SOME MORE AND LESS HELPFUL THINGS FOR THE LUCKY JERK READING ‘INFINITE JEST’ FOR THE FIRST TIME
Glossary………………………………………………………………………………..….….1 David Foster Wallace Psychohistory……………………………….................12 The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.……………………………………......13 Example of the work cut from the final draft of ‘Infinite Jest’…….……14 Tennis Court Diagram…………………………………………………….……....…..15 Humor Chart….…………………………………………………………………………..16 Venn Diagram of Important Drugs………………….……………………….…...17
abducent – anatomical term implying
amanuensis – secretary [p. 515]
movement apart. [p. 186]
anaclitic – having excessive emotional dependence upon another person. [p. 1048]
ablative – a taking or wearing away; grammatically, it implies motion away from something. [p. 470]
anapestic – metrical foot with two short and one long: an-a-pest. [p. 1021]
acciaccatura*[1]– a musical quaver.
anaplastic – the surgical restoration of
[p. 832]
a lost part. [p. 31]
acclivity – a slope. [p. 582]
ancipital – here referring to those teeth that have two edges. [p. 117]
acervulus – an erupting fungal fruiting body thru which spore escapes. [p. 190]
anechoic – a chamber having very low
achondroplastic – a type of
sonic or electromagnetic reflectance. [p. 503]
hereditary dwarfism. [p. 901]
anfractuous – circuitous
acromegalic – a type of pituitary
[p. 39]
angioma – localized, superficial
gigantism. [pp. 185, 438]
concentrations of capillaries producing a red spot or weal. [p. 1037]
ad valorem – Latin: to value. ‘In proportion to the value’. [p. 33]
anodize – to coat a metal by making it
adtorsion – a turning inward of both eyes. [p. 607]
one terminal in an electrochemical circuit. [pp. 63, 93, 451, 485, 588]
aether – the formerly-hypothesized
anomic – adj. form of ‘anomie’. [p.
universal medium of light’s propagation. [pp. 163, 169]
585]
agaric – here, Amanita muscaria, an hallucinogenic mushroom (cf. muscimol). [pp. 66, 67, 996]
Used of Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland and Austria. [pp. 311, 322, 421, 777, 1020]
agnate – descended from a paternal line.
anthracnose – the fungus responsible
Anschluss – German: ‘connection’.
[pp. 91, 151, 152, 729]
for powdery mildew. [p. 288]
aigrette – the tufted plumes of an egret. Used of women’s hat-feathers. [p. 380]
antinomic – contradiction or opposition. [p. 792]
ainsi – French: ‘in this way’, ‘thus’ [p.
antipyretic – a drug used to control
1009]
fever. [pp. 920, 984]
aioli – a Provençal emulsion of garlic and
aperçu – a clever insight. [p. 121]
olive oil, w/ or w/o egg. [p. 233]
aphasia – impairment of any language
aleatory – depending upon chance. [p.
modality. [pp. 368, 369, 525, 588]
82]
aphonia – the inability to speak. [p.
alembic* – an alchemical retort thru
488]
which evaporated liquids are condensed. [p. 832]
aphrasiac – inability to utter words in an intelligible order. [p. 488]
apical – from, of, or relating to, the tip.
1 ‘*’ denotes a ghostword, cf. p. 832, etc.
[pp. 290, 366]
1
apocope – the loss of one or more
bradykinesia – slow moving. [pp.
sounds from the end of a word. ‘Nothin’ for ‘nothing’, etc. [p. 57]
80, 433, 795, 1022]
apothegm – maxim. [p. 358]
1022]
bradylexia – slow of reading [p.
apotropaic – actions intended to ward
bradypedestrianism – slow of
off evil. [p. 243]
walking. [pp. 313, 1022]
armamentarium – the sum-total
bradyphrenia – slow of
of all medical knowledge with which disease is fought. [p. 1067]
comprehension or thought. [p. 314]
ascapartic – relating to the legendary
breathing. [pp. 451, 1022]
bradypnea – abnormally slow
giant Ascapart. [pp. 290, 1016]
breviary – Catholic liturgical book
askesis – strict self-discipline. [p. 911]
containing daily prayers. [pp. 373, 1009]
assignation – appointment to meet
Brewster’s Angle – the angle at
someone in secret, typically one made by lovers; or, the assignment of attribution or ownership. [p. 30]
which non-polarized light will reflect off a surface as polarized light. The phenomenon is exploited by things like polarized sunglasses. [pp. 10, 511]
atavistic – the tendency to revert to
bricolage* – the construction of
ancestral or immature forms. [pp. 257, 327, 1021]
something from whatever is at hand. [p. 832]
ataxia – a gross loss of muscular control
brisance – the shattering effect of the
as a neurological sign. [p. 968]
energy released by an explosion. [p. 541]
attar -– perfume [p. 290]
Bröckengespenstphänom – a complicated atmospheric phenomenon in which a person standing on a mountain peak sees his or her own shadow projected onto clouds below at enormous magnification. [p. 641]
bafflegab – gobbledegook. [p. 173] ballism – a symptom of chorea in which involuntary swinging or jerking movements are observed. [p. 1037]
calliopsis – Coreopsis tinctoria, a
balsamy – smelling of balsam, a sap
hardy, annual flower native to the American South. [pp. 80, 241, 340]
exuded by various Middle Eastern trees. [p. 798]
calotte – skullcap. [p. 395, 1029]
bilirubin – a yellow waste product derived from the destruction of old red blood cells by the liver. One of the main contributors to the color of shit. [pp. 304, 897]
calpac – a high-crowned felt or sheepskin
blepharoplasty – surgical
Can you – believe I’m actually doing
hat worn in Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia. [p. 1029]
modification of the eyelid. [p. 314]
this? I can’t, and I’m the one what’s doin’ it. Nerrrrrrrrddd.
blepharospecticity – to see
caparison – decorative covering for a horse. [pp. 367, 533]
thru one’s eyelids. [p. 1037]
bradyauxetic – slow in cellular
carbuncular – characterized by
development. [p. 313]
infected skin lesions or large boils. [pp. 187, 226, 385, 582, 873, 1032]
2
caries – dental cavities. [p. 27, 1010]
climacteric – menopause. [p. 954]
catachresis – misapplication of a
clinamen – fundamental randomness
word, especially in a mixed metaphor. [p. 1053]
that accounts for free will. cf Lucretius’ De Natura Rerum [p. 911]
catadioptric – an arrangement of
coccyges – the triangular bone that
both mirrors and lenses to focus light. [p. 939]
terminates the spinal column. [p. 257]
catalepsy/catalept* –
colposcope – an instrument for
neurological condition characterized by muscular rigidity, one who so suffers. [pp. 503, 832]
viewing the interior of the vagina. [pp. 634, 1070]
catastatic – the heightening of intrigue
does’ accepted standards [p. 59]
comme‐il‐faut – French: ‘as one
or drama before a climax. [p. 407]
convolve – to roll together or coil up.
cathected – mentally or emotionally
[pp. 67, 310, 398, 1023]
invested. [pp. 550, 654]
cathexis – viz. sup. [p. 550]
contraria sunt complementa – Latin: ‘we are
cerise – deep, vivid, pinkish red. [pp.
what we are against’. [p. 713]
486, 513, 791, 832]
coprolaliac – compulsive speaking of
chachectic – referring to weight and
forbidden words. [p. 621]
muscle lost due to disease. More commonly spelled ‘cachexic’ [p. 187]
coprolite – fossilized shit. [p. 572]
chiaroscuro* – artistic technique
cordite – nitrocellulose cast into thin sticks for use as propellant in firearms. [pp. 433, 504, 610, 613]
that heightens drama by crisp juxtaposition of light and dark areas. [pp. 65, 315, 430, 832, 1027]
corpore potis – Latin: ‘able of
chyme – the watery state of food after it
body’. [p. 188]
has passed from the stomach into the small bowel. [pp. 379, 624, 634]
coruscant – glittering. [p. 626]
chronaxy* – an obscure
creatus – the creation of. [p. 12]
neurophysiological term having to do with the minimum duration of a signal required to fire a nerve. [p. 832]
creosote – here, coal-tar, elsewhere the smell of the desert-dwelling Creosote Bush. [pp. 108, 1059]
ciquatoxic – (sic) the toxins that
crepuscular – animals primarily
produce Ciguatera, an extremely nasty illness caused by eating reef fish who have themselves eaten certain poisonous dinoflagellates. More commonly spelled ‘ciguatoxic’[p. 967]
active at twilight. [pp. 108, 556]
cruciform – cross-shaped. [pp. 266, 513, 622, 728]
circumorals – the muscles
cuirass – a breastplate. [p. 431]
surrounding the mouth. [pp. 75, 373]
cirri – cirrus clouds. [p. 15]
cunctation – delay. [p. 368]
claque – professional applauders. [p.
deafflatusized – the loss of powerful or irresistible inspiration. [p. 284]
400]
3
deliquesce – to absorb atmospheric
enfilade – an attack on the front of
water vapor. [p. 67]
something. [p. 13]
delirium tremens – very late
entrepôt – a warehouse where goods can
stage alcoholism in which hallucinations with tremor are observed. [pp. 707, 1038]
be imported or exported without paying duties. [pp. 216, 916, 983, 1067]
Deus Providebit – Latin: ‘God
enuretic – adj. of bedwetting. [p. 185]
will provide.’, taken from Gen 22:8 in the Vulgate (Abraham answered, “God will provide a lamb for the burnt offering, Son.” The two of them went on together.) In context God’s providing is reflexive. [p. 128]
ephebe – adolescent. [pp. 98, 292, 676, 677, 1001]
epicene – having characteristics of both sexes. [pp. 691, 939, 945]
ergotic – relating to the ergot fungus, a
diagnate – incestuous form of ‘agnate’. [p. 82]
producer of LSD. [pp. 170, 191, 213, 927]
diaphoretic – excessive sweating as a
erumpent – bursting thru. [pp. 165,
dangerous medical symptom. [p. 190]
270, 519]
digitate – relating to the fingers. [p. 97]
escudo – Portuguese unit of currency. [p. 1029]
dipsomania – alcoholism. [p. 64]
escutcheon – heraldic shield [pp.
diverticulitis – inflammation of any
509, 1056]
of the folds of the bowel. [pp. 543, 594, 606, 607, 893]
esters – carbonyl compounds in which an oxygen acts as a structural member. [p. 551]
dysautonomic – disturbance to the autonomic nervous system (sweating, crying, salivation, &c) [pp. 589, 590]
étagère – piece of furniture having tiered
dysphoric – feeling shitty. [pp. 69,
etiology – the cause of a disease. [pp.
shelves. [p. 951]
147, 301, 682, 690, 691, 695]
17, 370, 585 ]
éclat – brilliance in performance. [p. 155]
Fade in on a – tenement building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Faint traffic noise is audible; as is the sound of the fishmongers.
ectopic – not where it’s supposed to be. Of pregnancy: when a fertilized egg fails to be captured by the fimbriæ of the fallopian tube and instead develops into a fetus in the abdominal cavity. Generally not viable. [p. 686]
facies – facial expressions associated with medical conditions. [pp. 185, 1022]
falcate – sickle-shaped. [pp. 381, 1019]
effulgence – a brilliant shining-forth. [p. 854]
feck – mensch-like, worthy. [p. 64]
egregulous – DFW coinage
felo‐de‐se – Latin: ‘crime against
combining ‘egregious’ and ‘outrageous’. [p. 272]
one’s self’, suicide. [pp. 286, 308, 510, 790, 1048, 1078]
eidetic – here meaning photographic
festschrift – a collection of academic
memory. [pp. 127, 317]
essays in honor of someone. [p. 65]
élan – enthusiasm or passion. [p. 55]
fictile – moldable, as of clay. [p. 694]
4
fillip – a flick with a finger retained by the thumb. [pp. 238, 931]
harquebus – heavy, portable
formant – the frequencies of one’s voice
heliated* – to infuse with Helium. [p.
which, thanks to the resonances of one’s throat, are most pronounced. [p. 174]
832]
formication – to be ant-like [p.
one side of the body. [pp. 556, 1037]
matchlock musket. [p. 1029]
hemispasms – spasms affecting only
177]
hemoptysis – the coughing-up of
frustum – a cone or pyramid with the
blood or bloody sputum. [p. 921]
tip cut off. [pp. 213, 916]
hinked – to be both drunk and high.
fulgurant – flashing like lightning. [p.
Here, ‘bothered, troubled’ [p. 463]
387]
hip‐shot – having one hip higher than
fuliginous – sooty. [p. 971]
the other. [pp. 9, 162, 231, 742]
fulvous – the color of dried saffron. [p.
homodontic – having teeth all of the
93]
same shape. Used of sperm and killer whales. [pp. 410, 901]
funiculi – plural of funicular railroads.
homuncular – resembling the
A counterweighted means of ascending mountains or hills. [p. 1066]
homunculus, the little man thought to gestate within a pregnant woman. Cf. Wallace Shawn. [pp. 144, 145]
furcate – to divide into branches or forks. [p. 1051]
hulpil – colorful Peruvian textile [pp.
Gaudeamus Igitur – Latin:
854, 855, 1076]
‘Therefore let us rejoice!’, a line from a traditional student song. [pp. 380, 851, 964]
hyperauxetic – fast in cellular development. [p. 1022]
gneiss – common metamorphic rock. [p. 797]
hyperemic – an increase in a body
gonfalon – fancy, fringed banner
part’s blood supply, engorgement. [pp. 208, 952]
usually held aloft by a pole during parades or processions. [p. 208]
hyperkeratosistic – the state of having a persistent, dry, itchy scalp. [p. 185]
gonions – the points of the jaw near the
hypocapnia – the state of having low dissolved CO2 in the blood. [p. 69]
neck. [p. 1067]
granulomatous – having the
hypophalangial – short or stubby
characteristics of the ball of white blood cells which forms around foreign matter. [p. 190]
fingers. [p. 16]
guilloche – engraving technique
impost* – a customs-duty levied on
usually found on pocket watches requiring precise, repeating curves. [pp. 120, 864, 952]
merchandise. [pp. 482, 815, 832]
gyrus – a ridge on the cerebral cortex.
255, 609]
imprecate – to invoke evil upon. [pp.
[pp. 186, 987]
inguinal – of the muscle of the groin.
hanuman – Hindu monkey god. [p.
[pp. 488, 803]
703]
in loco parentis – Latin: ‘in the place of parents’. [p. 805]
5
in medias res – Latin: ‘in the
leptosomatic – having a small
middle of the thing’. [p. 701]
body. [p. 79]
inspissated – made thick by
Lebensgefährtin – German:
evaporation, used of mucus in the airway. [pp. 921, 1078]
‘life-partner, long-time companion’ [p. 1003]
intaglio – printing term connoting great
white skin. [p. 189]
leukodermatic – having pale or
pressure. [p. 583]
levirate marriage* – a type of
jape – a mocking joke. [p. 655]
marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother’s widow, and vice versa. [p. 832]
jejune – naïve or simplistic. [pp. 385, 405, 635]
liebestod* – German: ‘love death’, an
jonquil – the yellow color associated
aria or duet performed in opera marking the suicide of lovers, after that in ‘Tristan und Isolde’. [pp. 792, 863, 884]
with daffodils. [p. 258]
joss – Chinese god worshiped at a shrine. Pidgin from Portuguese, ‘deos’. Here, ‘luck’. [p. 1077]
limned – to portray in painting or words. [p. 183]
Kekuléan – oblique reference to a
lisle* – cotton fabric processed to give a
snake eating its own tail. From a story about the German organic chemist August Kekulé and his dream of an ouroborus that elucidated for him the famous ring structure of benzene (C6H6). [p. 5]
smooth finish. [p. 919]
lordosis* – abnormal inward curvature of the spine. [pp.190, 313, 764, 1003]
lucul(l)us* – Lucius Licinius
kenosis – theological emptiness. [p.
Lucullus (c.118-57 B.C.), Roman politician of the Late Republic. Also, ‘lavish, luxurious’ [p. 832]
911]
kyphotic – a hunchback or any other
lycanthropically – as of a
outward-curving deformity of the spine. [pp. 190, 953]
werewolf. [p. 192]
labile – moving freely or unstably. Also,
lyrologist – DFW coinage for one
‘emotional.’ [p. 253]
who uses his mouth like a harp. [p. 31]
lachrymose – tearful or causing
mansard – four-sided gambrel-style hip
tears. [p. 989]
roof. [p. 197]
lalating – the Japanese confusion of ‘l’
matins – early morning or late night
with ‘r’. [p. 788]
Catholic prayers. [p. 705]
lapsarian – pertaining to the fall from
maundering – to talk in a dreamy,
grace of mankind. [p. 713]
wandering or rambling manner. [p. 767]
latissimal – of the latissumus dorsi
meatus – a natural bodily opening, as
muscle controlling the shoulder. [p.1067 ]
on the tip of the penis. [pp. 60, 182, 186]
Latrodectus mactans* – the black widow spider. [pp. 159, 832, 987, 988, 990]
mellitus – sweet, used of the urine of
lazarette – a hospital treating
930]
diabetics. [p. 915]
mentation – cognition. [pp. 653,
contagious diseases, usually leprosy [p. 190]
6
mesomorphic – a muscular
olla podrida – Spanish mulligan
somatotype, with low body-fat. [pp. 200, 308]
stew. [p. 791]
Montague Grammar – the
ommatophoric* – having a
proposition that the grammar of natural languages is merely an obscured version of that governing formal logic. After Richard Montague. [pp. 7, 760]
movable stalk terminating in an eye, as of snails or conchs. [p. 832]
optative – grammatical mood indicating a wish or hope. [p. 64]
morendo – Fading away in tone or tempo. [p. 461]
orts – morsels left after a meal [p. 438]
mucronate – ending abruptly or in a
osseously – in the manner of a bone,
sharp point. [pp. 208, 314, 376]
or bone-like. [p. 122]
murated – walled, embedded in a wall
oubliette – a very small prison cell, usually in a floor, in which persons to be forgotten were starved to death. French:
or walled-up. [pp. 127, 1056]
nacreous – looking like Mother-ofPearl. [pp. 320, 455]
‘forgotten place’. [pp. 190, 1045]
neoplastis – an abnormal mass of
palestra – Ancient Greek public area
tissue. [pp. 395, 987, 1044]
for exercise. [p. 83]
neuralgia – pain that follows the path
pargeted – covered in plaster [p. 51]
of a nerve. [pp. 60, 346, 620, 913, 987]
parotitic – inflammation of the parotic
neurasthenic – psychosomatic
(salivary) glands, as in mumps. [p. 871]
disorder characterized by fatigue and memory loss. [pp. 267, 301, 579, 792, 1003, 1050]
paroxysmic – coming in violent fits or starts. [p. 255]
neurosomatic – in this case just
parp – to make a honking noise, here,
referring to neural and somatic consequences. [p. 1037]
farting. [pp. 159, 1027]
neutral density point* – the
parturient – preggers. [p. 789]
point at which a neutral density filter reduces the brightness of all colors equally, without affecting hue. A theoretical point. [p. 832]
pases – a movement of a cape by a matador in drawing a bull and taking his charge. [p. 13]
nictitater – (sic) one who winks or
patellar – relating to the patella, the
blinks. ‘nictater’ is intended. [p. 1074]
knee-cap. [p. 635]
nostrum – A medicine prepared by the
pedalferrous – DFW coinage:
person recommending it; esp. a quack remedy, a patent medicine. [p. 621]
produced by footfalls. [p. 93]
pedentive – that which allows a circular dome to be placed over a square base, as at the Hagia Sofia. [p. 91]
novena – a nine-day period of private or public Catholic prayer. [pp. 705, 712]
novitiate – a novice in religious orders.
pericardium – the sac of tissue and
[pp. 667, 706, 711, 712, 1054]
lubricating fluid in which the heart beats. [p. 652]
nystagmic – rapid, involuntary, oscillatory motion of the eyeball. [pp. 281, 329, 1037]
peronic – having a bent penis, unusual adjectival form of Peyronie’s Disease [p. 190]
7
pertussive – relating to coughing. [pp.
proprioception* – the sense of
60, 921, 990]
the position of one’s own body in space. [pp. 832, 928]
phocomelic – the congenital absence
prorector – members of a management
or abnormal shortening of arms or legs, often with only short, flipper-like limbs projecting from the body, used of Thalidomide babies. [p. 901]
body of a university, each managing his or her specific area [pp. 3, 51, 53, 54, 55, 79, 98, 99, 218, 282, 293, 306, 307, 338, 381, 410, 432, 451, 453, 454, 457, 460, 515, 569, 627, 635, 666, 667, 673, 674, 675, 676, 686, 983, 998, 1000, 1003, 1009, 1012, 1028, 1044, 1054, 1067, 1072]
phosphenism – resembling the little lightshow you get when you press your fingers against closed eyes. [p. 1037]
phylogenic – the evolutionary
pruritis – itching of any kind, as in hives. [p. 393]
development and history of a species. [pp. 290, 622]
pulchritude – beauty. [pp. 190,
piaffer – a movement in which a horse
440]
trots in place with high action of the legs. [p. 965]
purl – to flow or ripple, especially with a murmuring sound. [pp. 386, 920]
picric – bitterness beyond bitterness. Here, a yellow tinge. [p. 456]
phylacteryish – resembling a
pinioned – in this case referencing the
tefilin, Jewish devotional items consisting of cuboid leather boxes containing quotes from the Torah. [p. 46]
fact that Hal’s arms are still held behind his back. [pp. 12, 13]
pyorrheic – relating to advanced
pizzicato – musical direction that calls
pyorrhea, a periodontal infection that can erode the jaw and loosen teeth. [p. 189]
for the plucking of stringed instruments. [p. 804]
quincunx – arranged in the shape of
plangent – a loud, reverberating and
the fifth side of a die. [p. 80]
frequently melancholy sound. [p. 71]
quoin – a wedge, or wedge-shaped block,
pleurisy – a fantastically painful
used for various special purposes. [p. 797]
inflammation of the lining of the lungs. [pp. 22, 859]
quonset hut – a kind of prefabricated building consisting of a semicylindrical corrugated metal roof on a bolted steel foundation. [p. 109]
plexor – the rubber hammer used by physicians to test reflexes, as at the knee. [p. 71]
Quo vadis? – Latin: ‘Where are you going?’, a phrase taken as summary of the story of Peter fleeing Rome and meeting Christ going the opposite direction. Peter asks ‘Quo vadis?’, and Christ’s response, ‘To be crucified again.’ rekindles Peter’s ardor for Christianity, whereupon he returns to the city and martyrdom. [pp. 984, 985]
prandial – relating to a meal [pp. 80, 121, 191, 385, 438, 1005]
presbyopic – the degradation of vision with age. [p. 11]
prima facie – Latin: ‘at first sight’. [p. 639]
redemisement – the re-transfer of
pricket – a small spike for holding a candle upright. [pp. 188, 504]
land to one who has already demised it. Here used of Experialism. [p. 42]
prognathous – having a projecting
réseau – a plain net ground used in lace-
lower jaw, chin or underbite. [p. 348]
making, a network or grid, especially one
8
superimposed as a reference marking on photographs in astronomy, surveying, &c. [p. 542]
shako – a military cap in the shape of a
restenosis – the recurrence of a
sinciput – the front part of the head or
truncated cone or frustrum. [p. 1029] skull. [p. 950]
contraction or stricture of a passage, duct or canal, especially of a heart valve after surgery to correct it. [pp. 126, 142, 779, 780]
sinecure – any office or position which
and reddening of the nose with hypertrophy of
has no work or duties attached to it, especially one that yields some stipend or emolument. [pp. 288, 873]
its sebaceous glands. [p. 1037]
sinistral* – darkly suspicious; very
rhinophyma – chronic enlargement
unfavorable. [pp. 512, 832, 862, 884, 885]
rhinorrhagia – nosebleed. [p. 1037]
siphuncular – pertaining to a small
revenant – one who returns from the
siphon or suctorial organ. [p. 921]
dead; a ghost. [pp. 260, 454, 461]
skirling – Shrill crying, shrieking. [pp.
sacristy – the repository in a church in
556, 866]
which are kept the vestments, the sacred vessels and other valuable property. [pp. 705, 713]
sloe – in this case, referring to the color of
sallet – in medieval amour, a light
blackthorn berries, dark red or auburn. [p. 707]
globular headpiece, either with or without a visor, and without a crest, the lower part curving outwards behind. [pp. 527, 1029]
sociosis – outmoded psychological term
saltire – St. Andrew’s cross. [p. 632]
solander – a box made in the form of a
for social disorders. [p. 1037] book, used for holding botanical specimens, papers, maps, &c. [p. 342]
saluki – a large, lightly built sighthound with a feathered tail and feet and large pendant ears. [p. 310]
saprogenic – causing decay or
solecistic – relating to an impropriety or irregularity in speech or diction; a violation of the rules of grammar or syntax. [p. 1014]
putrefaction. [pp. 402, 663, 664, 665, 1034, 1043, 1047]
sui testator – as ordered by a will. [p. 993]
scofulodermic – skin showing signs of scrofula, that is, skin afflicted by tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis, the invasion of the lymph nodes of the neck by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. [p. 187]
steatocryptotic – a derangement of
scopophiliacal – enjoying
steatopygiacs – a person exhibiting
the sebaceous glands in which sebum fails to drain through the skin, and instead collects beneath it. [p. 187] a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks. Cf. Sarah Baartman [p. 187]
watching. [p. 233]
scopophobic – frightened of or averse to, watching [pp. 226, 544]
strabismic –pertaining to an affliction
sedulous – constant in application to the matter in hand; assiduous, persistent. [pp. 286, 287]
of the eyes in which the axes of vision cannot be coincidentally directed to the same object. It produces squinting. [pp. 289, 290, 291, 296]
serodermatotic – a skin disease
strettoing – referring to a section of a
with serous effusion into the skin. [p. 187]
fugue in which subject entries overlap. [p. 240]
9
resemblance to houses, boats, bottles, glasses,
strigil* – an instrument with a curved
urns, birds, beasts, men, &c. [p. 316]
blade, for scraping the sweat and dirt from the skin in the hot-air bath or after gymnastic exercise. [p. 832]
teleologic – the science of final causes;
styptic – having the power of contracting
that branch of knowledge which deals with ends or purposes. [p. 91]
organic tissue, as alum does to shaving nicks. [p. 505]
tenebrae factae sunt – Latin: ‘there was darkness [over the Earth]’, line from a hymn narrating the crucifixion. [p. 287]
subhadronics – referring to the realm of matter below that of hadrons, i.e. Quarks. [pp. 187, 871]
tendentious – having a purposed
sudoriferous – that which produces
tendency. [p. 380]
or causes sweat or sweating. [p. 1076]
teratoidal – having the appearance or
sulcus – a groove, trench, or furrow,
character of a monster or monstrous formation. [p. 190]
usually as on the surface of the brain. [pp. 186, 187, 192]
tessera – a small quadrilateral tablet of
suppurating – forming or secreting
wood, bone, ivory, or the like, used for various purposes, as a token, tally, ticket, label, &c. [p. 911]
pus. [pp. 278, 435]
swivet – a flustered or agitated state. [p.
tesseract – a four-dimensional
1019]
hypercube. [p. 232]
swotting – hard work at one’s studies,
testudo* – the typical genus of the
cf. wakk sub. [p. 762]
tortoise family, Testudinidæ [p. 832]
synclinal – inclined or sloping towards
tetanic – spasm-producing, such as those from tetanus. [p. 73]
each other. [pp. 75, 252]
synecdoche – a figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versa; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, &c. ‘Wheels’ for ‘car’, and so forth. [p. 789]
thanatoptic – a pun on the word
synovial – the viscid albuminous fluid
organism moves or disposes itself in response to a touch stimulus. [p. 75]
‘thantotic’, the psychological concept of death instinct. [pp. 327, 790]
thigmotactic – the way in which an
secreted in the interior of the joints, and in the sheaths of the tendons, which serves to lubricate them. [pp. 886, 887, 888]
threnody – a lament for the dead, a dirge. [p. 556]
tabescent – wasting away, as of the
tittle – in this case, the smallest or a very
very late stages of a terminal disease. eg, tabes dorsalis, the wasting of the dorsal nerves of the spinal cord in tertiary syphilis. [p. 187]
small part of something; a minute amount. [p. 1050]
tangram – the name given to a Chinese
toque – chef’s hat. [p. 380]
geometrical puzzle consisting of a square dissected into five triangles, a square, and a rhomboid, which can be combined so as to make two equal squares, and also so as to form several hundred figures, having a rude
torticollic – pertaining to an affection of the muscles of the neck, in which it is so twisted as to keep the head turned to one side; wry-neck. [p. 185]
10
the natural weathering of copper, brass or bronze. Its primary components are the acetates, carbonates, chlorides, formates, hydroxides, and sulfates of copper. All components are present in a very complicated and ever-changing electrochemical equilibrium whose state is dependent on ambient conditions. Much used as a pigment until the 19th century when synthetic alternatives became available. [p. 623]
transmural infarction – a heart attack that causes irreversible damage to heart muscle all the way through its thickness. [p. 646]
transuranial – chemical elements heavier than Uranium, that is, artificial. [p. 185]
treillage – a framework upon which vines or ornamental plants are trained. [p. 185]
verger – one whose duty it is to take care of the interior of a church, and to act as attendant. [pp. 711, 712]
trochaically – based upon trochees, a metrical foot consisting of a long followed by a short syllable. [p. 174]
vermiform – having the shape of a
tsimmes – an Ashkenazi Jewish
veronica – a movement typical of the
worm. [p. 667]
casserole consisting of diced vegetables and fruit. [p. 638]
first tercio of a bullfight in which the matador swings the cape in a slow circle round himself in order to persuade the charging bull to follow the movement of the cape. [p. 719]
tumbrel – in this case referring to an instrument of punishment, the nature and operation of which in early times is uncertain; later identified with the stock. [p. 225]
705, 968]
tumid – engorged or swollen. [pp. 305,
votaried – Consecrated by a vow;
vespers – evening Catholic prayers. [pp.
769]
devoted to a religious life. [p. 434]
uncolloped – lacking thick folds of
wakked – schoolboy slang for intense
fat or flesh [p. 1067]
studying, cf. swott sup. [p. 1006]
unperspicuous – unclear in
wen – a harmless sebaceous cystic tumor under the skin, occurring chiefly on the head. [pp. 4, 530, 639, 640]
statement or expression. [p. 1066]
uremic – pertaining to urine, especially during a derangement of kidney function. [pp. 76, 93, 1064]
xanthodantic – sic, misspelling of ‘xanthodontic’, which means yellow-toothed. [p. 189]
vademecumish – referring to a vade mecum (Latin: ‘go with me’), a handbook. [p. 322]
xerophagy – the eating of dry food, especially as form of fasting practiced in the early Christian church. [p. 1006]
varicelliformally – having the form or appearance of chicken-pox. [p. 191]
zither – duh. [pp. 66, 589]
varicocele – painful varicose condition
zuckung – German: convulsion. [pp.
or dilatation of the spermatic veins. [p. 80, 756]
303, 305, 306]
A dictionary – begins when it no
verdigris – a green or greenish blue
longer gives the meaning of words, but their tasks. –Georges Bataille, in ‘Formless’ from Visions of Excess
substance obtained artificially by the action of dilute acetic acid on thin plates of copper, or by
nky 22.11.10r4
11
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE PSYCHOHISTORY AS A CHILD, WALLACE WAS forceful and imaginative. He frequently made his younger sister play audience to long, ad lib dramas populated by characters like Captain Phlegm and his sidekick Goat Bile. During adolescence, Wallace moved into the basement of the family’s Philo, Illinois home. He painted the walls black and hung cork tiles on one wall. His sister later remembered being very upset by one of the things tacked to the cork wall, a single page from an article on Kafka, whose headline read: “THE DISEASE WAS LIFE ITSELF.” Wallace first began using drugs in high school, starting with pot and progressing to psilocybin. He was apparently able to hold this down, remaining an A student, while also playing football and very competitive tennis. In his senior year of high school, he began carrying a towel around with him to wipe away the perspiration from anxiety attacks, and a tennis racket, so that no one commented on the towel. Midway through his sophomore year at his father’s alma mater, Amherst College, Wallace had a nervous breakdown. He returned home, where he lived for about nine months. He drove a school bus and read almost continuously, later saying that nearly everything he’d read he read during that period. He saw a psychiatrist and for the first time began taking antidepressants. Wallace returned to Amherst in the fall of 1983, and completed his bachelor’s, with a double major in English and Philosophy, in 1985. While negotiating the publication of his undergraduate English thesis as his first novel, The Broom of the System, Wallace moved to Tucson to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona. The book was published in January of 1987, and Wallace completed both his MFA and a follow-up book of short stories by June of that year. Mid-way through the summer of 1987 Wallace called his mother from his apartment on the outskirts of Tucson and said he was thinking of hurting himself. She flew to Arizona, helped him load his belongings into a U-Haul, and drove him back to Illinois. They passed the time by reading a Dean Koontz novel aloud to one another. In Urbana, Wallace and his sister Amy watched the Todd Haynes movie Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story. After the film ended, Amy told him she had to go back to the University of Virginia the next day. He asked her not to go. The day after she left, Wallace tried to kill himself by taking all the antidepressants he had on hand. He survived, and checked himself into a local psychiatric ward the next day. In late 1987, Wallace was given a course of electroconvulsive therapy. The experience horrified him, but he thought it helped. Wallace’s mother remembers that David emerged as delicate as a child. “He would ask, ‘How do you make small talk?’ ”, “ ‘How can you know which frying pan to pick out of the cupboard?’ ” Deciding that fiction was no aid to his mental health, Wallace applied to and was accepted on scholarship by, Harvard’s graduate philosophy program. By the time he started coursework there in the fall of 1989, he was already disappointed with his decision. In August, his collection of short stories had been published as Girl With Curious Hair to no acclaim whatsoever, and soon after, Wallace began drinking heavily. Less than a month into his studies he called the Harvard psychiatric-services hotline, explaining that he had to go to a hospital again. He was taken by ambulance to the McLean Psychiatric Campus, in Belmont. While at McLean, and sitting next to his mother, he was prescribed the MAOI Nardil for the first time. In December of 1989 Wallace was released into a halfway house in Brighton. It was here that he began his lifelong relationship with Alcoholics Anonymous. True to his anonymity, Wallace always denied involvement with AA, going so far as to turn off journalist David Lipsky’s tape recorder when mentioning it. By the middle of 1990, normality had begun to return to Wallace’s life. As part of his recovery he began to keep notebooks of observations. He found the simple clichés by which his fellow addicts anchored their sobriety strangely inspiring. His condition steadily improved, and by February of 1991 he was writing ‘The Project’ on a daily schedule. In an April letter to Bonnie Nadell, his agent, Wallace made a promise: “I will be a fiction writer again or die trying.” In June of 1992, Wallace moved to Syracuse, cheap rents and a part time teaching position. By the summer of 1994, now living in Normal, Illinois, Wallace had sent a completed manuscript to his editor Michael Pietsch. It topped out at 1,600 pages. Infinite Jest was published in January of 1996 to immediate acclaim. Much of the nineties passed in relative tranquility. Wallace accepted journalistic assignments, published another collection of short stories and, in 2000, began work on a second novel. In 2004, at age forty-two, he married a visual artist named Karen Green. A year later he moved to Claremont, California to begin a sweetheart teaching position at Pomona College. By 2007, after nearly a decade of work on what would become The Pale King, Wallace felt stuck. He became increasingly suspicious of his old-fashioned MOAI, Nardil. In April he and his wife ate at an Iranian restaurant, and Wallace developed severe stomach cramps. His doctor told him that he had probably experienced a minor hypertensive crisis caused by Nardil’s interaction with the tyramine in his dinner. With his wife’s support and his psychiatrist’s advice he stopped taking the drug in June. At first things seemed to go smoothly. In August, Wallace was able to write to Jonathan Franzen with a tone of neurotic optimism about the possibility of living without medication. By the fall however, Wallace was hospitalized again for severe depression. By the spring of 2008 a new combination of antidepressants seemed to have stabilized him; he was well enough to have dinner with his wife, Pietsch and Nadell at the National Booksellers convention in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, ten days later Wallace checked into a motel outside of Claremont and tried to kill himself by overdosing on anxiolytics. When he woke up, he called his frantic wife, and apologized. He agreed to another course of ECT. He had twelve sessions. They did not help. In the summer of 2008 Wallace went back on Nardil, but was too anxious to give the notoriously fickle medication time to take effect. On Saturday, September 6th he began deceiving his wife about his mood. On Wednesday he made an appointment with a chiropractor, which he blew off but told his wife he had kept. On Friday, September 12th his wife left the house to prepare for a gallery opening. Wallace stacked the unfinished pages, disks and hard drives of The Pale King on his desk, wrote a two page note and left the lights on in his office. He went to the patio at the back of the house, bound his hands behind his back with duct tape, and hung himself from a leather belt nailed to the beam of an arbor.
12
HERE ARE THE STEPS WE TOOK, WHICH ARE SUGGESTED AS A PROGRAM OF RECOVERY: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
10. 11.
12.
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
13
Example of text cut from the final draft of Infinite Jest
61 B.S. 1960
I have one sober memory of my own father, when I was still shorter than he, when he was still able to work as a teaching pro, when we were living just off the grounds of a resort east of Tucson, before I’d ever held or swung one of his racquets, what my boys call a stick. The desert is a small box. There is a wooden absence of echo; you are intimate with every sound. The crunch of boots’ heels on the grit is matter-of-fact, dead. The desert is quiet enough so that I can hear the squeak of the blood in my head as I follow. Out here outside Tucson’s lume the stars seem so close you can feel them, cold bright blue-white. You can see the milky cosmic snot the stars hang in. My father goes first along the trail and carries the flashlight and the little propane torch, available at Sears. I carry the small black light I made, for scorpions. The black light is a bar like a fluorescent bar, and I hold it up be fore me like [a] wand. In its negative glow, scorpions turn candy-bright and scuttle off the trail. Big bullet-headed saguaro flank the path, many-armed, silent as butlers. There are little cold-pockets we walk through. In ways the desert at night is like the sea. There’s a scuttling sound and the quick stink of vinegarroon as we cross the dry arroyo between the house and the tool shed. Tiny white threads in my father’s split old leather boots glow bright-white in my black light. He kicks out the chock and opens up the gate to the little fenced area back off the arroyo’s bank. The sound of the rusted gate against the dead mute quiet is not describable. The shed is corrugated steel and has a padlock and hasp. My father wipes his nose on his wrist. The stars descend. It is a different kind of quiet in the shed, the quiet of dust and why are you here. My father gropes for something that clanks, shines a cone of light at the opposite wall. He has, even then, put on weight; in his tight old denims his middle’s collops make me think of sausage in its casing as he squats and plays his big light over garden-tools and bags of gravel and deck chairs and dust. ‘There it is,’ says my father. He is stone cold sober; he just came back. He points the steady light. In a dusty chaotic web under the umbral right angle of a hanging hoe sits maybe the biggest black widow spider ever. So big it has actual weight; you can see the web sag around it. It is hanging upside down. It is ink-black, its legs curve like crabs’ claws as it hangs surrounded by the husks of what used to be bugs. A red infinity sign decorates the spider’s back. Or belly. It faces us, lit up, upside down, not moving at all in the flashlight’s beam. My father has a thing about them. A horror. He’d try to hunt them out and wipe them out. He’s spend whole nights. They come out only at night. Hard to kill by conventional means. Most poisons just irritate them, he said. Sometimes they have associates up near the ceiling. A terror of being fallen on by an associate. He devised 62
methods and campaigns and carried plenty of firepower. He had a horror. He never did get bitten. ‘There she is,’ he says again, and you can feel the pull that’s part of the horror. He wipes his nose on his wrist. Now the breath of the propane and the tiny roar as my father initiates a cutting flame. ‘Jesus,’ he breathes in wonder at the thing’s size, its regal disdain for nighttime light and sound. The spider hangs there as the corners of its web begin to whip and glow in the heat of what must seem a blue sun.
14
15
A Table of Humor Device
HUMOR
Motive/Aim
Discovery
Province
Human Nature
Method/Means Observation Audience
16
The Sympathetic
WIT Throwing Light Words & Ideas
SATIRE
SARCASM
INVECTIVE
IRONY
CYNICISM
SARDONY
Discredit
Exclusiveness
SelfJustification
Self-Relief
Misconduct
Statement of Facts
Morals
Adversity
Morals & Manners
Inflicting Pain Faults & Foibles
Surprise
Accentuation
Inversion
Direct Statement
Mystification
The Intelligent
The SelfSatisfied
Victim & Bystander
The Public
An Inner Circle
Amendment
Exposure of Nakedness The Respectable
Pessimism The Self
17
