Greg Carlisle - Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallaces Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallaces Infinite Jest (1996) invites commentary because Wallace has not only written a fluid and immensely enjoyable novel of extraordinary depth and compassion that is funny, wise, and profoundly moving; he has created a book that also engages its readers by challenging them to connect the disparate plot threads that run through the novels fragmentary episodes as they navigate shifts in chronology, location, and narrative perspective. To further heighten the readers engagement, Wallace uses endnotes to provide comments and relevant information best placed outside the main text, to explore narrative tangents, and to make meta-narrative comments . Although the interaction of reader and text is a relationship fraught with ambiguity and misunderstanding, since there are so many choices for interpretation, it is nevertheless the vital energizing force that keeps the story alive. Interpretation is open and never complete, yet that is also the very source of its vitality (Boswell, p. 61). Infinite Jest holds a mirror up to our vulnerable natures and illuminates the necessity of making hard choices if we are to navigate successfully the ambiguities, missing information, multiple perspectives , temptations, obstacles, fears, and obsessions that make up our experience. The reader of Infinite Jest is rewarded not by passive acceptance of easy answers or tidy resolutions, but by an active engagement with ongoing narratives. The elegant complexity of the novel makes it almost addictively compelling ( Infinite Jest , p. 322).

This study provides complete scene-by-scene summaries of Infinite Jest and investigates the novels structure and thematic unity in commentaries that accompany the scene-by-scene summaries. Readers interested in the evolution of the novel will wish to familiarize themselves with Infinite Jest, and this study joins a growing body of scholarship concerning Wallace and his signature work. Marshall Boswell, essaying Wallaces fiction, identifies Wallace as a member of a third wave of modernism, following in the wake of Joyce and Barth (Boswell, p. 1). Another excellent resource for readers interested in Wallace and Infinite Jest is Nick Maniatiss comprehensive website, www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw, named for a phrase used in the novel. Maniatiss site includes links to the Wallace listserv (Wallace-l, which regularly features commentary on Infinite Jest and a wide range of other topics) and to works of scholarship, criticism, and opinion on Wallaces oeuvre. A readers guide (Burn) and a readers companion (Dowling and Bell) to Infinite Jest are also available. A brief discussion of the nature, structure, and scope of this study follows. Unless otherwise indicated, page numbers refer to Infinite Jest.

The primary inspiration for this study is Harry Blamiress The Bloomsday Book , which was of great assistance to my reading of Ulysses . Although my first reading of Infinite Jest was easier than my first reading of Ulysses , I constantly flipped back through Infinite Jest to keep the multitude of plots, characters, and themes present in my mind. This study is designed to help readers flip back efficiently and, in the words of Blamires, to enable the reader to get from his first reading an understanding which, without my guide, it might have taken him several readings to arrive at (Blamires, p. xi).

The study is intended to help first-time readers of Infinite Jest stay oriented as they progress through the novel scene-by-scene, summarizing and connecting various narrative and thematic threads without revealing information that is yet-to-come. Another intention is to provide readers, students, and critics with a reference work that supports scholarly investigations of the novels structure and thematic unity by gathering information, making connections, and asking questions. The studys running commentaries are placed after the running narrative summaries to respect those readers who want help flipping back to track plots, characters, and chronologies, but who prefer to stay in the flow of an already complex story rather than take time out for commentaries.

Wallaces writing is precise, efficient, and detailed, regardless of whether the situation he describes is clear or ambiguous. Therefore , the summaries and commentaries provided by this study are often lengthy in order to minimize the oversimplification or misinterpretation of Wallaces text. A system for tracking plots, characters, and themes (described below) has been devised to assist readers in their navigation of this lengthy study.

Infinite Jest is divided into chapters marked by 28 centered, shadowed circles (0) that appear in the main text of the novel (pp. 3-981). Another centered, shadowed circle is placed before the notes and errata (pp. 983-1079). The hardcover and paperback versions of the novel as published in the United States have the same pagination. Some changes made after publication of the first edition will be noted in the study. Within each chapter of the novel, a triple line-space designates division of the text into subchapters or sections, of which there are 192, frequently introduced by a heading. In creating an Outline for Infinite Jest , this study suggests that the novel could be grouped into six relatively equal units: