Orin J. Incandenza was intrigued by the woman that came to interview him. So intrigued that when he tells Hal all about it, it sounds as if they were almost a couple for a spell. But, that woman is the only hulky woman in the book - agent Steeply's brilliant lady journalist cover.
Yeah, amidst stories of junkies dying from bleach laced heroine and coke-addicted pregnant mothers giving birth to unformed stillbirths, there's a good old fashioned man-in-women's-clothing joke in Infinite Jest. To lighten things up, of course.
And the joke does just that. Though the reveal's being tucked away in an endnote truly brings it into the book's ken. Infinite Jest's Endnotes continue to be informative, but the book itself is just too much like the creator of the "MO" robots in Adventure Time - being sustained by extra bits.
They manage well enough, though, especially when an endnote's about neorealism films that aren't recorded or distributed, merely imagined around a single real life person. "Found Drama" as James Incandenza chooses to call them. Such an idea is perfectly suited to the hyper-realism of Infinite Jest, and though reading the book's endnotes is sometimes a pain, they're all part of the experience. An experience that looks like it'll still be around my reading list for a solid while.
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