If as the saying goes the devil’s in the details, then this particular section is its own circle of hell. We begin by learning the basics of rehab and drug use. We get a list of tattoos. We follow the boys through their various tennis matches, and examine each one’s rankings and abilities. Then the mother of all detailed sequences: Eschaton. The description of this insanely complicated game (it can only be calculated using a computer program!) goes on for pages. Why David Foster Wallace why? It feels too easy to say that he is choosing to write in a way that is uncomfortable to a reader. When a fictional story begins to read like a textbook or instructional manual the reader is jolted and must reorient themselves. Sure it is a challenge, but it can also feel like an assault. I have to look to the sections in between these endlessly detailed sections and find human nature pushing there way back into the novel. The complicated game of Eschaton devolves into a violent fight between the students. We are given a literal peek behind the curtains of the tennis matches to see the anxiety before a match. As Gately begins to learn more about his residents they defy the “rules” that were previously established in the text. Then Wallace is providing us with both the surface (bland numbers and complex rules) and the depth that connects the reader to the characters. Why both? It is going to sound awfully sensitive, but perhaps there is a deeper theme about communication emerging here. How many problems could be solved and relationships improved if characters spoke to/confronted each other? Instead of focusing on rankings, numbers, rules they could be confronting various characters about their drug use. Hal could be dealing with his traumatic history etc. They would rather play games then be honest with each other. It is easier to give into your demons then to face them.
Infinite Jest #2
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November 4, 2009 at 2:56 pm |
The devil is definitely in the details with this book, Sean. I have not gotten to the details of the game Eschaton yet, but it sounds like something I can’t wait to read. It’s interesting that you compare it to reading a textbook, because some of the other sections are like reading a map, or a description of a map, a floor plan, an instruction manual or a history book. Maybe there’s some method to the madness, as you said jolting the reader. Just as the reader is lulled into something that actually seems like a storyline they can relate to, they’re disrupted and brought back to the surface with some inane description of a figment of the writer’s imagination. Oh spare us all. We just want to be lulled into the escapist world of reading, like the characters want to escape into their drugs, sex, sports, games, media. Hmm. Could there be something more to this behemoth of a book? Could Wallace be “waking us up” every few pages, just to make sure we’re still reading closely and not just letting out minds follow the steps we know so well, to read actively and consciously? I hate to admit to Wallace having any plan other than demonstrating his own ability to be complex, but perhaps he had a plan. As I said in my post, there is also value in creating something that must be read, studied and discussed—something that makes people write about it. You’d only have to write one book if it kept people talking for your lifetime. The problem is, getting people to read it in the first place. If you can get past that hurdle, maybe you’ve got something. Maybe this book is like the dvd or teleputer cartridge in the story. Maybe it traps you, gets you under it’s spell with fascination and you’re in the CAGE and can’t get out. We should stop reading now for all of our sakes!
November 4, 2009 at 4:06 pm |
I totally agree with you that Wasllace’s text is like a textbook and not a novel. There is so much detail when it comes to the tennis matches and also the section that describes about the White Flag- Boston Chapter of the AA when Gately goes on and on about this place and the meetings. Lets get really I keep hoping that there is some rationality soon. I also agree instead giving us such long winded detail that the characters should be focusing on their problems with addiction to drugs, alochol, and nactroics. Just when you think that Wallace is developing a storyline he goes goes on anoither rampage. I just keep on wondering what is Wallace point in Infinit Jest is he just trying to pull us in this convulted complex novel or is he testing us. I wonder if Wllace wants to make sure that we are reading closely his finite details that he keeps pouring on in his. Who knows I just keep on wonder when all the characters are going to communicate with each other and if this novel will ever make sense.
November 5, 2009 at 4:01 pm |
Sean,
when I got to the Eschaton section I once again felt like running into traffic, and I too have to continue to hold on to those moments of raw human nature and emotion that Wallace gives the reader. And, yes what about the lack of communication? No one wants to face their shit, so do they all end up at the bottom of the hill at Ennet House?
November 5, 2009 at 6:02 pm |
Interesting ideas, here. It made me think of Madame Psychosis’ radio show. As in, on the surface level, it’s sort of random and nonsense, but also follows certain rules, according to the intern who sets up for her. She communicates to a wide audience, and yet, nobody seems to know her true identity, or even sees her enter or leave the studio. Later, we find out that MP is the veiled and uber depressed & addicted Joelle, so there’s another level to the seemingly outward communication and connection, which is really yet another detached, isolated person. Like Jen said, no one wants to face their shit, it seems. Except that they say they really do. But they really don’t. Oh, IJ.
November 5, 2009 at 7:30 pm |
I’m loving the ideas you have here. Readers definitely need to find their own sections/themes to cling to in order to get through the reading and I’ve found myself drawn to the human connections and the places where it seems like people actually exist within these forms. Communication — or lack thereof — definitely does seem to be an issue. As most of you before me have pointed out, it’s much easier to ignore our issues than to face them. Somehow the communication issues seem to be magnified in this book, but that may just be because the book centers largely around addicts who go to great lengths to hide or ignore their problems to begin with. Besides, aren’t the games more fun? Haha