Thursday, September 19, 2013

The car that runs on consequences

Irrefutable evidence that Infinite Jest's main text is written from its characters' perspectives can be found in note 315. This note states that the main text's "living staff" is Marathe's mishearing of "live in staff." That the writer of the book's endnotes is aware of such a thing is quite revealing.

But the book's last section isn't just home to such a note. This section sees the net around the plot loosely close about the narrative's shape. Marathe is about to find Joelle and might have come across the master tape of "the Entertainment." Plus, there's the real threat of the night staff's seeing and succumbing to "the Entertainment" while reviewing newly donated cartridges. The book's main thrust has real consequences now!

That is, though "the Entertainment" was watched earlier in the book, we had no idea what it was when it killed the doctor and those who looked in on him. Some 600 pages later, we know just what "the Entertainment" is, can do, and what some groups' designs on it are. So now "the Entertainment" is laden with consequences, and those make the book's motor run. Actually, with just over 200 pages to go, it's set to tear, full tilt, down the plot Autobahn for the remainder.

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