Infinite Summer

Pp 16-17: "The bad ankle hasn't ached once this whole year. I think of John N.R. Wayne, who would have won this year's WhataBurger, standing watch in a mask as Donald Gately and I dig up my father's head."

The last time reference I can find is November 20 in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. That's the year before the Year of Glad where Hal's interview at the U of A begins the novel. Gately is in the hospital. I don't see how Hal and Gately could have met in the time between 11/20 YDAU and whenever the WhataBurger took place in the Year of Glad.
But that time period is, as far as know, a blank spot in the novel. I'm also puzzled about John Wayne's presence. He's a loner who never hung out with anyone. As Hal says (p. 956-7): "John Wayne and I never had much to say to one and other. There wasn't even hostility between us. He ate dinner with us at HmH every so often because he and the Moms were tight.") Why John Wayne he didn't win, or wasn't present, at the WhataBurger is another puzzle.

Earlier on p. 16, Hal notes, "[a]t the only other emergency room I have ever been in, almost exactly one year back...". We don't know the exact time of this visit, but signs point to it being the Friday or Saturday of the big fundraising tournament when the AFR were due to intercept the Quebec Jr. Wightman and Jr. Davis cup squads and then storm ETA. I.e., soon after Hal's last chronological scene before the Year of Glad scene.

How he comes to end up there, the ER, is also unclear, but this is the same weekend when he, Pemulis, and a couple others are due to drop DMZ. (p. 217) Though we don't know if they go through with it. Hal in particular is having reservations after he quits smoking pot. (En. 321) And Pemulis may or may not still be on campus at this point.

More thoughts from others here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=112

_________________
"Because so that was let's see."

I'm glad you brought this up. One thing to consider, in addition to the foregoing ETA late-November attack, is that Donald Gately and Hal end up in a sponsor/sponsee relationship, much as the one Donald G. has with Ferocious Francis. (My apologies if you haven't gotten there.) We know that Hal attended at least one AA or NA meeting, or at least attempted to, and I wonder if in dropping the DMZ he could have ended up in the Emergency Room, which may have them led to Gately and him making contact (either because Gately's still in the hospital, recovering from the gunshot, or because Gately is employed still at Ennet House House). Anyway, in light of this idea of Hal and Gately as sponsor/sponsee (and who knows if I'm right), the narrative we have as /IJ/ is the product of Hal's empathy work that every recovering addict has to undergo, and which written recovery path may have been necessitated by Hal's inability to comprehensibly speak with people. One further little idea in support of this idea of Don and Hal as sponsor/sponsee is that the Eschaton Narrative (coming up, soon) shows off Hal's chameleon-like narratorial abilities, i.e., proof that Hal can adopt and write in the voice of certain other personalities. I'm rambling, mainly because the foregoing is rather more just a kind of inchoate sense I have of /IJ's/ narrative structure, and my belief that the relationship between Hal and Don is this narrative's primary foundation.

Does this make sense to you guys? Am I up in the night?

I like the idea of Don/Hal in a sponsor/sponsee relationship -- I think either of the scenarios you play out could be plausible. Not sure that I can see IJ as a product written by Hal, but I'll try to keep my mind open about that as I continue my re-reading...

As for the time question that started this thread: I came across some notes I had made for myself (when I first read IJ, like 12 years ago) trying to work out where Pemulis is between November 17-20. I have to continue to re-read to refresh my memory, but I apparently saw this as pivotal at the time -- as one of the novel's most significant lacunae (ahem).

It's pretty clear that when he returns on November 20 (p. 907 in my Back Bay PB) that he's been gone for the week, and up to something pretty disheveling -- my note speculates that he was with Avril and CT.

Very interesting about Pemulis. I don't have my /IJ/ Backbay copy with me, but I'll check it out tonight or tomorrow and get back to you. At the very least, I'm intrigued about the idea of Pemulis leaving with Avril and CT because ... why? What on earth could impel agoraphobe Avril to leave ETA -- and to do so with CT and Pemulis (as opposed to, say, Wayne)? To be clear, I believe the scenario's possible, it's just weird and intriguing enough to make me really want to know more.

Do you remember why you thought Pemulis was the key? Or what he, Avril and CT might have going on?

I'll tell you what, though, I'm getting a lot more out of /IJ/ in this re-read. The story's coming together for me much better. It's like the first time I enjoyed reading the book, loved certain sections, but didn't really retain much of an overall story. This time around, I see the story. I see the interaction. It's a much richer experience. Plus funny and enjoyable and all that, but definitely sad, too.

I'm a bit skeptical on Pemulis leaving with Avril only because she clearly despises him like few other students at the school. If I remember right, CT isn't too fond of him either. Certainly extraordinary circumstances may have brought them together, or Avril and CT may have needed something which only Pemulis's skills could deliver. Definitely keep my eyes open for something like that this time through.

_________________
"Because so that was let's see."

Me, too (keeping eyes peeled). I read page 907 ... and beyond ... and on page 910, four full paragraphs from the top (not counting the paragraph carried over from 909), Pemulis makes mention of using Himself's film/optics lab down in the Lung storage area where Hal smokes pot. It seems to me that there's something in the book's beginning about Pemulis using Himself's lab, but I can't remember where the reference is, or what Pem was ostensibly using the lab for (to say nothing about what he was actually doing in the lab). This Pemulis in Himself's lab hints (at least to me) of something Entertainment-ish, and thus maybe potentially involving Avril and (who knows) CT.

Anyway, like you said, it would have to be something pretty spectacular to bring these three disparate characters together; together on what I imagine to be some kind of terribly involved, week-long "Incredible Journey" thing -- something along the lines of that movie where a dog, a cat and a chicken travel together from Florida all the way to San Diego, where their owners are on vacation, in order to deliver God only knows what kind of message.

I also like the idea of Gately/Hal in a sponsor relationship; it's certainly more pleasant that what I'd always assumed was going on here, which was something along the lines of:

Hal and Gately were exhuming JOI under coercion by John NR Wayne, by then an agent for the anti-ONAN cause, seeking a master copy of the Entertainment for the AFR. It's pretty easy to see Hal being captured for the purpose by AFR during their raid of ETA, seeking the cartridge. As for Gately's presence, I'd presumed he'd also been taken by the AFR, who'd linked him to the beating of the Nucks outside Ennett House, or more likely the suffocation death of the AFR leader during the home-invasion case.

I believe it's suggested somewhere that Wayne was a Quebec-separatist sympathizer, possibly recruited by Poutrincourt? His enlistment as anti-ONAN "freedom-fighter" (possibly at expense of his legs?) explains his absence at Whataburger Invitational.

I'd also reckoned that given the reference (somewhere) to Year of Glad as last year of subsidized time, that there was a collapse of the ONAN social order via a successful AFR-led insurgency, meaning they'd retrieved a master copy buried with JOI.

Things get hazy for me when Gately's in the hospital, but don't one or two ETA kids wind up in the bed next to him? Or does he hallucinate that?



Or did I?

_________________
"Because so that was let's see."