Paula’s Comments (group member since Apr 26, 2014)

Paula’s comments from the Infinite Summer 2014 group.

I can't remember where in the book it is, but Joelle's recollection of the dinner with the Incandenza family is priceless. And echoes my sentiments with regard to Avril.

Meghan wrote: "I'm really not a fan of Orin, either, though I do think that he's an interesting character when viewed as kind of the other half of Hal's character. (I like Hal. A lot.) I love Mario, like many of ..."

Gately has managed to charm me. And I'm not easily charmed.

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

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 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.

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.

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.

And is there a parallel between Gately and Horatio? This is fun :)

Kristen wrote: "I don't see Orin as Ophelia, but I will offer the strange idea that eachIncandenza brother could represent different aspects of Hamlet. I think this becomes more obvious after DFW gives us more Ori..."

This! I had the same thought Kristen.

Meghan wrote: "Just finished this section—the last section by yrstruly was a nice nod to Burgess, which was satisfying as some of the sections before it referenced A Clockwork Orange."

Good one. Here's another...I was thinking of all the Hamlet influences, you know, associating one set of characters with the other, and wondering how Steeply and Marathe would fit. I thought perhaps Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but the association seemed thin. Plus R&G were relatively minor characters, whereas S&M certainly are not. However, I remember seeing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - way back in the early 1990's - and the associations are very strong. That was a very interesting play. I refreshed my memory of the play earlier this evening and it certainly makes for some interesting and fun food for thought when reading through those sections. Although, I'm thinking neither Rosencrantz nor Guildenstern were cross-dressers...as far as we know :)

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

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

What happened to the prior reading sections posts? I can't see them anymore.

My favorites emerged early in my reading and never changed - Mario and Don Gately. How about you?

I found an interview DFW did when Infinite Jest first came out - he was asked about all the (many) narrative threads and how they gradually come together and intertwine with each other. The question was...was this something he envisioned from the beginning - or did he, as he progressed deeper into the novel, circle back at a later time and establish the foundations of those threads in order to tie them together? He responded that everything he did, all the threads, were very deliberate and were planned from the beginning. He said there was nothing extraneous in the narratives. I found that interesting, because it's very different from what many authors say happens with their characters - that they take on a life of their own and evolve almost independently of the author; creating narrative paths perhaps not originally envisioned by the writer.

It's very reminiscent of Richard Powers' novels - this almost musical fugue-like structure...or a DNA strand that twists upon itself. Before picking up Infinite Jest (again), I had just finished reading Powers' "The Goldbug Variations" and the structure is very similar. I believe Powers is a writer DFW admired very much and I see his influences in Infinite Jest.

BTW, has anyone started to notice some of the other influences DFW used in I.J.? I think he really enjoyed using some of the motifs he found in other books, movies and TV shows he was enjoying at the time. For example, Hugh/Helen Steeply...this is a character that has its roots in the Twin Peaks cross-dresser DEA agent played by Duchovny (can't remember the name). Also,about the mysterious movie master cartridge they are trying to find - this reminds me of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash", where some of the characters fall victim to a computer virus inserted in the virtual world they play in and renders the catatonic.

Just some random thoughts...

The other day, my daughter tried to get me to use Skype (she lives 2000 miles away), but seeing my face on my Ipad before I reversed the image was enough for me to nix that idea. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on a conversation knowing my weirdly distorted face was part of the deal :). I can totally see myself taking the most complimentary photo I could find and using that instead!

This entire section was a hilarious read - hard to pick a favorite quote from it, but here goes (page 147): "...the videophonic stress was even worse if you were at all vain. I.e. if you worried at all about how you looked. As in to other people. Which all kidding aside who doesn't."

So, I told my daughter I couldn't use Skype because I suffered from "videophonic stress" :).