Who The Hell Is (Are) The Moms?

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So here we have a our first interlude, a flashback of sorts, presumably on the part of Hal, recounting an experience from when he was five years old. Pretty standard stuff, lots of potential for meaningful metaphor and symbolic happenings.

Except, why does he keep referring to the moms? Is this a way of indicating that since he’s sharing a memory that his older brother Owen told him (Hal doesn’t actually remember this incident himself), in essence there are two moms, his recollected version of their mother, and Owen’s? Or is there something else going on here? Unclear.

I do like his description of the horrific mold. But is this really how his brother described it to him? Is everyone in this family some kind of freak for literary detail?

As you can tell, I have a lot more questions than answers at this point.

Vocab for the day: presbyobic farsighted, due to ciliary muscle weakness and loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens.

You are reading my live blog of Infinite Jest. Start at the beginning.