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Infinite Summer: Location 933

Filed under: The Squib Report Tagged: David Foster Wallace, Infinite Summer

Martin Schneider writes:

Note: I'm participating in Infinite Summer, the widespread Internet book project dedicated to reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. For more information, consult my introduction. My strategy has been to avoid lengthy commentary but instead list quintessentially Wallacean vocabulary and note other oddities, including Kindle typos.

I took hardly any notes for the second and third chapters. Chapter 2 is a pitch-perfect depiction of (as yet unnamed) Erdedy's agitated hours-long wait for pot, and chapter 3 returns to Hal and introduces us to an eccentric and key relation of his. For some reason, neither one offers much for the fan of odd vocabulary (aside from Kindle problems with italics text).

The juxtaposition of these two chapters is a reminder that what most marks Infinite Jest is its combination of sections featuring unfussy, devastating, psychologically plausible character sketches and sections featuring hyperbolic, absurd comedy. The first elicits the reaction, "Oh my god, that is just how it is," and the other, laughter and admiration for linguistic dexterity. Honestly, DFW is equally good at both, but forced to choose, I'll take the unfussy stuff.

There's also chapter 5, about the Saudi doctor, which is closer to regular narrative.

location 641: magisculed
location 667: The sentence starting "Was he in the bathroom"—can this possibly make grammatical sense?
location 716: caries
location 725: immeaning, Kindle typo
location 748: Seventhisn't, Kindle typo
location 749: Eighthamends, Kindle typo
location 782: Spiegelresulted, Kindle typo
location 797: mise-enscene, Kindle typo
location 809: Citizen,and, Kindle typo
location 858: Töblerone, DFW persists in spelling it with an umlaut, which it doesn't take.
location 858: monolial sinusitis
location 861: DeBakey
location 861: ad valorem
location 865: Valayat
location 876: spectation, IMO a quintessentially DFW kind of word; see plosive elsewhere
location 885: thrushive
location 889: and but so, a bit of usage familiar to readers of DFW's nonfiction.

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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.

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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.

Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.

The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.

Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

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Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)