Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Infinite Jest: The Aftermath

I finished it! It's over: I'm done with Infinite Jest. It was very, very good, but it isn't my favorite book. There was just too much of it, man. The parts I enjoyed -- Eschaton; Gately's fight; anything at all involving Michael Pemulis, even remotely; the fact that a guy's nickname was "The Darkness" -- remain some of my favorite passages / scenes from any piece of literature I've ever read. It's just that there were too many . . . erm . . . boring parts. Maybe "boring" is the wrong word. But there were a lot of dry, academic portions that I thought would pay off in some way by illuminating an area of the plot that just didn't deliver at all. I also acknowledge that these "boring" scenes are kind of what make Infinite Jest the hulking challenge that it is, so imagining an abridged version with nothing but high points kind of robs the thing of its spirit.

Gately's big fight scene, though. Sweet baby Jesus that was so cool. He's all, "This is my house; these are my people," and he fights those dudes! Oh, man. Sure, he gets shot and generally has a very bad time of it afterwards, but during? Whew, boy.

Big "Fuck you" to Lenz, the bastard. I don't know what happens to him at the end but I hope it's something terrible.

Gately gets the Most Improved Character award, too. Or maybe the Guy Who's Done The Worst Shit But You Don't Care Because He's Generally Honorable Now That He's Clean award. Dude's a murderer (though neither was intentional) and a crook but he seems like he's really tried to get straight and I felt very, very bad for him towards the end. If I were reading this for a class I'd call him a Herculean figure on account of his re-living "trials" before he can be redeemed. I'm not, though, so instead I can use words like "badass" and "pretty dope."

Was the Flaxster the one with the pickup lines? The guy who steals from Sorkin with the bet fracas. Was that him? Because I'll remember that line maybe forever: "You're the second-most attractive woman I have ever seen in my life, the first most-attractive woman I've ever seen being former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher." Was that him or the other one, the one who successfully runs away before C comes in and truly ruins everything? Eh. Idiot Flax. Not that he deserved to have his eyes sewed open, but c'mon, man.

I was upset when Pemulis got expelled. Objectively he's like not a great dude -- selling the little kids' urine to doped-up players, stealing (I think; I honestly cannot remember) a truck, the whole DMZ fiasco -- but he was hilarious and his expulsion wasn't very fair. He didn't poison Wayne! Sure, he roofied his Port Washington opponent, but that was the one time. Why would anyone poison John "No Relation" Wayne? (I have a lot of ideas about why someone would do that, actually.)

I'm going to save the Super-Spoilers for the next post -- this one's long enough already and the last one with all the plot points / theories is only going to be longer -- but I do think everyone should read Infinite Jest. If I could read it for the first time again, I would definitely stick to a better schedule: It took me three months to read it, which is just way too much time. Reading it in six weeks or even two months would've been much better for the sake of remembering important plot points from the beginning pages -- so, chronological ending -- of the book.

But, yeah. Read it. You can't be a Learned Person With Thoughts unless you've at least skimmed half of it. It's a big deal. Pick it up from the library, read the opening, think about how awesome it is. Then slog through to page 200. If you're still on board, buy it.

1 comment:

  1. Lenz and Tony are captured by the AFR and used as subjects to view the entertainment. Thanks for your What Happened post. I found it because I thought I had a faulty e-book

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