Read Along: Infinite Jest, P. 8 - 13

Today’s notes!

TLDR: Hal takes us back, sort of, and talks for for a min before everyone freaked out as thought he turned into a monster or something

Loc 296 | Highlight

"funny what you don't recall."

Ideas:

1. When Hal think back to when he was maybe 5 years old, it prefixes the following setup. Sets up memory as unreliable - both in terms of what we forget and what we "remember" that might not be true. Later I call this as Anti Proustian, where Proust is clear, here it is a mess.

2. Meta-commentary on how we interpret past memories through present understanding. I had a hand written note: "example of our interpretations", how interpretations dictate existence.

3. First layer of narrative unreliability - opening scene reliability now questionable

Loc 299 | Highlight

"gas-driven thing that roared and snorted and bucked and he remembers seemed to propel the Moms rather than vice versa,"

Ideas:

1. Grammar shifts signal altered states/memory distortion (handwritten note: "diff grammer")

2. Machine description mirrors communication breakdown from opening scene

3. Power dynamics reversed (machine controlling mother) - hints at larger theme of control/lack of control

Loc 303 | Highlight

"He says I was around five and crying and was vividly red in the cold spring air."

Ideas:

1. Proustian memory inversion - triggered by decay rather than pleasure (handwritten: proustian inversion! )

2. Shift to third person suggests dissociation from memory, really primes the reader to be aware of when to change perspectives and even point of view.

3. "vividly red" works as both physical and emotional state descriptor

Loc 316 | Highlight

"I had stopped crying, he remembers, and simply stood there, the size and shape of a hydrant, in red PJ's with attached feet, holding out the mold, seriously, like the report of some kind of audit."

Ideas:

1. Anxiety's effect on memory formation/suppression

2. Child performing adult behavior ("audit") while in childish clothing (pjs with attached feets, Boss Baby)

3. Mold as symbol of decay/corruption juxtaposed with childhood innocence

Loc 319 | Highlight

"she yells in Orin's second and more fleshed-out recollection,"

Ideas:

1. Multiple versions of truth - "fleshed-out" suggests artificial construction

2. Memory as collaborative/competitive narrative between family members

3. "Second" recollection implies constructed rather than authentic memory

Loc 321 | Highlight

"while O. gaped at his first real sight of adult hysteria."

Ideas:

1. Loss of parental infallibility moment (handwritten note: what were some of your first hysteria or extreme memories. )

2. "Real" suggesting previous encounters with hysteria weren't authentic

3. Moment of childhood innocence breaking down

Loc 324 | Highlight

"her footprints Native-American-straight,"

Ideas:

1. Cultural stereotype used as precision marker (handwritten note: "weird flex")

2. Mother's controlled response vs. previous hysteria

3. Linear thinking vs. emotional chaos

Loc 340 | Highlight

""DeLint at the big man’s arm: ‘Stop it!’ ‘I am not what you see and hear.’ Distant sirens. A crude half nelson. Forms at the door. A young Hispanic woman holds her palm against her mouth, looking. ‘I’m not,’ I say."

Ideas:

1. I have no idea what is going on, is he having a panic attack? Is he a Lovecraftian monster?!

2. Once again another tone shift, and it reminds me of Halloween 1978, when they revealed that it was a kid in a mask that did that. I'm not saying Hal is a monster, I'm saying it has that same level of surprise.

3. So far, very fun.

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Highlights

Loc 324 | Highlight

"her footprints Native-American-straight,"

Note: weird flex wallace

Loc 321 | Highlight

"while O. gaped at his first real sight of adult hysteria."

Note: what is your earliest memories of a hysteria

Loc 319 | Highlight

"she yells in Orin's second and more fleshed-out recollection,"

Note: same or diff recollsctions

Loc 316 | Highlight

"I had stopped crying, he remembers, and simply stood there, the size and shape of a hydrant, in red PJ's with attached feet, holding out the mold, seriously, like the report of some kind of audit. O. says his memory diverges at this point, probably as a result of anxiety."

Note: anxiety causes memory suropression. psychology ref

Loc 309 | Highlight

"and in that most maternal of reflexes she, who feared and loathed more than anything spoilage and filth, reached to take whatever her baby held out — as in how many used heavy Kleenex, spit-back candies, wads of chewed-out gum in how many theaters, airports, backseats, tournament lounges?"

Note: intense maternal instinct detail

Loc 303 | Highlight

"He says I was around five and crying and was vividly red in the cold spring air."

Note: inverted proustian recollesction thats why popsicle reference

Loc 303 | Highlight

"I was saying something over and over; he couldn't make it out until our mother saw me and shut down the tiller, ears ringing, and came over to see what I was holding out. This turned out to have been a large patch of mold"

Note: communication breakdown again

Loc 299 | Highlight

"gas-driven thing that roared and snorted and bucked and he remembers seemed to propel the Moms rather than vice versa,"

Note: diff grammer as an altered state description

Loc 298 | Highlight

"The garden's area was a rough rectangle laid out with Popsicle sticks and twine."

Note: childhood memory details

Loc 297 | Highlight

"eldest brother Orin"

Note: first brother mention

Loc 296 | Highlight

"Our first home, in the suburb of Weston, which I barely remember —"

Note: memory setup

Loc 296 | Highlight

"funny what you don't recall."

Note: this is why this paragraph is funky. its an example of our interpretations of our memories in the past

Loc 293 | Highlight Continued

what lmao .

disconnect between hal and narration

Loc 293 | Highlight

"I cannot make myself understood. 'I am not just a jock,' I say slowly. Distinctly. 'My transcript for the last year might have been dickied a bit, maybe, but that was to get me over a rough spot. The grades prior to that are de moi.' My eyes are closed; the room is silent. 'I cannot make myself understood, now.' I am speaking slowly and distinctly. 'Call it something I ate.'"

Note: first time hearing hal talk. hmm. the narration is very different.

Loc 290 | Highlight

"Mr. Incandenza, Hal, please just explain to me why we couldn't be accused of using you, son. Why nobody could come and say to us, why, look here, University of Arizona, here you are using a boy for just his body, a boy so shy and withdrawn he won't speak up for himself, a jock with doctored marks and a store-bought application."

Note: ironic.

Loc 288 | Highlight

"The yellow Dean has leaned so far forward that his tie is going to have a horizontal dent from the table-edge, his face sallow and kindly and no-shit-whatever:"

Note: physical description shows power dynamic

Loc 283 | Highlight

"The sort of all-defensive game Schtitt used to have me play: the best defense:"

Note: first mention of tennis coach/style

Loc 277 | Highlight

"... a bright,"

Note: cutoff dialogue technique

Loc 273 | Highlight

"Alpha of the pack here and way more effeminate than he'd seemed at first, standing hip-shot with a hand on his waist, walking with a roll to his shoulders, jingling change as he pulls up his pants as he slides into the chair still warm from C.T.'s bottom, crossing his legs in a way that inclines him well into my personal space, so that I can see multiple eyebrow-tics and capillary webs in the oysters below his eyes and smell fabric-softener and the remains of a breath-mint turned sour."

Note: salesmen

Loc 270 | Highlight

"but they are mine; de moi."

Note: french flex

Loc 270 | Highlight

"not quite on the application's instructed subject of Most Meaningful Educational Experience Ever."

Note: more academic bs

Loc 266 | Highlight

"— that we've known in processing several prior applications through Coach White's office that the Enfield School is operated, however impressively, by close relations of first your brother, who I can still remember the way White's predecessor Maury Klamkin wooed that kid, so that grades' objectivity can be all too easily called into question —"

Note: narration keeps interrupting the head with hals monologues. missing what the admin said . but nothing matters at the end

Read Along: Infinite Jest, P. 3 - 8 ….

1. Introduction to Hal and Initial Observations

- Quote: “You are Harold Incandenza, eighteen, date of secondary-school graduation approximately one month from now, attending the Enfield Tennis Academy, Enfield, Massachusetts, a boarding school, where you reside.”

- Thoughts:

- Sets a formal, almost detached tone.

- Hal’s identity is defined by external labels—his school, age, status — sounds like Stewie Griffen. Lmao

- Reflects the weight of expectations and pressures he faces, particularly in academia and sports.

2. Meta-Irony in Reading Hal’s Perspective

- Quote: “The issues my office faces with the application materials on file from you, Hal, involve some test scores!… The Admissions staff is looking at standardized test scores from you that are, as I’m sure you know and can explain, are, shall we say… subnormal.?”

- Thoughts:

- Hal’s analysis traps both him and the reader in loops of self-reflection.

- Wallace uses this “meta” style to make us overthink the process of reading, almost poking fun at it.

- Creates a shared experience with Hal—our own “trap” of trying to over-interpret every layer. I need to start counting the traps, it’s at least one to two per page so far.

3. Academic Satire and Hyper-Specialized Essays

- Quote: “The monograph’s length application is just extra essays that they don’t need, such as our neoclassical assumption and contemporary prescriptive grammar, the implications of post-Fourier transformation for a holographically mimetic cinema, the emergence of heroic stasis of broadcast entertainment.”

- Thoughts:

- Ridicules academia’s tendency toward jargon and intellectual posturing, while also being astute and acuity aware of ivory tower absurdity

- Satire on how academia often values complexity and exclusivity over clarity or purpose.

- Wallace points out the absurdity in trying too hard to sound intelligent or exclusive.

4. Dean’s Authority vs Hal’s Vulnerability

- Quote: “The dean with the flat yellow face has leaned forward, his lips drawn back from his teeth in what I see as concern.”

- Thoughts:

- Illustrates the power imbalance between Hal and the dean—a closed, authoritative figure vs. Hal’s fragile self.

- Hal feels exposed and scrutinized, echoing his larger struggle with self-doubt.

- Captures the intense, often dehumanizing pressure of institutional judgment.

5. Deadpan Humor and Exaggerated Normalcy

- Quote: “C.I. has crossed his arms casually; their triceps’ flesh is webbed with mottle in the air-conditioned sunlight.”

- Thoughts:

- Hal’s deadpan observation makes an ordinary moment feel absurdly serious.

- Highlights Wallace’s humor in turning trivial details into sources of exaggerated tension.

- Shows the contrast between how characters perceive small actions and the overblown significance Hal assigns them.

6. Over-Analysis Trap and Meta-Reflection

- Quote: “The coach, in a slight accent neither British nor Australian, is telling C.T. that the whole application-interface process, while usually just a pleasant formality, is probably best accentuated by letting the applicant speak up for himself.”

- Thoughts:

- Wallace plays with word choice to make readers overthink (“accentuate” vs. “facilitate”). While constantly superimposing super formal speech with flourishes.

- Satire on how easily we can fall into obsessive interpretation, even over single words. What I talked about traps above.

- Reflects Hal’s (and perhaps my) inability to simply accept things at face value.

7. Quadrivium-Trivium Model and Academic Prestige

- Quote: “It’s focused on the total needs of the player and student, founded by a towering intellectual figure whom I hardly need name, here, and based by him on the rigorous Oxbridge Quadriv-ium-Trivium curricular model.”

- Thoughts:

- Wallace mocks academia’s obsession with tradition and prestige.

- Shows the emptiness behind “important-sounding” concepts when they are used merely to appear sophisticated.

- Highlights the irony of academic elitism—the institution’s prestige feels almost absurdly exaggerated.

8. Coach’s Interjection to Break Over-Analysis

- Quote: “DeLint is moving toward the tennis coach, who is shaking his head.”

- Thoughts:

- A humorous break in the over-analysis, with the coach’s head shake as if telling us to lighten up.

- Wallace might be hinting that we should enjoy the story without needing to dissect every detail.

- Adds a human touch, gently reminding us to find humor and ease, even in a dense narrative.

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And I’m only 8 pages in…. Here are more quotes that made me giggle or has fun tools of the trade.

Opening Scene Quotes

[Location 137]

"Three faces have resolved into place above summer-weight sportcoats and half-Windsors across a polished pine conference table shiny with the spidered light of an Arizona noon."

[Location 138]

"three Deans — of Admissions, Academic Affairs, Athletic Affairs."

[Location 139]

"I believe I appear neutral, maybe even pleasant, though I've been coached to err on the side of neutrality and not attempt what would feel to me like a pleasant expression or smile."

[Location 142]

"My fingers are mated into a mirrored series of what manifests, to me, as the letter X."

[Location 144]

"The tennis coach jingles pocket-change. There is something vaguely digestive about the room's odor."

[Location 150-151]

"Harold Incandenza, eighteen, [...] His reading glasses are rectangular, court-shaped, the sidelines at top and bottom. 'You are, according to Coach White and Dean [unintelligible], a regionally, nationally, and continentally ranked junior tennis player, a potential O.N.A.N.C.A.A. athlete of substantial promise, recruited by Coach White via correspondence with Dr. Tavis here commencing… February of this year.' [...] 'You have been in residence at the Enfield Tennis Academy since age seven.'"

[Location 156]

"'Coach White informs our offices that he holds the Enfield Tennis Academy's program and achievements in high regard, that the University of Arizona tennis squad has profited from the prior matriculation of several former E.T.A. alumni, one of whom was one Mr. Aubrey F. deLint, who appears also to be with you here today. Coach White and his staff have given us —'"

[Location 168]

"'I've been asked to add that Hal here is seeded third, Boys' 18-and-Under Singles, in the prestigious WhataBurger Southwest Junior Invitational out at the Randolph Tennis Center —' says what I infer is Athletic Affairs, his cocked head showing a freckled scalp."

[Location 174]

"believe scheduled for 0830"

[Location 178-179]

"C.T. has crossed his arms casually; their triceps' flesh is webbed with mottle in the air-conditioned sunlight. 'You sure did. Bill.' He smiles. The two halves of his mustache never quite match. [...] let me say if I may that Hal's excited, excited to be invited for the third year running to the Invitational again, to be back here in a community he has real affection for, to visit with your alumni and coaching staff, to have already justified his high seed in this week's not unstiff competition, to as they say still be in it without the fat woman in the Viking hat having sung, so to speak, but of course most of all to have a chance to meet you gentlemen and have a look at the facilities here."

[Location 189]

"'Is Hal all right, Chuck?' Athletic Affairs asks. 'Hal just seemed to… well, grimace. Is he in pain? Are you in pain, son?'"

[Location 198-199]

"while usually just a pleasant formality, is probably best accentuated by letting the applicant speak up for himself. [...] I presume it's probably facilitate that the tennis coach mistook for accentuate, though accelerate, while clunkier than facilitate, is from a phonetic perspective more sensible, as a mistake."

[Location 202-203]

"His own fingers look like they mate as my own four-X series dissolves and I hold tight to the sides of my chair. [...] need candidly to chat re potential problems with my application, they and I, he is beginning to say. He makes a reference to candor and its value. 'The issues my office faces with the application materials on file from you, Hal, involve some test scores.' [...] 'The Admissions staff is looking at standardized test scores from you that are, as I'm sure you know and can explain, are, shall we say… subnormal.'"

[Location 208-209]

"And surely the little aviarian figure at right is Athletics, [...] an I'm-eating-something-that-makes-me-really-appreciate-the-presence-of-whatever-I'm-drinking-along-with-it look that spells professionally Academic reservations."

[Location 211]

"The incongruity between Admissions's hand- and face-color is almost wild. '— verbal scores that are just quite a bit closer to zero than we're comfortable with,'"

[Location 219-220]

"the appearance of incongruity if not out-right shenanigans.' [...] 'Surely by incredible you meant very very very impressive.