Alright, let’s talk teeth. As you may have realized I stole the name of my blog from a title of James Incandenza’s films. Fun with Teeth is about a dentist who “performs sixteen unanesthetized root-canal procedures on an academic he suspects of involvement with his wife,” (987). Then we have Hal, whose has suffered from tooth pain through the book, finally having a removal by Dr. Zegarelli, (508, 526). The dentist who has such terrible bad breath that you can smell it through his mask, which seems like a sign you might want to find a new dentist. Then the dream Hal describes to Mario “I dreamed I was losing my teeth. I dreamed that my teeth dry-rotted somehow into shale and splintered when I ate or spoke, and I was jettisoning fragments all over the place…” (770). So what is the deal with the teeth? Well I have a theory and it has to do with my obsession with Hal’s buddy Schacht. Schacht has proven to handle the challenges and changes in his life with a level of maturity and Zen-like calm that eludes Hal. Hal describes back on pg. 269-270, how Hal envies Schacht for his ability to accept the fact that he will never make it to the Show and is basically wasting his time at the Academy. This fear, among many others, has fed Hal’s drug use. And what profession has Schacht chosen to pursue instead, dentistry. He even interns twice a week when not on tour. My theory being that Hal has people in his life setting a positive example for him, demonstrating to him ways of behavior that he could be emulating. He ignores all those, perhaps because of a possible depression or because of the drugs, and continues to make bad decisions. Maybe Schacht is the anti-Hal or Hal without the traumatic childhood. Okay it’s not a perfect theory, but then what do you think of the teeth?
Infinite Jest #3
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