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/lit/ - Literature

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4628212 No.4628212 [Reply] [Original]

So I just finished pic related. I'm thoroughly confused but what I've been able to gather from the internet is:
Hal ate the mold DMZ is synthesized from in the "MY SON ATE THIS" scene and it finally synthesized when he got off of marijuana
What I wasn't able to get was
How Don Gately is tied into everything, is Joelle Van Dyne actually disfigured, everything with James O. Incandenza's wraith (did Ortho Stice see it at the end?), everything about John Wayne I.E half the book.

I'm glad I read it because I feel like I've finally accomplished something as far as literature goes. I just want to tie together some loose ends.

>> No.4628320

I'm not doing this again. Did anybody save the "book of the dead/eschaton" thread from last week?

>> No.4628321

Gately (besides being in love with Joelle) helps Hal dig up his dad's skull in Canada to try and find the master of The Entertainment, but they are too late (either Orin or the Canadians got there first).

Joelle's whole deal is pretty up for interpretation, she says she's too beautiful, but is probably lying. Then again it is her notoriously unreliable roommate who says that she was burned with acid so maybe Joelle was telling the truth.

The wraith was helping Stice play better (but also freaking the shit out of him) so that he could inhabit Stice's body and play Hal at the Whataburger so they could communicate the only way Hal is capable of anymore (through tennis).

Pretty sure John Wayne is either a Canadian double (or triple or whatever) agent. (Also he's banging Hal's Mom.)

>> No.4628329

>>4628321
What I don't get about Orin is why he did all the stuff with the entertainment.

Also I found this while waiting for a response. Best ending explanation I've found yet.
http://fictionadvocate.com/2012/08/01/the-infinite-jest-liveblog-what-happened-pt-1/

>> No.4628333

>>4628212
>reading infinite shit
when did /lit/ become so pleb

>> No.4628344

>>4628333
I started it a while ago just to see if I could finish a book that's infamously challenging. I know it's not an extremely highbrow book but I'm glad I read it and wouldn't repurpose the time I put into it if I had the chance to.

>> No.4628394

>>4628344
It's really not that bad a book. /lit/ likes to hate on DFW because he's somewhere between high-brow "intellectual" and accessible and all the college kids like him. I haven't heard any convincing reasons as to why he deserves people hating on his work so much.

>> No.4628404

>>4628329
Orin is an emotional retard. His developmental arrest is a conjunctive permutation of first born son; psycho manipulative passive/aggressive moms, incestuous feelings of betrayal by same for fucking everything with a pulse (including Orin himself, in the car), fantasy world isolation of highest level athletic pursuits; natural good looks.

By sending out copies of the entertainment, he is murdering his mother's lovers.

>> No.4628416

>>4628404
That makes sense. I knew he was emotionally fucked because of how he interacted with his dad, his "subjects" and his weird link between Joelle van D. and moms but I wasn't sure what his motives were.

Thanks for all the help.