Milestone Reached: 443 (45%)
Chapters Read:
Page 343 – 8 NOVEMBER / YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT INTERDEPENDENCE DAY / GAUDEAMUS IGTUR: Mario’s semi-fictional film “The ONANTiad”, which documents (a) the rise of Johnny Gentle from Famous Crooner to head of the Clean U.S. Party and then President of the (then) United States; (b) the establishment of the Organization of North American Nations; (c) the creation and subsequent expatriation of the Great Con(cav|vex)ity; and (d) the origins of subsidized time.
Page 394: Lyle dispenses advice to students down in the weight room, including “don’t underestimate objects”.
Page 395: Descriptions of the James Incandeza films The Medusa vs. the Odalisque and THE JOKE.
Page 407: The story of E.T.A. Eric Clipperton, who won tennis matches by threatening to kill himself if he loses. (And then does so anyway when he wins.)
Page 410: The origin of InterLace Entertainment.
Page 418 – 30 APRIL / 1 MAY YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT: Marthe and Steeply have the “single-serving sized cup of soup” discussion (how do people weigh deriving their own pleasure against inflicting pain on others).
Page 434: Gatley and Stavros Lobokulas clean the Shattuck Shelter.
Characters The characters have been given their own page, which will be updated weekly.
Sources consulted during the compilation of this summation: JS’s Infinite Jest synopses, Dr. Keith O’Neil’s Infinite Jest Reader’s Guide, and Steve Russillo’s Chapter Thumbnails.
My Week 6 post was on a topic that’s been getting patted around the blogs and forums a lot: “Is ‘Infinite Jest’ Science Fiction?”
Come to think of it my post on environmentalism, consumerism, addiction, Johnny Gentle (Famous Crooner), and the politics of hope was about Week 6 as well. I blogged more about IJ last week than I thought…
I love the weekly round up, and it probably doesn’t matter that much, but I don’t believe Eric Clipperton was an E.T.A. student. pg. 407 “The little Town-or-Academy-Hailed-From slot after Clipperton’s name on tournament draw-sheets just said ‘Ind.,’ presumably for ‘Independent.’ Nobody’d heard of him before or knew where he came from.”
Agreed, he was not an E.T.A. student – that’s why it took special permission for him to come into the Clipperton Suite and meet with Himself.
I believe it was said later that he was from Indiana.
I posted on the Onantiad section this week, trying to make some sense of what we know of O.N.A.N.-ite Politics. [P.S. Hope I got the coding right – if not, sorry for the href-mess.]
not to be too much of a snoot, but the characters page could use some mild spell checking.