Infinite Jest: Chapter 40 Summary & Analysis

7 November — Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. Every prorector at E.T.A. teaches one class per term, and these classes are thought to be “jokes” by the students. Yet upperclassmen still compete for spots in them, both because they are easy to pass and because they are entertaining in a horrifying way. Schacht is completing his midterm exam for a class named “The Personal Is the Political Is the Psychopathological: The Politics of Contemporary Psychopathological Double-Binds” when he hears Troeltsch’s radio program come on E.T.A.’s student-run radio station, WETA. Troeltsch dreams of a career in tennis broadcasting and has been WETA’s resident sports reporter for some time.

Troeltsch reports E.T.A.’s victory over P.W.T.A. in creative language. Hal is currently enrolled in a proector class called “Separatism and Return: Québecois History from Frontenac Through the Age of Interdependence,” which he is finding difficult because the instructor, Mlle. Poutrincourt, teaches only in Quebecois French. Hal is puzzled by Quebecois Separatism, which has grown in intensity ever since the establishment of O.N.A.N.

(A long endnote here describes Hal on the same day, 11/7/Y.D.A.U., looking through a box of Mario’s old letters and snapshots. It mentions that Avril’s honors thesis at McGill was about the punctuation in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. This is followed by a letter Avril sent to Orin in June, Y.W.-Q.M.D., in which she tells him news from E.T.A. and tells him she loves him and misses him. The reply, which is also included in the endnote, is a stock letter sent by the “Assistant Mailroom Technician” of the New Orleans Saints, explaining that the team’s players receive too much mail to send individual replies.)

(The same endnote then recounts a phone conversation between Hal and Orin in which Hal mentions an Emily Dickinson poem. He explains to Orin that he is looking through a box of old letters, and Orin gives him romantic advice. Hal then tells him news from E.T.A., and Orin asks him what the word “samizdat” means. Hal explains that it is a Soviet idiom referring to self-published and -distributed dissident materials. He adds that the only comparable example in the U.S. would be Canadian separatist materials, although these aren’t officially banned by O.N.A.N.)

(In the same endnote, Orin asks why James’s name would be associated with the word samizdat. Hal muses that it’s possible to interpret some of his films in a separatist light, but that overall James’s work was “all very self-consciously American” and not overtly political. Orin admits that he is interested in all this because of his latest Subject, Helen, who he claims is different to all his previous Subjects. He questions Hal about Canadian separatism. Hal says he is the wrong person to ask, but still gives Orin an overview of what he’s learned in Mlle. Poutrincourt’s class.)

(Still in the same endnote, Hal says he thinks that Quebecois separatists hate Anglophone Canada far more than they hate O.N.A.N. Hal asks for more information about Helen, and when Orin gets cagey, Hal brings up Orin’s promiscuity and fetish for married mothers. Hal angrily urges Orin to tell the truth about himself to Helen, but immediately regrets the outburst, admitting that he hates losing his temper. At this point Pemulis cracks open the door to Hal’s room. Hal and Orin then discuss Quebecers’ resentment of the Great Concavity, which disproportionately affects them. Indeed, this could be what is driving the anti-O.N.A.N. sentiment.)

(The same endnote details that Pemulis is now wildly gesturing to Hal, who gestures for Pemulis to throw him a pair of underwear. Hal tells Orin that Pemulis is there signaling that it’s time for dinner. Hal, Pemulis, Struck, and Troeltsch have a tradition of smoking an enormous blunt in the woods before dinner. Orin asks why, given that all Canadians resent the Great Concavity, Quebecois separatists don’t use this to support their anti-O.N.A.N. mission. Pemulis is getting more and more impatient and begins to gesture to someone outside Hal’s window. Finally, Hal tells Orin he has to go.)

(In the final passage of this extended endnote, Orin tries to continue the conversation while Pemulis threatens to break off the antenna of Hal’s phone. Hal insists that what the separatists really want is for Québec to secede, and that their anti-O.N.A.N. position is “not what it appears.” He is searching under his desk for his shoe. He sneezes twice, and while this is happening Pemulis flicks off the phone console’s power unit, cutting off Orin mid-sentence.) Back in the main narrative, more details emerge about the Quebecois anti-O.N.A.N. separatist movement, which has proven to be very violent.

Exhibiting almost no signs of pregnancy, Avril did not know she was pregnant with Mario until her water broke. Mario was extremely premature and “had to be more or less scraped out.” He was kept in an incubator for many weeks and was named after James’s grandfather, Mario Sr., who was the inventor of X-Ray Specs!, a mail-order novelty item. Mario Jr. ended up with a range of physical disabilities, including his small size, “withered” arms, “block feet,” a squished nose, a heavy eyelid, a squint, and an “involuntarily constant smile.” His skin is “an odd dead gray-green” color, which makes him look somewhat lizard-like. He always wears a police lock to help him stand upright.

Mario is also cognitively impaired, and he remains on the outside of life at E.T.A., although he had a special role in supporting James’s filmmaking. He continues to record E.T.A. students playing tennis as well as pursuing more creative film projects. Many E.T.A. students see Mario as a mild annoyance, although Lyle loves him and Hal, who calls him “Booboo,” secretly “idealizes” him. Hal thinks Avril might believe that Mario is the true prodigy of the family. Mario was the first person to give Hal a copy of the O.E.D., and when a representative from U.H.I.D. approached Mario in the Y.D.P.F.A.H., Hal told him to get lost.