Footnotes

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Pages To Go: 926

Footnotes: 11 of 388

I have to admit that this section was the first moment I really started to appreciate that not only is DFW a genius, but a genius I appreciated. (Does that make sense?)

Rather ironic that this should happen in an episode that was further bogged down by jargon. In this instance, three different types of jargon: (more) medical jargon, architectural jargon, and drug jargon, the latter of which was mostly confined to a number of footnotes¹.

I’m just now struck by the fact that one of my favorite novels of all time, the novel I consider the one and true Great American Novel, is Moby Dick, which also happens to be laden with jargon, in that case 19th century whaling and whale zoology. So maybe I shouldn’t be so resistant to DFW’s use of jargon.

There’s a lot I could get into with this chapter, such as the fact that Hal, like Erdedy, prefers to smoke his cannabis in secrecy, but I’m going to focus on particularly brilliant piece of irony that I picked up on.

I love how The Moms is so concerned with Hal’s possible use of drugs but is counseled by the ‘experts’ around her that someone as high-functioning as her son would not be able to operate at that level if he were consuming such substances. Despite being either (or both) medical professionals or charged with the care of teenagers as a career choice, they seem to have very little understanding of said teenagers or what their narcotic use might look like.

Contrast that with said teenagers and their very intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of pretty much every mind altering drug you can think of, based on what seems like a pretty rigorous course of trial and error to both reliably elicit the desired results and a compulsion to hide the possible signs of their intoxication from even their peers, who are intimately familiar with what to look for. While DFW alludes to the willful ignorance on the part of some of the adults, it also suggests a general haplessness on the part of the so called experts. Whereas the youth they are charged with show an admirable ability to problem solve when they put their minds to it, combined with an utter lack of caution as it pertains to their personal health and well being.

I think this is a genius observation (of his, not mine).

Vocab Word: Fantods A state of irritability and tension; the fidgets

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1. So many footnotes!