David Wallace Foster’s Infinite Jest is still confusing and in the next sections we had to read for class. Just when we thought that there were not going to be any more new characters there are more characters that are introduced to us in these sections. There were also references to tennis tournaments and the constant references to the film cartridges. What a trip these next sections were to read. There were so wordy that at times I got so lost and confused because I was not sure what characters and places were being described. I was hoping that there would be some rationality by now but I am still trying to figure out the different layers of the narratives that Foster is interweaving. There is more about the characters Hal and Orin Incandenza, the two brothers. There is also the mention of diseases, which reference alcoholism and having to go to AA meetings. The section about the Boston AA support group just keeps on ranting on. Even when Don Gatley is narrating about the specifics of the White Flag part of the AA, at times he goes in such detail that the sentences run on endlessly. Gately is being so meticulous in describing the “Disease” that had taken over his life and how much he is trying to stay sober and not let the “disease” of alcoholism take over his life again. He does not want to wind up in a drunken stupor where his work, family and life was controlled by the “Disease of Alcoholism.”
David Foster Wallace states, “[Don] Gately biggest asset as an Ennent House live in Staffer— besides the size thing, which is not to be discounted when order has to be maintained in a place where guys come in fresh from detox still in Withdrawal with their eyes rolling like palsied cattle and an earring in their eyelid and a tattoo that says BORN TO BE UNPLEASANT—besides the fact that his upper arms are the size of cuts beef you rarely see off the hooks, his big plus is he has this ability his own experience about at first hating AA to new House residents who hate AA and resent being forced to go and sit up in nose-pore-range and listen to such limply improbable clichéd drivel night after night” (352). Readers get such precise and finite details about the character, Don Gatley but at times it becomes a tedious task and effort to read such lengthy details. Even though readers to learn intrigue information about the Boston Chapter of AA, readers can become lost and overwhelmed by these precise finite descriptions of the White Flag-Boston Chapter of AA.
It is apparent that even though we learn a lot of information about the “Disease” of Alcoholisms and how hard it is to keep one’s sobriety, there are references to NA, which is Narcotics Anonymous; therefore we have to wonder if this White Flag-Boston Chapter is for Narcotic problems, as well as Alcohol problems. There is shifting back and forth to these two “diseases,” therefore is this White Flag Support group in Boston for both of these conditions? Then again there are so many acronyms through these sections and of course there are descriptions of the tennis matches at the Enfield Tennis Academy and Hal Incandenza’s obsession with the Oxford English Dictionary and how he acquires the New Discursive Oxford English Dictionary where learn about ants and other various species. David Wallace Foster’s text has sexual innuendoes. There are so many storylines and plots that run through pages one hundred ninety eight through five hundred and eight. This array of characters, storylines, and themes in these pages makes me wonder what David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest array of next pages has in store for us. I can only hope that things will start coming together or maybe I am being too optimistic.
Yes, the novel is at times confusing and often it goes on and on, but I find it interesting that so many of us are discussing the lack of communication amongst the characters in the novel. So, what exactly is DFW trying to communicate to the reader? This makes me think of the cliche “actions speak louder than words”. Perhaps, DFW is trying to illuminate the lack of communication in everyone’s lives and each reader will build on their own “backstories” and derive meaning in different ways and in different elements of the multiple storylines. But, still, DFW, what does this mean about communication and truth(s)? What is he really trying to tell the reader? That we are entertainment obsessed junkies who are unable to experience a “true” existence, whatever that may be. I have a feeling that the debate is endless…