Previous
O.N.A.N.T.A
Office of Unspecified Services, a branch of the American government headed by Rodney Tine, Sr. that includes the C.I.A., Secret Service, A.T.F. (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), D.E.A. (Drug Enforcement Administration), and O.N.R. (Office of Naval Research). The O.U.S. is on a mission to secure the master copy of the Entertainment before it falls into the hands of the A.F.R. or another dissident organization. O.U.S. operatives featured in the novel include Hugh Steeply and Rodney Tine, Jr.
Get the entire Infinite Jest LitChart as a printable PDF.
O.U.S. Term Timeline in Infinite Jest
The timeline below shows where the term O.U.S. appears in Infinite Jest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 53
...body. Although very little is usually “accomplished” during these meetings between the men, both the O.U.S. and A.F.R. get excited about them. The two men then discuss the myth of the...
(full context)
Chapter 55
Early November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. Rodney Tine, Chief of the O.U.S., owns a “special metric ruler” with which he measures his penis every morning. The Entertainment...
(full context)
...it as “the samizdat.” Technically, the threat it poses falls under the jurisdiction of the O.U.S.’s Anti-Anti-O.N.A.N. Activities’ Agency (which an endnote explains is O.U.S.’s “most elite and least specific division”).
(full context)
Chapter 58
...Duck Pond undergoing its annual draining. Tine’s son Rodney Tine Jr., who—like Hugh Steeply—is a O.U.S. operative, is sitting with Steeply in the same conference room as his father.
(full context)
Chapter 69
...in this very house. Or, perhaps, he should do neither and summon Steeply and the O.U.S. forces to Ennet House instead. He tries to envision which would create the best outcome...
(full context)
Chapter 71
...everything will be okay.) Back in the main narrative, Molly Notkin is being interrogated by O.U.S. operatives about the Entertainment. Molly says that the Entertainment—whose title, “Infinite Jest (V) or (VI)”,...
(full context)
...the Entertainment and struggles to believe that it is “lethally entertaining.” Molly asks why the O.U.S. never went to Avril directly to ask about the master copy, and there is no...
(full context)
