Infinite Jest - Revision history

Unknown user: /* Summary */

2025-05-01T20:17:04Z

Summary

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			This book does not have traditional, numbered chapters. It is instead composed of unnumbered sections, which vary greatly in length and jump between multiple plot lines and time lines.

			The sections are often marked only by dates (within the era of Subsidized Time, e.g., "Year of the Glad"). It also features extensive endnotes (388), some containing crucial narrative information.

			* '''Opening Section (Year of the Glad):''' Introduces Hal Incandenza during a disastrous university admissions interview. He appears unable to communicate verbally, though internally his narration is articulate. This section chronologically occurs after most of the main action, setting up a central mystery about Hal's condition.

			* '''Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) Life:''' Numerous sections detail the grueling life at ETA, a high-pressure boarding school founded by Hal's father, James O. Incandenza ("Himself"). We meet Hal's friends like Michael Pemulis (academic whiz, drug dealer, prankster) and Ortho "The Darkness" Stice. Focuses on the intense training regimens, adolescent anxieties, rivalries, substance abuse (especially marijuana), and the looming pressure to succeed.

			(Note: this was where I gave up on the book, because I wanted to throw it at the wall after 100 pages, which was ''precisely how DFW said he didn't want his readers to feel after reading 100 pages''.)

			* '''Ennet House Drug Rehabilitation Facility:''' Introduces Don Gately, a former opioid addict and current staff counselor at Ennet House. Sections explore the lives of residents, the strict rules, the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, group therapy sessions, and the daily struggles of recovery. Gately's backstory as a thief and addict is gradually revealed.

			* '''Orin Incandenza's Story:''' Follows Hal's older brother Orin, a successful professional football punter living in Arizona. Orin is portrayed as a serial womanizer (obsessed with "Subject-Mothers") and intensely phobic (cockroaches, enclosed spaces). His sections often involve conversations with a mysterious radio journalist (later revealed as Hugh Steeply in disguise) and flashbacks to his relationship with Joelle van Dyne.

			* '''Joelle van Dyne's Arc:''' Introduces Joelle, a former actress and radio personality ("Madame Psychosis"). Her story unfolds through flashbacks (her time starring in James Incandenza's films, her relationship with Orin), her struggles with addiction (crack cocaine and freebase), her time in a radical group (Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed), and eventually her arrival at Ennet House for recovery. She is famously associated with wearing a veil.

			* '''The Entertainment:''' The central McGuffin is introduced – an elusive and lethally addictive piece of video media titled Infinite Jest (V), created by James O. Incandenza. Viewing it renders the spectator catatonic, obsessed only with re-watching it until death. Various factions are searching for the master copy.

			* '''O.N.A.N. (Organisation des Nouvelles Rebellions Québécoises):''' Sections detail the activities of this radical Québecois separatist group, particularly their cell of wheelchair-bound assassins (Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents, A.F.R.). They seek "The Entertainment" to use as a political weapon against the U.S.-dominated Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.).

			* '''Steeply and Marathe:''' Long, philosophical dialogues occur between Hugh Steeply (an agent of the U.S. Office of Unspecified Services, often disguised) and Rémy Marathe (a member of the A.F.R. acting as a potential triple agent). They debate free will, choice, pleasure, sacrifice, and national identity, often while perched on a mountainside overlooking Tucson.

			* '''Incandenza Family History:''' Through flashbacks, dialogues, and especially the extensive endnotes, the complex history of the Incandenza family is revealed: James O. Incandenza ("Himself"), an optics expert turned avant-garde filmmaker and founder of ETA; his wife Avril Incandenza, the imposing matriarch of ETA; their sons Orin, Mario (physically disabled but highly empathetic and observant, often seen filming things), and Hal. James's suicide and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it are a recurring theme.

			* '''Substance Abuse Themes:''' Explores addiction in many forms across various plotlines – Hal's secret marijuana use, Pemulis's drug dealing, the struggles at Ennet House, Joelle's history, Orin's potential dependencies. DMZ, a potent hallucinogen, also plays a significant role, particularly in a chaotic incident during the ETA "Eschaton" game.

			* '''The Search Intensifies:''' As the novel progresses, the search for the master copy of "The Entertainment" heats up, involving O.N.A.N., the U.S. government, and potentially others. Characters like Orin and Joelle are targeted due to their connections to James Incandenza.

			* '''Gately's Backstory and Confrontation:''' More details emerge about Gately's violent past. Near the end of the main narrative timeline, he is involved in a violent confrontation at Ennet House while defending residents, resulting in a serious injury.

			* '''Hal's Deterioration:''' Parallel to Gately's physical ordeal, Hal's mental and physical state deteriorates. He secretly ingests huge amounts of marijuana and may have unknowingly ingested DMZ. His condition seems to be approaching the state seen in the opening section.

			* '''The "Ending" (Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment):''' The final sections do not resolve the main plotlines (like the location of the master tape or the ultimate fate of O.N.A.N.). Instead, the book ends with a long section detailing Don Gately lying severely injured in a hospital bed, potentially dying, recalling a memory of digging up James Incandenza's head (connected to the search for the tape) and remembering the moment he hit "rock bottom" years earlier in the snow, deciding to seek help. This ending loops thematically back towards the beginning and the overarching themes of addiction and recovery, leaving many narrative threads open.

			* '''The Endnotes:''' Crucial details about James Incandenza's filmography (including descriptions of Infinite Jest itself), character backstories (like Gately's and Joelle's), scientific explanations, and even significant plot points (like the full story of James Incandenza's death) are found here, requiring readers to flip back and forth.

			Note: this is a narrative summary, the actual book is highly non-linear and has many subplots/digressions/motifs.

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Unknown user at 20:07, 1 May 2025

2025-05-01T20:07:35Z

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2025-05-01T19:58:39Z

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Unknown user: /* Quotes */

2025-05-01T19:56:07Z

Quotes

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	Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)		Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
	- Highlight Loc. 843 \| Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:20 AM		- Highlight Loc. 843 \| Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:20 AM

Admin: /* Flags */

2017-07-03T23:30:58Z

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Admin at 00:24, 24 July 2016

2016-07-24T00:24:03Z

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Admin at 06:30, 20 November 2013

2013-11-20T06:30:42Z

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 Accretive means accumulating, through sheer mindless repeated motions. The machine-language of the muscles. Until you can do it without thinking about it, play. At like fourteen, give and take, they figure here. Just do it. Forget about is there a point, of course there's no point. The point of repetition is there is no point. Wait until it soaks into the hardware and then see the way this frees up your head. A whole shitload of head-space you don't need for the mechanics anymore, after they've sunk in. Now the mechanics are wired in. Hardwired in. This frees the head in the remarkablest ways. Just wait. You start thinking a whole different way now, playing. The court might as well be inside you. The ball stops being a ball.
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Admin at 06:18, 20 November 2013

2013-11-20T06:18:06Z

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 Watching the Jacuzzi funnel and bubble and foam around the leg. And out of nowhere a bird had all of a sudden fallen into the Jacuzzi. With a flat matter-of-fact plop. Out of nowhere. Out of the wide empty sky. Nothing overhung the Jacuzzi but sky. The bird seemed to have just had a coronary or something in flight and died and fallen out of the empty sky and landed dead in the Jacuzzi, right by the leg. He brought his sunglasses down onto the bridge of his nose with a finger and looked at it. It was an undistinguished kind of bird. Not a predator. Like a wren, maybe. It seems like no way could it have been a good sign. The dead bird bobbed and barrel-rolled in the foam, sucked under one second and reappearing the next, creating an illusion of continued flight.
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Admin at 05:27, 20 November 2013

2013-11-20T05:27:41Z

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Admin: Created page with "

 Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace) - Highlight Loc. 843  | Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:20 AM  The sun like a sneaky keyhole view of hell. ========== Infinite Je..."

2013-11-20T05:21:22Z

Created page with "<pre> Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace) - Highlight Loc. 843 | Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:20 AM The sun like a sneaky keyhole view of hell. ========== Infinite Je..."

New page

<pre>
Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
- Highlight Loc. 843 | Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:20 AM

The sun like a sneaky keyhole view of hell.
==========
Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
- Highlight Loc. 851-58 | Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:24 AM

A breeze sends the beach ball skating all the way across the blue pool to the other side, and Orin watches its noiseless glide. The white iron tables have no umbrellas, and you can tell where the sun is without looking; you can feel right where it is on your body and project from there. The ball moves tentatively back out toward the middle of the pool and then stays there, not even bobbing. The same small breezes make the rotted palms along the condominium complex's stone walls rustle and click, and a couple of fronds detach and spiral down, hitting the deck with a slap. All the plants out here are malevolent, heavy and sharp. The parts of the palms above the fronds are tufted in sick stuff like coconut-hair. Roaches and other things live in the trees. Rats, maybe. Loathsome high-altitude critters of all kinds. All the plants either spiny or meaty. Cacti in queer tortured shapes. The tops of the palms like Rod Stewart's hair, from days gone by.
==========
Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
- Highlight Loc. 862-67 | Added on Sunday, January 29, 2012, 08:26 AM

Watching the Jacuzzi funnel and bubble and foam around the leg. And out of nowhere a bird had all of a sudden fallen into the Jacuzzi. With a flat matter-of-fact plop. Out of nowhere. Out of the wide empty sky. Nothing overhung the Jacuzzi but sky. The bird seemed to have just had a coronary or something in flight and died and fallen out of the empty sky and landed dead in the Jacuzzi, right by the leg. He brought his sunglasses down onto the bridge of his nose with a finger and looked at it. It was an undistinguished kind of bird. Not a predator. Like a wren, maybe. It seems like no way could it have been a good sign. The dead bird bobbed and barrel-rolled in the foam, sucked under one second and reappearing the next, creating an illusion of continued flight.

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