Early in Infinite Summer, we received an email from a participant (who requested anonymity):
I went to a David Foster Wallace talk/autograph signing in Boston years ago. I asked him to write a message of congratulations to the reader on the final page. I thought this would motivate me to re-read IJ, since his congratulatory note would be waiting at the end.I will scan his message and autograph, and you can post the images on the site when Infinite Summer officially hits Page 981.
Hi, I’m the blogger from the Missouri Review that wrote about IS. Just wanted to say thank you for the great conversation and for something to do over the summer besides work. Thanks again. Same time next year?
<3
I can’t resist noticing that AMI == Avril Mondragon Incandenza. But nevermind; as jealous as I am that while my book wasn’t physically touched by the master, I was certainly psychically touched….
Ooh, neat! Don’t forget… Avril graded in blue ink.
What a great way to celebrate finishing the book. Many thanks to the anonymous donor for sharing.
Thanks also to the Infinite Summer team for providing this great site/opportunity/community. A wonderful initiation into the joys of on-line group reads.
63. Chi Chi / After Completion
above K’AN THE ABYSMAL, WATER
below LI THE CLINGING, FIRE
This hexagram is the evolution of T’ai PEACE (11). The transition from confusion to order is completed, and everything is in its proper place even in particulars. The strong lines are in the strong places, the weak lines in the weak places. This is a very favorable outlook, yet it gives reason for thought.
For it is just when perfect equilibrium has been reached that any movement may cause order to revert to disorder. The one strong line that has moved to
the top, thus effecting complete order in details, is followed by the other lines.
Each moving according to its nature, and thus suddenly there arises again the hexagram P’i, STANDSTILL (12).
Hence the present hexagram indicates the conditions of a time of climax, which necessitate the utmost caution.
THE JUDGMENT
AFTER COMPLETION. Success in small matters.
Perseverance furthers.
At the beginning good fortune.
At the end disorder.
The transition from the old to the new time is already accomplished. In principle, everything stands systematized, and it is only in regard to details that success is still to be achieved. In respect to this, however, we must be careful to maintain the right attitude. Everything proceeds as if of its own accord, and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let thing take their course without troubling over details. Such indifference is the root of all evil.
Symptoms of decay are bound to be the result. Here we have the rule indicating the usual course of history. But this rule is not an inescapable law.
He who understands it is in position to avoid its effects by dint of unremitting perseverance and caution.
THE IMAGE
Water over fire: the image of the condition
In AFTER COMPLETION.
Thus the superior man
Takes thought of misfortune
And arms himself against it in advance.
When water in a kettle hangs over fire, the two elements stand in relation and thus generate energy (cf. the production of steam). But the resulting
tension demands caution. If the water boils over, the fire is extinguished and its energy is lost. If the heat is too great, the water evaporates into the air.
These elements here brought in to relation and thus generating energy are by nature hostile to each other. Only the most extreme caution can prevent
damage. In life too there are junctures when all forces are in balance and work in harmony, so that everything seems to be in the best of order. In such
times only the sage recognizes the moments that bode danger and knows how to banish it by means of timely precautions.
–Richard Wilhelm’s and Cary F. Baynes translation