Milestone Reached: 369 (37%)
Chapters Read:
Page 306: An overview of the prorectors’ weekend courses (including “The Toothless Predator: Breast-Feeding as Sexual Assault”!), plus a description of some anti-O.N.A.N. activity by the separatists (mirrors across the road). This section includes the 14 112 17-page “endnote 110”, a conversation between Hal and Orin regarding the true motives of the separatists.
Page 312: The birth and life of Mario Incandenza.
page 317 – 30 APRIL / 1 MAY / YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT: Marathe and Steeply discuss the American concept of freedom (e.g., freedom from, not freedom to).
Page 321 – 8 NOVEMBER / YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT INTERDEPENDENCE DAY / GAUDEAMUS IGTUR: The E.T.A. students play Eschaton, The Atavistic Global-Nuclear-Conflict Game™.
Page 343 – 8 NOVEMBER / YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT INTERDEPENDENCE DAY / GAUDEAMUS IGTUR: An exhaustive description of the Boston AA chapter and a meeting in which several speakers relate unthinkable horrors.
Characters The below is an abridgment of the Wikipedia Infinite Jest “Characters” section (with all spoilers stripped out):
The Incandenzas
- James Orin Incandenza: Filmmaker, founder of the Enfield Tennis Academy, committed suicide by putting his head in a microwave over. Nicknames include Himself, The Mad Stork, and The Sad Stork.
- Avril Incandenza (née Mondragon): Jame’s Widow, heavily involved in the running of E.T.A., affiliated with the Militant Grammarians. Nickname: The Moms.
- Hal Incandenza: The youngest of the three Incandenza children. One of the novel’s protagonists.
- Mario Incandenza: The middle child. Born with deformities; also a filmmaker (like his father).
- Orin Incandenza: The elder Incandenza. A punter for the Arizona Cardinals, serial womanizer, and cockroach killer.
- Charles Tavis: The head of E.T.A. since James Incandenza’s death. Avril’s half- or adoptive brother.
The Enfield Tennis Academy
- Michael Pemulis: Hal’s best friend; prankster, drug dealer, undisputed Eschaton champion, and not destine for The Show.
- John “No Relation” Wayne: The top-ranked player at ETA. John Wayne was discovered by James Incandenza during interviews of men named John Wayne for a film.
- Other Prominent E.T.A. Students: Ortho “The Darkness” Stice, Jim Troelsch, Trevor (“The Axhandle”) Axford, Ann Kittenplan, Ted Schacht, LaMont Chu, U.S.S. Millicent Kent (tried to seduce Mario!).
- Lyle: Sweat-licking guru who lives in the E.T.A. weight room and dispenses advice.
The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House
- Don Gately: Former thief and Demerol addict, now counselor in residence at the Ennet House.
- Joelle Van Dyne (a.k.a “Madame Psychosis and P.G.O.A.T, The Prettiest Girl of All Time”): Radio talkshow host; former lover to Orin, starred in many of James Incandenza films; wears a veil.
- Kate Gompert: A cannabinoid addict who suffers from extreme unipolar depression.
- Pat Montesian: The Ennet House manager.
- Ken Erdedy: A cannabinoid addict.
- Bruce Green: Ex-husband of Mildred Bonk-Green.
- Tiny Ewell A lawyer with dwarfism who is obsessed with tattoos.
- Other Prominent Ennet House residents: Randy Lenz, Geoffrey Day, Emil Minty.
Others
- Hugh Steeply (a.k.a. Helen Steeply): Agent for the Office of Unspecified Services; currently in disguise as a female reporter profiling Orin.
- Remy Marathe: Member of the Wheelchair Assassins (separatists) and quadruple-agent who secretly talks to Hugh Steeply.
- Poor Tony Krause (P.T. Krause): Almost killed by Drano-spiked heroin, accidentally steals a woman’s artificial heart, has a seizure while in withdrawal.
Sources consulted during the compilation of this summation: the Infinite Jest Wikipedia page, the Infinite Jest Character Profiles (author unknown), JS’s Infinite Jest synopses, Dr. Keith O’Neil’s Infinite Jest Reader’s Guide, and Steve Russillo’s Chapter Thumbnails.
Comments
15 responses to “Infinite Summery – Week 5”
My Week 5 post (on Eschaton, maps, territories, consciousness, and postmodernity) is here.
And there’s more talk about Eschaton in this thread in the forums.
I think the reason Joelle wears a veil is provided in one of her sections as a description of Orin. It’s the first sentence on p. 223 after the chronology.
You need a proofreader! Wonder how many people are wondering “Who’s Martha?”
Yeah, I think the veil was obliquely referred to much earlier in the book as being something related to thrown acid. I could be wrong.
On a side note, if anything bad happens to Mario before the end of this novel, I will be heartbroken.
The brief but touching description of his being left out at ETA despite people’s good intentions, as well as the view that he was “inseperable” from his dad, just tore me up. This book gives me the full range, I’ll tell you what.
I counted footnote 110 as just over 17 pages, which I found funny because I could swear people who’ve read it have told me it’s twenty or twenty-five. So I find it funny that you seem to be low-balling the number here.
I found the Eschaton section hard to read, and not as funny as I suspect it’s meant to be. As with everything though, I’ll wait to see how its significance works out in the context of the whole book. I enjoyed the section on Boston AA, but I’ve got some familiarity with 12 step programs that might make me biased for. What did other people think of that really long section?
I’m not going to lie, I found the AA section way too long and barely sufferable. Of course, I enjoyed the Wardine and yrstruly sections, so…
I think that may have been the idea Wallace had in mind.
I loved the AA section–love Gately and Gompert and all of it. Even the weird Raquel Welch thing. I also have some experience w/ AA, so maybe that’s me. And the Eschaton bits? Decidedly not for me.
These endnotes are killing me. I’m loving this book – all of it, ETA, the broad slapstick scenes, the Nicholson-Baker-like hyper-specificity of physical descriptions, the gut-wrenching chronicle of suicidal depression by Kate Gompert, made all the more potent by the sense that it could have been written only by someone depressed enough to kill himself, all of it … except the endnotes. I read that Wallace said he used them to break up the flow (or “linearity” or something) of his writing, but why? Apart from the annoyance of continually being forced to flip to the end of the book, it’s the disturbing of Wallace’s brilliant prose rhythms I find off-putting. Am I alone on this?
Not only was I in awe of the Boston AA section, with its “warts and all” cheesiness vrs. lifesaving truth, I kept thinking of how many people I know that I would love to share it with. As an alcohol & drug counselor, I, too, have familiarity with 12-Step programs and people in all stages of recovery; this section was brilliant!
Also, I confess the Eschaton section went right over my head like a launched bounceless-tennis ball.
While reading the material designated for week 5, I wrote a post in my Tumblr on Infinite Jest‘s manifold influences on my own writing and, as a music writer, what possible music could reflect this book of endless mirrors.
“a. Don’t ask.
b. Ibid.”
From footnote 110 cracked me up, for some reason. Probably because I’ve been reading too many academic things with lots of references.
oh wow. that’s odd. I ordered one of those ETA t-shirts a long time ago, but they didn’t process my order because I guess I forgot to tell them what to put on the back (because I didn’t really want a name on it because, well, that seemed too odd at the time).
during this re-read, I wished that someone would make a t-shirt with the ONAN logo, one of the laugh-out-loudiest parts of the first couple hundred pages.
Having just discovered this cool project you guys got going, and already having read IJ twice (first time in ’97, second time a few years later), it is so much fun to read all the first-timers’ comments. Like Nick said, it makes you feel like you’re reading it for the first time.
In regards to this thread, though, I wanted to say that the first time I read the book, The Eschaton section went completely over my head. Maybe my brain misfired, maybe I was tired, who knows. The second time around it clicked big time and instantly became one of my favorite passages.
IJ is easily the greatest book I’ve ever read. Cliches are cliches for a reason, so when I say “it changed my life,” that’s exactly what I mean…it friggin’ changed my life! I’ve never looked at anything the same again. Sure, I’ve been inspired and had many art-induced life-altering experiences since then, but IJ is sort of the ‘rosetta stone’ cipher that has translated those experiences.