESIDENT-INTERFACE-DROP-IN-HOURS OF MS. PATRICIA MONTESIAN (pg 176 of my copy). I laughed over that section because it captured so well how a bunch of people going through various stages of their withdrawal and treatment interact with each other. It's such a vivid section. Example: "So I'm sitting there waiting for my meatloaf to cool and suddenly there's a simply sphincter-loosening shriek and here's Nell in the air with a steak-fork, positively aloft, leaping across the table, in flight, horizontal, I mean Pat the girl's body is literally parallel to the surface of the table, hurling herself at me, with this upraised fork, shrieking something about the sound of peanut butter. I mean my God, Gately and Diehl had to pull the fork out of my hand and the tabletop both."

Nell's version being "So yes, OK, the short answer is when he wouldn't quit with the drumming at supper I sort of poked him with my fork. Sort of. I could see how maybe somebody could have thought I sort of stabbed him. I offered to get the fork out, though."

I read this entire section out loud to my daughter,a psychologist who has worked in similar treatment facilities and she said, yeah, it sounded like a typical day. Sometimes, I would ask her how her day had gone, and she'd say "well, it was a real festival". I think that about sums it up.

The happenings at the halfway house and the dynamics among the residents are my favorite sections of the book. I think it is because, for me, the true humanity, emotion, caring, vulnerability, humor and pathos of this book come through most clearly in these sections. And also in the AA meetings - reading some of the sections from the meetings had me laughing and crying over the same page...the same story. Participants trying to laugh through the pain - trying to use dark humor as way to just get through the agony and pain of each day.

The poignancy of those sections have stayed with me. For me, this is when I hear DFW's voice most clearly.

Another favorite part - around Pg. 194, which talks about the other buildings around the halfway house, and the pranks the H.H. residents would play on the residents/operations of the other buildings.

This book is so rich in diverse characters, all so incredibly drawn. Sometimes DFW almost comes across to me as some kind of postmodern Charles Dickens.

Going back and doing some rereads - I got fascinated again with how Hal ended up in the condition we see him in at the beginning of the book. I found a paragraph I kind of passed over the first time, not thinking it was significant. Pg. 217, when Pemulis, Hal and Axford are talking about the DMZ. Pemulis has to do some medical research, but they also talk about a specific timeframe: 11/20-21. After the End-of-Fiscal-Year fundraising exhibition. I'm looking forward to that section to see if there are any clues there as to whether or not Hal actually took it.

Another fascination for me: the Infinite Jest cartridge, how was it made, why, where is the master copy, is this the film Steeply and Marathe are chasing (seems almost probable that it is). I found, in the Joelle section, the reference to James Incandenza. Molly Notkin refers to him as the "punter's father" the "infinite jester". We find out that Joelle has never seen the completed film or met anyone who has, only that James had always wanted to make it and that it had broken his heart. I always found it interesting to contemplate that the maker of this strange film, which no one has survived the viewing of, is a film that the maker himself has obviously seen, but did not succumb to as the other viewers have.

How, it did "break his heart"? It was the last thing he ever made (see footnote 24). Did viewing of it drive him to despair and ultimately, his suicide? What purpose did it fail to serve? And what happened to it? Reading footnote 24 again, there is a key piece of information: "Canadian archivist Tete-Beche lists the film as completed and privately distributed by P.Y.E.U. through posthumous provisions in the maker's will." This seems to give us a clue as to how the medical attache received the mysterious cartridge in the mail. An unmarked mailer postmarked Phoenix, AZ containing an unlabeled cartridge. The mailer says Happy Anniversary and has a smiley face on it. He receives it in the mail on April 1. Isn't that the month and day that James committed suicide?

I'm following the trail of the cartridge...page 249: Orin calls Hal and is pumping him for information because Helen Steeply wants to interview him (Orin). Orin starts asking a lot of questions about James' (the Stork) death because he's worried about how to respond to questions that might come up in the interview. James' last days are discussed. Conversations flow to what James was working on right before his suicide. Obviously the Infinite Jest film. Interesting...he flew somewhere after he finished it and was gone for 3 days. Lyle was gone too. Then, when he got back, he committed suicide. Orin asks if he took film-related stuff with him - which I find is a very interesting question.

Troy wrote: "The part after the Eschaton part is one of my favorite things in the book so far."

Yes, that section about the AA groups? I agree - it stuck with me.

Paula wrote: "Troy wrote: "The part after the Eschaton part is one of my favorite things in the book so far."

Yes, that section about the AA groups? I agree - it stuck with me."

The Eschaton is the game the students at ETA play on Interdependence Day, not the section on the AA groups...if I'm not mistaken of course :P

I would also like to point out something from the companion text I was using, "Eternal Complexity"--DFW has a penchant for ending sections of his books with "climactic stasis". I was getting pretty frustrated for awhile wondering why there would be these cliff hangers that wouldn't come back for ages, but they didn't feel like they were cliff hangers at all. I think around this page marker, I started to wonder where certain characters were and what they were doing.

In retrospect, I think the section with the daily happenings at the Enfield House was one of my favorites! I am also fond of any chapter with Mario. Love that guy...

Kristen wrote: "Paula wrote: "Troy wrote: "The part after the Eschaton part is one of my favorite things in the book so far."

Yes, that section about the AA groups? I agree - it stuck with me."

The Eschaton is ..."

Troy mentioned the section after the Eschaton, which is the AA meeting chapter. I may have misunderstood him. I haven't read The Elegant Complexity. How do you like it?

Any chapter with Mario is a good chapter, I agree!

Oh I see the "after" now, haha! I liked "Elegant Complexity" for the most part, but the summaries were very tedious after awhile. If you plan to read it alongside the book, especially during the first 500 pages or so, it is better to read a large chunk then read the summary and analysis. The analyses and the end chapters were great, and I definitely wasn't as confused as I would have been without it. Also, I can no longer read a book that has the color blue in it without thinking it is a theme or recurring symbol....I read "Slaughterhouse Five" right after and his ivoryand blue feet kept driving me nuts!