Infinite Jest is a novel 1996 by American author David Foster Wallace.
This novel is widely known for its unconventional narrative structure (modeled after the Sierpinski girdle) and experimental use of the final note. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made a list of Time magazine from 100 best English novels published between 1923 and 2005.
Infinite Jest is a literary bestseller, selling 44,000 copies at the end of its first year of publication. By 2016, worldwide sales have exceeded one million copies.
Video Infinite Jest
Development
The novel period of pregnancy is long. Wallace began Infinite Jest , "or something like that", at various times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991-92 were more productive. The book is edited by publishers Little, Brown and Company Michael Pietsch, who has attracted a cut of about 250 pages of manuscripts.
The title of the novel is from Hamlet , Act V, Scene 1, in which Hamlet holds the court clerk's skull, Yorick, and says, "Ouch, poor Yorick I know him, Horatio: limited, the most extraordinarily beautiful: he has guided me on his back a thousand times, and now, how hated in my imagination! "Wallace's work title for Infinite Jest is A Failed Entertainment .
Maps Infinite Jest
Settings
In the future world of novels, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together form a united North American state known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. (A reference to onanism).
Corporations are allowed to have the opportunity to bid and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing the traditional numerical numerals with honor moniken respected by the company name. Although the narrative is fragmented and includes several "named" years, most stories occur during "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" (Y.D.A.U.).
On the orders of US President Johnny Gentle ("clean freaks" who campaign to clean up the US while ensuring that no Americans will cause any inconvenience in the process), much of what was formerly the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become the disposal of a giant hazardous waste, an area "granted" to Canada and known as the "Great Concave" by Americans because of the resulting border movement.
Subsidized Time
In the world of novels, each year subsidized by sponsors of certain companies for tax revenues. The years of Subsidized Time are:
- Whopper Year
- Years from Tucks Medicated Pad
- Year from Dove Bar Trial Size
- The Year of Perdue Wonderchicken
- Whispering Maytag Whisper-Quiet Year
- Yushityu Year 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade for Infernatron/InterLace TP System for Home, Office or Mobile Phone sic
- The Year of Milk Products from the American Heart
- The Affected Adult Success Year (Y.D.A.U.)
- Happy Year
Criticism has debated which year Y.D.A.U. in accordance with the Gregorian Calendar, with various theories that support 2008, 2009, and 2011.
Location
The main locations of this novel are the Enfield Tennis Academy (ETO) and the House of Ennet Drug and Alcohol Recovery (separated by hillside on the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts). Many of the characters are students or lecturers at school or patients or staff in a shelter home.
The fictional Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.) is a series of buildings arranged as cardioids on a hill on Commonwealth Avenue. Ennet House is located directly down from E.T.A., facilitating many interactions between characters in two locations.
Enfield mostly stands in Brighton, Massachusetts. Wallace's description of life at Enfield and Allston's neighbors contrasts with the wonderful student life at E.T.A. (The real historic town of Enfield is now sinking under the Quabbin Reservoir, west of Massachusetts.)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology student union is also quite prominent in this novel. In the novel structure is built in the form of the human brain. This is the broadcasting site of the main character radio show and the location of a potentially destructive tennis tournament between E.T.A. and Canadian youth.
Expanded philosophical conversations (touching on some major themes of the novel) between Quebec separatists and US government contact occurred on the mountain slopes outside Tucson, Arizona. The Arizona Cardinals player who is E.T.A. students are also the main characters.
Some of these novel acts also take place at various Boston-area Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings; as well as other places in New England and Canada.
Plot
There are four main narratives interwoven:
- A fringe group of QuÃÆ'Ã © bÃÆ' Â © cois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents ( English : The Seatassins Assassins; AFR), plotting a violent geopolitical coup, and opposed by high-level top US cooperatives.
- Residents in the Boston area are reaching their "lowest point" with their substance abuse problems, and entering a drug and alcohol recovery program where they are developing in recovery through AA and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
- Students train and study at the elite tennis academy run by James and Avril Incandenza, and Avril's foster brother, Charles Tavis.
- Incandenza family history lies, focusing on the youngest son, Hal.
The narration is connected via a movie, Infinite Jest, also referred to in the novel as "Entertainment" or "samizdat". This film, so entertaining for the viewers that they lost all interest in anything other than seeing it and thus eventually died, is the last work of James Incandenza. She completed it during a period of calm imposed by her leading actress, Joelle Van Dyne. The Quebec separatists sought a master, a copy of a work that could be redistributed to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Official Service Office (O.U.S.) aims to intercept copies of masters to prevent mass dissemination and destabilization of the Organization of North American States, or others to discover or produce anti-entertainment that may counteract the effects of the film. Joelle sought treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House and Alcohol Recovery House. A.F.R. member (and possible double agent O.U.S.) Marathe visits Ennet House, which aims to find Joelle and lead to the master copy of "the Entertainment".
Main characters
Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (A.F.R.), Assassins wheelchair, is a separatist group QuÃÆ'Â © bÃÆ'Â © cois. (The use of "rollents" in which "roulants" would be true corresponds to false French words and phrases in the novel.) They are one of the many groups that developed after the United States forced Canada and Mexico to join the Organization of American States North (ONAN), but AFR is the most deadly and extremist. While other separatist groups are willing to accept nationality, A.F.R. wants Canada to break away from O.N.A.N. and to reject the American compulsive gift of his contaminated "Great Concave" (or, Hal and Orin speculate, pretending it was his intention to pressure Canada to let Quebec break away). The A.F.R. looking for a major copy of Infinite Jest as a terrorist weapon to achieve its goal. The A.F.R. rooted in childhood games in which miner children will line up along the railway line and compete to be the last to jump across the upcoming train line, a game where many are killed or become without legs (hence the seat wheels).
Only one miners child ever (with disrespect) failed to jump - Bernard Wayne, who may be associated with E.T.A. John Wayne. QuÃÆ'Â © bÃÆ' Â © co-liaison Avril with John Wayne, and with A.F.R.'s Guillaume DuPlessis and Luria Perec, indicating that Avril may have a relationship with A.F.R. as well. There is also evidence linking E.T.A. prorector Thierry Poutrincourt to the group.
- RÃÆ' Â © my Marathe is a member of Seatass Assassins who secretly speaks with Hugh/Helen Steeply. Marathe is a quadruple agent: A.F.R. thinking that he was a triple agent, just pretending to betray A.F.R., while Marathe and Steeply knew that he was just pretending to betray them. He did this to secure medical support for his wife (who was born without a skull) from the Office of Uncertain Service. At the end of the novel, Marathe was sent to infiltrate Ennet House under the guise of a Swiss drug addict.
Other recurring characters
These characters cross between the main narrative threads:
- Hugh Steeply , an agency that assumes a female identity ("Helen") for an operating role, with whom Orin Incandenza becomes obsessed. Hugh works for the Government Service Undefined Office and is undercover to get information from Orin about Entertainment. He is a US contact with A.F.R. Marathe's mole.
- Lyle , E.T.A. teacher of the weight room. She spends most of her time perched on a towel dispenser in a lotus position. Lyle licked the sweat from the boys bodies after they worked and in turn gave them life advice. His behavior is described by the narrator as unusual but "nothing strange". Lyle is close to Mario, whom he sometimes uses to talk to players who struggle with pride.
- "Poor Tony" Krause, an addict and a crossword thief who steals a woman's outer heart and kills her, and then robs the Enfields.
- Randy Lenz, a "small-time organic coke seller who wore a sportswear rolled up his tanned sleeves and always checked his pulse on the inside of his wrist." A resident of Ennet House, he always asks for time but refuses to wear the clock and regularly breaks the rules of tranquility.
- Geoffrey Day, a resident of Ennet House who struggled with AA cliches. He came to Ennet House after placing his car through the window of a sports equipment store. [1]
- Marlon Bain, former E.T.A. students close to the Orin. Obsessive-Compulsive disorder makes it almost impossible for him to leave his apartment. Steeply contacted him for information about Orin and Incandenzas.
Style
Infinite Jest is a postmodern encyclopedic novel, famous for its length and details and because of its deviation involving the final notes (some of which have footnotes). It is also called a metamodernist and hysterical realist. Wallace's "information encyclopaedia" combines media theory, linguistics, film studies, sports, addiction, science, and issues of national identity. The book is often funny but explores deep melancholy.
Avoiding the development of chronological path and direct resolution - the concerns often mentioned in the review - this novel supports a wide variety of readings. At various times Wallace said that he intended to plot the novel to complete, but not directly; responding to his editor's concerns about the lack of resolution, he said "all answers [exist], but only past the last page". Long after Wallace's publication maintained this position, stating that the novel "completed it, but completed... beyond the right picture frame, you can get a pretty good idea, I think, about what happened". Critical reviews and reader guides have provided insight, but Burns notes that Wallace personally admitted to Jonathan Franzen that "the story is not entirely understandable".
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Wallace characterized the final use of this novel record as a method to disrupt the text's linearity while maintaining a sense of narrative cohesion.
Themes
This novel touches many topics, including addiction (for drugs, but also for sex and fame), withdrawal, recovery, death, family relationships, absent or dead parents, mental health, suicide, sadness, entertainment, film theory, media theory, linguistics, science, Quebec separatism, national identity, and tennis as metaphysical activity.
Literary connection
Infinite Jest drew explicitly or algae on many previous literary works.
As the title suggests, the novel is based in part on Hamlet drama . Enfield Tennis Academy in accordance with Denmark, ruled by James (King Hamlet) and Avril (Queen Gertrude). When James died, he was replaced by Charles (Claudius), the uncle of the talented son of Avril Hal (Prince Hamlet). As in the drama, the boy's job is to fight the new mental breakdown to make up for his father's reputation.
Another connection is to the Odyssey , where the son of Telemachus (Hal) must grow apart from his dominating mother Penelope (Avril) and discover the truth about her father's absence, Odysseus (James). (The pattern is also reproduced in the Ulysses novel arranged in a realistic version of Dublin populated by the same population as the Infinite Jest in Boston is realistic with a varied population. ) In one scene, Hal, on the phone with Orin, says that clipping his toenails into the "now looks like a telemachry practice bin." Orin then asks if Hal means telemetry. Christopher Bartlett argues that Hal's fault is a direct reference to Telemachus, which for the first four books of the Odyssey believe that his father is dead.
The link to The Brothers Karamazov has been analyzed by Timothy Jacobs, who saw Orin represent Dmitri nihilistik, It stands for Ivan and Mario Alyosha are simple and kind.
The film is so entertaining that viewers who lose interest in anything else have been likened to Monty Python's "The Funniest Joke in the World" sketch, as well as "experiential engine", a thought experiment by Robert Nozick.
Critical reception
Infinite Jest was marketed heavily, and Wallace had to adapt to become a public figure. She was interviewed in a national magazine and went on a 10-city book tour. Publisher Little, Brown equated the weight of the book with his interests in marketing and sending a series of secret teaser postcards to 4,000 people, announcing novels of "unlimited fun" and "unlimited style". Rolling Stone sent a reporter David Lipsky to follow Wallace on his "winning" book tour - the first time the magazine sent a reporter to the profile of a young writer in ten years. The interview was never published in the magazine but became Lipsky's
The initial reviews contribute to Infinite Jest's hype, many of whom describe it as an important literary event. In the Review of Contemporary Fiction , Steven Moore calls the book "an in-depth study of postmodern conditions." In 2004, Chad Harbach stated that, in retrospect, Infinite Jest now looks like a central American novel of the last thirty years, a solid star for a lower work into orbit. " In a retrospective of 2008 by The New York Times, it was described as "a monster masterpiece - nearly 1,100 pages of astonishing inventiveness and debilitating sweetness. Its size and complexity makes it off-limits and esoteric."
The Time magazine included this novel in the list of 100 best English novels published between 1923 and 2005.
As Wallace's
Not all critics are as a compliment. Some initial reviews, such as Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times, were mixed, acknowledging the writing power but criticizing the length and plot. He calls the novel "a broad encyclopedic compendium of anything that seems to have crossed Wallace's mind." In London Review of Books , Dale Peck wrote a novel, "... that, in one word, horrible." Other words I might use include bloating, boring, haphazard, and - perhaps especially - uncontrollable. "Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University called it" just horrible "and written with" no visible talent "(in the novel, Bloom's own work is called" turgid "). And in Wallace's review until 2000, A.O. Scott writes about Infinite Jest, the Pynchonesque Elements in the novel... feels somewhat willing and others.They impress in the way the appearance of a precocious child at a dinner party, and, in a way that same, ultimately annoying: they seem to be motivated, mostly, by the desire to show off. "
Some critics have qualified their initial stance. In 2008, Scott called "Infinite Jest" a "gigantic novel, zeitgeist-gobbling that set the benchmark of his generation for literary ambitions" and Wallace "the best mind of his generation." James Wood said he regrets his negative review: "I wish I would be a little slower with David Foster Wallace." And in 2012, Kakutani wrote in The New York Times, "Today's literary landscape is, of course, exponentially richer, more diverse and more complex - no small part due to Wallace's influence on contemporaries and young writers. "
Translation
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