Infinte Log I
It’s strange how a book can live inside your mind long before you ever touch its pages. For years, Infinite Jest had been there, like a shadow at the edge of the bookshelf, a title more than a thing. A weight I had given it before it had earned it. And now, I have read the first sixty pages. Or sixty-one, technically. Pages three to sixty-four. Five days of reading between April 2nd and April 8th, 2025. Not every day. Not the disciplined ten-pages-a-day rhythm I had imagined. But enough to begin.
Already, it’s exactly like I thought I’d be which is unlike anything else. Not just the plot, though there is one, or many. It’s the density, the rhythm, the weird humor that feels both cold and electric. The way DFW makes the insane seem procedural and the procedural feel unhinged. I thought it might take time to enter his world, but somehow, I was already there, lost in the tunnels under ETA, watching people use drugs they name like vitamins.
Hal. Hal Incandenza, a junior tennis prodigy at Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA). During a university admissions interview, Hal’s academic records are questioned due to mismatched test scores and essays. His uncle C.T., ETA’s headmaster, aggressively defends him, but Hal panics, unable to communicate, leading officials to deem him unstable. Flashbacks reveal Hal’s childhood trauma, like eating mold and his mother’s hysterical reaction, as well as tense interactions with his father, a troubled filmmaker who staged bizarre encounters to test Hal’s ability to speak. Hal’s older brother Orin, an NFL punter, struggles with nightmares and psychological torment tied to family dysfunction.
Other threads include Erdedy, a marijuana addict waiting for a dealer; Don Gately, a burglar whose botched robbery leads to accidental suffocation; and ETA students using drugs like stimulants and tranquilizers to cope with pressure. A medical attaché in Boston watches a mysterious film cartridge mailed from Arizona, while Wardine, a girl abused by her mother and Roy Tony, faces violence. The academy’s tunnels and Pump Room host covert activities. James Incandenza, Hal’s father, founded ETA but later died by suicide, leaving a legacy of scientific patents and avant-garde films.
Themes are clear (for now): addiction, loneliness, institutional apathy, familial decay, but they aren’t shouted. They leak in like water, through cracks you hadn’t noticed.
I’ve started keeping notes. Nothing formal. Just small things I want to remember, things that made me stop and reread:
Timeline & Ages
- Hal's Ages:
- 18 in the YEAR OF GLAD
- 17 in the YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT
- Possibly 11 in the flashback chapter 1 APRIL - YEAR OF THE TUCKS MEDICATED PAD
- Mario's Age: 18 in MAY of the YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT (older than Hal in the same year).
- Year Order Theory:
- YEAR OF THE TRIAL-SIZE DOVE BAR → YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT → YEAR OF GLAD.
- Himself likely died in the TRIAL-SIZE DOVE BAR year
Character Notes
- Bruce Green & Tommy Doocey:
- Bruce fell for Mildred Bonk in 8th grade (YEAR OF THE TRIAL-SIZE DOVE BAR).
- At the time of what would have been his graduation (that would be 4 years later?!), he spirals into a chaotic life with Tommy Doocey; the same snake-owning dealer from Erdedy’s DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT chapter (mentioned by the woman who promised Erdedy marijuana).
- Jim Troeltsch:
- 17 in NOVEMBER of DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT year
- Hoards stimulants while hallucinating a "face in the floor"
Curious Connections
- Donald Gately vs Don Gately?
- Hal mentions Donald Gately in YEAR OF GLAD ("digging up my father's head")
- Don Gately is protagonist of AUTUMN - YEAR OF DAIRY PRODUCTS
- Hamlet parallels: dead father, paralyzed son, hidden rot
I didn’t read every day. That part disappoints me. I had imagined this beginning differently, more structured, the reading I mean. But I also know what that means, turning something personal into a task, a habit to log, and then feel guilty about. I don’t want that. Not with this book.
So I’m here. Week one. Sixty-one pages in. Confused, amused, unnerved, intrigued. And above all, completely in.