Day 28: Infinite Jest in 20/20
1. The page numbers don’t serve any purpose. I just put them there so that someone hoping to pretend that he/she had read the book after playing the game would know to mention its length. “Wow, page 561 was really tough!” etc.
2. That is not a “cute little bunny.” It is a huge, deformed, two-headed rabbit, and you wouldn’t speak so lightly of it if the blood dripping from its fangs was yours.
3. I had more fun drawing the squares and laying-out the board than relating it to the book. I think that’s pretty obvious, yes?
4. Yes, that’s my floor. Sock skating used to be taken very seriously around here, complete with real injuries! My sister once required several stitches after taking a turn too fast and sliding head-first into the base of the stairs.
In the spirit of the AA and NA meetings throughout Infinite Jest, I’d like to share something important and potentially life-changing that I learned about myself today during the five hours I spent reading:
While thinking back to the unusual “vision test”* I received while in Kyrgyzstan has been a source of great amusement to me, I was shocked to discover that the IJ-reading-experience suddenly became much easier and more pleasant when I finally gave the reading glasses a try for actual reading rather than goofy picture taking (see Day 2) this afternoon. The words are now jumping right out of the book and into my eyes, rather than crawling across the page and blurring before disappearing…behind…my…closed eyelids. Zzz.
I only wish that I ‘d made this earth-shattering discovery before page 800.
Just imagine what THESE might do to enhance the experience.
*Give an eye exam the Kyrgyz-way:
Old Russian Lady: (thrusting a magazine in front of my face) “Read this!”
Me: “Oh, I can’t read Turkish.”
ORL: “Can you see the letters?”
Me: “Yes”
ORL: (gives me a pair of glasses) “Can you see them better now?”
Me: “Well yes, but…”
ORL: “Here is your prescription!”
I’m still not sure that I NEED reading glasses, but making those big words a little bigger doesn’t seem to hurt.
