Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Jest: pages 917 - End

Page 917 line 14: The capitalized Virus, again.

Page 919, 10 lines from bottom: LISLE, a strong smooth fine cotton thread or fabric, used in gloves and stockings.

Page 919, 9 lines from bottom: EMBRASURE, an opening in the wall of a building for a door or window, tapered so as to be wider on the inside than on the outside; a slanted opening in the wall or parapet of a fortification, designed so that a defender can fire through it on attackers.

Page 920 line 3: CIRCUMAMBIENT, surrounding.

Page 923, middle: What is the connection between James O. Incandenza and Don Gately? Why does the wraith, which is clearly the ghost of James O. Incandenza, appear to Gately and converse with him?

Page 926 line 26: The FREE MILKEN bumper sticker is an historical reference. I wonder how long it will be before readers of Infinite Jest will no longer remember that it refers to Michael Milken, known as the Junk Bond King, from the 1980s? But how much of, say, Shakespeare’s plays and writings made reference to significant events of his day that are no longer remembered? (Not that Michael Milken will be forgotten, given the extent of information on the Internet, as much as lost in the volume of available historic fact.)

Page 928 line 10: post-coital vestibulitis, DFW just had to have invented this condition. He seems to have exaggerated every athletic coach’s fear of pre-game sex and his player’s performance.

Page 933 line 12: The first hint at Mt. Dilaudid (i.e., mountain of Dilaudid).

Page 933, 7 lines from bottom: It seems that Lyle is somehow on the same plane of existence as James O. Can he somehow commune with the dead, as a psychic, or is he, like, really dead?

Page 934 line 11: In Gately’s dream, the grave scene. Ref: p. 16 – 17, where Hal has the same dream or vision.

Page 935 line 4: Fackelman is watching “Various Small Flames”, one of James O. Incandenza’s films. See p. 988 line 1.

Page 938 line 15: “His rising was more like the floor lowering.” C.f. p. 12 line 16: “The chair recedes beneath me.”

Page 938, 8 lines from bottom: I believe this is Joelle answering questions from someone else. Note DFW’s Q and A format, without the Qs.

Page 938 – 941: Joelle describes making the Entertainment, at least what she remembers of it. Says the master, as are all masters of his films, is buried with James O. Incandenza, whose grave is in the Annular Zone. The Annular Zone doesn’t even belong to the U.S. anymore. Joelle makes this reference as “your country”, so she must be talking to someone from the U.S., or O.N.A.N.

Page 939 line 9: Joelle must be talking to Steeply.

Page 934 line 12: From the way James O. Incandenza died, there wouldn’t be much left in the way of a head, now would there?

Page 941 line 7: This text starts out in the third person, but by line 12 on this page (“He was sitting on my…”) reveals the first person (Hal (?)). But it actually makes sense.

Page 943 line 11: No, he said “bolted”. See p. 942 line 25.

Page 943, 10 lines from bottom: Here the word “map” means Stice’s face.

Page 943, 8 lines from bottom: Coyle’s comment to Hal: “I don’t see what’s so funny about it, man.” Hal seems to be stuck in a facial expression of perpetual mirth, i.e., Infinite Jest.

Page 944 line 1: This is Hal’s situation, too. Has it been his mind’s (map’s) alteration that has him playing such good tennis?

Page 945 line 19: The Virus, this time given its full name: It, the Human Immuno Virus.

Page 946, 18 lines from bottom: Kaposi’s Sarcoma = Spider, and therefore all other spider references in the book?

Page 951 line 22: A surreal memory of a steamed lavatory mirror with a knife sticking out of the pane. See also page 16, 18 lines from bottom.

Page 951, 10 lines from bottom: The Moms felt that Himself was uncommunicative, as Himself felt that Hal was. Maybe Hal has been uncommunicative all along; maybe he’s been leading up to the condition he’s in for a long time.

Page 952 – 953: Hal, who memorized the Oxford English Dictionary up to “R”, can’t remember things from his past and is starting to lose memory of word definitions. Is this situation here the reason he never got past “R”?

Page 953, 9 lines from bottom: kyphotic, involving a permanent curving of the spine that makes somebody look hunched over.

I just noticed that in these last few pages Hal is recalling his past as Don Gately was in the 20 or 30 pages before.

Page 954 line 20: “The brutal questions are the ones that force you to lie.”

Page 957 line 13: Has Hal been aware (perhaps just subliminally) of the Moms and John Wayne all along?

Page 958 line 14: The last Clenette reference.

Page 961 line 12: The Assistant DA who has been pursuing Gately is in a 12-step program to help those who deal with someone with a deep phobia, which Gately resurfaced in the Assistant DA’s wife with his little stunt on p. 55, 12 lines from bottom, – p. 56, 17 lines from bottom.

Page 965 line 9: piaffer, (piaffe?) a dressage movement performed by a horse in which it trots in one place and raises its legs very high.

Page 964 – 966: Third person point of view throughout, but p. 966 line 3 reveals that the narrator is one of the E.T.A. players. But which one?

Page 966, 14 lines from bottom: Hal’s face is “weird” with numerous expressions.

Page 966, 9 lines from bottom: Note how this exhibition match is being played inside a brain-shaped structure.
Page 967 line 6 – 971 line 24: The Barry Loach story; a must-read. It’s like DFW has set up Mario all along for this story.

Page 971, 16 lines from bottom – 972, 5 lines from bottom: Orin is being held captive by the AFR.

Page 974 line 4: Abrupt scene change here; from his hospital bed Gately is remembering Mt. Dilaudid and Fackelman’s unmapping.

Page 976, 7 lines from bottom: Girl; red-leather coat; large adam’s-apple; could be Poor Tony if the feather boa was present.

Page 981 line 19: The End. (The rest of the book are the end notes.)

1 comment:

Srini said...

Erdedy being in rehab after working at viney and veals on obama's campaign is very critical. I come at it from the perspective that the new world order clearly offed DFW and made it look like a suicide. Erdedy is like a Karl rove for Johnny gentle but he burned out. He is responsible for the entirety of subsidized time, the selling of. He might have even worked on the marketing for infinite jest the movie. Erdedy is DFW, the very creator of the world the characters inhabit.