Summary

Iannis Goerlandt discusses David Foster Wallace’s ability to employ and critique irony as it manifests itself in “popular culture, (E Unibus Pluram)” and “literary production” (Goerlandt 309). Especially in Infinite Jest, “Wallace takes a keen interest in the ... ways that one can dwell in an ‘irony-free zone’ (369) to speak of ‘real stuff’ (592)” (309).

Argument

Goerlandt defines irony as “a speaker’s attitude of aloofness or an audience’s impression that aloofness is reached through structural manipulation” (310). One of his first examples is how AA regards ironic speakers, or the ones who make the mistake of “deprecating the Program rather than the Self,” (367) as in-genuine. Goerlandt quotes an important passage about AA’s perspective on irony in that;

"The thing is it has to be the truth to really go over, here. It can’t be a calculated crowd-pleaser, and it has to be the truth unslanted, unfortified. And maximally unironic. An ironist in a Boston AA meeting is a witch in church. Irony-free zone. Same with sly disingenuous manipulative pseudo-sincerity. Sincerity with an ulterior motive is something these tough ravaged people know and fear, all of them trained to remember the coyly sincere, ironic, self-presenting fortifications they’d had to construct in order to carry on Out There" (IJ, 369).

The character Mario seems to Identify with the AA’s perspective saying that these people seem “less unhappy” and can “say God with a straight face” making the place “real” (591). Mario understands these feelings as “true” (190) feelings. Mario and Gately, and perhaps others at Ennet House may represent the only characters that deal with true feelings. “This particular audience does not want to be supplied with what someone else thinks it wants” (IJ, 368). Unlike Orin and Hal, who come up with strategies as to how to “deliver the goods” to their expected audience. The most notable example is the reactions of the kids watching Mario’s version of the ONANtiad.

"There is much cracking wise and baritone mimicry of the President roundly disliked for over two terms now. Only ... a handful of ... Canadian students sit unhatted, chewing stolidly, faces blurred and distant. This American penchant for absolution via irony is foreign to them" (IJ, 385).

“The American audience thus ironizes the instructive and critical film; they know the parody is correct in its hyperbolic and grotesque representation of history, but by cheering and “cracking wise” they detach themselves from their nation without actually changing anything about the condition in which they live” (Goerlandt 312). And thus that Goerlandt makes his major point that it is the detachment toward blatant irony that Wallace really wanted to emphasis as the downfall of many of Infinite Jest’s characters, and perhaps America in general.

Goerlandt points out that irony has become such a commodity in the culture of Infinite Jest that viewers see the poster for “The JOKE” a movie that “You Are Strongly Avised NOT to Shell Out Money” for “which the art-film habitues of course thought was a cleverly ironic anti-ad joke” (IJ 397).

Goerlandt concludes that Wallace does not want his readers to take the same detachment toward irony as many of his characters, but rather should attain the attitude of the AA members. Goerlandt argues that the structure of the novel, given the time gap, makes sure that the “structure of the novel becomes a loop ... designed to ’ensure continued watching,’” (323) which “counters the danger of an ironic reading” (324).

Analysis

Goerlandt's last concluding point was a discussion of title's; mainly the title Infinite Jest, and some of Himself's cartridge titles, like The Joke. Goerlandt wishes to argue that the same attitude toward irony presented in the context of the novel s the same Wallace would want from his readers, namely by naming his article something that would indicate displeasure with the novel. However the point of Goerlandt's title and Wallace's is that it is the author's worst nightmare that his readers should take the same detached relationship to irony that for example the movie critics did when they actually went to see The Joke, instead of taking the ad at face value.

The conclusion seems to indicate that Wallace did mean to directly challenge his readers, and that the title Infinite Jest means exactly what it says. Even though structurally there are time gaps, and narratives that go nowhere, Wallace makes a contract with the reader to stick it out and find their own value in the universe within. Whatever is there, whatever isn't; Wallace gives the reader enough to work with to ensure a sincere relationship to the value presented in this novel. Wallace elegently and bravely challenges his readers to have a continued relationship with the text in giving them a novel that they can't just put down and walk away.

Works Cited

Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Put the Book Down and Slowly Walk Away'": Irony and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Heldref Publications: Spring 2006, Vol. 47. No. 3. pgs. 309-328