Just finished chapter - Winter BS 1960 Tucson AZ, pp. 157-169 - and have to say that this was my favourite chapter/vignette yet. They are chapters right? I am beginning to feel some coherence but then the Abbot did say initially that "the book won't make sense to you til about page 300". So this is good - the coherence. But beyond all that sh*it I have to say that I loved the moment where the alcoholic father of James Incandenza waxes tennis philosophical through his flask. It reminded me of conversations with my Dad - who was never more impressive to me than when he was hammered. I love the run-on sentences and lack of punctuation which illustrates just how much the Dad had to impart. I love the Brando stuff - which while it is not made explicit is beautiful in that the guy (the Dad) who keeps refering to Brando is actually someone who is preoccupied with "talent" and is clearly someone who "could've been a contender".
And on top of all of this I love that DFW has also seen something that I have seen - that a boy is a joy.
Page 164:
The Dad:
"Come here, kid. C'mere c'mere c'mere. That's a boy. That's my J.O.I. of a guy of a joy of a boy. "
Ah yes. That's the vignette that takes place inside the car, right? When they're planning to go hit a few balls, but never actually make it out of the driveway? And the dad just goes on and on and on while getting deeper into his flask?
ReplyDeleteA boy is a joy. I forgot that DFW wrote about that. How could he know w/o having one of his own? I never did. But he seems to have known much.
Yes - well, there's the car and the garage. I don't know if they actually get into the car or the garage for that matter. I think that the father and son manage only to get the garage door open - with the correct technique of course - and then the Dad finishes the monologue with the joy/boy standing there in his nerd-like stupor.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's interesting, the joy thing, Abbot. You and I have talked about our joys and how great they are.
(We have also admitted to each other that maybe we didn't really ever want to have kids but ended up with kids and are now maybe happy that we did have kids who we ended up discovering were "joys".)
So how did DFW come up with this then?
Well, I can only speculate on my own idea of "joys".
I think that a "joy" actually exists within a father before a boy is even born - and if a boy is born to him the boy then becomes a reminder and perhaps even a refraction of a joy that once was within him - when he was young, when he was a contender...
So, DFW is remembering his own joy and the joy that was in his father, and in his father's father, and his father's father...
It's the joy of boys. So you only have to be a boy (not have a boy) to know this joy...
All boys are joys.
Hmm - father's and sons are so interesting. My Dad gave me many important things for which I am grateful - but we could never talk to each other and in the end - despite the time that his cancerous death sentence afforded us - we could not use that time to bridge the gap between us.
Maybe that's why I am so careful with a son/joy who I can see is as/more sensitive than I was at his age. And despite this attention to my son/my joy, I know that in the end it could go either way with me or him.
How will my "joy" and I feel about each other when my death comes?