Infinite Jest

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Lore & Background

Wallace began Infinite Jest, 'or something like it', several times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive; by the end of 1993, he had a working draft of the novel. From early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including Harvard Review, Grand Street, Conjunctions, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Harper's Magazine, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. The book was edited by Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown and Company. Pietsch made suggestions and recommendations to Wallace, but every editing decision was Wallace's. He accepted cuts amounting to around 250 manuscript pages from his original submission. He resisted many changes for reasons he usually explained. The novel gets its name from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Prince Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester, Yorick, and says, 'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!' Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment.

Reader's Guide

In the novel's future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American superstate known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. (an allusion to onanism). Corporations are allowed the opportunity to bid for and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing traditional numerical designations with ostensibly honorary monikers bearing corporate names. Although the narrative is fragmented and spans several 'named' years, most of the story takes place during 'The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment' (Y.D.A.U.). On the orders of U.S. President Johnny Gentle (a germaphobic singer and politician who campaigned on the platform of cleaning up the U.S. while ensuring that no American would be caused any discomfort in the process), much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a giant hazardous waste dump, an area 'given' to Canada and known as the 'Great Concavity' by Americans due to the resulting displacement of the border. There are several major interwoven narratives, including: a fringe group of Québécois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (lit. 'The Wheelchair Assassins'; A.F.R.), planning a violent coup to free Quebec from O.N.A.N.; addicts living in Boston reaching 'rock bottom' with substance abuse before entering a residential drug-and-alcohol-recovery program, Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, where they progress in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA); students training and studying at the Enfield Tennis Academy (E.T.A.), founded by James Incandenza and now run by Avril Incandenza and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis; and the personal drama of the Incandenza family, centering around Hal's struggles to live up to high expectations of academic and athletic success amid wider dysfunction. These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest, also called 'the Entertainment' or 'the samizdat'. The film is so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die. It was James Incandenza's final work. He completed it during a period of sobriety that was insisted upon by its lead actress, Joelle van Dyne. The Québécois separatists seek a replicable master copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (O.U.S.) aims to intercept the master copy to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations, or else to find or produce an anti-entertainment that can counter the film's effects. Joelle seeks treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House. A.F.R. member (and possible O.U.S. double agent) Rémy Marathe visits Ennet House, aiming to find Joelle and a lead to the master copy of 'the Entertainment'. The novel ends without directly resolving several of its central plotlines.

Did You Know?

• Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment.
• The novel gets its name from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Prince Hamlet says, 'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest.'
• The book sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication and has since sold more than a million copies worldwide.
• The novel's future world includes a unified North American superstate called the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N., an allusion to onanism.
• The film at the center of the plot, 'the Entertainment', is so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die.