Eeking in just below the spoiler line today:

“The thing with Schtitt: like most Europeans of his generation, anchored from infancy to certain permanent values which—yes, OK, granted—may, admittedly, have a whiff of proto-fascist potential about them, but which do, nevertheless (the values), anchor nicely the soul and course of a life—Old World patriarchal stuff like honor and discipline and fidelity to some larger unit—Gerhardt Schtitt does not so much dislike the modern O.N.A.N.ite U.S. of A. as find it hilarious and frightening at the same time” (82).

Dang, man, ain’t that the truth about subsidized time and Entertainment.

Go read Ininite Jest.

The entire section with Kate Gompert is really the quote of the day, in part for its humor and in part for the intense psychic pain. Jesus this is a great section.

“The doctor tool an early clinical gamble and asked Kate whether it might not be easier if she rolled over and say up so that they could spea with each other more normally, face to face.
‘I am sitting up.’
The doctor’s pen was poised. His slow nod  was studious, blandly puzzled-seeming. ‘You mean to say you feel right now as if your body is already in a sitting-up position?’
She rolled an eye up at him for a long moment, sighed meaningfully, and rolled and rose. Katherine Ann Gompert probably felt that here was yet another psych-ward M.D. with zero sense of humor. This was probably because she did not understand the strict methodological limits that dictated how literal he, a doctor, had to be with the admits on the psych ward” (71).

Infinite Summer is not even one week old. We’re barely 50 pages in. Join us in reading David Foster Wallace’s novel this summer.

“He [Gately] kept his big square chin up and his smile wide, but he bowed neither toward nor away from any man. He took zero in the way of shit and was a cheery but implacable exponent of the Don’t-Get-Mad-Get-Even school” (55).

Ah, Gately, I’ve missed you.