The Big Novel

We've been here before, with the other novels, especially GR, and I'd like to revisit.

As I read this book, the vast majority of the characters are male and even in the relatively major female characters I never really sensed much of what would be considered conventional femininity. We've encountered the USSMK, Ann Kittenplan who's about as feminine as the East German women's swim team, Avril, the Incandenzas' mother but also for the most part serves both the role of mother and father, Kate Gompert who's nothing but horridly depressed and finally Joelle who we see mostly as the "pretty girl" and not particularly feminine. At the same time, Infinite Jest IV or V tells its viewer, "Death is always female and that the female is always maternal. I.e. that the woman who kills you is always your next life's mother" (788). Why such a strong focus on death as female? Why is this what people want to hear? that their mothers are "SO VERY SORRY" (839)? Or more puzzling why can Jim Incandenza alone endure the film?

So. Upon taking a break around midnight I decided to unwind with a bit of ye old Entertainment. The hows and the whys escape me--the interwebs, like a magical forest, tend to lead to many unsettling discoveries--but I stumbled upon this little... gem, the website for the Montana Meth Project. Warning: The videos and the ads aren't exactly for the faint of heart. The blurb on the site sums it all up pretty nicely, 70-90% of teens in Montana are supposedly seeing these about three times a week--saturation-level advertising they're calling it. The ads themselves are... well... abhorrently grotesque. Like the Nunhagen-Aspirin ads, but there's nothing remotely artistic or what have you about this. "Not even once" is the general theme...

Finished! 3 down, 1 to go. I'm not sure I fully understood everything that happened in the end, but hopefully some of the pieces will click soon.

So. There was one scene that really tied in to the whole "family relations" thing that a lot of groups were talking about yesterday:

"What moved *me* to feel sorry for Orin was that it seemed pretty obvious that that had nothing to do with what Himself was trying to talk about. It was the most open I'd ever heard of Himself being with anybody, and it seemed terribly sad to me, somehow, that he'd wasted it on Orin. I'd never once had a conversation nearly that open or intimate with Himself" (956).

Okay, so I finished Infinite Jest this morning, and I don't really feel closure. We had some guesses reaffirmed by Hal near the end, and some light was certainly shed on Gately's past, but I didn't really feel an end. I guess I was hoping to see a little more of Joelle and to figure out more about Marathe. To tell you the truth, I am still confused about Marathe. What became of him and the wheelchair gang? Does anybody know? Were we supposed to know? I wish we knew what became of my favorite character, Pemulis. He was expelled (right?) and now he is just waiting out the semester before he leaves? I'm also guessing he wants to talk to Hal about doping him up.

so ive been meaning to post links to these two new york times articles for a while,

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=daa22e9836cf2a402e2fb3491b03b936&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzW-zSkVA&_md5=b52a186aa4abdebf78414e9453b17b0d

"Your Brain on Baseball" by David Brooks

this is by the times's conservative pundit and it's about the exact same type of automated brain functions that wallace attirbutes to tennis players (bottom of page 260 is one example) only with baseball players at spring training, pretty interesting stuff

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=9d550e9075d64e6301e2d7646ec1bf4a&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzW-zSkVA&_md5=946b019e72aad143a1d68a83a16f758d

Page 761, "...in an extreme corner are fleur-de-lis pennons on tall sharp polished sticks. C.T.'s office has an O.N.A.N. flag and a 49-star U.S.A. flag."

50 states - New Hampshire- Maine - Rhode Island - Vermont...
49??????? any ideas anyone

Okay, so in this section, we witness another dream about teeth. First, Hal had a nightmare about losing his teeth (449), and now Joelle on 723-724 worries obsessively about hers and has a dream about going to the dentist. Additionally, James had also made a movie called "Fun With Teeth" (987) about a dentist performing unanesthetized root canals on patients. I remember hearing that the most common dreams are about flying, falling, or losing teeth. I thought this was interesting, so I looked it up online: "This classic dream has a number of interpretations. It can literally mean that you are frightened of losing your teeth. It can show the beginning of a new phase of life just as we lose our teeth when we pass from early childhood and head towards adulthood. You may be worried about your self image or the dream may signify unexpressed anxiety."

So, my friend from out of town and I were discussing Infinite Jest. Believe it or not, he's read it before (for FUN!) and is going through it a second time. Anyway, it was a really interesting conversation and I asked him what he thought about Marathe, since I remember we were talking about him in class the other day. My friend thinks that Marathe is not a double or a triple agent, but a QUADRUPLE agent. Ultimately, he is loyal to the Americans because his wife is sick from all the toxic poisoning and the Americans are the only ones who are willing to help her.

Any thoughts?

I'm wondering why Wallace decided to include so much vital information in the footnotes section! This section of reading was especially footnote-heavy, with two entire chapters in the footnotes instead of the main text (fn #324 and #332). These footnotes even start with the classic "17 November- Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" heading. I don't understand the stylistic reasoninig behind putting such info in the footnotes. Anyone have any ideas?

So I'm not sure if I even knew this was possible, but Ortho Stice got his forehead stuck to a window. This scene (865- 876ish) was hilarious, but I'm also not entirely sure I get the significance of it (although maybe the significance has yet to come by page 900?). Throughout all of Hal's plotting to get Stice loose ("Dark, prepare yourself mentally" (870)), Stice is speculating about paranormal matters. I thought it was interesting how a.) Stice seems more concerned about ghosts and stuff than about having his forehead stuck to a window and b.) that neither Hal nor Stice immediately refutes the idea that there may be paranormal "things" in the ETA. Hal says that "Mario says he's seen paranormal figures, and he's not kidding, and Mario doesn't lie . . . so belief-wise I don't know what to think. Subhadronic particles behave ghostishly. I think I withhold all prejudgment on the whole thing" (871). So obviously there's been some speculation on the matter, and even Hal has a hard time refuting the fact that there may be paranormal things floating around the ETA.