2025-06-28
I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies...
I am in here.
November YDAU with Hal, seventeen, narrating. Twice Hal begins a sentence with "I am." Twice it's said that Hal has justified his seed (through his tournament performance), the double meaning presumably intentional. His academic performance has recently slipped, making it difficult to believe Hal could really be the sole author of such essays as Neoclassical Assumptions in Contemporary Prescriptive Grammar, The Implications of Post-Fourier Transforms for a Holographically Mimetic Cinema, The Emergence of Heroic Stasis in Broadcast Entertainment, Montague Grammar and the Semantics of Physical Modality, A Man Who Began to Suspect He Was Made of Glass, Tertiary Symbolism in Justinian Erotica.
Nobody can understand Hal when he talks, types, gestures, or otherwise expresses himself. It's unclear how he can play tennis or walk.
vague thoughts: What if he can only express himself through formal language, of which tennis is a physical modality? This seems dumb. While there's a lot of tennis-mathy stuff in the book, DFW is probably too fond of the sport to believe it could be represented as a grammar. anyways.
other spitball: much of what Hal describes is being misperceived. In much of the chapter, his monologue is phrased as on controlling how he appears to the deans as opposed to controlling himself.
Perhaps his perception (viz. the perception of him) has become his reality in some way or another. Not literally true, as the perception of him choking/seizing/psychotic didn't result in a (true) medical emergency. IIRC there's a JOI film about some mute(?) guy who might just suffer from everyone else being unable to hear him speak.
RE Hal's condition: "call it something I ate." It's suggested that mold he ate circa age five (twelve years ago) might be related. Twice Hal says he is not what they see and hear.
There is nothing wrong. I'm in here.
I am not what you see and hear.
I'm not
I am/I'm not is a pretty clear to be/not to be callback from Hal here.
Hal is ferried off to the emergency room, his second time ever. The first being a year ago, where a bizarre Québecois lady talked about her titty. Hal once saw the word KNIFE finger-written in a bathroom. He's become an infantophile? He thinks of Cosgrove Watt.
He thinks of John N.R. Wayne, who watched Hal and Don Gately dig up James Incandenza's head. Where be your gibes now?
So yo then man what's your story?
Mostly sourced from wikipedia and AHD. Sorry for no OED. TODO.
avers: To affirm positively
circumflex: 1. Curving around. 2. Any of several marks,
especially (^), used over a vowel in certain languages or in
phonetic keys to indicate quality of pronunciation.
Kekuléan knot: Might refer to the structure of benzene.
Its ring-shape was a Kekuléan discovery that laid foundations
for modern organic chemistry.
While looking into this, I found a speech of Kekulé's that's thematically aligned with Infinite Jest.
...
Someone has spoken of genius and the benzene theory has been called a work of genius. I have often asked myself: What is a genius and what a work of genius?
It is said that a genius recognizes truth without knowing the evidence for it....
It is also said that genius thinks in leaps. Gentlemen, the growing intellect does not think in leaps. That is not given to it.
And on the moment of discovery of benzene's structure:
Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis. Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the truth.
And to those who don’t think the truth will be given. They’ll have it without effort.
And randomly, an aside in the speech:
It seems to be the fact that parents normally decide the vocations of their sons.
It seems likely that DFW and Hal would have been drawn to this - "gambols" occurs twice in Kekulé's speech and once in Hamlet's reminiscense on Yorick. Questions of genius, effort, the (sub)consciousness, and father->son influence are all major themes of IJ and important for Hal's character.
So Hal knows about benzene. This makes it likely that he's familiar with arene substitution. Notably, one pattern of arene substitution is "ortho", where two atoms swap into the ring next to one another. Could this be where Ortho gets his nickname?
Lapidary: One who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems.
Perhaps relevant to cartridge optics.
Prescriptive Grammar: How language ought to be used. Its
"Neoclassical Assumptions" might involve the rejection of
modern(ist) language usage and revival of "classic" language
usage.
Montague Grammar: The idea that human language can be
represented as a formal language. Dependent on prescriptive
grammar, presumably. When connected with "Physical
Modality," it might be suggesting that there is a proper,
formal way to move through the world. TODO son not like that
son.
Justinian Erotica: Justinian I's reign "was marked by the
ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or
'restoration of the Empire.'" What people were jacking off to
during the failed restoration (their simulacra of
fulfillment TODO quote marathe here) of a glorious empire
likely relevant to our erudite ONANite etc etc.
Quadrivium: The higher division of the seven liberal arts
in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy,
arithmetic, and music.
Trivium: The lower division of the seven liberal arts in
medieval schools, consisting of grammar, logic, and
rhetoric.
Hirsute: Hairy
Presbyopic: Blurry near-vision. Complementary to myopic.
Parquet: Parquetry is an inlay of wood, often of
different colors, that is worked into a geometric pattern or
mosaic and is used especially for floors.
Halogen: Fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine
are halogens. Halogen means "salt former," which is what
they do when reacting with metal.
Enfilade: Gunfire directed along the length of a target,
such as a column of troops.
Martinet: One who demands absolute adherence to forms and
rules. After Jean Martinet (died 1672), French army officer.
Hypophylangial: Missing fingers/toes (or at least their
bones). A grief therapist has this.
Etiology: The study of causes or origins.
Another nice quote from Kekulé:
Whoever wishes to train himself as an investigator must study the traveler’s original works; and that, too, so thoroughly that he is able to read between the lines -- to divine the author’s unexpressed thought.