IJ ending discussion thread *spoilers* (duh)

[Anonymous No.18090051]

OK so I get how the story circles back to the first chapter and am not lost per se, and I guess I like "get" the quasi-ending, but I have no idea what caused Hal's illness. Looking online, some folks have suggested that Hal's mold eating had gastrointestinally synthesized some latent DMZ, (there was a paragraph where pemulis I think mentioned that DMZ grew on "funguses that grew on other funguses" which makes this theory super convincing imo, but others have suggested the JOI wraith drugged Hal's toothbrush with pemulis' missing stash of DMZ or pemulis himself had drugged Hal out of spite (Pemulis did argue strongly to Hal that he should do DMZ to figure stuff out, and I don't think it's far-fetched to say that pemulis would spike Hal against his will to try to do him good). And then the DMZ made him crazy or whatever, obviously.

What do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.18090098]

>>18090051
Why the fuck did you make a thread with spoilers?
I'm just 100 pages in ffs

[Anonymous No.18090160]

>>18090098
just wait until the Yuri character gets introduced

[Anonymous No.18090394]

>>18090051
JOI made the Entertainment for Hal, and the DMZ was supposed to go with it. They were meant to cure Hal and facilitate some kind of bonding that the two of them could never quite manage (JOI always going to extreme lengths to try to communicate with Hal and always failing). The wraith drugged the toothbrush and sent Gately/Hal on the mission to recover the Entertainment from his grave in the concavity, but they were too late, the french canadian terrorists got there first. Hal never saw the Entertainment so the DMZ just fucked him up and basically reversed his mental state (old Hal: articulate but emotionally dead, end of the book Hal: capable of feeling, but unable to communicate any longer). Obviously seeing the film without the drug is also bad, and results in the addictive reaction we see through most of the novel. The DMZ is the anti-Entertainment that Marathe theorized about. Hypothetically seeing the film could cure Hal. The DMZ is likely derived from the fungus Hal ate as kid in some way, synthesized by JOI himself most likely.

[Anonymous No.18090573]

iirc romulus dosed hal with whatever that crazy drug was
also the ghost is real and is what’s communicating with the dude in bed idr his name iirc the ghost was hal’s dad
does anyone know the page # of the orin vignette with the wedding ring and the girl at the bar and the getting her to feel guilty etc

[Anonymous No.18090581]

>>18090098
>subject says spoilers
>entire post is spoilered
what did you expect

[Anonymous No.18091035]

>>18090394
hoooooly shit thanks so much anon.

I definitely did not catch that the DMZ was supposed to accompany the entertainment for Hal.

That makes way more sense. Also makes Hal's condition much more tragic, but adds some hope of its eventual resolution.