Infinite Jest: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. E.T.A. was first directed by James Incandenza, and after his death, by James’ brother-in-law, Charles Tavis. James’s father, James Sr., had been both a competitive junior tennis player and a “promising young pre-method actor” who fell from grace and was no longer able to find work. James himself was also a talented junior tennis player who went on to gain a PhD in optical physics. He made experimental films that were “too far either ahead of or behind [their] time,” though some were also just simply bad.

James was a tall and awkward alcoholic, yet still managed to marry Avril, one of the only “bombshell-type females” of the academic world. Avril was a highly successful academic—yet a history of involvement with leftist Québec separatists in graduate school meant that she struggled to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Having a child (Orin) with James helped Avril to overcome this obstacle. In the five years before James’s death, he gave Charles control of E.T.A. and spent all his time making documentaries and other opaque and “dramatic” cartridges. At 54, he committed suicide. He was intensely mourned by those in his many different fields: academia, film, and junior tennis.