A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn’t she be? It happened to the Goths.
In the novel’s near future Americans exercise their single freedom single-mindedly: the inalienable right to consume. Desire and fulfillment line the shelves in e-z open twin-paks. Technology offers quicker response times for a nation of addicts choosing from a cornucopia of pleasures. Infinite Jest is the uncanny nightmare of the dream offered us in today’s headlines: groceries, videos, information, the world available “on demand.” It paints a nation of millions “plugged in” like the lab rat which freely chooses stimulation of its brain’s pleasure center to food and water, and starves smiling.
Erich Strom’s review of Infinite Jest from 1996
At first I didn’t know what Strom was talking about; folks consume a lot of this-and-that in Infinite Jest, sure, but other than the parodic Subsized Time, Wallace’s near-future isn’t anywhere near as commercial dystopic as, say, the ones depicted Snowcrash or even Minority Report. Then I realized Strom was most likely referring to Interlace On-Demand Entertainment, which is sort of like the iTunes/Hulu combo of The Future Back in 1996. Interlace is definitely described in ominous tones in the book, but since since on-demand entertainment is so normal now, it’s hard to take those passages seriously. It’s strange, reading a contemporary review, to know that others were reading those passages as a warning of the dangers of omniaccessible entertainment.
This thumbnail came up in a search for “tight back binding”. Apparently it’s student work from Standford. You can see it in this PDF, but the referring page is down, unfortunately. I’d love to see more photos. Looks amazing.
![[ Man in Control by Alice Morgan ]
I just found out my coworker’s grandma wrote this book. Also this one, and this one, among others.](http://29.media.tumblr.com/fklSMu12Um2ce37viuQhfKgYo1_400.jpg)
