Infinite Jest Liveblog Part 4: Prince Hal

Just a bit over 100 pages from the end of Infinite Jest, I'm in a kind of emotional tug of war between wanting to read it constantly, and knowing that if I do it will very shortly be over.

Instead of a full-on point form recap this time (because I think that was starting to get excessive), I'll just do a quick note on where I am right now. 

There have been a ton of Hamlet references throughout the book so far, but I think this point is where it's really starting to all line up - or at least the scene I just read seems to be quite similar to the opening scene of Hamlet. You've got the ghost of Himself, who is possibly the reason for everything being moved around at Enfield (and Ortho's bed), Ortho stuck to the window kind of "standing watch" over the grounds, Hal's facial expressions doing weird things (is he mad? is he pretending? is everyone else mad or pretending? who do you trust? though this be madness, yet is there method in't?) ... I still don't know what's going on but I'm loving every second of it.

Vegetarian-ing?

So, I've recently gone vegetarian - I've had various attempts at it over the past year or so but at 17 I'm not out of high school yet and still living with my parents, which means a lot of the time I end up eating what my family eats (as much as I want to go vegetarian, I feel bad about not eating the dinners my mum makes because then the food will go to waste, and I hate wasting food). However, I've been warming them to the idea of it and have been able to work around some things so that I've only really eaten meat three or four times this summer so far -- and now, as a kind of incentive to keep myself on top of this, and to get better at coming up with meal ideas that don't involve meat I'm going to be recording it all on this blog! So now, since I just started this and it's the end of the day, you just get to see my dinner - I'll hopefully do full-day recaps from now on (or maybe an end-of-the-week roundup or something).

And yes, it's probably weird that I eat dinner at 5:30, but I work from 6-10/11ish most nights so I have to eat something beforehand.

Dinner: Big Salad
Because salads are AMAZING

Ingredients:

- Lettuce

- Tomato tofu

- Raspberries

- Bocconcini balls

- Cherry tomatoes

- Salad dressing

I only had two of these left but they're really good on salads, or if you cut them up and melt them in a sandwich, yessss

Raspberries <3

Honest to god this is the best tofu EVER, I eat it all the time it's brilliant

Because I was too lazy to make my own vinaigrette and this stuff is damn good

And voila, the finished product. Eating salad always makes me feel like I'm being super healthy and good to myself, but let's be real I just love salad (if you do the exact same thing but take out the tofu, it's good as an addition to any other meal - I like having dinner salads though because it's better to not have a huge dinner - big breakfasts and lunches are the bomb

The Decemberists

My mum recommended this band to me a few months back but I kind of brushed the suggestion aside and forgot about it until they were recommended again, by my drama teacher this time (who has given me some really excellent recs in the past), at the end of the school year. So I got their newest album from my mum and promptly fell in love with it, and shortly after also got "The King Is Dead", and then just three days ago finally got around to buying Picaresque on iTunes. And, can I just say, wow. I don't want to go out and listen to their entire discography quite yet because I've learned from past experience that it's usually best to just immerse yourself one album at a time, but I REALLY LOVE THEM SO FAR.

The following is a diagram detailing the process of band obsession:

They're basically huge nerds who make beautiful music with tons of literary-type allusions and gorgeous poetry. What more could you possibly want? They have a music video version of the Eschaton scene from Infinite Jest, and another one that's based on Rushmore by Wes Anderson. LIKE?? YES PLEASE. THANK YOU.

Again, I've only listened to three of their albums, and to be honest I love pretty much all of their songs (especially on picaresque, wowww) but so far my favourite songs are definitely:

What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

The Wrong Year

A Beginning Song

Carolina Low

The King is Dead

Rox in the Box

Calamity Song

Picaresque 

The Sporting Life

The Bagman's  Gambit

On The Bus Mall (lovelovelovelove)

Infinite Jest Liveblog Part 3

So I'm officially past the halfway point - just finished page 619, so I'm considerably further along than I was in my last post about it. Cause there's so much to fit in, I'll just keep it to some point form notes, plus a few photos of my highlighting and underlining because goddamn there are so many wonderful passages in this novel.

• Although I can't pick one single favourite character by any means, every passage devoted to Mario that I've read thus far has been unquestionably excellent. He's one of the best examples of what this book is trying to get across, I think, especially w/r/t sincerity and love and what it means to be a human person. "He took citizens' kindness and cruelty the same way, with a kind of extra-inclined half-bow that mocked his own canted posture without pity or cringe"
• Marathe and Steeply's conversations continue to be endlessly fascinating - I especially liked the passage on page 319/320 on temples and freedom. Also their 418-430 section made me realize that they're essentially having a Hobbes/Rousseau argument (and, as Hal tells us in the first chapter, Hobbes is just Rousseau in a dark mirror). Plus, "Unmentioned by either man was how in heaven's name either man expected to get down from the mountainside's shelf in the dark of the U.S. desert's night" - both sides are right and wrong, and neither really know what to do about it or offer any kind of solution
• ESCHATON! The math went entirely over my head, but that's just part of what makes this book what it is, I think. If you're too hung up on understanding everything exactly perfectly, you won't be able to appreciate it (or anything, really, which I feel like is intentional on DFW's part). 
• Also, the idea that "the map is not the territory" seems to continue throughout a lot of the novel, and I don't think that the slang use of map as face (especially to do with suicide - "eliminating one's map") is coincidental. Eschaton, moving to President Gentle, moving to Clipperton, make this clearer as well. It's reasonable that de-mapping would become slang in a time that parts of the map/territory are literally being eliminated
• Also why hasn't anyone made a version of the ONANtiad puppet show, I need it
• "T'war a tard in t'loo. A rail tard" (probably one of the single funniest sections of dialogue I've ever read - and somehow it still manages to be sincere and kind of beautiful)
• "The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you"
• I had no idea that the "this is water" fish story -- albeit a rougher and more explicit version -- was used in this book (and years before the Kenyon college speech!)
• "va chier putain!" - having a working knowledge of the French language, Canadian history, and philosophy, have all been very helpful in my appreciation of this book
• ^ Also, this plus the description of the ominous squeaking and cowboy-movie-esque scene where the store is surrounded by wheelchair assassins were hilarious. The best part though was that it managed to be both funny and scary - I was breathing in through my teeth in suspense and out through my nose in hilarity (made for a strange kind of forced hyperventilation)
• Speaking of which, Lucien's death was incredibly disturbing -- probably one of the most cringe inducing sections of the novel thus far -- but at the same time absolutely beautiful, especially the last passage on page 489. All of it was another great example of how he doesn't let you look down on anyone (even aphrasiac half-cellular insurgents)
• "you gone risk vulnerability and discomfort and hug my ass or do I gone fucking rip your head off and shit down your neck?"
• More (of many many) Hamlet references, with Avril and CT being very clearly set up as Gertrude and Claudius
• Lenz. oh god. Need I say more? And you're compelled to somewhat empathize with him, even as you hate him and reel back in terror. 
• Pages 467-574. DAMN. Some absolutely A+ writing. First off (as with almost everything in this book) it's written in 3rd person omniscient, but at the same time told from a single person's perspective (the Marathe/Steeply sections, for example, use french grammar phrasing so you can tell they're from Marathe's perspective). This is used to great effect here as the whole thing is told only in sound and dialogue, because Idris is blindfolded through all of it. Also I just love that the entire thing is such an unabashed excuse for excessive exposition -- similarly to the ONANtiad puppet show. There is no exposition at all for basically the whole first quarter of the book, you're just kind of thrown into it and things are mentioned as if you understand all of it already because you live in this universe or whatever, and then when things are finally explained, they're done in such huge obvious chunks that in any other context could be seen as bad writing. But in here somehow they work? And it works better than it would if it was slowly explained as you went along, because it allows all of the different phrases and world structures and stuff to become a part of your vocabulary as you read, even if you don't necessarily understand them, and then when they are revealed and explained it's SO satisfying to put together. Like how subsidized time isn't explained until page 223, or how the convexity/cavity and feral hamsters and giant infants are mentioned casually in passing, and you have no idea what it all means and have almost dismissed it as some absurd and untied detail when it's finally explained in full
• Brucie Green is my new favourite (and apparently Gately's as well) and getting to see him opposite Lenz just puts an even bigger perspective on what a really shitty person Lenz is.
• Pages 601 to 619 are like one giant fast paced movie scene and so much happens that I was absolutely reeling by the end of it, it was so goddamn good. I probably only breathed about three times between when the 'Nucks showed up and when the passage ends on 619. I also made various noises of surprise and dread out loud -- vocalizing my reactions to this book have been another kind of surprising thing that happened without my realizing it. I do sometimes laugh out loud when I read something particularly funny, and I have been moved to tears by a couple of other books, but I'm pretty sure this is the only novel I've ever read that has caused me to vocally express pretty much my entire range of emotions (another reason, apart from the fact that it's huge and I like to write in it, that I don't carry it around with me and read it in public)

Bard’s Bus Tour | Driftwood Theatre Group | Hamlet

Celebrating more than 20 years of classic theatre on tour in Ontario. 

Shakespeare’s Hamlet, performing Jul 9 - Aug 16, 2015. 

Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of being a part of the “young company” of Driftwood Theatre Group, and have gotten to know many of the amazing and talented people that are a part of this year’s production of Hamlet. I saw the preview at Todmorden mills on Friday and it was excellent, and I’ll also hopefully be volunteering as an usher at a couple of the productions throughout the summer.

And now, why does all this matter to you? Well, if you live somewhere in Ontario, Canada, they could be coming to your hometown and you should definitely come and watch!

Want some reasons this particular production of Hamlet is worth your time? Here’s a list of 10 that I think are pretty compelling:

1.  It’s pay-what-you-can, so you won’t have to worry about being able to afford super expensive tickets
2. It’s outdoor theatre (which is always fun - but bring bug spray!!) 
3. The text they use is based on the scene structure of Shakespeare’s rarely-performed First Quarto (1603), and the textual content of the iconic First Folio (1623) – so it’s faster paced and more energetic than the classic 4-hour version, but the flowing poetry and text is mostly kept in tact (for anyone familiar with the “bad quarto”, don’t worry, the to be or not to be speech is, although shorter, kept pretty much entirely the same for the beginning of it) 
4. The cast is a great mix of established actors and emerging talent, and colourblind casting has ensured that there was no clinging to the outdated idea that shakespeare characters can only be played by white people unless they're explicitly stated to be otherwise (eg. Othello) -- many of the lead roles are played by people of colour.
5. Horatio is played by a woman, but they don’t use it to push any kind of romantic subplot 
6. It’s modernized, and not in a stupid or pandering way – it allows the characters to be even more clearly portrayed 
7. The set and costumes and stuff are really cool 
8. A quote from the show’s program about their purpose in putting on this play:
   “[there is] a correlation between the fictional environment from which Hamlet emerges … and our post 9/11 reality: societies dominated by the politics of fear. Pick up a paper, turn on the news: there’s Elsinore. Russia, North Korea, Islamic State, Central Africa, and more domestically the Baltimore and Ferguson riot - these are all events framed by, escalated by, or responding to a culture of fear. And although the impact of fear-based politics is perhaps more acutely felt in regions like the middle-east, Western Europe, or Asia, we certainly aren’t free of its effects here in Canada. In the wake of the controversy of our own government’s reaction to terrorism - Bill C-51 - we must understand that the politics of fear are being increasingly used not to justify our protection, but to maintain power and ensure a compliant public. Hamlet is not only a satisfying and thrilling revenge-play, it is an immediate example of the perils of nurturing the politics of fear. It could not be more relevant.” 
9. HAMLET IS ACTUALLY PLAYED LIKE HAMLET. He’s not some old dude, he’s played by a super talented 26ish year old guy playing a depressed college student because thAT’S WHO HAMLET IS. LIKE? Although David Tennant’s Hamlet, for example, is quite good, he’s still too old. He’s not some angsty manchild, he’s a scared and confused and upset kid who’s smart and competent and doing the best he knows how to in his given circumstances. 
10. And, honestly, it’s just a really well done show. Like if this wasn’t already apparent, I have a lot of Hamlet feelings, and a ton of the things that I think are rarely dealt with in other productions are brought full front and centre in this one. 

Sure, I may have a bit of a bias because of my association with the company, but I sincerely think that this is a wonderful and worthwhile production. TL;DR - GO CHECK IT OUT!!!

Where Have I Been????

So, I've basically been MIA online for the past two weeks, and that's because I was living downtown with my aunt (who has limited internet connection), and attending the "Creative Roots Theatre Training Intensive" at Driftwood Theatre Company. I won't go into much detail about the program itself, but it was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, and I learned a ton and made some really great connections with theatre professionals (who are also some of the sweetest, loveliest people I have ever met).

Didn't take any pictures while I was there, but I went out to see fireworks on Canada day so I've got some pictures from that, as well as my incredibly successful play-haul at the used bookstore "Re:Reading" that I went to on Thursday -- I'm set for the rest of the summer!!

I'll be making a couple more posts over the next couple days to catch up for lost time on here, specifically an Infinite Jest liveblog update (I'm past the halfway point!), my "new words of June" which is now quite overdue, and a post about the production of Hamlet that Driftwood Theatre is currently putting on and that you should definitely see if you live in Ontario. My plan for this summer is to keep this blog updated and try and stick to some kind of content schedule so I don't only ever post one type of thing.

DAY ONE: All packed up, my copy of IJ in tow (it was too big to fit in the suitcase...)

The place we went to for fireworks had this whole little carnival thing set up, it was super cute

Didn't go on any rides, though, I get way too motion sick
(which sucks because I have no fear of them, they just make me throw up)

The view from my walk from the subway station to my aunt's house

Re:Reading has A+ bags

8 books, containing approximately 36 individual plays/short plays
I'M SO GOD DAMN PUMPED