Thank you, Daniel:
[spoiler]I remember that most of the people who watch The Entertainment become, shall we say, rather absorbed by it. I just figured that was a side effect of the fact that it was created specifically for Hal, and would have a different effect on everyone else.
And is it ever explicitly stated that The Entertainment is the movie Infinite Jest (number V, if I remember the filmography correctly) created by Himself?[/spoiler]
I really do have to re-read that book.
I’m going to do a bit of googling to see if I can come up with any support for my view.
I have a lot of guilt about Infinite Jest. I work in mental health and treated someone who had been a superathlete in her chosen sport. Somewhere along the line someone introduced her to cocaine, she linked the high to her performance, lost weight, developed an eating disorder and depression, and was never able to really look back. She had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of family members of the opposite sex, all the more egregious I suppose because she was gay. In short, this was a person who had a lot of barriers to surmount when it came to getting well.
I knew her for several years, and at the time I loaned her Infinite Jest she was doing quite well. She converted to Christianity, likely in an effort to align with NA and stay off the coke, and I also recommended a book for her called Shame and Grace by Lewis Smedes – he talks about stuff like how women who have been sexually abused can relate strongly to the figure of Christ violated on the cross. She was pursuing a normal weight and coming to terms with the fact that she couldn’t play her sport and be well, at least not for a long while. I thought she’d enjoy the point of view of another superathlete, and warned her about the passage describing suicidal ideation in such detail – in part because I had highlighted it in my overweening admiration.
She had it a couple of weeks – was enjoying Enfield Academy – when one night her old coke dealer phoned, and some sad events ensued, and by morning she was dead by her own hand, in a brutal fashion. I have since not recommended Infinite Jest to a living soul. I have no idea what happened to my copy. I wasn’t about to ask her parents for it back from her personal effects. I doubt that I’ll buy another.
A work so completlely awesome that it makes people kill themselves. God bless you, James Incandenza!
If it makes you feel any better, I bought a copy for my buddy who had hit rock bottom with alcohol and was seriously struggling (and failing) to get better. He hasn’t had a drink in damn near a decade.
Cause and effect? None whatsoever.
Good point. I appreciate it.