David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest has left me once again more perplexed and annoyed trying to unravel the many layers of his novel. I am trying to get a grasp of some of the storylines that Foster is devising here in this section that we were assigned to read. As a reader, I just keep on wondering when the characters are going to communicate their problems to each other. I just keep wondering when this novel is going to make sense and not keep on jumping from story to story. In the sections we had to read there are references again to Hal and Mario Incandenza and the White Flaggers. Don Gately is mention again and there is the character Lenz that goes to the Ennet House for meetings. There are meetings of the AA/NA groups and the White Flaggers, which also has meetings. As far as Lenz, he appears to have deep-seeded problems. David Wallace Foster states, “Pus it agitates Lenz that he has the feelings that it really big deal to Green that much one way or the other, and Lenz feels like he’s spending all this stress tensely worrying about his side of the something that Green would barely think about for more than a couple seconds, and it enrages Lenz that he can know in his head that the tense worry about how the diplomatize Green into leaving him alone is unnecessary and a waste of time and tension and yet still not able to stop worrying about it, which all only increases the sense of Powerlessness that Lenz is impotent to resolve with his Browning and meatloaf as long as Green continues to walk home with him” (547). Lenz has gotten high on organic cocaine and has a problem with his temper because he does not have the power to stop doing the cocaine the two or three times as a day, that he does it.
Heidi Julavits’s The Uses of Enchantment has layers of storylines so does David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, but Julavits’s novel does not have as many characters and storylines to follow as does Wallace’s narrative. Infinite Jest is somewhat like how Wallace describes drug rehabilitation in the book, when one walks into an A.A. meeting it is immediately disliked and uncomfortable. The more the addict keeps coming, however, the more it transforms from being the worst thing to the best thing in his life; which is the exact opposite of the drug they are trying to kick. The drug is immediately loved and easy, but progressively becomes the worst thing in the addict’s life. Lenz, Green, and Gatley are addicted to narcotics and they are trying to kick this troubling and terrible addiction, but because they are so consumed by these narcotics, they cannot stop
In the foreword of David Foster Wallace’s, Infinite Jest, by David Eggers he mentioned many details about Wallace’s novel. Eggers states, “And thus I spent a month of my young life. I did little else. And I can’t say it was always a barrel of monkeys. It was occasionally trying. It demands your full attention. It can’t be read ay a crowded café, or with a child on one’s lap . . . There were times, reading a very exhaustive account of a tennis match, say, when I thought, well, okay. I like tennis as much as the next guy, but enough already” (xiv). I agree with David Eggers synopsis about how you have to concentrate so thoroughly on Wallace’s novel that it can be mentally draining. As far as the reading the exhausting accounts of the tennis matches I totally agree that they are lengthy and one wonders when the descriptions are going to end. Wallace’s continuous long scenarios of other events are so wordy at times; I have to re-read them to remember what he is describing. I can only hope that things start making sense and come together real soon. I can only imagine what awaits for me in the last part of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.
Yes, the novel goes on and on, but I find it interesting that so many of us are discussing the lack of communication between characters in the novel. So, what is DFW trying to communicate to the reader? Are we all supposed to draw our own conclusions from our own “backstrories”? This is also making me think about the cliche “actions speak louder than words”. So, what is DFW saying about our societal lack of communication and truth(s)? Hmmm…
Jen, I agree with you – Susan comment re: communication struck me, too. Perhaps it’s because I have that whole moon doesn’t turn its face away obsession,.. but still, it’s related. So many of the characters choose not to address (mostly) emotional issues, or more interestingly, the issue is addressed by the narrative, but not directly between characters. I’m thinking of Hal & his mom here, I guess because Hal just flat out doesn’t ever tell the Moms what he’s really thinking or how he really feels, and vice versa, but the narrative almost always explains to the reader 1) that they’re not really communicating and 2) what they are actually thinking, since they’re not really communicating. That puts the reader in an interesting position, narratively speaking. Sure, readers often get insight that other characters in a novel aren’t privy to, but IJ takes it to the max. I haven’t figured out exactly what that implies. Like you, Jen, I know there’s a message to take away here regarding interpersonal connections and communication, but I haven’t totally put my finger on it yet.