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Lyle seems to stand out for me, for a couple reasons.
First, because while IJ often dabbles in absurdities and unrealistic events, Lyle seems to take this a step further. Most other things are explained by DFW's near-future science, and with a little bit of suspension of disbelief, I think we can accept them. But a guy who lives in the E.T.A. weightroom and eats only sweat? Yeah. Not that this really bothers me or anything; I just think it's something worth taking note of.*
Second, because this whole thing about objects recalls J.O.I.'s father's obsession with taking control of objects. But Lyle doesn't seem to be about controlling objects. He doesn't really seem to about submitting control to objects, either. Assuming that pulling yourself toward weights that are too heavy for you represents being too ambitious, what exactly does it mean to have weights pulled toward you instead?
Lyle's lifestyle seems pretty clearly to resemble that of a Buddhist.** I can't admit to having too much knowledge about Buddhism, but I do know that it advocates what is known as the "middle way," an avoidance of either extreme. IJ seems to be heavily concerned with the negatives of extremes: selfishness in the form of drugs and entertainment are bad, but so is selfless submission to a group of assassins. Here, I feel as if an obsession with dominating objects (like J.O.I.'s father's) involves a cynical mechanistic view of the world, while allowing yourself to be dominated by objects suggests a submission to a lack of freedom and perhaps a surrendering in the face of consumer culture.*** Lyle seems to engage in something inbetween these two extremes—a middle path—a kind of working together with objects. He remains in the same place all day and receives nourishment from others in exchange for advice: a mutually beneficial relationship rather than a parasitic relationship in which one benefits and the other is dominated. Furthermore, rather than too ambitiously attempt to pull down weights that are too heavy for you and be pulled toward them instead, Lyle advocates a gradual increase in ability, a working-together of a person and gradually heavier weights. Those attempting to be too ambitious and dominate the weights find (like Stice) that they will only be dominated by objects, screwed with in their sleep by objects apparently moving on their own. The story that Lyle tells Stice about the man who lifted the chair also suggests this working-together: the man did not underestimate the ability of the chair, and so he and the chair were able to perform a miracle together.
I think Lyle is one of the few characters in IJ that is able to connect with others meaningfully, because he has not submitted to any extremes. I could be wrong about him, though, especially as we still haven't really been told much about his relationship with J.O.I., someone who seemed to have submitted to an extreme of selfishness—so I'd like to hear what others think about our advice-dispensing sweat-licking Buddhist.
*Considering the fact that Lyle seems to have been one of the few characters to have had an actual relationship with J.O.I., I wouldn't doubt his importance as a character.
**When we first meet him, he is, after all, sitting in a lotus position.
***The whole thing to do with objects here seems to subtly suggest something about subsidized time and advertisement and consumerism—all things having to do with many, many objects. When the stimuli and the choices in objects get to be too chaotic, we become, as Hal as a seventh-grader wrote, catatonic. We become dominated by objects.
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