Infinite Summer

endnote 24 puts this whole section into a different context.

i have been thinking about this a lot today.

(seriously endnote 24 was killing me. 8 pages with 6 footnotes?)

thus far i have come to the conclusion that Himself simply made a short film about the exchange. accepting the idea that this section was the film is not currently acceptable to me (but i am open to it as i delve further into the book)

considering the actors involved (and i do not have my copy in front of me at the moment to check this fact) it would have to either be a replay or practice / rehearsal (either knowingly or unknowingly). also i need to recheck the subsidized year for any clues...

edit:
the film version of this exchange is described as:
"A father, suffering from the delusion that his etymologically precocious son is pretending to be mute, poses as a 'professional conversationalist' in order to draw the boy out"

this was released the year after the professional conversationalist section.

interesting that within a year himself revises his idea of what was happening with hal

I thought the conversationalist section was funny, rife with irony.

I enjoyed this section, too, and thought that it could play pretty well as a short story.

What appeared (to me, who's never read IJ or knows anything about the specifics of the plot or character) to be happening is that the conversation starts as a conversation but at some point Hal retreats into his head, merely thinking his half of the conversation with Himself continuing to talk about.

As for the reveal that the Profesional Conversationalist is Himself, that, to me, spoke to not only the relationship between Hal and Himself but also to some idea that Hal has perceptions of reality that aren't real. He's just seeing different things because he's thinking different things, if that makes any sense. It just never occurs to him at first that this guy is Himself.

Also, as for the Hamlet tip of the hat, this could easily be Hamlet's first encounter with the ghost. But, again, I'm not even sure where/how the Hamlet is going to play into this book and who/what/if anybody can be taken as character analogs.

_________________
First time reader.

"I can't just sit here watching you think I'm mute while your fake nose points at the floor. And are you hearing me talking, Dad? It speaks. It accepts soda and defines implore and converses with you."

How can you be sure you're making sound if no one listens or responds to you?

An interesting thing about this conversation is that it is recorded as a transcript of the conversation and accompanying sounds, with no description added (as is the Hal/Mario conversation starting p 39).

_________________
Second-time reader.

Great way of putting it! I didn't think of it like that. Since the book starts out with Hal babbling incoherently externally and precisely formulating thoughts and phrases internally, it was important for DFW to illustrate that Hal hadn't always been a foaming-at-the-mouth idiot. Good insight, jackd.