After reading the Jest, it seems quite natural to me to pick up some more heavy reading, so why not "Ulysses", right? And (thanks to my son (again)) Joyce wrote some background for "Ulysses", e.g., "Dubliners" and "A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man". I had an encounter late this morning that, now that I'm through "Dubliners" and halfway through "Portrait", just screamed for an entry with the above title.
Early this afternoon I stopped for lunch at the local Subway. I was on my way to pick up my car, which in the midst of my unemployment had started overheating. (The timing could not have been better, really.) Since I was without wheels, and not averse to a little exercise, I walked the three miles to the Goodyear dealer where my car was located. The car still wasn’t ready; the filler cap that it needed yesterday still had not arrived. All it would take would be to screw on that cap once it got here. After that three-mile walk, and a very early breakfast, I definitely felt that an early lunch was in order.
So while I’m placing my order, this guy walked in and asks for some water. The counter staff ignored him like totally, which I thought was a bit rude. I was scanning the people, looking for reactions, when he looked directly at me and said they were messing with him. They were always messing with him. They messed with Bruce, too, and Bruce stopped coming around. It wasn’t exactly a rant, but there was an odd sort of edge to his whole soliloquy. (I call it a soliloquy because, although he was facing me, he didn’t seem to expect a reply or even an acknowledgment. It seemed more rhetorical than anything else. But, well, he was looking right at me.)
As I paid for my sandwich and drink, I asked for another drink and gave it to the guy. He said thank you, thank you very much, and his eyes actually started tearing. It caught me a little by surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such gratitude for such a small act. I encouraged him to fill his cup and enjoy his drink.
He sat down. I sat down at the next table and asked, “So, what’s your story, if you don’t mind me asking? I mean, I’m just curious to know. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” He said no, he didn’t mind and offered the chair across his table to me, where I then sat.
He said he was handicapped and these people were stressing him out. He sipped on his drink, appreciatively and gratefully. He said he was on medication. For stress and for high blood pressure. The high blood pressure medication surprised me, because I guessed he couldn’t have been much more than 30. But considering his nervous and highly agitated state (which seemed to be a more or less constant condition for him) it made sense.
I tried to make more sense of him. He wasn’t homeless; he said he lived with his parents, who he said would fight all the time, stressing him more. Said his mom was always yelling at him, and that stressed him more. His brother borrowed his mom’s car that morning, but he knew his brother had driven it to the local liquor store. Or he had driven it to one of his friend’s, and the friend had driven him to the liquor store. Or he left the car in his mom’s driveway and his friend drove him. It was hard to make sense out of his story. But he didn’t seem strung out on drugs or medication or anything. But I got the sense of a somewhat underdeveloped adult in a very bad home life.
He look like he was scared. Constantly scared. That kind of scared like being constantly under attack by everyone around you. His hands shook the whole time I sat there at the table with him, and he had those vertical furrows in his brow, between his eyebrows, that someone under constant worry gets. He spoke with long pauses between each sentence, like something else was demanding his attention. My impression was of hunted prey. And, yes, I could see how someone not quite sharp enough to deal with the world around them could become prey to at least some elements of the world.
He had mentioned Bruce. I remembered Bruce from several years ago. I used to hang out at the Starbuck’s next door, and there was this character named Bruce who would come in there once in a while. Bruce was unquestionably mentally handicapped, but a very pleasant guy, really, and liked to talk, although you had to use simple sentences in any conversation with Bruce. Compound phrases just totally lost him. Bruce’s big thing was always asking for a hug. Eventually his conversation would always turn to a request for a hug. Most people, myself included, indulged him, disregarding whatever social discomfort it produced, which seemed pretty minimal in retrospect. And Bruce always appreciated a good hug. He always said thanks.
But there was an unfortunate side to Bruce as well, which you would find out if you talked to him for a length of time, that is, if you took the time to actually talk to him. Bruce had a hard life. He talked about his parents beating him, and of how hard it was for him to keep a job, and how he had to live at home because he couldn’t live on his own. Talking to Bruce, I could imagine the frustration of his parents dealing with their son who (through no fault of theirs, his, or anyone's, really) just didn’t have the mental horsepower to function on his own in the world and who would depend on them probably for the rest of his, and their, lives. This, in no way, excused the beatings (if, in fact, there were beatings, keeping in mind the child-like intellect I was talking to here.)
And this guy knew Bruce, apparently reasonably well; well enough it seemed to identify with him somewhat. He seemed familiar with Bruce’s situation, so I reasoned that this must be what his handicap was, as well.
He said I reminded him of his uncle Darrell, the way I calmed him down was like his uncle Darrell could do (but, hell, all I did was listen to him!), but his uncle Darrell died several years ago, and he missed him.
Aside from the store owners stressing him, there were these two kids on the sidewalk in front of the stores that were always messing with him. The cops were always chasing these kids away, and they were always in gang fights up the road. These kids threatened him with all kinds of things, and he gave them money to make them go away. I pointed out that giving them money was only encouraging them to keep threatening him, but he seemed to have trouble getting his head around the concept, and all I could see was predator and prey, a sort of intraspecies Darwinism. Considering that it was humans involved, it kinda made my stomach lurch; I guess I’ve held out hope that, just maybe, we could be better animals.
After going on about these two kids who seemed to be terrorizing him on the sidewalks in front of these stores, he told me that he guessed he needed to block out those kids somehow. His tone was kinda flat; his statement came across as, I dunno, a request maybe, or a confirmation or admission of sorts. But his face looked like a mixture of hope, deprecation, maybe a little embarrassment, maybe more. All I could think to tell him was some breathing exercises that seem to work for me; I didn’t know if they would work for him or not, because everyone is different, and our feelings are the hardest things to control.
After finishing my sandwich, and after one of the more interesting lunchtime conversations I’ve had in a while, I excused myself to go see how my car was doing. The kid wished me good luck on my job search (I thought of him as kid, because however developed he was physically, he still seemed to be a kid, a confused lost kid in a world he was trying very hard to figure out), with probably the most sincerity I’ve ever witnessed from another human being. I said, yeah, good luck to both of us, right? And he almost smiled.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
More Signs of the Times
Earlier this week, in my pocket change, I found a wheat penny. Wheat pennies have the image of two stalks of wheat stamped on the obverse side, where modern pennies have the Lincoln memorial. Nowadays they are scarce and maybe somewhat valuable, and as coin collectors hoard them they are becoming scarcer and more valuable (perhaps). This one in my pocket change is worn from years of apparent penny-pinching and bears the date 1929, the year of the last great depression.
This morning, as I was getting the oil in my car changed, I witnessed a drug bust on a street corner of my pretentiously upscale, suburban bedroom community. The county officer making the bust was very business-like and no-bullshit, definitely getting the job done. He smashed some sort of paraphernalia under his heel as the two perps, already in handcuffs, watched, then he made one of them deposit the smashed-up bit of paraphernalia in a nearby trash can. The perp making the deposit looked very unhappy. I'm not really sure what to make of this observation.
This morning, as I was getting the oil in my car changed, I witnessed a drug bust on a street corner of my pretentiously upscale, suburban bedroom community. The county officer making the bust was very business-like and no-bullshit, definitely getting the job done. He smashed some sort of paraphernalia under his heel as the two perps, already in handcuffs, watched, then he made one of them deposit the smashed-up bit of paraphernalia in a nearby trash can. The perp making the deposit looked very unhappy. I'm not really sure what to make of this observation.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sign of the Times
In keeping with the general tenor of the times and of the economy, I lost my job. No, not like I drove all the way in to work and then realized, “Dang, it was here yesterday”. Actually, my job was taken from me. My company gave me two week’s notice.
Not like I didn’t see it coming. At the end of January, I was cut from the project I was working on due to cost overruns. (Severe cost overruns, I might add.) What happens in my company whenever anyone gets off of a project, they get assigned to a “special” office, where their job becomes to find a job. While they are performing this very special job, they charge their time to a very special charge number. (More about the very special charge number later.) Now, if you find yourself in this position, there are numerous resources at your disposal. For example, your manager helps you locate jobs within the company, but you must realize that your manager is up to his ass in alligators trying to deal with the cost overruns that put you in this very special office to begin with, so he (in my case it was a he) doesn’t have a lot of spare cycles to devote to your personal catastrophe. Nonetheless, I had a good relationship with my management (including the guy up to his ass in alligators) and they were very useful in getting other manager’s attention focused on my particular job application.
That very special charge number that I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s an overhead charge number, which is just an accountant’s way of saying you are now costing the company money. See, before, when you were on that project that was hemorrhaging finances so badly, you were actually making more money for the company than it cost to keep you employed. (Or so it appeared; don’t ask me how the accountants figure that.) Now that your circumstances have changed, this equation has flipped over, and you are now costing the company money. Now you get to charge your time to that very special charge number, so the company can keep track of exactly how much you are costing them. You can only suck on that tit for so long before it runs dry.
All this I knew when I walked in to that very special office and began my very special job. Almost immediately I formed a plan; a plan and a schedule. It looked something like this.
Back to that very special charge number; there are ways to minimize your use of it. In my case, I found training, lots of it, as much as I could find. If there was a training course within the company, and I could get to it, I enrolled in it. You see, training is also overhead (you’re costing the company money) but it’s more like an investment. You are learning skills that the company can market to its customers and, thus, make even more money from you. So training is a more acceptable form of overhead than simply sitting on my ass and waiting for the next great job to come my way.
So to all you other bread-winning life forms out there, the secret is to get up off your fat asses, guys. Here’s what I’ve learned you can do instead of waiting for that choice plum of employment you feel so entitled to.
Not like I didn’t see it coming. At the end of January, I was cut from the project I was working on due to cost overruns. (Severe cost overruns, I might add.) What happens in my company whenever anyone gets off of a project, they get assigned to a “special” office, where their job becomes to find a job. While they are performing this very special job, they charge their time to a very special charge number. (More about the very special charge number later.) Now, if you find yourself in this position, there are numerous resources at your disposal. For example, your manager helps you locate jobs within the company, but you must realize that your manager is up to his ass in alligators trying to deal with the cost overruns that put you in this very special office to begin with, so he (in my case it was a he) doesn’t have a lot of spare cycles to devote to your personal catastrophe. Nonetheless, I had a good relationship with my management (including the guy up to his ass in alligators) and they were very useful in getting other manager’s attention focused on my particular job application.
That very special charge number that I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s an overhead charge number, which is just an accountant’s way of saying you are now costing the company money. See, before, when you were on that project that was hemorrhaging finances so badly, you were actually making more money for the company than it cost to keep you employed. (Or so it appeared; don’t ask me how the accountants figure that.) Now that your circumstances have changed, this equation has flipped over, and you are now costing the company money. Now you get to charge your time to that very special charge number, so the company can keep track of exactly how much you are costing them. You can only suck on that tit for so long before it runs dry.
All this I knew when I walked in to that very special office and began my very special job. Almost immediately I formed a plan; a plan and a schedule. It looked something like this.
- Week 1: Search the company job resources for jobs within the company and apply to them, as many as I possibly can. Involve my manager.
- Week 2: Same as week 1, but if no interviews by now, start to worry. Otherwise, keep searching and applying for as many jobs in the company as I possibly can.
- Week 3: If still no job interviews, begin looking outside the company at job prospects, but continue to apply within the company and involve my manager as needed.
- Week 4: If still no job interviews or interviews are not resulting in jobs, put my resume out on the streets (applying for as many of those jobs as I possibly can). Begin looking seriously outside the company. I felt no need to mention this move to anyone in the company, nor did anyone ask. I’m not sure how I would have answered if they did ask.
Back to that very special charge number; there are ways to minimize your use of it. In my case, I found training, lots of it, as much as I could find. If there was a training course within the company, and I could get to it, I enrolled in it. You see, training is also overhead (you’re costing the company money) but it’s more like an investment. You are learning skills that the company can market to its customers and, thus, make even more money from you. So training is a more acceptable form of overhead than simply sitting on my ass and waiting for the next great job to come my way.
So to all you other bread-winning life forms out there, the secret is to get up off your fat asses, guys. Here’s what I’ve learned you can do instead of waiting for that choice plum of employment you feel so entitled to.
- Get up and look. Hit every job search resource you have at your disposal and hit it hard.
- Network. Network like crazy. Get out of your comfort zone and go talk to people. (You're going to wish you had started this a lot earlier.) Yeah, you hear this one all the time, but only because it works. Networking deserves its own blog entry, at the very least. There are more networking books on the market than you can shake a pink slip at. Some of them are probably worth reading, but since it’s your economic survival at stake, maybe you should open one or two of them.
- Have a plan. Knowing that you have a course you are going to follow calms the mind and gives you confidence. You are going to need confidence going into the numerous interviews you will be doing, because you aren’t going to have much of it when you get out.
- Follow the plan. As your confidence wanes, it’s going to become harder and harder to hit the job searches and go to the interviews. And you need to hit the job searches and go to the interviews. See, getting a job is all a numbers game. To get a job, you need at least one job offer. To get that offer, you need to go to at least ten interviews (just a round number, but you get the idea. Your mileage may vary (and not necessarily for the better!)) To get an interview, you have to have submitted at least ten applications. Right there, that’s a hundred jobs you have to apply to, to get the ten interviews, so you get the one job offer. Having a plan helps you do all this on autopilot. Realize this, and be empowered.
- Involve your manager(s). Managers can be extremely powerful tools when wielded properly. All you have to do is ask. Even the busiest manager will spare a minute or two to make a phone call on your behalf. Besides, it’s good networking.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Connections: Ulysses and Infinite Jest
I'm tackling James Joyce's Ulysses now and finding similarities between Ulysses and Infinite Jest as well as insight into The Jest. Here's one example.
3.416-417, in the Gabler edition of Ulysses is this little piece of text: the veil of the temple. I was actually looking on Google for anything about airing his quiff, from 6.196, and came across a good description of this phrase in Ulysses Annotated, by Don Gifford. Poking around in Ulysses Annotated, I found the veil of the temple, and then the A-Ha neuron fired.
Get this (from Ulysses Annotated): 3.416-417 the veil of the temple...shovel hat -- As described in Exodus 26:31-35, the veil acts as a multicolored screen between the outer "holy place" and "the most holy" (behind the veil). And this veil is rent at the moment of Jesus's death (Matthew 27:51). Berkely argued that "Vision is the Language of the Author of Nature" (The Theory of Vision [London 1733], section 38); in other words, the visible world is like a screen with signs on it, a screen that God presents to be read and thought rather than seen. Thus, the signs on the screen could be regarded as something taken out of one's head (or hat). A "shovel hat" was worn by some Church of Ireland and Church of England clergy in the eighteenth centure.
So, Madame Psychosis sat behind a tri-fold screen during her FM broadcasts from the MIT student union. And she wore a veil.
This seems to mean so many things on so many levels; I'm still piecing it together. And I'm just blown away by an intellect that can intentionally make connections and references like this, although I realize my admiration may come from reasoning more like the Watchmaker argument of Creationists (i.e., the Universe is too well put-together to have come about by chance, therefore, there must be a God.) Maybe DFW just accidentally put veils and screens in The Jest just because he read a lot; I just have trouble believing that it was accidental.
3.416-417, in the Gabler edition of Ulysses is this little piece of text: the veil of the temple. I was actually looking on Google for anything about airing his quiff, from 6.196, and came across a good description of this phrase in Ulysses Annotated, by Don Gifford. Poking around in Ulysses Annotated, I found the veil of the temple, and then the A-Ha neuron fired.
Get this (from Ulysses Annotated): 3.416-417 the veil of the temple...shovel hat -- As described in Exodus 26:31-35, the veil acts as a multicolored screen between the outer "holy place" and "the most holy" (behind the veil). And this veil is rent at the moment of Jesus's death (Matthew 27:51). Berkely argued that "Vision is the Language of the Author of Nature" (The Theory of Vision [London 1733], section 38); in other words, the visible world is like a screen with signs on it, a screen that God presents to be read and thought rather than seen. Thus, the signs on the screen could be regarded as something taken out of one's head (or hat). A "shovel hat" was worn by some Church of Ireland and Church of England clergy in the eighteenth centure.
So, Madame Psychosis sat behind a tri-fold screen during her FM broadcasts from the MIT student union. And she wore a veil.
This seems to mean so many things on so many levels; I'm still piecing it together. And I'm just blown away by an intellect that can intentionally make connections and references like this, although I realize my admiration may come from reasoning more like the Watchmaker argument of Creationists (i.e., the Universe is too well put-together to have come about by chance, therefore, there must be a God.) Maybe DFW just accidentally put veils and screens in The Jest just because he read a lot; I just have trouble believing that it was accidental.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Trivium
David Foster Wallace mentioned the Trivium and the Quadrivium in Infinite Jest as the foundation of the curriculum at Enfield Tennis Academy. The Trivium/Quadrivium was (and still is) the classical liberal arts curriculum. This was how the young were taught to reason and communicate in the classical era and through the Middle Ages.
My son gave me a book on the Trivium, titled The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, by
Sister Miriam Joseph. The Trivium explains the three liberal arts that compose the Trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This isn't your standard "i before e, except after c" kind of grammar. This is grammar in its most abstract, most general, all-encompassing form, applicable to any language, really. This is more like foundational linguistics than grammar. The book links grammar to logic, and logic into rhetoric. Thus, the student learns how to express thinking, how to reason, and how to present thinking and reasoning to others.
This is such foundational stuff that I wonder why it isn't taught in this form any more. (If it is taught, it is exceedingly rare, e.g, E.T.A.) The ability to express ones' thoughts, to reason, and to present would seem to me to be the most important abilities any young student could cultivate. The ability to reason and to discourse seems to me to be fundamental to any civilization as complex as ours has become. It was certainly fundamental in the classic years.
I've been taking reading notes, but the book is very tightly written. There is not a word that goes to waste in this book. It is demanding very close and very careful reading to grasp what it is presenting. It's difficult to note it without leaving out large and important pieces. I'm halfway through, and my copy looks like it was salvaged from the Titanic.
This is really valuable stuff to know, and worth the struggle to know it. But I wish I had learned this stuff back in grade school.
My son gave me a book on the Trivium, titled The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, by
Sister Miriam Joseph. The Trivium explains the three liberal arts that compose the Trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This isn't your standard "i before e, except after c" kind of grammar. This is grammar in its most abstract, most general, all-encompassing form, applicable to any language, really. This is more like foundational linguistics than grammar. The book links grammar to logic, and logic into rhetoric. Thus, the student learns how to express thinking, how to reason, and how to present thinking and reasoning to others.This is such foundational stuff that I wonder why it isn't taught in this form any more. (If it is taught, it is exceedingly rare, e.g, E.T.A.) The ability to express ones' thoughts, to reason, and to present would seem to me to be the most important abilities any young student could cultivate. The ability to reason and to discourse seems to me to be fundamental to any civilization as complex as ours has become. It was certainly fundamental in the classic years.
I've been taking reading notes, but the book is very tightly written. There is not a word that goes to waste in this book. It is demanding very close and very careful reading to grasp what it is presenting. It's difficult to note it without leaving out large and important pieces. I'm halfway through, and my copy looks like it was salvaged from the Titanic.
This is really valuable stuff to know, and worth the struggle to know it. But I wish I had learned this stuff back in grade school.
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.)
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.)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Jest: pages 844 - 916
Page 845 line 14: This “eccentrically dressed and extremely irritating without-home man” has to be Poor Tony. He is apparently a “test” subject for the AFR.
Page 848 line 27: Mrs. Waite eventually hung herself.
Page 849 line 9: Gately wrestles with a moral dilemma and wins. Perhaps there is something redeemable about him after all.
Page 849: A couple days after Gately’s birthday and Mrs. Waite isn’t answering her door and the bills and papers are piling up. Her birthday cake to Gately must have been a farewell gesture. Other clues on pp. 848 – 849.
Page 850 line 24: Death’s explanation of death has appeared before in the book. Where did DFW get this mythical concept of death?
Page 851 line 1: Gately’s dream is exactly like the Entertainment. How is he not totally transfixed and absorbed by it like viewers of the Entertainment?
Page 851 line 10: Hal is definitely the first-person narrator here. This section is subtitled “Gaudemus Igitur” like the Eschaton section.
Page 853 line 12: terre batu, literally “beaten earth”.
Page 857, 14 lines from bottom: Use of “to” instead of “too”; has DFW made a grammatical error? Maybe this is Gately’s error and not the author’s.
Page 860, 15 lines from bottom: Gately’s breakthrough realization. Maybe a breakthrough for all of us.
Page 865, 13 lines from bottom: Hal perceives his voice as neutral, but to Ortho Stice it sounds like he’s been crying. Is this the beginning of Hal’s condition at the Whataburger? Also notice that Ortho cannot see hal directly because his forehead is stuck to the window, so he cannot see Hal’s facial expression, whatever it might be.
Page 870 line 28: The ghost of James O. Incandenza reappears.
Page 870, 3 lines from bottom: Has Hal had this, like, disconnect in his speech since he was a kid?
Page 873 line 5: The Betel Caper, like Gately’s stunt with the assistant DA’s toothbrush; p. 56 line 20.
Page 875 line 27: Hal’s voice and facial expressions are not matching.
Page 878, 17 lines from bottom: This meeting has something to do with the Entertainment.
Page 878, 3 lines from bottom: The OUS is trying to counter dissemination of the Entertainment cartridge with PSAs on the Mr. Bouncety Bounce show.
Page 885 line 3: Aaagghhhh!!! Gately has the revelation of his life, the biggest realization he’s ever had, and FF isn’t even paying attention to him.
Page 886, 15 lines from bottom: A preview of Gately’s dilaudid feast.
Page 886 – 887: The MD as the Last Temptation in The Passion of Gately.
Page 888, 10 lines from bottom: the cage again.
Page 889, 3 lines from bottom: “…woke Gately up…” Were the last five pages just Gately’s bad dream?
Page 890 line 24: the cage again, although as an idiom. Yep, this was Gately’s bad dream.
Page 895 line 10: God as a figurant; interesting.
Page 896 line 6: The narrator here is Hal, in the first person. (I wonder if all first-person passages are Hal?)Hal seems to make a massive transition of consciousness here. He would be extremely spaced out if not for being so lucid.
Hal's focus on the "cumulative aspect" (p. 896, 5 lines from bottom) of his life is the opposite of Gately's, who is literally taking one second at a time (see p. 860, 15 lines from bottom). But unlike Gately, who finds hope in taking it one second at a time, Hal is overwhelmed by the volume of the sum total of everything in his life.
Page 898 line 3: Just noticed how the name “Orin” has been passed from generation to generation of Incandenzas.
Page 898, 4 lines from bottom: “…a nearly impossible choice to make…” Like Erdedy on page 27, at the top.
Page 899 line 3: Hal’s return from Natick (the encounter group that wasn’t the meeting he intended to go to) seems to be when his outward facial expressions weren’t matching his speech.
Page 899 line 9: Could it be that Himself’s belief that Hal was not speaking was a fact; Hal was not speaking when he thought he was. And would any of this have anything to do with the Mom’s “introduction of certain esoteric mnemonic steroids…into your innocent-looking bowl of morning Ralston”? (see p. 30) Or with the mold that Hal ate?
Page 901 line 6: A brief glimpse at Charles Tavis’s genealogy. These genetics explain Mario.
Page 902, 16 lines from bottom: This legend is hilarious.
Page 904, 5 lines from bottom: droogs: a salute to Anthony Burgess and “A Clockwork Orange”.
Page 906 line 6: Howl being Allen Ginsberg’s poem.
Page 907, last line: Pemulis, after a week-long absence, has to have a serious talk with Hal.
Page 908, 19 lines from bottom: Hal is declining the DMZ.
Page 908, 5 lines from bottom: Hal echoes Gately in his refusal of temptation.
Page 909 line 5: Hal’s expression apparently still one of hysterics.
Page 909, 2 lines from bottom: A cage again; Hal making a cage of his hands, like the leader at the encounter group meeting that Hal went to by mistake; p. 801 line 12.
Page 911 line 11: teleologic, the study of ultimate causes in nature; an approach to ethics that studies actions in relations to their ends or utility; any activity that tends towards toe achievement of a goal.
Page 914, 2 lines from bottom: the capitalized Virus again.
Page 916, middle text: Pemulis is retrieving the DMZ. Note that the ceiling tiles are broken and in disarray, and there is no sign of an old sneaker on the floor. Pemulis hid his stashes in the toe of a rotty old sneaker to discourage anyone from looking for it. Some possibilities here, that remain for the rest of the book to unfold: 1) someone has been here and already made off with the DMZ. This someone may be dosing Hal with it, and this someone would be a “dish served cold” kind of individual. I was suspecting John Wayne, after his episode with what he thought was Sudafed from Troelch’s night stand. The trouble with this is that he would be more likely to extract this revenge on Troelch. 2) Hal has already taken the DMZ himself, which would explain his disconnection. It would also explain his refusal of the DMZ on p. 908.
Page 848 line 27: Mrs. Waite eventually hung herself.
Page 849 line 9: Gately wrestles with a moral dilemma and wins. Perhaps there is something redeemable about him after all.
Page 849: A couple days after Gately’s birthday and Mrs. Waite isn’t answering her door and the bills and papers are piling up. Her birthday cake to Gately must have been a farewell gesture. Other clues on pp. 848 – 849.
Page 850 line 24: Death’s explanation of death has appeared before in the book. Where did DFW get this mythical concept of death?
Page 851 line 1: Gately’s dream is exactly like the Entertainment. How is he not totally transfixed and absorbed by it like viewers of the Entertainment?
Page 851 line 10: Hal is definitely the first-person narrator here. This section is subtitled “Gaudemus Igitur” like the Eschaton section.
Page 853 line 12: terre batu, literally “beaten earth”.
Page 857, 14 lines from bottom: Use of “to” instead of “too”; has DFW made a grammatical error? Maybe this is Gately’s error and not the author’s.
Page 860, 15 lines from bottom: Gately’s breakthrough realization. Maybe a breakthrough for all of us.
Page 865, 13 lines from bottom: Hal perceives his voice as neutral, but to Ortho Stice it sounds like he’s been crying. Is this the beginning of Hal’s condition at the Whataburger? Also notice that Ortho cannot see hal directly because his forehead is stuck to the window, so he cannot see Hal’s facial expression, whatever it might be.
Page 870 line 28: The ghost of James O. Incandenza reappears.
Page 870, 3 lines from bottom: Has Hal had this, like, disconnect in his speech since he was a kid?
Page 873 line 5: The Betel Caper, like Gately’s stunt with the assistant DA’s toothbrush; p. 56 line 20.
Page 875 line 27: Hal’s voice and facial expressions are not matching.
Page 878, 17 lines from bottom: This meeting has something to do with the Entertainment.
Page 878, 3 lines from bottom: The OUS is trying to counter dissemination of the Entertainment cartridge with PSAs on the Mr. Bouncety Bounce show.
Page 885 line 3: Aaagghhhh!!! Gately has the revelation of his life, the biggest realization he’s ever had, and FF isn’t even paying attention to him.
Page 886, 15 lines from bottom: A preview of Gately’s dilaudid feast.
Page 886 – 887: The MD as the Last Temptation in The Passion of Gately.
Page 888, 10 lines from bottom: the cage again.
Page 889, 3 lines from bottom: “…woke Gately up…” Were the last five pages just Gately’s bad dream?
Page 890 line 24: the cage again, although as an idiom. Yep, this was Gately’s bad dream.
Page 895 line 10: God as a figurant; interesting.
Page 896 line 6: The narrator here is Hal, in the first person. (I wonder if all first-person passages are Hal?)Hal seems to make a massive transition of consciousness here. He would be extremely spaced out if not for being so lucid.
Hal's focus on the "cumulative aspect" (p. 896, 5 lines from bottom) of his life is the opposite of Gately's, who is literally taking one second at a time (see p. 860, 15 lines from bottom). But unlike Gately, who finds hope in taking it one second at a time, Hal is overwhelmed by the volume of the sum total of everything in his life.
Page 898 line 3: Just noticed how the name “Orin” has been passed from generation to generation of Incandenzas.
Page 898, 4 lines from bottom: “…a nearly impossible choice to make…” Like Erdedy on page 27, at the top.
Page 899 line 3: Hal’s return from Natick (the encounter group that wasn’t the meeting he intended to go to) seems to be when his outward facial expressions weren’t matching his speech.
Page 899 line 9: Could it be that Himself’s belief that Hal was not speaking was a fact; Hal was not speaking when he thought he was. And would any of this have anything to do with the Mom’s “introduction of certain esoteric mnemonic steroids…into your innocent-looking bowl of morning Ralston”? (see p. 30) Or with the mold that Hal ate?
Page 901 line 6: A brief glimpse at Charles Tavis’s genealogy. These genetics explain Mario.
Page 902, 16 lines from bottom: This legend is hilarious.
Page 904, 5 lines from bottom: droogs: a salute to Anthony Burgess and “A Clockwork Orange”.
Page 906 line 6: Howl being Allen Ginsberg’s poem.
Page 907, last line: Pemulis, after a week-long absence, has to have a serious talk with Hal.
Page 908, 19 lines from bottom: Hal is declining the DMZ.
Page 908, 5 lines from bottom: Hal echoes Gately in his refusal of temptation.
Page 909 line 5: Hal’s expression apparently still one of hysterics.
Page 909, 2 lines from bottom: A cage again; Hal making a cage of his hands, like the leader at the encounter group meeting that Hal went to by mistake; p. 801 line 12.
Page 911 line 11: teleologic, the study of ultimate causes in nature; an approach to ethics that studies actions in relations to their ends or utility; any activity that tends towards toe achievement of a goal.
Page 914, 2 lines from bottom: the capitalized Virus again.
Page 916, middle text: Pemulis is retrieving the DMZ. Note that the ceiling tiles are broken and in disarray, and there is no sign of an old sneaker on the floor. Pemulis hid his stashes in the toe of a rotty old sneaker to discourage anyone from looking for it. Some possibilities here, that remain for the rest of the book to unfold: 1) someone has been here and already made off with the DMZ. This someone may be dosing Hal with it, and this someone would be a “dish served cold” kind of individual. I was suspecting John Wayne, after his episode with what he thought was Sudafed from Troelch’s night stand. The trouble with this is that he would be more likely to extract this revenge on Troelch. 2) Hal has already taken the DMZ himself, which would explain his disconnection. It would also explain his refusal of the DMZ on p. 908.
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