“Our attachments are our temple, what we worship, no? What we give ourselves to, what we invest with faith.”
Steeply made motions of weary familiarity. “Herrrrrre we go.”
Marathe ignored this. “Are we not all of us fanatics? I say only what you of the USA only pretend you do not know. Attachments are of great seriousness. Choose your attachments carefully. Choose your temple of fanaticism with great care. What you wish to sing of as tragic love is an attachment not carefully chosen. Die for one person? This is a craziness. Persons change, leave, die, become ill. They leave, lie, go mad, have sickness, betray you, die. Your nation outlives you. A cause outlives you.”
The quote above is from an exceptional dialogue between Steeply and Marathe, the two latest protagonists we’ve been introduced to in this mind-scratching experience called Infinite Jest.
The entire dialogue was presented as an intriguing conversation that explores a wide array of topics from free will, fanaticism, or even the timeless metaphor of the slave who thinks himself free, much like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
None of the characters seemed to compromise throughout the entire episode which almost reminds you of the Cyclops chapter in Ulysses.
Would these two latest characters become important to the novel as the story develops? Would their paths cross Hal’s or the rest of the protagonists?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but luckily for us we were joined by Mr. Josh Roiland who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism and a CLAS-Honors Preceptor of Journalism in the Honors College at the University of Maine. And more importantly, he’s an Infinite Jest and a David Foster Wallace expert.
His insight and expertise was very valuable throughout the entire session, because navigating this beautiful labyrinth is much easier with an expert on your side, and for that, we want to thank Josh for Joining us and for his guidance.
For more details, here’s the recording to the entire session of the second steemit Book Club:
https://soundcloud.com/user-655948001/infinite-jest-session-3-of-the-steemit-book-club
Details for the next meeting:
Book: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Reading Assignment: Chapter Four “YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDER-GARMENT” (pages 121-169)
Date: Monday, April 10th
Start Time: 6:00 p.m. PST / 9 p.m. EST / 2 a.m. GMT
Call Length: One hour.
Phone Access: (800) 719-6100 or (218) 339-7800, access code 629-1831#
Web Audio Access (sound quality isn't generally as good as phone): https://hello.freeconference.com/conf/call/6291831
P.S. You can these links to help guide you as you read Infinite Jest
http://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/Infinite.htm (THIS LINK HAS SPOILERS)
http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Main_Page#Page_by_Page_Annotations (No spoilers---This is the link Ahmed mentioned on the first call.)
Looking forward to the next call,
@neilstrauss, @the-alien and the #steemit-book-club