DW Part 6 conclusion

Wraith.

Well, VWS will enjoy the discussion of the wraith. According to my uncle Wikipedia and OED, the word’s origin is a Scottish dialectical word for ghost or aparition. Occurring in the hospital room, where Don Gately, intubated, unable to speak and writhing in so much pain that he’s really unable to use any pantomiming to communicate, the wraith appears and disappears so often that Gately himself isn’t sure if it’s real or not.

The symbolism of the wraith I think allows for open interpretation, and this the final installment, I want to leave open for anyone to post whatever they’d lik eon the wraith.

DFW Part 5

Time

Occurring in the future, but based on approximations, not off from our current place on the good old Gregorian, the years have given way to being numbered. Rather they are subsidized and purchased by corporations. Thus naming rights are afforded to these corporations. This concept cements the reality that corporations can purchase (and name) just about anything; sports arenas, sporting events,

According to most approximations, subsidized time began in ~2004.

In order, they are:
1. Year of the Whopper (YTP)
2. Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad (YTMP)
3. Year of the Trial-Sized Dove Bar (YTSDB)
4. Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken
5. Year of the Whisper-Quiet Maytag Dishmaster
6. Year of the Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade For Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems for Home, Office, or Mobile
7. Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
8. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (Y.D.A.U)
9. Year of Glad

The Subsidizing and naming company humor is not lost on this reader.


The majority of the story occurs during Y.D.A.U.


Near the end of the story, when Don is in the hospital, because of the injuries, the lack of clock on the wall, he has a very hard time understanding how long he’s been there. It’s a pivotal time for him when he’s being virtually forced pain medicine by the Pakistani MD even though he’s vehemently (as much as possible) refusing. Don draws on his recovery from addiction principles that involve not looking into the future, rather focus on this second; that no one second is intolerable, that living second by second without pain medicines is possible. What’s not possible, however, is imagining the next few years, months, weeks or even days in this level of pain. So Don boils time down to seconds to resist the idea of using pain medicines.

During a visit, Joelle Van Dyne relates her previous failures at rehab as stacking up the days of sobriety much the way Evil Knievel lined up buses to jump over with his motorcycle. By looking backward at how many days in a row she had been sober, she was essentially making the future more and more difficult, much the same way Mr. Knievel did with the buses; there’s only so much distance (time) one can traverse before ultimately failing. And Joelle did just that. But once she changed her thinking about time, sobriety came much easier.

DFW Part 4

Math

Though double majoring in English and philosophy, his studies had a focus on mathematics and logic. DFW was a mathematical genius. I think he saw the beauty in the predictability and the unpredictable in math; he liked the rules and the broken rules. Truly dichotomous.

Infinite Jest, per DFW, is built around a Sierpinski Triangle, i.e. it is a mathematically generated pattern that can be reproducible at any magnification or reduction. His analog comparing the microcosm of what occurs at Enfield Tennis Academy and Ennet House, viz. heartbreak, jubilation, struggle, strife, pain and addiction, is extrapolated very clearly.



The Sierpinski triangle, also called the Sierpinski gasket or the Sierpinski Sieve, is a fractal named after the Polish mathematician Wacław Sierpiński who described it in 1915.

It is said that Infinite Jest was written in such a way that if you started on page 500 and read until the end, starting over at page 1, the book would still make sense. I’m not brave enough to try to read it that way (yet), but maybe someday.

DFW part 3

Addiction

The main character at Ennet House is counselor Don Gately, former Demerol addict (Percocet in long-term use aggravated the backs of his eyes too much. The evolution of addiction described by Gately is not one uncommon to many. Beginning at a young and impressionable age, marijuana, pills,

At Ennet House and other various –anonymous meetings, members fit their stereotypical roles of being slightly skeptical (putting it mildly) at first, then gradually listening to the wisdom of the folks who’ve been doing this road before. The so-called “crocodiles.” The picture painted is one of a group of salty old-timers, chain-smoking, knowingly nodding as they see the newbies pass through the various stages of resolving their addictions.

Hal’s addiction to marijuana (and subsequent cessation) results in severe depression, anhedonia, and anergia, the likes of which Hal has never experienced. It is thought that by reading the last part first, the marijuana withdrawals are what cause Hal to act up the way he does in the opening scene in the book. But as I’ve mentioned, I’m not brave enough to read it that way yet.

One of the characters, Gene Martinez, refers to addiction as “Spider” as in “feeding the spider” or “starving the spider.”

The titular movie is said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it over and over and over again. They become so obsessed with the movie they deny themselves food, nourishment, etc until eventually die. If that ain’t addiction, I don’t know what is.

DFW Part 2

Suicide

A number of characters in the novel commit suicide; that is to say, in, DFW lingo, “eliminate their own maps.” The methods employed by these characters displays quite the creativity by the author.

Mr. James Orin Incandenza, the founder of Enfield Tennis Academy, father to Orin, Mario and Hal Incandenza, expert in optics and filmmaker offs himself in a rather creative way: he places his head in a microwave oven.

Kate Gompert. She tries to commit suicide but is unsuccessful in doing so.

Mrs Waite. This neighbor of young Don Gately who is presumed to be a witch by all of the neighborhood boys commits suicide by hanging (awkward foreshadowing?) after surprising Don with a birthday cake. It’s a blip in the complex web of stories presented, but it’s a heartbreaking event as the audience is left to assume the reason Mrs. Waite chose to “eliminate her map” is the lack of interest shown in her cake by the party-goers.

Eric Clipperton: Independent tennis player in the 16 He has a rather grim view on tennis and suicide. Each tennis match is played with him holding a gun to his head threatening to kill himself if he loses. So of course he wins, but the victories are hollow; he knows it, the other players know it and the officials who post ranks know it. Eventually Clipperton does himself in.

DFW

This is a series I wrote for Wordsmoker.

5 minute book review Infinite Jest


For anyone who hasn’t read it, stop reading this ridiculous review and go buy it. I’ll wait.

-----

Ok. Everyone else, gather round, let me tell you my story about DFW and IJ.

There will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read it, please know that.

First off. This is quite the book. At 1,078 pages, including voluminous footnotes, it’s an undertaking. I have been eyeing this book for more years than I care to count, but have always been intimidated, too busy, reading something else; essentially, I’ve always come up with a reasonable excuse to not read it.

Well. DFW took his life. He took his life very near to the anniversary of my brother taking his life. So his suicide had a very, very relevant impact on me. I did a lot of soul searching and thinking about how bad things must be for someone to consider taking their life. Shit must be pretty heavy. I vowed to read this book that had always intimidated me. It’s quite possibly the best book I’ve ever read, in that it took me a very long time to finish it, and it frustrated the hell out of me, but as soon as I finished it, I wanted to start reading it again.

The book has a number of themes, and I plan to put this out in pieces with one thematic emphasis per entry. I’m hoping a lively discussion ensues.

The best review of the book I could find online was this one from Time magazine in 2005 writing up the best English-language novels:
“The title is a sly wink at the book's massive girth—it's 1,000-plus pages in most editions—but the reference to Hamlet is well-earned; moreover, it's a damn funny book. The action takes place in Boston at two separate but curiously similar venues—an elite tennis academy and a drug rehabilitation facility—in a near future in which calendar years are available for corporate sponsorship (the Year of the Trial Size Dove Bar, the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, and so on). The plot of Infinite Jest—which revolves around, among other things, a lost, unwatchably beautiful art film and a conspiracy among wheelchair-bound Quebecois secessionists—is decidedly secondary to the painfully funny dialogue and Wallace's endlessly rich ruminations and speculations on addiction, entertainment, art, life and, of course, tennis.—L.G” (Lev Grossman).

I'm still alive

Went underground for a while.
For a very long while.

I'm thinking of trying to revive this blog and preserve some of my thoughts and memories. If it works out, great. If it doesn't, that's ok.

To bring things up to speed, phew, a lot has happened. Like A LOT.

SLPTG and I got married! (thanks).
SLPTG and I have a little one! (Thanks).

Well. FraPTG is what we're calling her. We think it's a good hybrid of names. If you disagree, please don't tell me.

I'm working a lot, still at the little place, and (unfortunately) still doing time at the big, ugly, blue place. Hey. They pay me to show up, so I can't complain too much.

SLPTG and I bought a house together shortly after we got married. Shortly after that, FraPTG showed up, and things couldn't be any better. Well. I should correct that. It seems like every day is the best day with FraPTG is the best, but she just keeps getting more and more fun. She'll be one year old in a few weeks, and I absolutely can't believe it.

Rusty.