Infinite Jest

Page 3 - Year of Glad
Hal, C.T., tennis, genius, a mushroom

• Hal Incandenza is at a college admission interview at the University of Arizona with three Deans (Admissions, Academic Affairs, Athletic Affairs)

• Also present are: Director of Composition, tennis coach, Mr. deLint, and his uncle Charles Tavis (C.T.)

• They’re discussing Hal’s application which shows:

  • High athletic ranking in tennis
  • Very low standardized test scores
  • Exceptional academic essays
  • Outstanding grades from ETA (Enfield Tennis Academy)

• The Deans are concerned about the discrepancy between his test scores and academic performance, suggesting possible academic fraud

• When Hal tries to speak for himself, the administrators react with horror to his attempt at communication, though Hal believes he’s speaking normally

• The scene ends with Hal being restrained and taken away in an ambulance, while his uncle argues against this action

• Throughout the chapter, there’s a flashback where Hal’s brother Orin recalls a childhood incident of Hal eating mold and their mother’s hysterical reaction

• The narrative switches between past and present, ending with Hal being transported to an Emergency Room while thinking about his upcoming tennis matches

• We learn Hal is a talented tennis player who will be playing in the semifinals of the WhataBurger tournament the next day

• The final passages reveal Hal’s rich internal monologue, showing his intelligence and awareness, contrasting sharply with his apparent inability to communicate normally with others

Page 17 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The night of the planned pot binge

Page 27 - 1 April-Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
Hal interview with the professional conversationalist (Himself disguised)

Page 32 - 9 May-Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Hal, Mario, deformities

• When boys go through puberty, they begin answering the phone with the same speech patterns as their fathers, regardless of whether their father is alive or not

• Hal has to wake up before 6:00 AM for dawn drills and often doesn’t return until after supper

• Hal packs in the dark to avoid waking his brother Mario, who needs extra sleep since he doesn’t drill and can’t play

• Mario sleeps with four pillows to support his “oversized skull”

• Hal gets a call. Answers “Mmmyellow”.

• It’s Orin. He says “I want to tell you. My head is filled with things to say.”

• Hal responds “I don’t mind. I could wait forever.”

• Orin replies “That’s what you think” and hangs up

• When Mario wakes up and asks who called, Hal tells him “No one you know, I don’t think”

Page 33 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The Arab medical attaché and his Teleputer habits

Page 37 - Year of the Trial-size Dove Bar
A poor family in crisis, told in raw slang

Page 39 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Hal and Mario in their dorm room

Page 42 - October-Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Orin in Phoenix, football and somewhat dissolute

Page 49 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Hal smoking pot in the Enfield tunnels

Page 55 - Autumn-Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
Gately, Quebec Gately robs Brookline house and accidentally kills owner, who he doesn’t know is anti-O.N.A.N. “Canadian-terrorism-coordinator” Guillaume Duplessis.

Page 60 - 3 November-Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The surreal dream of ‘evil’ at Enfield

Page 63 - As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
James Incandenza, Avril, ETA history

• Enfield Tennis Academy operated for 3 pre-Subsidized and 8 Subsidized years, first under James Incandenza, then Charles Tavis

• James O. Incandenza’s background:

  • Only child of a former junior tennis player turned struggling actor in Tucson, AZ
  • Father was an alcoholic obsessed with death by spider-bite and hostile to Method acting
  • Father built James into a tennis player in his basement workshop
  • James became a talented junior player, tall and strong at the net
  • Used tennis scholarships to attend schools far from Southwest US

• James’s professional achievements:

  • Earned doctorate in optical physics through ONR
  • Worked for government (Ford-Bush era) in optical physics
  • Made crucial discoveries enabling cold annular fusion
  • Later patented inventions in mirrors, eyewear, holograms, cartography software, lighting, and film equipment

• Marriage details:

  • Married Avril Mondragon, described as a “bombshell” academic from McGill University
  • Met at U. Toronto conference
  • Marriage complicated by Avril’s past connections to Québecois-Separatist Left
  • Their first child, Orin, was partly conceived for legal reasons

• Later life:

  • Liquidated assets and patents
  • Gave control of ETA to Avril’s half-brother Charles Tavis
  • Focused on making experimental films and documentaries
  • Committed suicide at age 54
  • Buried in L’Islet County, Quebec
  • Received posthumous government citation
  • Cornell planned a festschrift
  • Young filmmakers paid tribute through visual techniques
  • ETA players wore black bands in mourning

Page 65 - Denver CO, 1 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

• Orin is performing a promotional stunt where football players glide/fly over Mile-High stadium wearing red wings and beaks
• He hates the experience, tacks back and forth cautiously while others do barrel rolls
• The stadium is extremely loud, with cameras zooming in and spectators reaching from top rows
• Parts of costumes (beaks, claws) fall off other players during the flight
• An ex-QB who now holds for place-kicks, one of the “token females,” flies beside Orin briefly
• A Bronco player crashes at midfield, making their costume’s rear end fly off
• Orin has an undisclosed morbid fear of heights he hasn’t told the team about
• He complains about being forced to do this, noting in New Orleans they only had to wear robes and halos

The scene shifts to:

• Michael Pemulis giving a “Big Buddy” talk to younger students about muscimole (a mushroom-derived drug)
• He details its chemical properties and effects while the young students struggle to stay attentive
• The viewing screen shows text about “METHOXYLATED BASES FOR PHENYLKYLAMINE MANIPULATION”

The scene shifts again to:

• A first-person narrator discussing their history with drugs, starting at age 15-16 with marijuana to help with recurring nightmares
• The narrator describes a recurring dream where they’re on an enormous, complex tennis court
• The court has intricate lines going in all directions, creating complex patterns
• In the dream, there’s a silent crowd, officials in blazers, and the narrator’s “Moms” with a white umbrella
• The dreamer never sees their opponent despite being in a match
• The umpire whispers “Please Play” but the game remains hypothetical

Page 68 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Kate Gompert, Mario + Schtitt, individualism

• First section follows a doctor interviewing Kate Gompert, age 21, in a psych ward

• Kate is on suicide watch after a serious overdose attempt with Parnate, Lithium, and Zoloft

• She describes her depression not as sadness but as a horrific feeling “all over” that she compares to constant nausea

• Kate reveals her depression is connected to quitting marijuana (which dealers code-name “Bob Hope”)

• She describes a cycle of heavy marijuana use followed by quitting, leading to severe depression about two weeks later

• Kate requests ECT (electroshock therapy) treatment, which she’s had before

• Second section briefly mentions someone discovering a Near Eastern medical attaché in an unresponsive state, staring at a cartridge-viewer with an ecstatic expression

• Third section focuses on Gerhardt Schtitt, head coach at Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.):

• Recruited by James Incandenza despite previous controversy involving a riding crop

• Has a close relationship with Mario Incandenza, having philosophical conversations with him

• Views tennis through a mathematical/philosophical lens rather than just technical

• Believes tennis is about confronting the self’s limitations rather than just beating opponents

• Originally trained in a European system that viewed athletics as training for citizenship

• Critical of American culture’s focus on individual pleasure over larger meaning

Page 85 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Tiny Ewell and alcohol

Page 87 - 30 April-Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Marathe and Steeply, outside Tuscon; reconnaissance and the Assassins des Fanteuils Rollents

Page 95 - Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Enfield, the locker room, “flubbaflubba”; and then toggling to Marathe and Steeply on the hillside outside Tuscon.

Page 109 - 3 November Y.D.A.U. Enfield, the Buddy System and the Viewing Rooms

Page 121 - Mario Incandenza’s first and only even remotely romantic experience, thus far
Mario meets USS Millicent Kent in the brushes at Enfield

Page 126 - 30 April – Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Marathe and Steeply

Page 127 - 30 April – Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Marathe and Steeply; Guru at Enfield; Thievery and drugs in Chinatown, the Boston Orange line and slang

Page 135 - 3 November Y.D.A.U.
Han and Orin, Ennet House rehabilitation, video telephony article (videophony tableaux), urine samples

Page 157 - Winter B.S. 1960 – Tuscon AZ
J. O. Incandenza’s father (Hal’s grandfather) and the sad sad story of the tennis match and his knee injury when he was a child.

Page 169 - 4 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Michael Pemulis and drugs

Page 172 - Tennis and the Feral Prodigy…
A short film narrated by Hal (beautiful chapter)

Page 176 - Selected transcripts…Ennet House drug and alcohol
Questions, fragments of monologues

Page 181 - Late October Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The lisping character, Madame Psychosis’ midnight show U.H.I.D., Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed The Ennet House facility next to E.T.A.

Page 198 - 6 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The weight room at E.T.A., Lyle, “Gwwwwwwwwww… Things one can learn at the substance abuse treatment center, paragraphs beginning with the word “That…”; Tattoos; Michael Pemulis and his drug selling

Page 219 - 7 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Joelle van Dyne and her contemplations of suicide at Molly Notkin’s party; “Year of…” – a chronology?;
Helen P.Steeply; Allusions to Jim Incandenza’a filmmaking

Page 240
Enfield, MA

Page 242 - 5 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Hal and Orin discuss the suicide of their father Jim, when he placed his head in a microwave and turned it on…
Hal’s grief counselor.

Page 258 - 6 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
E.T.A. at Port Washington for the tennis match. Beautiful passages describing tennis, P. 268-69; Ennet House and the people who live there (Don Gately, etc.); Winning at Port Washington; Orin’s decision to leave tennis at 17 and take up punting for B.U.; his love for Joelle, the P.G.O.A.T.

Page 299 - 14 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Poor Tony Krause and his seizure on the T. He is a drug addled man in the throes of a horrible, seemingly protracted withdrawl. He seems to be partially dressed in women’s clothing. Does he die? It is not clear.

Page 306 - 7 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
The pro-rectors at E.T.A. and the classes they offer, eccentric and funny (M.E. Thode, early days of O.N.A.N., etc.); The birth of Mario Incandenza, his deformities and his early years.

Page 317 - 30 April / 1 Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Marathe and Steeply on the desert escarpment in the night. They talk about issues dividing Quebec and the USA, and their personality differences become further revealed.

Page 321 - 8 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Interdependence Day GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
The annual E.T.A. tradition on this day. The game of Eschaton in detail. This match becomes a disaster with shear chaos ensuing Evan Ingersoll’s radical assault.

Page 343 - 8 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Interdependence Day GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
Inside Boston AA. Quite beautiful. The “White Flag” group of Enfield. The trajectory of alcohol and drug abuse, meetings, and speakers at the podium.

Page 375 - 30 April / 1 Year of the May Depend Adult Undergarment Marathe and Steeply on the escarpment, a moment at E.T.A., and then return for a brief moment to the Boston AA narrative.

Page 380 - 8 November, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment Interdependence Day GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
Mario Incandenza’s early film puppet show depicting the rise of president Johnny Gentle, famous crooner. The film is shown every Interdependence Day. There is much dialogue from the film, very informative about the birth of O.N.A.N. Also moments with Lyle, the mystic in the E.T.A. locker room. The development of InterLace as network television evolves from cable and the loss of advertising revenue.

Page 418 - 30 April / 1 May Year of the May Depend Adult Undergarment
Marathe and Steeply on the bluff overlooking Tuscon. They are engaged in a long conversation covering philosophy and American sensibilities. Also, there are several allusions to the ‘Entertainment’, the cartridge that overpowers one and renders one helpless. It is some kind of weapon.