Week Two

More than a few people I have spoken to put IJ down around 100 pages in. So we have just passed a common attrition mark. Congratulations!

And ya know, it makes some sense – there’s a lot going on. We have our first giant endnote (the filmography, and maybe/definitely endnote 304) and a few really expansive sections that don’t seem to further the ‘story.’

But there are also many core examples of how DFW weaves information through seemingly unconnected narratives. I’ll recap what we’ve read and let’s start talking about it!

Recap

The majority of this section occurs during the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, in April (Marathe and Steeply) and November (mostly, except the segment of Mario and the telescope which happens in October). The yrstruly section is not dated by year, but we know it is Christmas eve. We now know James Incandenza dies in the Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar at age 54 (if we find out his birth year, we can place subsidized time on our calendar).

We learn more about James O Incandenza, including his scientific achievements which have helped bring in cold annular fusion (which has led to an independent US energy system, which then has led to the political strife currently between US and Canada), and his conceptual filmmaking. Through James’ filmography, we are given a significant amount of information about what has happened during subsidized time. It’s our first introduction to feral hamsters, outsized feral infants, the elimination of Troy, NY due to misplaced waste displacement vehicles, etc. Even this far along we can already make the connection between JOI’s life and his work (see It Was a Great Marvel That He Was in the Father Without Knowing Him and the use of Stokely Darkstar in Accomplice! connecting JOI in some way to the narrative of yrstruly).

Orin is playing professional football as a punter in Arizona, has met someone new, and wants to talk about Canadian separatism.

We meet Kate Gompert, whose addiction to weed mirrors that of Erdedy’s in its intensity, and Hal’s in its secrecy. She also buys from Tommy Doocey. I was interested in how she described the ‘feeling.’ It’s one of the best descriptions of clinical depression I have ever read. The resident doctor is so fully fleshed out too, making this an amazing study of their dynamic as well.

The cartridge that took the medical attache is now responsible for upwards of 20 catatonic states in a comedically escalating scale.

We learn a lot about Enfield Tennis Academy in these sections, getting a better understanding of Michael Pemulis, Gerhardt Schtitt, Jim Troletsch, James Struck, USS Millicent Kent, John Wayne, etc, plus weird guru Lyle. The conversations in the locker room and the Big Buddy meetings paint a vivid picture of the tennis academy’s athletic and academic rigour, as well as serving as many small character studies of the students.

This is also our first introduction to another important location in IJ – Unit #6 of the Enfield Marine VA Hospital (aka Ennet Recovery House) and the first resident we are introduced to is Tiny Ewell (lil’ Burl Ives).

And now the beginning of the Marathe/Steeply section of the book. Remy Marathe is a duplicitous agent of the Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (The Wheelchair Assassins), a Quebecois terrorist organization bent on disrupting the U.S. He sits on a rocky overhang in Arizona, his shadow casting a huge swath across the city below. He is wheelchair bound, a machine pistol hidden under the blanket on his lap. Joining him on the ledge is Hugh Steeply, a U.S. field agent of the Department of Unspecified Services, in disguise as a woman. The two agents meet frequently to exchange intelligence. A LOT of info is laid out here about the “entertainment,” Canada/US relations, indications that Marathe’s wife is very very ill, the hilarious descriptions of Steeply’s disguise, and the almost impossible (for me) to keep track of duplicity that is going on between them as agents.

We get a small aside about the feral hamsters and the description of the environmental impact of annular fusion being “a drooling and piss-colored bank of teratogenic Concavity clouds.”

Mario and U.S.S. Millicent Kent have a little moment in the woods, and a mysterious tripod is found in the trees.

A wonderful section by ‘yrstruly’ describing a drug run gone bad. The language used in this passage is absolutely delicious. “rickytick” “elemondae” “not 2Bdenied”

Poster credit Chris Ayers

Reflections

The pursuit of individual happiness, which is a thread throughout the novel, often results in a sense of insecurity – we are overwhelmed with choices, moved along by impulses, and chase fleeting feelings of pleasure with little reflection on our own role in the larger world. This butts up against our own understanding of why we do what we do – why we strive, why we love, why we care.

Several sections in these pages speak to this, especially from characters who are motivated by participating in something larger than themselves:

In the conversation between Schtitt and Mario, Schtitt’s dismay at the ONAN-ist focus on “the happy pleasure of the person alone” (p. 83).
Marathe’s warning to Steeply to “choose with care. You are what you love”
The locker room conversation at ETA about striving for The Show, and the questions the Little Buddies have for their Big Buddies about how to navigate through ETA.

There are lots of fragile personas as well, either unsure of or afraid to show their true selves. To wit:

Hugh Steeply, whose disguise Marathe describes as a “twisted parody of womanhood” (p. 93)
Marathe, a quadruple agent who posits perhaps he has “merely pretended to pretend to pretend to betray” (p. 94)
Orin, who often comes off as incredibly insecure (with his Subjects, and “complicated” relationship with Avril) at this point can vocalize his distaste at the high flying stunts he is made to do yet still has not vocalized his morbid fear of heights to anyone.
Tiny Ewell, hinted at that it may be hard for him to accept his addiction.
Poor Tony’s duplicity, too afraid to admit his role in ripping off Wo.

That endnote

Now what did you think of endnote 304? There are two endnotes in this section that point to it (39b. and 45). So you flip to 304, and find out its 7 goddamn pages long. Is it meant to be read now? Wallace has asked us to consider it twice, so it seems important to read now.

I would say that the information that comes from this story of le Jeu de Prochain Train is good know, rather than waiting until page 732 (!) to learn the backstory of the Wheelchair Assassins. I actually loved the format of this endnote as well, reading it through James Struck’s eyes as he attempts to crib an overwritten academic paper for his History of Canadian Unpleasantness class. I laughed out loud when he described wanting to slap the author’s face “forehand, backhand, forehand” (p.1060).