Infinite Jest continues to become harder to put down. Maybe the Stockholm syndrome that's inevitable after reading the same book for so long is starting to kick in, or maybe something's finally happening. Either way, there's a tremendous energy to the narrative now. Where before the disparate characters and events seemed like scattered fragments from 100 vases, now it feels, as I read, that there's definitely something taking shape as these fragments are swept together.
I have to admit, though, that the note containing more of Steeply's questioning Orin is strangely Ouroboros-ian.
Early in the book we're told about a scene where a four year old Hal shows his mom the mold he's apparently eaten some of, and she starts comically running in tight circles shouting "Help! My son ate this!" (11). This crops up again in the note, when Orin relates the story as an example of his mom's obsessive compulsive behaviour (1040-1044).
It's too early to say whether there's any meaning to this event's reappearance. It could just be a touchstone of memory, something that Orin recalls vividly and so brings it out on two separate occasions. With a work this size, though, there's probably more to it than that.
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