Infinite Jest #5

Entry Five

I'm on page 268 because I got into a bit of a groove. Infinite Jest is definitely really, really good. I noticed something about it, too: The descriptive prose is extremely long-winded. (I am aware that for a book like Infinite Jest, that is not exactly a staggeringly astute claim. Hear me out.)

I tune it out, this prose, sort of -- or at least I don't pay as much attention to literally page-long paragraphs about the wind in Boston that day -- which I think is human nature, or some sort of learned behavior where generally things that progress the plot are at least partially dialogue. I feel like DFW knows that, maybe, and he's basically saying, "Fuck you, you're hardly reading this anyway since it's not people talking. I'm going to make this very, very esoteric so it still takes you a long time to get through. God, I hate you."

But it's sort of endearing.

Additionally, he really likes tennis. Jesus lord. The section I'm reading now is about a series of tennis matches ETA has with the Port Washington school. It's very long, for there are many matches.

Other things:

• The pseudo-checklist of things one discovers if one spends any time in a half-way house was pretty great and funny. I haven't laughed as much as I thought I would -- Consider The Lobster had some downright hilarious passages -- but every once in a while I read a part like this that makes me laugh. Still extremely dark, though. (It is obviously dark, Ian, you moron, it's about recovering addicts in a shitty house.)
• Hal's insistence on reading The Literature re: this extremely-potent MDMA variant was also funny. The kids are discussing how high they're gonna get and Hal is all, "Yes, I know you've read some papers Online, but have you actually gone to a like medical library?"
• Thanks for the timeline on p. 223, bro. Seriously. I'm gonna be referring to that.
• Madame Psychosis / Joelle van Dyne's suicide was eerie as fuck. Her overdose isn't sensationalized and she dies almost too realistically. I guess I was expecting some sort of passage along the lines of, "She took the drugs and such and such colors overtook her view," but instead it's more, "No, she's extremely ill and she's vomiting blood in the bathtub and now she's fucking dead because drugs will kill you."
• The entire Orin / Hal phone call was amazing. I noticed that DFW will start dialogue and then never again say who is speaking -- it's like a movie script, just lines on lines, but without the speaker's name anywhere -- so it can get sort of confusing re: who's saying what. More than once I had to backpedal through the conversation, saying, "Hal . . . Orin . . . Hal . . . Orin doesn't reply . . . Hal again," but it was great.
• On that note: Are you serious with the microwave suicide, man? Is that shit for real? Probably the zaniest, most haunting death I've read. Himself really wanted out, I guess.

'Or have you for example, say, ever like baked a potato in a microwave oven? Did you know you have to cut the potato open before you turn the oven on? Do you know why that is?'