Comments on: Mission Improbable

By: Pemulis' Yachting Cap

Pemulis' Yachting Cap — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:33:29 +0000

Ooh, I’m thinking maybe Gately’s ginormous head has to do with some plot connection I’m missing.

By: thinkicanhearyou

thinkicanhearyou — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:56:08 +0000

oooh–link up with Randy Lenz, maybe?

By: Heather Ann

Heather Ann — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:51:17 +0000

We've already figured out how to drive dogs mad with longing through the use of beams of light (see: Will a laser pointer break my dog?), so why not humans?

By: Prolixian

Prolixian — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:10:49 +0000

Avery,
Some would assert that the transfer of actual, material knowledge from one person to another without speaking contact is no more surreal than the various items that you assert have some basis in reality. Look into some of the writings on collective consciousness, for example. If combination of collective consciousness and, perhaps, absorption of words and events from conversations heard while unconscious can impart knowledge that seems to come from no identifiable source, DFW’s use a fever-induced vision of a wraith to bring the knowledge to Gately’s attention does not seem so “out there.”

Just a thought.

http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j25/kenny.asp

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:26:25 +0000

Avery, how about “Life After Jest” as the title of your next post? I finished the book on Wednesday, and life really has been, surprisingly, a bit different since.

By: avery

avery — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:40:25 +0000

Oh. Um. Hm. Yes. Right. Sorry. That’s a stupid mistake, and I shouldn’t have made it. Especially because I’ve lived in England my entire life. Except for the time when I lived in Scotland. Where I was born.

So I really should be better at this stuff.

Also, that venn diagram hurts my brain. This country/ies is messed up, guys!

By: Joel Bass

Joel Bass — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:43:02 +0000

Avery, I think you’re ready to team up with Lawrence Krauss and write “The Science of Infinite Jest.” Let me know when it comes out.

By: Tizzle

Tizzle — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:57:16 +0000

If we got everyone posting/reading here or using #infsum on twitter to request it on their website they’d have to listen!!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:27:55 +0000

Except England

Avery, I hate to be a pedant, but us Brits get really annoyed when you guys accross the pond conflate “England” with “United Kingdom”. In using the former, you ignore our influential celtic brothers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, all of whom retain the Pound too.

Normally I would let this error pass, but since you use it in the context of political unions, its a howler.

If it helps, think of the UK as a sort of O.S.S.B.I (Organisation of States Stranded on the British Isles), although obviously that has the potential to piss off the Republic of Ireland.

See the following for a helpful Venn diagram: http://qntm.org.nyud.net/uk

By: avery

avery — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:50:38 +0000

Damn it, I forgot about that. I had a vague memory that it was something like that. I do call b*llsh*t on that one, though, and will insist that every single scientist in the IJ world has gotten that wrong, and radioactive waste is — instead — to blame.