As I continue to crawl through the pages of Infinite Jest, I feel an ever-deepening connection with Mr. Don Gately. I wouldn’t call it a man-crush or anything like that, but I admire his discipline and his brutal honesty. I think that if I lived in the world of Harry Potter, my patronus would be an enormous square-headed man with prison tattoos.
There is much I’d like to write about Don G., but I will have to save that for another post. It would take more time than I currently have and probably get far more personal than I am comfortable getting. So, perhaps another time.
I jumped on the Randy Lenz bandwagon a few weeks ago, but only just today read those pages. While I did once again cringe everytime I read the word “There,” there was something else that caught my attention. As I’ve been reading and annotating my copy of IJ, I tend to circle words that I either find fascinating or that I have not heard/read before. I noticed, as I read about Randy Lenz, that I was circling a lot more words than normal. For some reason, these pages had a higher density of fascinating/unknown words.
So, I enumerate those words here:
Mongo (n): literal – a monetary unit of Mongolia; in context – really big
Panoply (n): a complete or impressive collection of things
Eurotrochaic (adj): no literal definition; in context – describing the alternating two-note sound of a European emergency siren
Diverticulitis (n): inflammation of a diverticulum, especially in the colon, causing pain and disturbance of bowel function
Bonerfied (adj): no literal definition, but is the name of an AC/DC cover band; in context – to arouse or experience great excitement
Melony (adj): resembling a melon, melon-like
Gasper (n): no literal definition; in context – a cigarette
Scopophobic (adj): a morbid fear of being seen or stared at by others
Windbagathon (adj): no literal definition; in context – long-winded and marathon in duration
Schizoid (adj): characterized by emotional aloofness and solitary habits
Tattlemount (n): no literal definition; in context – appears to be a blending of “tattle” and “tantamount”
Hemispasm (n): a spasm that affects only one side of the body
Insousistent (adj): showing a casual lack of concern
Blatting (v): making a bleating sound
Crepuscular (adj): resembling or relating to twilight
Threnody (n): a lament
Purposive (adj): having,serving, or done with a purpose
Sangfroid (n): sometimes excessive composure or coolness, especially in difficult circumstances
Phosphenes (n): a ring or spot of light produced by pressure on the eyeball
Confabulating (v): having a memory disturbance produced by a fabricated or distorted memory
Microspic (adj): visible only with a microscope; a misuse or misspelling of “microscopic”
Cableyarrow (n): no literal definition; a misspelling of “caballero,” which is Spanish for “gentleman”
Kamasupra (n): no literal definition, but is the title of a song by Radiohead; a misuse or misspelling of “karma sutra”
Stelliform (adj): star-shaped
I’d say more but feeling scopophobic about writing anything publicly about the neural explosions I experience plodding through this stelliform space craft of a novel. Thanks for the blog.
“Bonerfied” = bona fide.
Randy Lenz is a coke freak, and likes to think of himself (as do many folk, including, I believe, DFW) as smarter than most anyone else. Therefore uses many “big words,” often words that he conflates or blends with others (like tattlemount) or spells incorrectly (Cableyarrow), as Ellen often points out. So is DFW both making fun of RL types, or himself, or more possibly, both and all who share this trait of wanting to talk smarter than anyone else…? Also, Bonerfied is a corruption of bona fide, with a side of sexual innuendo…
In some ways I think Randy Lenz is whom DFW fears that he may be, and Don Gately is who he wishes that he is. But there is a much larger, IMHO, meta-issue behind Big Don Gately, as well…
Mrs. Malaprop would have been proud.
I have noticed that DFW often misspells or misuses words when telling Randy’s story: in vitro when he means en utero. anileated=annihilated, recurving=recurring, purportaged=purported, devroid=devoid. There are many others.
Ryan, this post is grand.
so fun to see all these words that got your attention! And, looks like we have a lot of super Gately quotes to talk about in two weeks. : )