In thinking about the novel as a whole, I’m going to stick to my guns that Wallace’s original title A Failed Entertainment speaks volumes about the novel in general. I think Wallace’s aim was to create a gigantic piece that offered something for everyone. Doing so is impossible! In the end though, the book is well worth the read. However, the only real trouble i see is the language. I’ve noticed though that the complicated language tends to take place during the Hal sections mostly. Perhaps this is appropriate.
The Hal section seems to be the most complicated to organize and understand. Hal’s section may be for the high intellectuals. The Gately everyman story of redemption seems to be for any reader looking for an emotional roller coaster of highs and low life. Finally, the political story seems to be filled with the mystique of a Tom Clancy thriller. Maybe not all of the sections need to be accessible. Maybe, one is suppossed to slog through those sections to find the more personally satisfying parts.
Personally, I liked all the sections, but cared the least about Hal’s life. I wanted to lnow more about the politics and drugs, and, of course, the macguffin in the form of the Entertainment. I don’t think that my lack of interest in Hal’s section makes it a failed entertainment though. The entertainment in Hal’s section frustrates and confuses me at times, but it keeps me coming back for more. That seems to be the connection with the entertainment in the work: the novel stops, but makes you want to know more and you keep coming back.
I’m starting to think that the novel itself is a direct representation of the entertainment of the novel. Wallace aimed to create a very postmodern work that required hard work. He gave his work emotional depth, and limited irony, so that people would want to do the work. A great novel makes you want to keep coming back. You need it. It seems like Wallace was the type of guy who would think that highly of his work. The connecting of the dots aspect is what he wanted all throughout our reading.
Plot wise, I’m inclined to think that Hal did happen to watch the Entertainment. However, his reaction may have been different than everyone else’s. I know we’ve been focusing on the idea that everyone is on an equal field in the novel, but, in terms of the entertainment, Hal is unique. The film was made with him in mind. I think that his reaction would be different than all the others. Hence, we have Hal totally alive and expressive in his mind, but unable to voice it. While this is all speculation, I think it’s interesting to consider how his decline through the novel is affected by an Entertainment designed for him.
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If IJ is a representation of the entertainment in the novel, does that mean that we all become (feral) infants as we read it?
I’m taken with the idea that Hal watches the Entertainment myself. I don’t know if I’d go to the wall for it, but it seems like there would be a final dramatic and sad irony that Hal would, on the one hand, survive it because of his unique relationship to it, but that it would have the opposite effect than the one that Incandenza hoped for—it drives him further into himself, rather than further out. And if Hal sees it, should we assume that Gately does to? He, out of all of the characters in the novel, seems to have built up the armature to resist the choice of pleasure=freedom that is central to free will. Sadly, we never know what happens to him. We know he digs with Hal, but then disappears…