Sipped Ink vol 1 issue 11

Infinite Jest pp770-833

‘[S]he drown’d herself in her own defence’

As we get into the home stretch of the novel I can feel Wallace engaging more deeply with his themes, working towards—or at least searching for—resolutions. (I don’t think Infinite Jest will prove to be the kind of novel that resolves neatly, bow-adorned.) There’s been some really neat mirroring of circumstances stitched through the text so that here you see the coloured thread of Orin lamenting TV before the choice of selective programming:

‘The choice, see. It ruins it somehow. With television you were subjected to repetition. The familiarity was inflicted. Different now.’

& here is his brother Hal on pot addiction:

‘[T]hink how horrible that’d be, if somebody needed it. Not just liked it a great great great deal. Needing it becomes a whole separate order of…. It seems horrific.’

Marathe also reveals similar thinking regarding… well, pretty much the course of his entire life:

‘No, but this choice, Katherine: I made it. It chains me, but the chains are of my choice. The other chains: no. The others were the chains of not choosing.’

The Gately section towards the end of this week is disturbing, and thematically interesting. It gives us yet another example of someone trapped within a state of consciousness, unable to communicate what they are experiencing or to break free of it (cf. Hal in the Deans’ office, those entranced by The Entertainment, those wracked with addiction etc.). This theme, along with the idea of intentionality, is even hinted at with one of the text’s few direct references to Hamlet: note 337 points us to this speech by the First Clown:

‘It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches-it is to act, to do, and to perform; argal, she drown’d herself wittingly.’

There’s also something Inception-esque going on with Gately’s stack of dreams. Wallace displays a knack for weaving this kind of disturbing psychological state, and is a deft hand at selecting details (like the facially-scarred Oriental woman and motionless dog) that really creep the reader—as well as the dreamer—out.

I’m really excited to see how thinks wrap up (or not) over the closing stages. See you next week for the last of these Sunday progress posts. As always, it’s been a pleasure.