I went out for a little while. When I got back I was still logged into this blog. Looks like the perps got on. I had logged off.
finally finished
February 23, 2009 at 11:05 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, theme of infinite jest
I finally finished Infinite Jest. What a dissapointment. I felt the plot was building up to a satisfying end for the characters but it ended on a depraved and sordid note–taking place during a flashback of one of the characters–that we are not even allowed to know whether he lived or died as he was lying in a hospital bed with an infection.
It’s true that the first chapter of Infinite Jest is really the last chapter and is kind of an epilogue to the main action. It’s dissappointing too. Tragic, actually.
I think Wallace’s grand novel is really a work of tremendous psychological catharsis dealing with areas in his life and family, especially the fates of the Incandenza family. If this novel did not exorcise Wallace’s demons and his subsequent work didn’t, then what could? His misery was ongoing.
It took me 2-3 months to navigate the huge maze of subplots and footnotes that make up the novel. The only thing that seems to be resolved is that the combined U.S. and Canadian Interdependent governments are able to seize some copies of the “entertainment” called Infinite Jest that causes people to vegetate. Not all the copies, just some. Whether the “entertainment” is considered an act of terrorism is never really revealed, but the author of it who dies bizarrely, is married to a French Canadian…and it’s the French Canadians that perform acts of terrorism against the U.S. in this “futuristic” novel, quite coincidentally set exactly in our time.
The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment is probably 2008, and the action begins in the Spring of that year and ends in the Spring of the next, the Year of Glad, which is 2009…one of the character’s grandfathers is the Glad spokesman way back in the Pre Subsidized 1960s. He dies as an alcoholic as does his son. The grandson’s fate seems even worse. Ironic, the way of most of this novel.
I have never read a novel such as this one. It is set in the “near future” from 1995 (when it is written) and comprises a world where each year is named after a sponsoring corporation. People speak in a jargon, while similar to ours, is different enough to be in a separate era. TV has been replaced by on demand “entertainments” available online or via “cartridges”. There are no networks. There is an Internet which seems surprisingly primitive compared to today’s standards. No surprise, actually, when you consider Wallace started writing this book in 1992 and ended it in 1995 when the consumer version of the Internet was quite young.
This book kind of seems like a Southern novel with all the messed up people and relationships. Maybe Wallace read a lot of Southern authors. I can’t seem to pin down a theme to the novel either except that in the future, people will feel extremely empty and unable to connect and need more and more entertainments and mind altering substances to merely exist as life will lack all sense of purpose.
I will write more on this after I have read some more reviews. The novel is supposed to be funny but it’s only funny in the darkest, sickest way.
dry for topics just sick of it all
February 18, 2009 at 11:38 pm (David Foster Wallace, meme's)
Tags: despair, meme's
Here I decided to paste a couple of meme’s because I do not know what to write about. I’m so sick of writing about OS/EH since nothing ever gets done about it. Has this blog even enlightened one non ti about this horrifying phenomenon? One non ti who will BELIEVE my experiences? The best I’ve accomplished in my ti life so far is getting several unaware people aware they are ti’s. That’s it. Others say they have managed to convince family and friends but I have none left to convince. The book is almost done. It is almost 1100 pages and the extensive FOOTNOTES are in smaller print so they count for more, PLUS, the footnotes have their very OWN footnotes. How could a man with such an ironic sense of humor “eliminate his own map”? It’s beyond me. Unless he was a ti….
Life experiences
1. Started my own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than I can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland/world 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sung a solo 11. Bungee jumped (and I never will) 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched lightning at sea 14. Taught myself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown my own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitchhiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Skied a marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run (OK, so it was in a game with small children) 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught myself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had my portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had my picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee 100. Ridden an elephant
My sucky life…now, what have I EATEN…
1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart 16.poisses_de_Bourgogne 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream 21. Heirloom tomatoes 22. Fresh wild berries 23. Foie gras 24. Rice and beans 25. Brawn, or head cheese 26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper 27.Dulce_de_leche 28. Oysters 29. Baklava 30.Bagna_cauda 31. Wasabi peas 32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl 33. Salted lassi 34. Sauerkraut 35. Root beer float 36. Cognac with a fat cigar 37. Clotted cream tea 38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O 39. Gumbo 40. Oxtail 41. Curried goat 42. Whole insects 43. Phaal 44. Goat’s milk 45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more 46. Fugu 47. Chicken tikka masala 48. Eel 49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut 50. Sea urchin 51. Prickly pear 52. Umeboshi 53. Abalone 54. Paneer 55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal 56. Spaetzle 57. Dirty gin 58. Beer above 8% ABV 59. Poutine 60. Carob chips 61. S’mores 62. Sweetbreads 63. Kaolin 64. Currywurst 65. Durian 66. Frogs’ legs 67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake 68. Haggis 69. Fried plantain 70. Chitterlings, or andouilletteGazpacho 71. 72. Caviar and blini 73. Absinthe 74. Gjetost 75. Roadkill 76. Baijiu 77. Hostess Fruit Pie 78. SnailEggs Benedict 79.Lapsang_souchong 80. Bellini 81. Tom_yum 82. 83. Pocky 84. Tasting menu at a three-star restaurant (Michelin) 85. Kobe_beef 86. Hare (do they mean rabbit?) 87. Goulash 88. Edible_flowers 89. Horse 90. Criollo chocolate 91. Spam 92. Soft shell crab 93. Rose Harissa 94. Catfish 95. Mole sauce 96. Bagel and lox 97. Lobster_Thermidor 98. Polenta 99. Jamaican_Blue_Mountain_Coffee 100. Snake
Looks like I need to eat less and experience more…highlighted items are linked to wikipedia from the site I got the list from. Both highlighted and bolded items have been eaten by moi.
sorry so slow
February 8, 2009 at 11:32 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, perp behavior modification
I’m almost done with Infinite Jest now. It’s the Year of Glad, right? The fans are blowing over the Great Concavity over to mE the Great Convexity. I think I seen a giant feral hamster. If I can catch him I will have him with Thai curry. It’s almost time to catch Madame Psychosis on the radio.
Read the Rolling Stone article on David Foster Wallace. He was on an older antidepressant from the 1980s. They never switched him to SSRIs. It was an MAO inhibitor. Life is hell on an MAO. The list of things you can/cannot do is staggering. In 2007, he tried to go off it to get on a new antidepressant and the new ones would NOT WORK and NEITHER WOULD his old one work when he went back to it. Very odd. The antidepressants WORKED on me, too well, but the side effects created a “new me” that wasn’t me, along with severe heartburn, strange sort of joint stiffness, and a numbness of emotions. I also became a sort of Stepford wife character: ultraconservative and boring. The perps could’ve stopped with that, they had their little-ish safe woman, but they didn’t stop.
*well little would be a huuuge stretch now wouldn’t it?
