Infinite Jest & Hamlet Parallels

[@dellscafe9431]

You know, I'm ashamed to say I was initially always sort of embarrassed to admit Mario was my favorite character. I just liked him. Thank you for these videos!

[@adamkane4217]

Mario made me cry more than once.

[@Karachsingstrue]

Mario is king and anyone who says otherwise must fight me to the death. I will protect his weird smile. At all costs.

[@a6s709]

DFW was advocating that our society grow past ironic detachment and embrace earnesty. I don't think it's correct to frame that as a retreat to pre-modernist values. People in contemporary secular societies are as capable as anyone else of finding things in the world to feel awe about, and creating meaning in their lives, etc. Nobody says that's easy, and it's probably correct to say that no amount of knowledge will get you there. But putting our blinders back on and withdrawing into myth is no help.

[@santiagomongef]

This

[@HakuYuki001]

This indeed.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Not this. Especially no to the assumption that the modernist era took off any sort of blinders or “lifted the veil” from anything at all.

[@eskybakzu712]

You're confusing modernism with modernity and the Enlightenment project of 'lifting the veil' with the eventual illusion of doing so.

[@Pencilman246]

Yeah but I see where Caleb is getting that “back to religion” reading from. Don repeatedly tells people at Ennet House how they need to just accept the AA cliches, no matter how banal they seem, to get better, part of which is accepting the Christian influence of AA. The Marathe/Steeply conversation is largely about whether Americans can be trusted not to give in to crippling addiction, even to entertainment, without a guiding spiritual light. The reality is a lot more complex but consider that the book was written by a man who suffered from addiction and depression and entertainment dependence and who was helped via the AA’s methods. In a way, Infinite Jest is just DFW grappling with his formerly cynical, educated brain (which was attracted to easy pleasure/addiction) and his “enlightenment” via sobriety and embracing the corny, banal cliches that his educated brain told him to be cynical and untrusting toward. He’s telling us what worked for him, the same way Tommy (of the Who’s album Tommy) preaches about gaining enlightenment via blind, deaf pinball (it worked for him, why not everyone?). DFW is saying that we have to reject “ironic detachment” and embrace life earnestly as the OP said, and he’s offering one possible solution that worked for him. Let’s also remember that DFW also chose “not to be” like a few of his characters. He was as human and flawed as anyone.

[@joshsmith1551]

Now you made some good points, but you really blew right past that "they both have humans and those humans have arms" connection. I'm going to demand a part 2 for that

[@deirdre108]

Another connection between Hamlet and Infinite Jest occurred a few weeks ago when literary historians discovered a folio of Hamlet with over two hundred pages of footnotes.

[@loon4830]

source?

[@deirdre108]

@@loon4830 That was just a joke (albeit apparently not very funny) riffing on the fact that Infinite Jest has about a hundred pages of endnotes.

[@E11imist]

I thought Hal was short for Halcyon, which ties into the surname Incandenza (Incandescent). Still greatly enjoyed this video, thanks man. Your commentary on Infinite Jest is always insightful

[@levivandartel7014]

I believe the book itself says it's short for Harold

[@lordofgiovanni]

I took Hal as a 2001 reference. Hal 9000 was a robot that was oddly human and Hal Incandenza was a human that was oddly robotic.

[@patricksratliff]

Isn't the most obvious Hal connection to "Prince Hal" aka the eventual Henry V...this is how the character is named throughout Shakespeare's Henry IV

[@Carvaka]

Wow, you’re blowing my mind with this video. Time to learn more about Harold Bloom

[@BrendaGarcia-ty2ml]

OMG thank you for this video!!! I’m very interested in Shakespeare’s influence in recent work!

[@socialswine3656]

check out Endgame if you haven't already!

[@ronaldmcdon]

Well put! I have to agree, an reading IJ for the first time and had heard there were parallels to hamlet, I’m glad you didn’t spoil too much (I mean with a book this big you’d have to make an hour long video just to spoil one year of subsidized time!) thanks!

[@modofatak]

What an extraordinary analysis and presentation! Wow

[@adamkane4217]

May be a stretch, but I thought the name Hal was a reference to another work of Shakespeare: in Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2), Henry, Prince of Wales, is called Hal, and is only called Henry once he ascends to the throne in Henry V. In IJ, Hal is the chosen Incandenza son: Orin has disowned the family and Mario is... Mario. (Mario is probably my favorite character but I'm finding it very difficult to describe him.)

[@rubix71]

I always thought it was a play on types of illumination: Hal (halogen) Incandenza (incandescent)

[@klistellacca]

Doesn't Gately get shot in the shoulder not the leg?

[@CalebSmith3]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.... and oh yeah SPOILERS.

[@jhaynewe]

goes hard

[@Misserbi]

Thanks for clearing up, "To be, or not to be" for me. In my estimation, religion, or the reason for it, is to make something sacred. Otherwise, a place can never be blessed because nobody inside of it is mindful of how different it is without it? There is a difference when you attach selfhood to selflessness. I prefer to see what I mean.

[@michaeltilley8708]

Something stinketh? STINKETH???!!!!!

[@annette4660]

That Gately quote was maybe the most poignant and painful in the whole book. I teared up just hearing you read it.

[@kraftst]

Love the analysis.

[@evanscott999]

I remember the last line of the first chapter being "I am not" do you think this "I am, I am not" is intentional? It must be a hamlet reference.

[@mikeramsay5964]

"What's your story?" is the last line of chapter 1 (17).

[@tombaird7902]

I like this video. Great job.

[@pawel1.7.22]

love you love this

[@burtsbooks3495]

Excellent video Caleb! In fact, the scenes you mention in relation to Wallace’s prescription of pre-modernism are precisely the scenes that most mattered to me! Are you familiar with the philosophy Charles Taylor? Glad to have found a kindred spirit on this reading of IJ!!

[@gregoryr.barison8810]

Astute analysis!

[@jordanm2984]

Should I read/listen to Hamlet before diving into IJ? All I know about it is through cultural osmosis.

[@patchesofgreen3832]

I really appreciate your thematic analysis: very insightful and provocative. If I have a critique, it is the way you talk about the textual connections: I'm pretty sure Shakespeare never used the word "stinketh," ever. But you corrected yourself in your notes on the screen. Good vid; well done.

[@radishhousepictures]

thank you

[@socialswine3656]

Also, the fathers Ghost leading the son to go "mad" but also spurring them on to action. Action that would not have occurred had the highly cerebral and rational character maintained their sober rationality.

[@socialswine3656]

oh wait you cover this

[@210GOD_win11]

Donald Gately is the main character not Mario or HAl. Although Mario is incorruptible he is incapable of taking action. Gately's story is the correct example to highlight your point. Wallace offers the choice to take action in the moment disregarding fear of all possible consequences as a heroic act. This individual action is the only thing that will save us. He is the only character that truly seeks to change his life. you are 100% correct regarding the suffering one must endure to change. But Wallace is incorrect in assuming GOD is subjecting us to this torture This is a personification of the divine and is false.

[@Tweston3ny]

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

[@rubix71]

Of all of Hamlet's offspring, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the greatest. IJ is brilliant, but mostly suffocates under the weight of it's own cleverness... if DFW had had a proper editor, this book could have been timeless. Unfortunately it's not much more than a time capsule. (Would love to see a review of R and G are dead here!)

[@christinacascadilla4473]

Both manuscripts are printed on paper. That can’t be a conicidence.

[@deirdre108]

Wasn't Hamlet written on velum? Sincere question BTW.

[@HakuYuki001]

lol. Harold Bloom as the greatest literary critic of this generation. Just one question. What reality are you living in?

[@Laocoon283]

I keep hearing people say this but every time I listen to him talk I want to vomit. I don't understand why he has such a good reputation.

[@christinacascadilla4473]

I’ve disagreed with a lot of things Bloom said. I listened to a lecture once where he went on and on about how Juliet was a wise…yeah, I don’t think so.

[@deirdre108]

@@christinacascadilla4473 Right. This is typical Bloom overreach and tells more about Bloom than it does anything about Shakespeare.