I just finished pic related. I don’t understand the ending. Help me, Yea Forums

I just finished pic related. I don’t understand the ending. Help me, Yea Forums.

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Hal goes to the hospital Gately is in, foregoing the Whataburger Invitational where the Quebecois assassins are lying in wait to kidnap him, due to his perceived condition which worsens and manifests mainly in the first chapter (the last chronological event of the novel). At the hospital, Joelle van Dyne recognizes Hal in the hospital next to Gately's, whom she has come to visit. With the help of John Wayne (a plant from the Quebecois assassins who is actually a quadruple agent or whatever like Marathe, betraying them), they go to exhume the body of Hal's father J.O. Incandenza, who has embedded the master copy of Infinite Jest aka "The Entertainment" in his skull. They arrive too late, as Orin was kidnapped by the same assassins when he gets with the Swiss hand model (another agent of theirs) and tortured into revealing its location.

As of the events of the first chapter, John Wayne is dead (presumably killed for his betrayal), Orin is presumably alive, the Quebecois have the tape and have "won", and Hal is forever changed, presumably due to the mold he ingested as a child. He was always completely unable to express emotion, which is why he never had a relationship with his father, who presumably created "The Entertainment" in an effort to evoke emotion from his son (the "wraith" seen wreaking havoc at the Enfield Tennis Academy and in Gately's hospital hallucinations is his "ghost"). He has gotten to the point where he is outwardly in hysterics, though he cannot detect that his body is not acting abnormally. Something like that.

One more thing I forgot, Hal's symptoms probably started as a result of that one substance being put on his toothpaste, either by Pemulis or the "wraith".

I read around online and found something similar. How were we supposed to figure that Hal went to the same place as Gately? Everything else I jive with.

remember how the first line of Finnegan''''''s Wakarimashita Desu "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's" is actually the continuation of the last sentence "a way a lone a last a loved a long the"? same thing here, the beginning of IJ is meant to be appended to the last page to make it make sense

I believe Hal mentions a year later that he was taken to a hospital on a psychiatric stretcher in YDAU, and it makes sense as the only location where Hal and Joelle's paths might cross., since we know they end up going to the grave together afterward.

the kid with his head stuck in the computer monitor is just released from the hospital in the last scene in the locker room, Hal will take his place in the bed next to Gately. The kid is referred to obliquely in Gately sequences.

That is a nice catch, but I'm not sure. Weren't the wee doctor and impossibly hot nurse assembling the metal head-contraption for a patient with no skull, like Marathe's wife? I think I remember the admissions board commending Hal on his stellar performance in the Whataburger. Why do you think Orin is alive? I thought he was clearly turbo-fucked, and the AFR don't release prisoners, except for Hal which I assume was because he could only babble incoherently and as way of cruelty/mercy/thanks to the creator of the Master. Also, does that mean Gately was killed by the AFR? :* (

no, that contraption was used to hold the monitor-head kid. Reference is made to his strangely square head, paralleling Gately's own. Hal can still play tennis but that's it. From Hal's referneces to Orin in the opening chapter it would seem that Orin is still alive, but perhaps Hal just doesn't know as their communication is sporadic. Gately was alsno not killed by the AFR, though John Wayne may have been, or alternatively he was working with them the whole time (it's meant to be unclear). Hal was never a prisoner to the AFR, that is unless it is under the supervision of John Wayne.

we don't know that John Wayne betrayed the AFR. This is the part of the story that cannot fully be made sense of. All we know is that he's "standing watch in a mask" as Hal and Gately dig up Himself's head.

I've read the book three times. I thought of basically this, except doesn't Orin have the master before the Swiss hand model? Because he uses it to kill the medical attache who fucked his mom. That's the part I never was able to understand

He has had the master for a while. The swiss hand model (Luria) kidnaps him and tortures him to get it for the AFR.

how does he know where it is? Hal finds his father after his head was microwaved, which I assumed he did in order to create space in his head for the master. Was it that Joelle put the master in there and told Orin about it?

Must have missed one of the footnotes.

It was all one big joke

Orin knows where it is because he has had it for about a year, repeatedly making copies to send to his Mother's "lovers".
Who knows why Himself microwaved his head, he already had weird stuff inserted in there like a gyroscopic "mise-en-scene" sensor of some sort.
If anything, the fact that he microwaved and blew up his head raises questions about how he even has a skull to begin with. Orin likely figured his dad would do that knowing his style.

and by "do that" i mean insert the film into his head.

whoever wrote fp says the master was embedded in JO Incs. skull. which I agree with. I think he blew up his brain in the microwave to make space for the master. Thus, Poor Yorick, a fellow of infinite jest. ie the skull scene from Hamlet. Isn't the idea of putting the master in JO's skull the thematic basis of the whole novel? death and infinity are in and of themselves the ultimate entertainment. this is the only entertainment one needs, to consider the infinite, in all of its horrifying nature, to never again be bored, but also it will lead to your death? I'm talking thematically here, but it seems like he must have had the master in his skull for this reason. Also, why else are they digging up his skull if not because the master is in there? I believe it is in there, and I believe he must have had Joelle put the master in his skull. so how and when did Orin get it?

i dont know if you didn't read what i wrote or what, but yes, I have been saying that obviously the the film was embedded in the JO's skull. Orin has dug up the head months before Hal and Gately eventually do near the end of YDAU, thus Hal's exclamation of "Too late!"
I doubt Joelle put the film into his brain. She had respect for him and his sensibilities and assuming that, his will.
Forget about infinity and death, but what you actually know: Life, is the real entertainment.

so im at around 630 pages through and just read all this. is it ruined now? do I continue?

Aw why'd you do that? It probably doesn't matter though. None of the stuff we are describing actually happens in the book. It is all alluded to throughout the narrative, and takes place chronologically after all the events of the novel except chapter 1, which takes place later (I wanna say several months after?)

That's a good point. I just thought it made the most sense for a few reasons.

He's mysterious and comes out of nowhere, indicating that he is a plant. His father was an asbestos miner in Quebec (AFR was affiliated with miners), and he has revoked his Canadian and Quebecois citizenship since he came to ETA. He has a sexual relationship with Avril, who is a Quebecois national and likely has separatist sympathies. I believe that we know as of chapter 1 that he is dead, so though it is a bit of a stretch, I think it makes sense to assume he is killed for betrayal, considering all of his background and that he was present when Himself was dug up.

The only part that doesn't mesh is that he was discovered by Himself when he was doing interviews of men named John Wayne for a film. It can perhaps be surmised that he assumed the name of John Wayne to get an in with Himself.

you bloody dickhead
finish it. it's still worth it. it's not really spoiling anything that you can read.

Chapter 1 makes no reference to him being dead only that he is gone, and even then only in the sense that Hal uses "John Wayne Would have..."

wow! ive never seen this book mentioned on this board before. nice one mate!

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Ah ok. Must have remembered it wrong.