Infinite Jest dream

In a dream: my students and I were sitting and talking about how to write David Foster Wallace’s novel. And someone said, “Why don’t you try some broken ones, and a mercury-chilling motif?”

One dream-source: a phrase from late in the novel that’s been running in my head, “people broken into pieces and trying to join.” Another: the blizzard of the novel’s final sections.

This is the second Infinite Jest dream I’ve had while teaching the novel. In the first, I was walking on North Harvard Street in Allston, on my way to Harvard Square. I used to take that walk often — it was quicker than taking the T and easier than finding a space to park. In my dream, it looked like rain, and I had no umbrella, but I wasn’t concerned, because I knew my wife Elaine could drive from Illinois and pick me up.

Other Infinite Jest posts
Attention : Description : Loveliness : Mike Huckabee : “Night-noises” : Novelty : Romance : Sadness : ❍ : Steve Jobs : Telephony : Television