Across the pages of Infinite Jest you are bound to encounter a myriad of shocking moments and subjects that may be considered controversial.
Chapter thirteen takes it a little bit further as it covers one of the most controversial topics of the past generation, MK Ultra.
In this episode we see how a few decades ago, the CIA used to conduct some extremely heinous tortures and brutal experiments on regular people, but children especially.
The reason behind that - the reason that they claim at least - is that if you were to put children in an extremely brutal environment and subject them to insane amounts of constant pain…
Then at some point the child’s brain would splinter in half and create an alternate personality in order for them to escape the perpetual brutality they are being subjected to.
So if they are able to create several new personality, then maybe they could program the new ones in order to create an army of cold assassins that would feel no empathy at all, and who would be useful to enlist in any dark activity that no man or woman could carry if their conscience was intact.
As you see, it’s a perfectly reasonable use of taxpayer’s money.
But here’s where it gets interesting, aside from the humor and sarcasm that David Foster Wallace has accustomed us to in this novel, there’s another tool that he frequently often uses, and that’s foreshadowing.
In the middle of the conversations about MK Ultra he quickly throws Ms Psychosis in the mix, doing so by highlighting the fact that she is in fact disfigured.
Ms Psychosis if you recall is Jolene Van Dyne’s alter ego, her other personality. So the question immediately becomes:
Could DFW be telling is that the reason that Jolene’s mind was fractured by one of those MK Ultra’s experiments?
But there’s another thing as well. You see, when you factor in that, the government in this futuristic novel is subjecting all their agents to sex change operations and body disfigurations… Could Jolene be actually a secret government agent?
Which one do you think is closer to the real answer?
Please let us know your thoughts below, but meanwhile here’s the recording to the entire session Last week’s meeting:
https://soundcloud.com/user-655948001/infinite-jest-session-13-of-the-steemit-book-club
Details for the next meeting:
Book: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Reading Assignment: Chapter Fourteen “YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDER-GARMENT” (pages 489-528)
Date: Monday, June 12th
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)
Best,
