SOME MORE AND LESS HELPFUL THINGS FOR THE LUCKY JERK READING INFINITE JEST FOR

THE FIRST TIME

Glossary....1 David Foster Wallace Psychohistory.................12 The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.......13 Example of the work cut from the final draft of Infinite Jest.14 Tennis Court Diagram.......15 Humor Chart...16 Venn Diagram of Important Drugs.....17

abducent anatomical term implying

movement apart. [p. 186]

amanuensis secretary [p. 515] anaclitic having excessive emotional dependence upon another person. [p. 1048] anapestic metrical foot with two short and one long: an-a-pest. [p. 1021] anaplastic the surgical restoration of
a lost part. [p. 31]

ablative a taking or wearing away;

grammatically, it implies motion away from something. [p. 470]

acciaccatura*[1] a musical quaver.

[p. 832]

acclivity a slope. [p. 582] acervulus an erupting fungal fruiting

body thru which spore escapes. [p. 190]

ancipital here referring to those teeth that have two edges. [p. 117] anechoic a chamber having very low
sonic or electromagnetic reectance. [p. 503]

achondroplastic a type of
hereditary dwarsm. [p. 901]

anfractuous circuitous

[p. 39]

acromegalic a type of pituitary

gigantism. [pp. 185, 438]

angioma localized, supercial

concentrations of capillaries producing a red spot or weal.[p. 1037]

advalorem Latin: to value. In

proportion to the value. [p. 33]

anodize to coat a metal by making it

one terminal in an electrochemical circuit. [pp. 63, 93, 451, 485, 588]

adtorsion a turning inward of both

eyes. [p. 607]

aether the formerly-hypothesized

universal medium of lights propagation. [pp. 163, 169]

anomic adj. form of anomie. [p.

585]

Anschluss German: connection.

Used of Hitlers annexation of the Sudetenland and Austria. [pp. 311, 322, 421, 777, 1020]

agaric here, Amanita muscaria, an

hallucinogenic mushroom (cf. muscimol). [pp. 66, 67, 996]

agnate descended from a paternal line.

[pp. 91, 151, 152, 729]

anthracnose the fungus responsible

for powdery mildew. [p. 288]

aigrette the tufted plumes of an egret.

Used of womens hat-feathers. [p. 380]

antinomic contradiction or opposition.[p. 792] antipyretic a drug used to control

fever. [pp. 920, 984]

ainsi French: in this way, thus [p.

1009]

aioli a Provenal emulsion of garlic and

olive oil, w/ or w/o egg. [p. 233]

aperu a clever insight. [p. 121] aphasia impairment of any language

modality. [pp. 368, 369, 525, 588]

aleatory depending upon chance. [p.

82]

aphonia the inability to speak. [p.

488]

alembic* an alchemical retort thru

which evaporated liquids are condensed. [p. 832]

aphrasiac inability to utter words in

an intelligible order. [p. 488]

1 * denotes a ghostword, cf. p. 832, etc.

apical from, of, or relating to, the tip.

[pp. 290, 366]

apocope the loss of one or more

sounds from the end of a word. Nothin for nothing, etc. [p. 57]

bradykinesia slow moving. [pp.

80, 433, 795, 1022]

apothegm maxim. [p. 358] apotropaic actions intended to ward

off evil. [p. 243]

bradylexia slow of reading [p.

1022]

bradypedestrianism slow of
walking. [pp. 313, 1022]

armamentarium the sum-total

of all medical knowledge with which disease is fought. [p. 1067]

bradyphrenia slow of
comprehension or thought. [p. 314]

ascapartic relating to the legendary

giant Ascapart. [pp. 290, 1016]

bradypnea abnormally slow

breathing. [pp. 451, 1022]

askesis strict self-discipline. [p. 911] assignation appointment to meet

someone in secret, typically one made by lovers; or, the assignment of attribution or ownership. [p. 30]

breviary Catholic liturgical book

containing daily prayers. [pp. 373, 1009]

BrewstersAngle the angle at

which non-polarized light will reect off a surface as polarized light. The phenomenon is exploited by things like polarized sunglasses. [pp. 10, 511]

atavistic the tendency to revert to

ancestral or immature forms. [pp. 257, 327, 1021]

bricolage* the construction of

something from whatever is at hand. [p. 832]

ataxia a gross loss of muscular control

as a neurological sign. [p. 968]

brisance the shattering effect of the

energy released by an explosion. [p. 541]

attar- perfume [p. 290] bafegab gobbledegook. [p. 173] ballism a symptom of chorea in which
involuntary swinging or jerking movements are observed. [p. 1037]

Brckengespenstphnom
a complicated atmospheric phenomenon in which a person standing on a mountain peak sees his or her own shadow projected onto clouds below at enormous magnication. [p. 641]

balsamy smelling of balsam, a sap

exuded by various Middle Eastern trees. [p. 798]

calliopsis Coreopsis tinctoria, a

hardy, annual ower native to the American South. [pp. 80, 241, 340]

bilirubin a yellow waste product

derived from the destruction of old red blood cells by the liver. One of the main contributors to the color of shit. [pp. 304, 897]

calotte skullcap.[p. 395, 1029] calpac a high-crowned felt or sheepskin

hat worn in Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia. [p. 1029]

blepharoplasty surgical
modication of the eyelid. [p. 314]

Canyou believe Im actually doing

this? I cant, and Im the one whats doin it. Nerrrrrrrrddd.

blepharospecticity to see
thru ones eyelids. [p. 1037]

bradyauxetic slow in cellular

development. [p. 313]

caparison decorative covering for a horse. [pp. 367, 533] carbuncular characterized by
infected skin lesions or large boils. [pp. 187, 226, 385, 582, 873, 1032]

caries dental cavities. [p. 27, 1010] catachresis misapplication of a

word, especially in a mixed metaphor. [p. 1053]

climacteric menopause. [p. 954] clinamen fundamental randomness

that accounts for free will. cf Lucretius De Natura Rerum [p. 911]

catadioptric an arrangement of
both mirrors and lenses to focus light. [p. 939]

coccyges the triangular bone that

terminates the spinal column. [p. 257]

catalepsy/catalept*
neurological condition characterized by muscular rigidity, one who so suffers. [pp. 503, 832]

colposcope an instrument for

viewing the interior of the vagina. [pp. 634, 1070]

catastatic the heightening of intrigue

or drama before a climax. [p. 407]

commeilfaut French: as one

does accepted standards [p. 59]

cathected mentally or emotionally

invested. [pp. 550, 654]

convolve to roll together or coil up.

[pp. 67, 310, 398, 1023]

cathexis viz. sup. [p. 550] cerise deep, vivid, pinkish red. [pp.
486, 513, 791, 832]

contrariasunt complementa Latin: we are

what we are against. [p. 713]

coprolaliac compulsive speaking of

forbidden words. [p. 621]

chachectic referring to weight and

muscle lost due to disease. More commonly spelled cachexic [p. 187]

coprolite fossilized shit. [p. 572] cordite nitrocellulose cast into thin sticks for use as propellant in rearms. [pp. 433, 504, 610, 613] corporepotis Latin: able of
body. [p. 188]

chiaroscuro* artistic technique

that heightens drama by crisp juxtaposition of light and dark areas. [pp. 65, 315, 430, 832, 1027]

chyme the watery state of food after it

has passed from the stomach into the small bowel. [pp. 379, 624, 634]

coruscant glittering. [p. 626] creatus the creation of. [p. 12] creosote here, coal-tar, elsewhere the
smell of the desert-dwelling Creosote Bush. [pp. 108, 1059]

chronaxy* an obscure
neurophysiological term having to do with the minimum duration of a signal required to re a nerve. [p. 832]

ciquatoxic (sic) the toxins that

produce Ciguatera, an extremely nasty illness caused by eating reef sh who have themselves eaten certain poisonous dinoagellates. More commonly spelled ciguatoxic[p. 967]

crepuscular animals primarily

active at twilight. [pp. 108, 556]

cruciform cross-shaped. [pp. 266,

513, 622, 728]

circumorals the muscles

surrounding the mouth. [pp. 75, 373]

cuirass a breastplate. [p. 431] cunctation delay. [p. 368] deafatusized the loss of
powerful or irresistible inspiration. [p. 284]

cirri cirrus clouds. [p. 15] claque professional applauders. [p.

400]

deliquesce to absorb atmospheric

water vapor. [p. 67]

enlade an attack on the front of

something. [p. 13]

deliriumtremens very late

stage alcoholism in which hallucinations with tremor are observed. [pp. 707, 1038]

entrept a warehouse where goods can

be imported or exported without paying duties. [pp. 216, 916, 983, 1067]

DeusProvidebit Latin: God

will provide., taken from Gen 22:8 in the Vulgate (Abraham answered, God will provide a lamb for the burnt offering, Son. The two of them went on together.) In context Gods providing is reflexive. [p. 128]

enuretic adj. of bedwetting. [p. 185] ephebe adolescent. [pp. 98, 292,
676, 677, 1001]

epicene having characteristics of both

sexes. [pp. 691, 939, 945]

diagnate incestuous form of agnate.

[p. 82]

ergotic relating to the ergot fungus, a

producer of LSD. [pp. 170, 191, 213, 927]

diaphoretic excessive sweating as a

dangerous medical symptom. [p. 190]

erumpent bursting thru. [pp. 165,

270, 519]

digitate relating to the ngers. [p. 97] dipsomania alcoholism. [p. 64] diverticulitis inammation of any
of the folds of the bowel. [pp. 543, 594, 606, 607, 893]

escudo Portuguese unit of currency. [p.

1029]

escutcheon heraldic shield [pp.

509, 1056]

esters carbonyl compounds in which an

oxygen acts as a structural member. [p. 551]

dysautonomic disturbance to the

autonomic nervous system (sweating, crying, salivation, &c) [pp. 589, 590]

tagre piece of furniture having tiered

shelves. [p. 951]

dysphoric feeling shitty. [pp. 69,

147, 301, 682, 690, 691, 695]

etiology the cause of a disease. [pp.

17, 370, 585 ]

clat brilliance in performance. [p. 155] ectopic not where its supposed to be.
Of pregnancy: when a fertilized egg fails to be captured by the mbri of the fallopian tube and instead develops into a fetus in the abdominal cavity. Generally not viable. [p. 686]

Fadeinona tenement building on

Manhattans Lower East Side. Faint traffic noise is audible; as is the sound of the fishmongers.

facies facial expressions associated with

medical conditions. [pp. 185, 1022]

effulgence a brilliant shining-forth.

[p. 854]

falcate sickle-shaped. [pp. 381, 1019] feck mensch-like, worthy. [p. 64] felodese Latin: crime against
ones self, suicide. [pp. 286, 308, 510, 790, 1048, 1078]

egregulous DFW coinage

combining egregious and outrageous. [p. 272]

eidetic here meaning photographic

memory. [pp. 127, 317]

festschrift a collection of academic

essays in honor of someone. [p. 65]

lan enthusiasm or passion. [p. 55]

ctile moldable, as of clay. [p. 694]

llip a ick with a nger retained by the thumb.[pp. 238, 931] formant the frequencies of ones voice
which, thanks to the resonances of ones throat, are most pronounced. [p. 174]

harquebus heavy, portable

matchlock musket. [p. 1029]

heliated* to infuse with Helium. [p.

832]

formication to be ant-like [p.

177]

hemispasms spasms affecting only

one side of the body. [pp. 556, 1037]

frustum a cone or pyramid with the

tip cut off. [pp. 213, 916]

hemoptysis the coughing-up of

blood or bloody sputum. [p. 921]

fulgurant ashing like lightning. [p.

387]

hinked to be both drunk and high.

Here, bothered, troubled [p. 463]

fuliginous sooty. [p. 971] fulvous the color of dried saffron. [p.
93]

hipshot having one hip higher than

the other. [pp. 9, 162, 231, 742]

homodontic having teeth all of the

same shape. Used of sperm and killer whales. [pp. 410, 901]

funiculi plural of funicular railroads.

A counterweighted means of ascending mountains or hills. [p. 1066]

homuncular resembling the

homunculus, the little man thought to gestate within a pregnant woman. Cf. Wallace Shawn. [pp. 144, 145]

furcate to divide into branches or

forks. [p. 1051]

GaudeamusIgitur Latin:
Therefore let us rejoice!, a line from a traditional student song. [pp. 380, 851, 964]

hulpil colorful Peruvian textile [pp.

854, 855, 1076]

hyperauxetic fast in cellular

development. [p. 1022]

gneiss common metamorphic rock. [p.

797]

hyperemic an increase in a body

parts blood supply, engorgement. [pp. 208, 952]

gonfalon fancy, fringed banner

usually held aloft by a pole during parades or processions. [p. 208]

gonions the points of the jaw near the

neck. [p. 1067]

hyperkeratosistic the state of having a persistent, dry, itchy scalp. [p. 185] hypocapnia the state of having low dissolved CO2 in the blood. [p. 69] hypophalangial short or stubby
ngers. [p. 16]

granulomatous having the

characteristics of the ball of white blood cells which forms around foreign matter. [p. 190]

guilloche engraving technique

usually found on pocket watches requiring precise, repeating curves. [pp. 120, 864, 952]

impost* a customs-duty levied on

merchandise. [pp. 482, 815, 832]

gyrus a ridge on the cerebral cortex.

[pp. 186, 987]

imprecate to invoke evil upon. [pp.

255, 609]

hanuman Hindu monkey god. [p.

703]

inguinal of the muscle of the groin.

[pp. 488, 803]

inlocoparentis Latin: in the

place of parents. [p. 805]

inmediasres Latin: in the

middle of the thing. [p. 701]

leptosomatic having a small

body. [p. 79]

inspissated made thick by

evaporation, used of mucus in the airway. [pp. 921, 1078]

Lebensgefhrtin German:
life-partner, long-time companion [p. 1003]

intaglio printing term connoting great

pressure. [p. 583]

leukodermatic having pale or

white skin. [p. 189]

jape a mocking joke. [p. 655] jejune nave or simplistic. [pp. 385,
405, 635]

leviratemarriage* a type of
marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brothers widow, and vice versa. [p. 832]

jonquil the yellow color associated

with daffodils. [p. 258]

liebestod* German: love death, an

aria or duet performed in opera marking the suicide of lovers, after that in Tristan und Isolde. [pp. 792, 863, 884]

joss Chinese god worshiped at a shrine.

Pidgin from Portuguese, deos. Here, luck. [p. 1077]

limned to portray in painting or words. [p. 183] lisle* cotton fabric processed to give a
smooth nish. [p. 919]

Kekulan oblique reference to a

snake eating its own tail. From a story about the German organic chemist August Kekul and his dream of an ouroborus that elucidated for him the famous ring structure of benzene (C6H6). [p. 5]

lordosis* abnormal inward curvature

of the spine. [pp.190, 313, 764, 1003]

kenosis theological emptiness. [p.

911]

lucul(l)us* Lucius Licinius

Lucullus (c.118-57 B.C.), Roman politician of the Late Republic. Also, lavish, luxurious [p. 832]

kyphotic a hunchback or any other

outward-curving deformity of the spine. [pp. 190, 953]

lycanthropically as of a
werewolf. [p. 192]

labile moving freely or unstably. Also,

emotional. [p. 253]

lyrologist DFW coinage for one

who uses his mouth like a harp. [p. 31]

lachrymose tearful or causing

tears. [p. 989]

mansard four-sided gambrel-style hip

roof. [p. 197]

lalating the Japanese confusion of l

with r. [p. 788]

matins early morning or late night

Catholic prayers. [p. 705]

lapsarian pertaining to the fall from

grace of mankind. [p. 713]

maundering to talk in a dreamy,

wandering or rambling manner. [p. 767]

latissimal of the latissumus dorsi

muscle controlling the shoulder. [p.1067 ]

meatus a natural bodily opening, as

on the tip of the penis. [pp. 60, 182, 186]

Latrodectusmactans* the black widow spider. [pp. 159, 832, 987, 988, 990] lazarette a hospital treating
contagious diseases, usually leprosy [p. 190]

mellitus sweet, used of the urine of

diabetics. [p. 915]

mentation cognition. [pp. 653,

930]

mesomorphic a muscular
somatotype, with low body-fat. [pp. 200, 308]

ollapodrida Spanish mulligan

stew. [p. 791]

MontagueGrammar the
proposition that the grammar of natural languages is merely an obscured version of that governing formal logic. After Richard Montague. [pp. 7, 760]

ommatophoric* having a
movable stalk terminating in an eye, as of snails or conchs. [p. 832]

optative grammatical mood indicating

a wish or hope. [p. 64]

morendo Fading away in tone or

tempo. [p. 461]

orts morsels left after a meal [p. 438] osseously in the manner of a bone,
or bone-like. [p. 122]

mucronate ending abruptly or in a

sharp point. [pp. 208, 314, 376]

murated walled, embedded in a wall

or walled-up. [pp. 127, 1056]

oubliette a very small prison cell,

usually in a oor, in which persons to be forgotten were starved to death. French: forgotten place. [pp. 190, 1045]

nacreous looking like Mother-ofPearl. [pp. 320, 455]

neoplastis an abnormal mass of

tissue. [pp. 395, 987, 1044]

palestra Ancient Greek public area

for exercise. [p. 83]

neuralgia pain that follows the path

of a nerve. [pp. 60, 346, 620, 913, 987]

pargeted covered in plaster [p. 51] parotitic inammation of the parotic

(salivary) glands, as in mumps. [p. 871]

neurasthenic psychosomatic
disorder characterized by fatigue and memory loss. [pp. 267, 301, 579, 792, 1003, 1050]

paroxysmic coming in violent ts

or starts. [p. 255]

neurosomatic in this case just

referring to neural and somatic consequences. [p. 1037]

parp to make a honking noise, here,

farting. [pp. 159, 1027]

neutraldensitypoint* the
point at which a neutral density lter reduces the brightness of all colors equally, without affecting hue. A theoretical point. [p. 832]

parturient preggers. [p. 789] pases a movement of a cape by a

matador in drawing a bull and taking his charge. [p. 13]

nictitater (sic) one who winks or

blinks. nictater is intended. [p. 1074]

patellar relating to the patella, the

knee-cap. [p. 635]

nostrum A medicine prepared by the

person recommending it; esp. a quack remedy, a patent medicine. [p. 621]

pedalferrous DFW coinage:

produced by footfalls. [p. 93]

novena a nine-day period of private or

public Catholic prayer. [pp. 705, 712]

pedentive that which allows a circular dome to be placed over a square base, as at the Hagia Soa. [p. 91] pericardium the sac of tissue and
lubricating uid in which the heart beats. [p. 652]

novitiate a novice in religious orders.

[pp. 667, 706, 711, 712, 1054]

nystagmic rapid, involuntary,

oscillatory motion of the eyeball. [pp. 281, 329, 1037]

peronic having a bent penis, unusual

adjectival form of Peyronies Disease [p. 190]

pertussive relating to coughing. [pp.

60, 921, 990]

proprioception* the sense of

the position of ones own body in space. [pp. 832, 928]

phocomelic the congenital absence

or abnormal shortening of arms or legs, often with only short, ipper-like limbs projecting from the body, used of Thalidomide babies. [p. 901]

prorector members of a management

body of a university, each managing his or her specific area [pp. 3, 51, 53, 54, 55, 79, 98, 99, 218, 282, 293, 306, 307, 338, 381, 410, 432, 451, 453, 454, 457, 460, 515, 569, 627, 635, 666, 667, 673, 674, 675, 676, 686, 983, 998, 1000, 1003, 1009, 1012, 1028, 1044, 1054, 1067, 1072]

phosphenism resembling the

little lightshow you get when you press your ngers against closed eyes. [p. 1037]

phylogenic the evolutionary

development and history of a species. [pp. 290, 622]

pruritis itching of any kind, as in hives. [p. 393] pulchritude beauty. [pp. 190,
440]

piaffer a movement in which a horse

trots in place with high action of the legs. [p. 965]

picric bitterness beyond bitterness.

Here, a yellow tinge. [p. 456]

purl to ow or ripple, especially with a murmuring sound. [pp. 386, 920] phylacteryish resembling a
telin, Jewish devotional items consisting of cuboid leather boxes containing quotes from the Torah. [p. 46]

pinioned in this case referencing the

fact that Hals arms are still held behind his back. [pp. 12, 13]

pizzicato musical direction that calls

for the plucking of stringed instruments. [p. 804]

pyorrheic relating to advanced

pyorrhea, a periodontal infection that can erode the jaw and loosen teeth. [p. 189]

plangent a loud, reverberating and

frequently melancholy sound. [p. 71]

quincunx arranged in the shape of

the fth side of a die. [p. 80]

pleurisy a fantastically painful

inammation of the lining of the lungs. [pp. 22, 859]

quoin a wedge, or wedge-shaped block,

used for various special purposes. [p. 797]

quonsethut a kind of
prefabricated building consisting of a semicylindrical corrugated metal roof on a bolted steel foundation. [p. 109]

plexor the rubber hammer used by

physicians to test reflexes, as at the knee. [p. 71]

prandial relating to a meal [pp. 80,

121, 191, 385, 438, 1005]

presbyopic the degradation of

vision with age. [p. 11]

primafacie Latin: at first sight.

[p. 639]

Quovadis? Latin: Where are you going?, a phrase taken as summary of the story of Peter eeing Rome and meeting Christ going the opposite direction. Peter asks Quo vadis?, and Christs response, To be crucied again. rekindles Peters ardor for Christianity, whereupon he returns to the city and martyrdom. [pp. 984, 985] redemisement the re-transfer of
land to one who has already demised it. Here used of Experialism. [p. 42]

pricket a small spike for holding a

candle upright. [pp. 188, 504]

prognathous having a projecting

lower jaw, chin or underbite. [p. 348]

rseau a plain net ground used in lacemaking, a network or grid, especially one

superimposed as a reference marking on photographs in astronomy, surveying, &c. [p. 542]

shako a military cap in the shape of a

truncated cone or frustrum. [p. 1029]

restenosis the recurrence of a

contraction or stricture of a passage, duct or canal, especially of a heart valve after surgery to correct it. [pp. 126, 142, 779, 780]

sinciput the front part of the head or

skull. [p. 950]

sinecure any ofce or position which

has no work or duties attached to it, especially one that yields some stipend or emolument. [pp. 288, 873]

rhinophyma chronic enlargement

and reddening of the nose with hypertrophy of its sebaceous glands. [p. 1037]

sinistral* darkly suspicious; very

unfavorable. [pp. 512, 832, 862, 884, 885]

rhinorrhagia nosebleed. [p. 1037] revenant one who returns from the
dead; a ghost. [pp. 260, 454, 461]

siphuncular pertaining to a small

siphon or suctorial organ. [p. 921]

sacristy the repository in a church in

which are kept the vestments, the sacred vessels and other valuable property. [pp. 705, 713]

skirling Shrill crying, shrieking. [pp.

556, 866]

sloe in this case, referring to the color of

blackthorn berries, dark red or auburn. [p. 707]

sallet in medieval amour, a light

globular headpiece, either with or without a visor, and without a crest, the lower part curving outwards behind. [pp. 527, 1029]

sociosis outmoded psychological term

for social disorders. [p. 1037]

saltire St. Andrews cross. [p. 632] saluki a large, lightly built sighthound
with a feathered tail and feet and large pendant ears. [p. 310]

solander a box made in the form of a

book, used for holding botanical specimens, papers, maps, &c. [p. 342]

saprogenic causing decay or

putrefaction. [pp. 402, 663, 664, 665, 1034, 1043, 1047]

solecistic relating to an impropriety or irregularity in speech or diction; a violation of the rules of grammar or syntax. [p. 1014] suitestator as ordered by a will. [p.
993]

scofulodermic skin showing

signs of scrofula, that is, skin afflicted by tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis, the invasion of the lymph nodes of the neck by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. [p. 187]

steatocryptotic a derangement of
the sebaceous glands in which sebum fails to drain through the skin, and instead collects beneath it. [p. 187]

scopophiliacal enjoying
watching. [p. 233]

steatopygiacs a person exhibiting

a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks. Cf. Sarah Baartman [p. 187]

scopophobic frightened of or
averse to, watching [pp. 226, 544]

sedulous constant in application to

the matter in hand; assiduous, persistent. [pp. 286, 287]

strabismicpertaining to an afiction
of the eyes in which the axes of vision cannot be coincidentally directed to the same object. It produces squinting. [pp. 289, 290, 291, 296]

serodermatotic a skin disease

with serous effusion into the skin. [p. 187]

strettoing referring to a section of a

fugue in which subject entries overlap. [p. 240]

strigil* an instrument with a curved

blade, for scraping the sweat and dirt from the skin in the hot-air bath or after gymnastic exercise. [p. 832]

resemblance to houses, boats, bottles, glasses, urns, birds, beasts, men, &c. [p. 316]

teleologic the science of nal causes;

that branch of knowledge which deals with ends or purposes. [p. 91]

styptic having the power of contracting

organic tissue, as alum does to shaving nicks. [p. 505]

tenebraefactaesunt Latin:
there was darkness [over the Earth], line from a hymn narrating the crucifixion. [p. 287]

subhadronics referring to the

realm of matter below that of hadrons, i.e. Quarks. [pp. 187, 871]

sudoriferous that which produces

or causes sweat or sweating. [p. 1076]

tendentious having a purposed

tendency. [p. 380]

sulcus a groove, trench, or furrow,

usually as on the surface of the brain. [pp. 186, 187, 192]

teratoidal having the appearance or

character of a monster or monstrous formation. [p. 190]

suppurating forming or secreting

pus. [pp. 278, 435]

tessera a small quadrilateral tablet of

wood, bone, ivory, or the like, used for various purposes, as a token, tally, ticket, label, &c. [p. 911]

swivet a flustered or agitated state. [p.

1019]

tesseract a four-dimensional
hypercube. [p. 232]

swotting hard work at ones studies,

cf. wakk sub. [p. 762]

testudo* the typical genus of the

tortoise family, Testudinid [p. 832]

synclinal inclined or sloping towards

each other. [pp. 75, 252]

synecdoche a gure by which a

more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versa; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, &c. Wheels for car, and so forth. [p. 789]

tetanic spasm-producing, such as those from tetanus. [p. 73] thanatoptic a pun on the word
thantotic, the psychological concept of death instinct. [pp. 327, 790]

thigmotactic the way in which an

organism moves or disposes itself in response to a touch stimulus. [p. 75]

synovial the viscid albuminous uid

secreted in the interior of the joints, and in the sheaths of the tendons, which serves to lubricate them. [pp. 886, 887, 888]

threnody a lament for the dead, a

dirge. [p. 556]

tabescent wasting away, as of the

very late stages of a terminal disease. eg, tabes dorsalis, the wasting of the dorsal nerves of the spinal cord in tertiary syphilis. [p. 187]

tittle in this case, the smallest or a very

small part of something; a minute amount. [p. 1050]

tangram the name given to a Chinese

geometrical puzzle consisting of a square dissected into ve triangles, a square, and a rhomboid, which can be combined so as to make two equal squares, and also so as to form several hundred gures, having a rude

toque chefs hat. [p. 380] torticollic pertaining to an affection

of the muscles of the neck, in which it is so twisted as to keep the head turned to one side; wry-neck. [p. 185]

10

transmuralinfarction a
heart attack that causes irreversible damage to heart muscle all the way through its thickness. [p. 646]

transuranial chemical elements

heavier than Uranium, that is, articial. [p. 185]

treillage a framework upon which

vines or ornamental plants are trained. [p. 185]

the natural weathering of copper, brass or bronze. Its primary components are the acetates, carbonates, chlorides, formates, hydroxides, and sulfates of copper. All components are present in a very complicated and ever-changing electrochemical equilibrium whose state is dependent on ambient conditions. Much used as a pigment until the 19th century when synthetic alternatives became available. [p. 623]

verger one whose duty it is to take care

of the interior of a church, and to act as attendant. [pp. 711, 712]

trochaically based upon trochees, a

metrical foot consisting of a long followed by a short syllable. [p. 174]

vermiform having the shape of a

worm. [p. 667]

tsimmes an Ashkenazi Jewish

casserole consisting of diced vegetables and fruit. [p. 638]

veronica a movement typical of the

rst tercio of a bullght in which the matador swings the cape in a slow circle round himself in order to persuade the charging bull to follow the movement of the cape. [p. 719]

tumbrel in this case referring to an

instrument of punishment, the nature and operation of which in early times is uncertain; later identied with the stock. [p. 225]

vespers evening Catholic prayers. [pp.

705, 968]

tumid engorged or swollen. [pp. 305,

769]

votaried Consecrated by a vow;

devoted to a religious life. [p. 434]

uncolloped lacking thick folds of

fat or esh [p. 1067]

wakked schoolboy slang for intense

studying, cf. swott sup. [p. 1006]

unperspicuous unclear in
statement or expression. [p. 1066]

uremic pertaining to urine, especially

during a derangement of kidney function. [pp. 76, 93, 1064]

wen a harmless sebaceous cystic tumor under the skin, occurring chiey on the head. [pp. 4, 530, 639, 640] xanthodantic sic, misspelling of
xanthodontic, which means yellow-toothed. [p. 189]

vademecumish referring to a
vade mecum (Latin: go with me), a handbook. [p. 322]

xerophagy the eating of dry food,

especially as form of fasting practiced in the early Christian church. [p. 1006]

varicelliformally having the

form or appearance of chicken-pox. [p. 191]

zither duh. [pp. 66, 589] zuckung German: convulsion. [pp.

303, 305, 306]

varicocele painful varicose condition

or dilatation of the spermatic veins. [p. 80, 756]

verdigris a green or greenish blue

substance obtained articially by the action of dilute acetic acid on thin plates of copper, or by

Adictionary begins when it no

longer gives the meaning of words, but their tasks. Georges Bataille, in Formless from Visions of Excess nky 22.11.10r4

11

DAVIDFOSTERWALLACEPSYCHOHISTORY
AS A CHILD, WALLACE WAS forceful and imaginative. He frequently made his younger sister play audience to long, ad lib dramas populated by characters like Captain Phlegm and his sidekick Goat Bile. During adolescence, Wallace moved into the basement of the familys Philo, Illinois home. He painted the walls black and hung cork tiles on one wall. His sister later remembered being very upset by one of the things tacked to the cork wall, a single page from an article on Kafka, whose headline read: THE DISEASE WAS LIFE ITSELF. Wallace first began using drugs in high school, starting with pot and progressing to psilocybin. He was apparently able to hold this down, remaining an A student, while also playing football and very competitive tennis. In his senior year of high school, he began carrying a towel around with him to wipe away the perspiration from anxiety attacks, and a tennis racket, so that no one commented on the towel. Midway through his sophomore year at his fathers alma mater, Amherst College, Wallace had a nervous breakdown. He returned home, where he lived for about nine months. He drove a school bus and read almost continuously, later saying that nearly everything hed read he read during that period. He saw a psychiatrist and for the first time began taking antidepressants. Wallace returned to Amherst in the fall of 1983, and completed his bachelors, with a double major in English and Philosophy, in 1985. While negotiating the publication of his undergraduate English thesis as his first novel, The Broom of the System, Wallace moved to Tucson to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona. The book was published in January of 1987, and Wallace completed both his MFA and a follow-up book of short stories by June of that year. Mid-way through the summer of 1987 Wallace called his mother from his apartment on the outskirts of Tucson and said he was thinking of hurting himself. She flew to Arizona, helped him load his belongings into a U-Haul, and drove him back to Illinois. They passed the time by reading a Dean Koontz novel aloud to one another. In Urbana, Wallace and his sister Amy watched the Todd Haynes movie Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story. After the film ended, Amy told him she had to go back to the University of Virginia the next day. He asked her not to go. The day after she left, Wallace tried to kill himself by taking all the antidepressants he had on hand. He survived, and checked himself into a local psychiatric ward the next day. In late 1987, Wallace was given a course of electroconvulsive therapy. The experience horrified him, but he thought it helped. Wallaces mother remembers that David emerged as delicate as a child. He would ask, How do you make small talk? , How can you know which frying pan to pick out of the cupboard? Deciding that fiction was no aid to his mental health, Wallace applied to and was accepted on scholarship by, Harvards graduate philosophy program. By the time he started coursework there in the fall of 1989, he was already disappointed with his decision. In August, his collection of short stories had been published as Girl With Curious Hair to no acclaim whatsoever, and soon after, Wallace began drinking heavily. Less than a month into his studies he called the Harvard psychiatric-services hotline, explaining that he had to go to a hospital again. He was taken by ambulance to the McLean Psychiatric Campus, in Belmont. While at McLean, and sitting next to his mother, he was prescribed the MAOI Nardil for the first time. In December of 1989 Wallace was released into a halfway house in Brighton. It was here that he began his lifelong relationship with Alcoholics Anonymous. True to his anonymity, Wallace always denied involvement with AA, going so far as to turn off journalist David Lipskys tape recorder when mentioning it. By the middle of 1990, normality had begun to return to Wallaces life. As part of his recovery he began to keep notebooks of observations. He found the simple clichs by which his fellow addicts anchored their sobriety strangely inspiring. His condition steadily improved, and by February of 1991 he was writing The Project on a daily schedule. In an April letter to Bonnie Nadell, his agent, Wallace made a promise: I will be a fiction writer again or die trying. In June of 1992, Wallace moved to Syracuse, cheap rents and a part time teaching position. By the summer of 1994, now living in Normal, Illinois, Wallace had sent a completed manuscript to his editor Michael Pietsch. It topped out at 1,600 pages. Infinite Jest was published in January of 1996 to immediate acclaim. Much of the nineties passed in relative tranquility. Wallace accepted journalistic assignments, published another collection of short stories and, in 2000, began work on a second novel. In 2004, at age forty-two, he married a visual artist named Karen Green. A year later he moved to Claremont, California to begin a sweetheart teaching position at Pomona College. By 2007, after nearly a decade of work on what would become The Pale King, Wallace felt stuck. He became increasingly suspicious of his old-fashioned MOAI, Nardil. In April he and his wife ate at an Iranian restaurant, and Wallace developed severe stomach cramps. His doctor told him that he had probably experienced a minor hypertensive crisis caused by Nardils interaction with the tyramine in his dinner. With his wifes support and his psychiatrists advice he stopped taking the drug in June. At first things seemed to go smoothly. In August, Wallace was able to write to Jonathan Franzen with a tone of neurotic optimism about the possibility of living without medication. By the fall however, Wallace was hospitalized again for severe depression. By the spring of 2008 a new combination of antidepressants seemed to have stabilized him; he was well enough to have dinner with his wife, Pietsch and Nadell at the National Booksellers convention in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, ten days later Wallace checked into a motel outside of Claremont and tried to kill himself by overdosing on anxiolytics. When he woke up, he called his frantic wife, and apologized. He agreed to another course of ECT. He had twelve sessions. They did not help. In the summer of 2008 Wallace went back on Nardil, but was too anxious to give the notoriously fickle medication time to take effect. On Saturday, September 6th he began deceiving his wife about his mood. On Wednesday he made an appointment with a chiropractor, which he blew off but told his wife he had kept. On Friday, September 12th his wife left the house to prepare for a gallery opening. Wallace stacked the unfinished pages, disks and hard drives of The Pale King on his desk, wrote a two page note and left the lights on in his office. He went to the patio at the back of the house, bound his hands behind his back with duct tape, and hung himself from a leather belt nailed to the beam of an arbor.

12

 HEREARETHESTEPSWETOOK,WHICHARE SUGGESTEDASAPROGRAMOFRECOVERY:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. We admitted we were powerless over alcoholthat our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

10. 11.

12.

13

Example of text cut from the final draft of Infinite Jest B.S. 1960

61

I have one sober memory of my own father, when I was still shorter than he, when he was still able to work as a teaching pro, when we were living just off the grounds of a resort east of Tucson, before Id ever held or swung one of his racquets, what my boys call a stick. The desert is a small box. There is a wooden absence of echo; you are intimate with every sound. The crunch of boots heels on the grit is matter-of-fact, dead. The desert is quiet enough so that I can hear the squeak of the blood in my head as I follow. Out here outside Tucsons lume the stars seem so close you can feel them, cold bright blue-white. You can see the milky cosmic snot the stars hang in. My father goes first along the trail and carries the flashlight and the little propane torch, available at Sears. I carry the small black light I made, for scorpions. The black light is a bar like a fluorescent bar, and I hold it up be fore me like [a] wand. In its negative glow, scorpions turn candy-bright and scuttle off the trail. Big bullet-headed saguaro flank the path, many-armed, silent as butlers. There are little cold-pockets we walk through. In ways the desert at night is like the sea. Theres a scuttling sound and the quick stink of vinegarroon as we cross the dry arroyo between the house and the tool shed. Tiny white threads in my fathers split old leather boots glow bright-white in my black light. He kicks out the chock and opens up the gate to the little fenced area back off the arroyos bank. The sound of the rusted gate against the dead mute quiet is not describable. The shed is corrugated steel and has a padlock and hasp. My father wipes his nose on his wrist. The stars descend. It is a different kind of quiet in the shed, the quiet of dust and why are you here. My father gropes for something that clanks, shines a cone of light at the opposite wall. He has, even then, put on weight; in his tight old denims his middles collops make me think of sausage in its casing as he squats and plays his big light over garden-tools and bags of gravel and deck chairs and dust. There it is, says my father. He is stone cold sober; he just came back. He points the steady light. In a dusty chaotic web under the umbral right angle of a hanging hoe sits maybe the biggest black widow spider ever. So big it has actual weight; you can see the web sag around it. It is hanging upside down. It is ink-black, its legs curve like crabs claws as it hangs surrounded by the husks of what used to be bugs. A red infinity sign decorates the spiders back. Or belly. It faces us, lit up, upside down, not moving at all in the flashlights beam. My father has a thing about them. A horror. Hed try to hunt them out and wipe them out. Hes spend whole nights. They come out only at night. Hard to kill by conventional means. Most poisons just irritate them, he said. Sometimes they have associates up near the ceiling. A terror of being fallen on by an associate. He devised 62

methods and campaigns and carried plenty of firepower. He had a horror. He never did get bitten. There she is, he says again, and you can feel the pull thats part of the horror. He wipes his nose on his wrist. Now the breath of the propane and the tiny roar as my father initiates a cutting flame. Jesus, he breathes in wonder at the things size, its regal disdain for nighttime light and sound. The spider hangs there as the corners of its web begin to whip and glow in the heat of what must seem a blue sun.

14

15

A Table of Humor Device Motive/Aim Province HUMOR

Discovery Human Nature The Sympathetic

WIT
Throwing Light Words & Ideas Surprise The Intelligent

SATIRE
Amendment Morals & Manners Accentuation The SelfSatisfied

SARCASM
Inflicting Pain Faults & Foibles Inversion Victim & Bystander

INVECTIVE
Discredit Misconduct Direct Statement The Public

IRONY
Exclusiveness Statement of Facts Mystification An Inner Circle

CYNICISM
SelfJustification Morals Exposure of Nakedness The Respectable

SARDONY
Self-Relief Adversity Pessimism The Self

Method/Means Observation Audience

16

17