Infinite Jest

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Outcropping Northwest of Tucson, AZ, U.S.A. (May 1)

Steeply discusses his father with Marathe. He says that his father suffered a similar fate to the people who watch the Entertainment. He became obsessed with a popular television show; his “excessive unbalance” (641) eventually took over all aspects of his life until he was “pretty much unable to converse about anything except the television program ‘M*A*S*H’“ (644). He believed that the show was trying to communicate with him. Steeply describes how his father’s addiction took a toll on his mother, who was forced to take medication to deal with her anxiety. Steeply’s father died in front of his television, leaving behind a soiled corpse and notebooks filled with nonsensical coded messages to the characters in the television show. Marathe begins to make his excuses to leave. However, he needs Steeply to leave first. Steeply talks about the people who have been changed by watching the Entertainment. He describes the looks on their faces: They are “stuck. Fixed. Held. Trapped. As in trapped in some sort of middle” (647).

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 11)

Helen is introduced to Aubrey deLint, one of E.T.A.’s staff members, who gives her a complete assessment of Hal’s tennis skills. Hal is known for his slow, methodical, and torturous approach to tennis. DeLint ignores any questions about when Helen can actually talk to Hal. Typically, students are not permitted to talk to the press. Helen becomes anxious and annoyed that she will not be able to complete her mission, so deLint suggests that she talk to Charles or even Schtitt. DeLint cannot understand why Helen wants to write her article.

The narrative switches to a series of letters written by Helen Steeply for the attention of Marlon K. Bain, an employee at a greeting card company in Massachusetts. Given that Marlon knows the Incandenzas, Helen wonders if he would answer some of her questions. He agrees. She sends him a list of questions, and his answers are provided in an endnote. Marlon and Orin were friends, but their relationship has since fallen apart. They played tennis together and at age 10 were among the best players in their age groups in the city. Marlon was one of the first children to be admitted to E.T.A., shortly after it was founded by James Incandenza. Marlon was 15 at the time and he spent many days with Orin taking drugs. These drugs have had a serious effect on Marlon’s life. The psychedelic drugs left Marlon debilitated and forced him to leave E.T.A. after two years. He remembers that James cast Joelle in one of his experimental films. Marlon warns Helen about Orin’s tendency to bend the truth. He believes that Orin is a pathological liar but not a good liar. He recalls an incident when he and Orin accidentally killed the Incandenza family dog while high. Orin lied about the incident to his parents; Avril reacted by being even more loving toward her son. The recollection sends Marlon into an extended thought about the nature of parental love. He notes that such love can go badly and can be considered abusive. For years, Marlon was convinced that Avril was strange. Her attitude toward her children seemed abusive to Marlon, almost as though she craved her children’s suffering so that she could play the part of the sympathetic and loving mother. 

At E.T.A., the young players who were involved in the violent game of Eschaton are punished. Their punishment is to go into the “abundant tunnels” (666) underneath the school and take an itinerary of everything they find. The tunnels are currently used for storage and “trash-type material” (667), but they will soon be repurposed to build an underground tennis court. The students are accustomed to spending time in the tunnels; the male students have an exclusive club based on the social gatherings in them. During their inspection, the boys fill bags with trash and then send one of the less popular students to drag the bags back to the surface. At the same time, the sound of applause from Hal’s match drifts down to them but sounds like “faraway rain” (668). Among the items they find in the tunnels is the “bulky old doorless microwave oven” (670) that James Incandenza used to kill himself.

Outside, Hal’s match continues. Helen Steeply sits in the crowd. She is joined by another coach, Thierry Poutrincourt, who discusses the staff’s protective attitude toward the E.T.A. students. When Helen insists that her article concerns Orin rather than any current student, the conversation changes. Helen and Thierry talk in Quebecois French about sport and the growth of players from junior to adult tennis. She explains that E.T.A. tries to coach the students to avoid the pressure and “the suicides. The burn-out. The drugs, the self-indulging, the spoilage” (677). Professional adult tennis is rife with challenges, Thierry explains. Mistakes in Steeply’s Parisian French lead to Thierry suspecting that Steeply is neither a journalist nor a woman. DeLint interrupts with a promise that Helen can watch John Wayne play a match. John Wayne is E.T.A.’s best player, he says. Helen has no interest in John Wayne but quizzes Thierry about James Incandenza’s films.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

Matty Pemulis, Michael’s older brother, is 23 years old. While Michael plays tennis at E.T.A., Matty is a sex worker. He sits in a restaurant and eats soup while watching the crowds pass by the window. A homeless woman defecates in the street. He sees a man named Poor Tony Krause, a former partner in crime who has a heroin addiction and seems to be in a “godawful” (683) state. Matty has his own trauma: As a 10-year-old, he was raped by his drunken father. He then watched his father die of cirrhosis. Whenever he drinks, Matty raises a glass to the final memory of his father.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 11)

Hal loses the game against Stice. As a result, Stice replaces Hal as the number two-ranked player at E.T.A. The loss upsets Hal, who decides to watch his father’s films. He watches a film about a “fantastically efficient” (687) bureaucrat who struggles to arrive to work on time so often that his job is threatened. The bureaucrat then rushes to work the next morning, only to be delayed by a series of improbable and comic distractions. Wave Bye-Bye to the Bureaucrat is Mario’s favorite James Incandenza film. Hal “secretly likes it, too” (689) and imagines himself as the bureaucrat. He thinks about his earlier loss and links it to his marijuana use. An endnote mentions that this is the first time in more than a year that he has gone a day without getting high.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

Poor Tony wakes up in an ambulance after his seizure. The drugs administered by the paramedics make him feel wonderful; he even jokes and flirts with the female paramedic. He remembers running a number of criminal jobs for Bertrand Antitoi, the Quebecois separatist and video store owner, who paid him in narcotics. Tony was paid to dress as a Quebecois separatist while a real separatist threw “foul semi-liquid violet waste from a souvenir miniature waste-displacement barrel” (691) at a Canadian politician. As he walks down the street, Tony spots two women carrying purses. He thinks about stealing the purses. He is staring at the purses so intently that he does not notice his “old former crewmate Mad Matty Pemulis” (691) sitting in a restaurant.

At Ennet House, Geoffrey Day thinks about the different names men give to their penises. He realizes that he is “almost missing” (692) Randy Lenz.

At E.T.A., Hal feels completely detached from society, as though there is “pretty much nothing at all” (694) inside him. He cannot remember the last time he felt a real interior emotion. While this disposition may make him seem “hip and cool” (694) in an American high school, Hal is worried that he craves a sense of self that he can never have. Unfortunately for Hal, he “isn’t old enough yet to know that this is because numb emptiness isn’t the worst kind of depression” (695).

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

Kate Gompert and Ruth van Cleve walk through the city to a meeting. Kate cannot stand Ruth, who is recovering from an addiction to crystal meth and abandoned her newborn baby in an alley before being sent to Ennet House. The baby survived and is currently in the hospital. The baby’s father is in prison. Unbeknownst to the women, Poor Tony follows behind them, staring at their purses.

Hal watches his father’s films. When other students enter the room, Hal tells them that he would rather be alone. They insist that the viewing room is public and refuse to leave. One of the students mentions that a large woman is walking around E.T.A. asking about Hal. In the background, a violent exploitation film plays. Blood Sister is one of the few commercially successful James Incandenza productions. The “sleazy-looking shocksploitation film” (703) portrays a nun who saves a young abuse survivor from a life on the streets. Hal and the other students are not able to comprehend the way in which the film could function as a “veiled allegory” (1053) for rehabilitation meetings. Hal, experiencing the difficulties of “THC-Withdrawal” (706), thinks about which of his father’s films to watch next.

After attending a number of rehabilitation meetings, Joelle is shocked to find that they are actually beginning to work. Despite her recovery, she is worried that she is becoming overly attached to Don Gately. As explained in an endnote, the rules at Ennet House warn the residents not to form sentimental attachments to staff members of the opposite sex. At a meeting for recovery from cocaine addiction, Joelle listens to a man talk about his experiences with crack. The man tells an affecting story about leaving his family to starve because he spent all their money on drugs. His story reaffirms Joelle’s desire to stay free of drugs. The man admits that, while he may never see his actual family, he has a new family in the form of the rehab group members.

At E.T.A., Blood Sister continues to play. The girl saved from the streets by the nun dies of an overdose. However, the plot twist reveals that she was actually killed by the convent’s “top and toughest nun” (711) who is also a drug dealer. The final act of the film is filled with a violent quest for revenge. Hal finds this part of the film to be embarrassingly overbearing.

Poor Tony snatches the purses from Ruth and Kate. A bearded homeless man runs to the women, telling them that he saw everything. Kate, injured during the robbery, can barely focus on the man. The strap of her bag held tight, and Poor Tony dragged her along the pavement, knocking her head against a lamppost.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

The Wheelchair Assassins come up with a plot to obtain the master copy of the Entertainment. They consider kidnapping and torturing members of the Incandenza family or Joelle. Alternatively, they could continue their conventional search of film depositories. They are currently in the film rental shop that belonged to the Antitoi brothers, acting on their second option.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

Poor Tony is shocked that he is being chased by the owner of the bags he just stole. Still wearing his high heeled shoes and struggling to run, Tony feels Ruth chasing behind him. She reaches out and snatches the wig from Tony’s head, Tony veers into an alley.

At the video rental store, Fortier oversees the search for the copy of the Entertainment. Fortier is the leader of the Wheelchair Assassins. After several days, their “methodical and thorough” (722) search has failed to locate the master copy of the Entertainment. The Wheelchair Assassins hope that they can use the Entertainment to bring down the United States and force Canada to allow Quebecois independence. DuPlessis, a member of the Wheelchair Assassins, helped to formulate the plan. He had a copy of the Entertainment, obtained through Orin, his relative. Hugh Steeply found out about the possibility that DuPlessis had a copy of the film and placed him under surveillance. Fortier resents the way Americans treat people in wheelchairs with a patronizing politeness, as though he were a “sickly child” (723). An endnote reveals that Marathe may be working with Steeply on Fortier’s orders. Fortier also suspects that Marathe wants revenge against him because Fortier was involved in the train-related incident that killed Marathe’s brothers. Marathe correctly suspects that Fortier plans to make Marathe watch the Entertainment.

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (November 14)

Fortier’s men search the film rental store and finally find the tape that once belonged to DuPlessis. In identifying the film, however, two of the Wheelchair Assassins fall victim to the Entertainment. Additionally, this film cartridge is read-only, meaning that they cannot make copies. They still need the original. Fortier rallies his team, keeping spirits high by telling the separatists that they are closer than ever to obtaining the real, original version of the film. The entire Incandenza family is placed under “constant surveillance” (726) by the Wheelchair Assassins. They are also searching for Joelle. They now know that she is also Madame Psychosis because they tortured the engineer who worked on her WYYY show. They also forced the engineer to watch the Entertainment. The Wheelchair Assassins are testing the effectiveness of their film by screening it for Subjects. Anyone who watches the film is willing to cut off their own fingers for the chance to watch it again. The Wheelchair Assassins prowl the Boston streets to find more Subjects on whom they can test the film.