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. He gets none of the benefits and all of the addiction. Lame.
That passage in Infinite Jest was also so incredibly repetitive- over and over he mentioned waiting for the phone, being casual, replaying their conversation in a paragraph that lasted five pages! It was somewhat similar to Nick's after-the-shooting thoughts, but more to the extreme. It still had the same urgency for the characters, however, and shows the obvious paranoia. I agree- what's up with drugs in these giant novels?
I think one of the interesting concepts that DFW maybe be hinting at too is the really close attention he pays to the use of marijuana (Kate Gompert, the addict planning his last last binge, Hal's special ways of going about getting high); unlike many of the other drugs, it relies on a psychological addiction, and so I could potentially see him using it as a way to relate our constant need for entertainment with addiction.
I wonder if the drugs relate to the time that these novels are written. If encyclopedic novels are supposed to totally capture, well, something, and these are all written in the last 50 years, then they should have drugs...it's a big part of our world. That sounds like a cheesy answer, I know.
The slight difference in Infinite Jest is the age of the characters using the drugs. Many of the students at the tennis academy are using and they are all 18 or younger. I found this really astonishing and rather unrepresentative of society I am used to, but perhaps somebody else thinks differently.