Okay, so I know this is back-tracking a bit, but with the final paper and all I've really been focusing on Infinite Jest, as I'm sure a lot of you are too.

Have you guys read the companion? If not, I highly recommend it--Burn explains a lot of the ways in which the plot intertwines, and it's really interesting. He mentions a lot of things that I don't remember being mentioned in class--for example, the connection between the ETA kids injured in the Eschaton incident and Gately. Otis P. Lord is the figure in the bed next to Gately with "a box on its head" (890), which I totally didn't get at the time. Burn also talks about the significance of Otis P. Lord's name--Gately has had trouble understanding the idea of a God, and right there next to him is someone who is named Lord and is ultimately in the hospital (in a pretty humurous condition) for "playing God" in the Eschaton game. So in a sense, Otis has failed at playing God, and is really sort of a pathetic Lord. Gately is wondering about why God would put him through all this, while a Lord is lying right next to him with a box stuck on his head.

Okay, so this is going way back in the book (I like how way back is page 281...), but Wallace mentions a book called Flatland:

"A good quarter of the bus was yellow-highlighting copies of E.A. Abbott's inescapable-at-E.T.A. book Flatland for either Flottman or Chawaf or Thorp" (281).

I was curious, so I looked the book up online and read a bit of it. It's basically a description of a world in which everything is two-dimensional:

"Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows--only hard with luminous edges--and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen."

I was wondering if anybody knew of the Catholic statue that is mentioned in the "Raquel" passage:

"...this photo of a statue of a woman whose stone robes were half hiked up and wrinkled in the most godawfully sensually prurient way, the woman reclined against uncut rock, her robes hiked and one stone foot hanging off the rock as her legs hung parted, with a grinning little totally psychotic-looking cherub-type angel standing on the lady's open thighs and pointing a bare arrow at where the stone robe hid her cold tit, the woman's fae upturned and cocked and pinched into that exact same shuddering-protozoan look beyond pleasure or pain" (373).

I found the section describing the game of Eschaton on pages 323-342 especially hard to get through. I'd been enjoying the book, but when it got to that point, I found myself mindlessly reading the acronyms --AMNAT, SOVWAR, REDCHI, IRLIBSYR, SOUTHAF, INDPAK, ??-- and not even trying to comprehend the strategies of the players. I understand the game is complex, but why so drawn out? Did anyone enjoy this section? Was it meant to be enjoyed, or was Wallace trying to make a point? The game doesn't seem like a typical children's game at all, nor does it seem like much fun (to me, anyway), so I was wondering if it was meant to convey something about the kids at E.T.A. They are worked insanely hard, all of them seem to be extremely bright, and they are forced to grow up and decide their futures so quickly. Twelve year old kids are playing highly mathematical strategic war games. Shouldn't they be jumping rope or something?

This isn't exactly on topic, but it does provide some historical context for Underworld. I was researching various advertisements for my paper, and came across this image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Miss_Atomic_Bomb_1957.jpg

The photograph of "Miss Atomic Bomb" features a Las Vegas showgirl wearing a dress shaped like a mushroom cloud. The image was used to encourage people to visit the Nevada nuclear testing site, which was a tourist attraction at the time. According to an article I read on post-gazette.com, people actually planned happy hours around nuclear blasts-- they'd sit poolside and enjoy the flashes.

sarawrs mentioned random connections. I'd been noting them as I read, so I thought I'd point out some of my favorites.

On page 515, Eric masturbates to a picture of Jayne Mansfield. This is the same actress that inspires Acey's collection (discussed on page 474 and 484)-- "you have copycat Jayne, the reproduced goddess, and she is all the more strong for being unoriginal" (490). A picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jaynemansfield5.jpg

On page 673, Father Paulus refers to a painting by Breugel called "Children's Games." Albert talks about the painting with Klara when he gets home: "I don't know what art history says about this painting. But I say it's not that different from the other famous Bruegel, armies of death marching across the landscape. The children are fat, backward, a little sinister to me" (682). Breugel is the same artist that painted "The Triumph of Death," the painting that Hoover was so obsessed with. A picture:

I am really enjoying the cultural references that Delillo makes in this book. Since they are rather recent and deal with material I am familiar with, it is much easier to relate. I find myself wanting to research the references rather than just blow them off as I tended to do while reading Gravity's Rainbow. Like "Cocksucker Blues," for instance, which is a real documentary about the Rolling Stone's 1972 tour. This is two years before the setting of this section of the book, which Acey comments on. The Stones deemed the content inappropriate and didn't want it to be released, but the director did, so it is only allowed to be shown when the director is physically present. It's also the name of a single that Mick Jagger released. Since "Cocksucker Blues" is the name of Part 4, I am interested to see the connection in the rest of the section.

It is so refreshing to actually understand a book's plot!

I am anxious to find out what connections Delillo makes between the prologue and Nick Shay's narrative-- how the ball ended up in Nick's hands, the relationship between Nick and Kara forty years ago (an affair?), etc. I'm anticipating some sort of connection between bombs and baseballs, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet.

I'm sure this will make more sense as I read further, but I'm not sure about the significance of the prologue's title-- "the triumph of death," which was also the title of the painting that fascinates J. Edgar Hoover. While everyone else is celebrating the triumph of the Giant's huge win, climbing over seats and rushing into the field, Hoover is completely fascinated with the image of the dead and rotting bodies. Delillo mentions that Hoover is somewhat of a germaphobe, yet he "loves this stuff." Then he focuses on the audience: "Admit it--you love it" (50).

This was originally a comment on rose's entry, but it got pretty lengthy, so I decided to go ahead and make it an entry of its own.

The idea of going "beyond the zero" (the title of the first part), seems to be a major theme, but I don't fully understand what this is supposed to mean. I realize that we've talked about this, but since I still don't feel like I really grasp the concept, I decided to list some of the most important zero references that we have come across so far, with the help of the website roses linked.

The book opens with Pirate's dream: "No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into--they go under archways...developing through those empty days brilliant and deep, especially at dawn, with blue shadows to seal its passage, to try to bring events to Absolute Zero..."

The passage about the elongated S-shaped tunnels seemed to highlight the contrast between the scientific and softer, human aspects of the characters, especially Slothrop. On one hand the tunnels could be interpreted as a double integral sign-- the text goes on to explain this more in depth with lots of scientific jargon. "That is one meaning of the shape of the tunnels down here in the Mittelwerke. Another may be the ancient rune that stands for the yew tree, or Death" (306). The companion explains that "the rune SS signified a tree symbolizing strife" (190). Honestly, I didn't fully understand that one. My favorite interpretation, however, is the final one: