Todeswalzer wrote:
I see only two ways out of the contradiction. The first is that I'm wrong in my assumption that Hal is counting from JOI's precise date of death. There could be two reasons for this: (1) Hal isn't really referring to the death itself, but instead to an event that is somehow related to the death which both callers implicitly understand but which the reader is perhaps not meant to, at this stage of the novel; or (2) Hal's math is wrong. Both of these seem highly unlikely, given, first, the context of the call between Orin and Hal, second, the obvious trauma that Hal experienced as a result of the suicide (making it unlikely that he would get the date of the event wrong), and third, Hal's extreme genius and mental acuity.
The only other way out of the contradiction is that DFW screwed up. This conclusion would seem to be supported by the passage quoted above from p.172 that he died "almost exactly 3 years" prior to April YY2007MRCVMETIUFI/ITPSFH,O,OM(s), which gets the month right but the year wrong, as well as the passage from p.142, which, along with Hal's comments also places JOI's death in YPW.
The passage from p.64 that explicitly places JOI's death in YTSDB would thus be a flat-out error. I don't see any way around this conclusion, which is regrettable because so many other clues in the text are consistent with each other.
--Todeswalzer.
Another way out is to consider Hamlet when he's talking about his father's death to Ophelia and is totally screwed up on the duration of time that's passed. Act III Scene ii:
HAMLET:
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA:
What is, my lord?
HAMLET:
Nothing.
OPHELIA:
You are merry, my lord.(115)
HAMLET:
Who, I?
OPHELIA:
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET:
O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man
do but be merry? For, look you, how cheerfully my mother
looks, and
my father died within's two hours.(120)
OPHELIA:
Nay 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET:
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll
have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and
not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory
may outlive his life half a year. But, by'r lady, he must build(125)
churches then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, 'For, O, for O, the
hobby-horse is forgot!' Hamlet interpretations range for this scene: sarcastic, losing his own mind a bit, confused by stress, etc. Could something similar be going on with Hal and Orin? It's very interesting to me that Ophelia and Orin are both nicknamed "O." DFW has done the gender bending thing in Broom of the System, so what would prevent him from designing Orin off of Ophelia?!
Here's a modern language version of the same scene:
HAMLET:
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA:
What is, my lord?
HAMLET:
Nothing.
OPHELIA:
You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET:
Who, me?
OPHELIA:
Yes, my lord.
HAMLET:
O, your only dancer! What should a man do but be
merry? Because look how cheerfully my mother looks,
and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA:
No, it is four months, my lord.
HAMLET:
So long? No then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a
suit of black fur. O heavens! Died two months ago and
not forgotten yet? Then there's hope that a great man's
memory may outlive his life at least six months, but, by
our Lady, then he must build churches or else he won’t
be remembered with the prostitute, whose epitaph is
“For, O, for, O, the prostitute is forgotten!”