Orin Incandenza, Fictional Punter (1 Viewer)

[rockaction]

The greatest fictional punter ever, maybe? 

Anybody know the meaning of the skulls in New Orleans? I've always been fascinated by his character, king of lobs of all sports. 

For those that don't know, he's a character in Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. He's a punter that has been rumored to set everything in motion, and has long been rumored as the hidden protagonist for the novel. 

Anyway, he requests a trade from New Orleans to Arizona after a great flood and skulls invading his living space, IIRC. 

It's a fascinating novel. Maybe we can have a book club on it like so many others have. I'd be up for it. I'd love for some of the math majors on here to explain some things to me.  

Enfield Tennis Academy. Little sideways eights in the backs of lovers. Forever.

eta* In case people come in to question my usual late-night constitutional, Aaron Swartz saw the novel important enough to write an entire analysis of it. 

 

[pecorino]

Sometimes certain names evoke a particular word or two every time I see or hear the name. For me, I can't help but thinking of "hypertrophied" when I think of Orin O. The image of that giant thigh just sticks in my mind. Anyway, give me Hal or Mario any day over Orin.

eta: I'm a math guy. What can I help you with?

 

[rockaction]

Sometimes certain names evoke a particular word or two every time I see or hear the name. For me, I can't help but thinking of "hypertrophied" when I think of Orin O. The image of that giant thigh just sticks in my mind. Anyway, give me Hal or Mario any day over Orin.

eta: I'm a math guy. What can I help you with?

Wow. Thanks for the comment. The structure of the novel, actually. It's said that the structure revolves around a particular set of triangles, or fractals. I'm wondering how this makes sense. I'm just not as smart as DFW -- I always thought the structure made intuitive sense, if not theoretical sense. But it doesn't seem like intuitive sense is what he was going for. 

http://infinitesummer.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=87

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle

Anyway, just thought maybe a re-read would help me. I was thinking that Orin might be the unsung hero of the novel. The most Hamlet-esque, in a way. The most tortured, yet unheard. He sets the movie in motion to his father's enemies, it is asserted. He sees deluges of skulls and floods. He jumps out of planes. I like how somebody noted that at a certain point, both he and Pemulis, exquisite lobbers, wind up only in footnotes as if a parabolic arc. What about a lob, really, was so fascinating to DFW, who makes two of his main characters experts at it and little else?

That's the sort of stuff I was hoping to glean from this. 

 

[Dan Lambskin]

I'd rather have robo-punter (too lazy to search for the thread) 

 

[pecorino]

Wow. Thanks for the comment. The structure of the novel, actually. It's said that the structure revolves around a particular set of triangles, or fractals. I'm wondering how this makes sense. I'm just not as smart as DFW -- I always thought the structure made intuitive sense, if not theoretical sense. But it doesn't seem like intuitive sense is what he was going for. 

http://infinitesummer.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=87

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle

Anyway, just thought maybe a re-read would help me. I was thinking that Orin might be the unsung hero of the novel. The most Hamlet-esque, in a way. The most tortured, yet unheard. He sets the movie in motion to his father's enemies, it is asserted. He sees deluges of skulls and floods. He jumps out of planes. I like how somebody noted that at a certain point, both he and Pemulis, exquisite lobbers, wind up only in footnotes as if a parabolic arc. What about a lob, really, was so fascinating to DFW, who makes two of his main characters experts at it and little else?

That's the sort of stuff I was hoping to glean from this. 

I know everything you'd want to know about Sierpinski's Triangle and Fractals in general. I taught a course in Fractals and Chaos Theory for many years.

There are definitely instances of Chaos Theory in the book too. The one that comes to mind first is the beautifully written passage about a piece of paper that gets tossed in the wind and by a car, and it ends up connecting the driver and the receiver of the paper (I forget the details). Also, more generally how very small, seemingly inconsequential things end up building up and playing a big role later down the line, that is quintessential Chaos Theory.

And in case you didn't guess it, Sierpinski's triangle and Chaos Theory are intimately connected too. I highly recommend the book "Chaos" by James Gleick to learn more.

 

[Ilov80s]

That's a book I need to read- love the idea of a book club. I know nothing about the book but based on @rockaction description, is he similar to a Vonnegut or Pynchon?

 

[rockaction]

That's a book I need to read- love the idea of a book club. I know nothing about the book but based on @rockaction description, is he similar to a Vonnegut or Pynchon?

Both, IMO. But more Pynchon.  

 

[Ilov80s]

Both, IMO. But more Pynchon.  

Ok, your post had some elements of Crying Lot to it. I remember liking that book but also I can't even begin to tell you what the hell it was about. I mean it was about a vast postal service conspiracy and a play about that conspiracy and it's a bit of a detective story...but yeah, wtf was it about?

 

[rockaction]

Ok, your post had some elements of Crying Lot to it. I remember liking that book but also I can't even begin to tell you what the hell it was about. I mean it was about a vast postal service conspiracy and a play about that conspiracy and it's a bit of a detective story...but yeah, wtf was it about?

Yeah, I tried to read Gravity's Rainbow and wondered the same thing. 

A screaming comes across the sky...

Infinite Jest makes more sense, I swear. The themes are more tangible and less abstract, I think.  

 

[Ilov80s]

Yeah, I tried to read Gravity's Rainbow and wondered the same thing. 

A screaming comes across the sky...

Infinite Jest makes more sense, I swear. The themes are more tangible and less abstract, I think.  

Yeah I don't know if I ever want to tackle Gravity's Rainbow. On the other hand, everything Vonnegut has done is immensely readable. 

 

[wikkidpissah]

The interest here will inspire me further in my decade-long attempt to tell the story of Gerald Brockweather, longsnapper savant. Son of a Michigan fence corrector who misinterpreted a famous critique of local hero Gerald R Ford ("spent too much time, as a football center, looking at life backward & upside down, between his legs") as a positive attribute and brutalized his undersized genius son into literally adopting that presidential point-of-view in life and into scholastic sports, young Brockweather turned his unique angle into a unique vision. The visual adjustments he had to make going through life in a hiking squat gave Gerald unprecedented conceptual abilities which, when he received a long-snapping scholarship to Wayne State University, caused him to discover the extra dimensions necessary to complete & prove string theory. Unfortunately, his continually exposed backside made him prone to severe pranking throughout college, which eventually turned into a passion for all kinds of buttplay, soon a life-twisting obsession.

There's much more, but i dont want give the whole thing away, especially now that i know there's this kind of market for it...