While frantically attempting to write my proposal, reread Underworld and read Infinite Jest I've been obsessing over the role of media in the encyclopedic novel. These novels have all been so conscious of their...novel-ness...and are in such rebellion to it. From GR to U to IJ we've seen books trying to be something other than books, such as movies, or radio, or maybe waste, maybe even dreams or imagination (parts of GR especially).

While I don't have much point in this post, and am not saying anything interesting or new, I've been thinking so much about what they are all trying to say about the future of media and in particular the future of the novel. We are already witnessing the decline of traditional news media and the rise of more independent, readily accessible media. The media in IJ is particularly interesting in the way it plays such a large part in the characters lives and becomes as much an addiction as any of the others in the novel. The prophesies of Delillo and Pynchon were so on in many ways, I wonder what Wallace really sees as the future of media...

As I’m sure many of you have done, I spent a while last night looking at the Infinite Jest page on Wikipedia and thought it was pretty cool. This got me thinking about what other recourses might be out there tho, and a quick search found some really cool stuff I thought I should share.

Maybe the coolest is an online scene by scene guide available at:
http://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/Infinite.htm
it doesn’t go very in depth, but it is soooo helpful for finding scenes and keeping track of what order things happen in. it’s a lot like the many scene by scene guides we’ve had from various presenters.

All three of our novels have now dealt with the relationship between drugs and paranoia, perhaps Infinite Jest most directly. It almost seems to be an integral part of encyclopedic novel, perhaps because of the role of drugs in modern society, or perhaps even more scarily as an aspect of their prophetic nature. Reading the section about waiting for the marijuana delivery reminded me a lot of the GR section about freedom and drugs. In some ways the concept of marijuana addiction seemed like a bit of a stretch, but there is a definite sense of not being able to resist. Especially in the way we keep hearing about how he doesn’t even know why he does it any more – this seems to be almost the opposite of what GR was talking about.

As strange as it is, I keep thinking about the relationship between shit and waste. I keep coming back to the ever worsening shit that came from going deeper into the USSR. For whatever reason this reminded me so much of the best description of why communism didn’t work that I’ve ever heard –

my friend Dan from home asked his father during the fall of the Berlin Wall (so he was like 5) what communism was. His dad responded that “communism is when you go to the store to buy toilet paper but you can’t because they only have TVs”.

Now this might have absolutely no relation to the novel but I know Delillo does touch on the ways in which the communist government was out of touch with the people’s needs.

I hadn't been quite sure what to make of waste in the novel to this point. A few people have mentioned it in their post (whoever found DeLillo's quote about buried plutonium, that was reaaly cool, thanks) but for how much it has shown up in the novel it hasn't been dealt with all that much on the blog. Oh damn. Stumpy just posted something about it as I'm writing this, oh well. ANYWAY, this section, particularly 275 to 345ish dealt a lot with waste since it focussed so much on Nick. I particularly was interested, much like Stumpy, damn you (Just kidding) in the idea of trash as treasure, or waste as beauty.

On page 372 as Slothrop becomes Rocketman, Pynchon writes that "names by themselves may be empty, but the act of naming..." (372). Pynchon doesn't exactly finish the thought yet if we infer him to mean that the act of naming is very significant (meaningful, whatever you'd like to call it) it raises a lot of questions about Slothrop's name and his identity. In part three we see him as Ian Scuffling, Rocketman, Max Schlepzig, and Plechazunga. Yet in the ones we have seen thus far in the reading (as of pg. 400 we have only gotten as far as Rocketman) there never seems to be much story behind the name changes.

Ignoring all of the confusion and madness thus far in GR, I’ve recently been trying to pause and appreciate some of Pynchon’s amazing, and often beautiful, writing. In many sections, the more straightforward ones in particular, I’ve been continually impressed with just how great Pynchon’s prose is. From the opening lines “a screaming comes across the sky” I knew that however confusing the book was (and oh my how ill prepared I was for it) I’d at least be in awe of at least a few passages.
In particular, I’ve enjoyed many of the sections with only a few characters, and those sections heavy in dialogue.