Infinite Winter - Stage 1

Overview

I have decided to start reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Why? Perhaps it is because the pandemic has finally driven me crazy. Maybe I have taken on this gargantuan task in an effort to take something scary and gain control over it. Regardless, for better or for worse, I have started reading this book.

It’s worth noting that I first attempted to climb Mount Infinite Jest in Summer 2018 (2019?), when I was at OpenAI. Some people broke out the Infinite Summer schedule, and we trudged through the book. Alas, I fell off at around 77% of the way through, consumed by other things and the desire to have a fun summer. Well, at least now, there is no way I can do anything else more exciting than sit inside and read this book.

Jokes aside, I do feel ready to take on some kind of emotional and personal journey here. What follows are my notes for the first installment, up to page 63.

First Impressions

This book is actually funny. Like laugh-out-loud moments of hilarity. It’s not the kind of humor that I can cut and paste here as a quick joke (e.g., knock-knock jokes). But I do generally have a good time with the satire and tone of it all.

It’s also not that hard to read. As in, there are many phrases that will interrupt the flow of a sentence, but at the end of the day, if one is relatively focused and not just skimming, it’s not hard to pick up on the action. The point where the book falls off is really when Hal is first talking to his therapist (father in disguise?) and all of these details about a complex plot come to light.

I also haven’t encountered many long footnotes yet, which I remember being the bane of my existence the first time I was reading. How are you supposed to read a footnote anyways? If it really is an after-thought, one can finish a sentence and then come back to read the footnote. But I sometimes found that a footnote really ought to be read in the thick of the action.

Themes

The themes I found relevant here are:

1. Prodigal talent: Hal’s prodigious nature, on and off the tennis court, is extremely intriguing. The first chapter would lead you to believe he is a savant of sorts, boasting highly sought after tennis skill and minimal verbal communication abilities. But the subsequent flashbacks lead you to realize that Hal was quite articulate and sharp in the past. So what happened?
2. Addiction: Ken Erdedy’s anxiety and shame around his addiction was really striking. Here, I see how DFW’s choice of sacrificing clarity brings emotion to the forefront of this work. In particular, Ken’s rambling anxious rants were so immersive that I found myself also experiencing his same emotions while reading. This portrayal of addiction is so immersive and I have never seen it done like this before. Every character we encounter seems to struggle with their mental health.
3. Control and Rebellion: Younger Hal is seen rebelling quite a bit against Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) in his consumption of drugs. There is also Ken Erdedy’s rebellion against the addiction counselor’s recommendations. I’m curious to see more of the medical attache’s story and how it evolves.

Quotes

Imagery

I simply love the imagery that DFW can invoke with his rambling descriptions of different scenes.

the bits of dust and sportcoat-lint stirred around by the AC’s vents dancing jaggedly in the slanted plane of windowlight, the air over the table like the sparkling space just above a fresh-poured seltzer.

because the facial creases of the shaggy middle Dean are now pursed in a kind of distanced affront, an I’m-eating-something-that-makes-me-really-appreciate-the-presence-of-whatever-I’m-drinking-along-with-it look that spells professionally Academic reservations.

Thought Provoking

Sometimes, hidden among long, unending sentences, DFW drops a nugget that makes you stop and think.

I’d tell you all you want and more, if the sounds I made could be what you hear.

‘There’s more to life than sitting there interfacing, it might be a newsflash to you.’

The issue whether the damaged even have interested wills is shallowly hashed out as some sort of ultra-mach fighter too high overhead to hear slices the sky from south to north.

American experience seems to suggest that people are virtually unlimited in their need to give themselves away, on various levels. Some just prefer to do it in secret.

Like most North Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he’s devoted to than he does about the objects and pursuits themselves. It’s hard to say for sure whether this is even exceptionally bad, this tendency.