The Event Horizon and Infinite Jest

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

And it happened for me. The otherwise unremarkable Infinite Jest came alive for me. At page 200 to be precise. If you have been following my essays, you know I have not been a fan of Infinite Jest thus far. Infinite Jest So, what changed for me this morning? Why has the author David Foster Wallace redeemed himself in my eyes? I will tell you why.

The job of a writer is to articulate for me timeless insights about the human condition. I don’t want obligatory empathy or robotic compassion. Nor do I care for shop worn slogan words of pity and condescension. Just grab me by the collar, dear writer, and tell me eternal wisdom, the point of it all as my Bright and Morning Star might say. I want to feel in your words what remains unexpressed in my heart.

Make me see the canvass of life through your eyes. Few writers can pull it off for me. On page 200, Wallace parted the clouds of 37-line sentences and reached me as a reader. Here are timeless gems that caused me to savor the stuff of life, the waterfall of a literary genius in the flow:

Chronic alcoholics’ hearts are — for reasons no M.D. has been able to explain — swollen to nearly twice the size of civilians’ human hearts, and they never again return to normal size. p. 200.

That there’s a certain type of person who carries a picture of their therapist in their wallet. Id.

That you can cop a sort of thin jittery amphetaminic buzz if you rapidly consume three Millennial Fizzies and a whole package of Oreo cookies on an empty stomach. Id.

That black and Hispanic people can be as big or bigger racists than white people, and then can get even more hostile and unpleasant when this realization seems to surprise you. Id.

That over 60% of all persons arrested for drug-and alcohol-related offenses report being sexually abused as children, with two-thirds of the remaining 40% reporting that they cannot remember their childhoods in sufficient detail to report one way or the other on abuse. Id.

That some people really do look like rodents. Id.

That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do. Id.

That Nyquil is over 50 proof. p. 203

That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. Id.

That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. Id.

That, perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it. p. 205

Conclusion: As I crossed the event horizon on page 200, I found myself in the presence of a master writer. A master writer moves a reader with the written word. The written word makes sense of an otherwise inexplicable world. For a few precious moments, the reader leaves daily cares and worries behind and enters a timeless realm of truth telling. The words of David Foster Wallace are now connecting me to something higher about human consciousness and existence.

Even Spock knew the written wisdom of Wallace.