My tactic in reading Infinite Jest so far has to been to assume that everything Wallace did was intentional (with the exception of typos--while he clearly meant asphuxiate in one section, I'm pretty sure he meant iota and not iona in another. My blogthrough of the novel, then, has been focused either on justifying some of what appear to be odd digressions (without knowing where they're actually going, so there's probably some hilarious guesswork on my part), or just luxuriating in fantastic sections.
This week's sections had me thinking a lot about empathy: if we're "all addicts" as Day posits in the Ennet House, then what links us is our humanity, our Humanity Anonymous ability to come together and, without kicking anyone out, work our way through our problems. If anything, the Internet is a real facilitator for this, for can you be more anonymous, yet more connected, than through the Everywhere of the Internet?
My ramblings are here:
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