Comments on David Foster Wallace's INFINITE JEST: journal 1

1. The mold Hal ingests as a child lies dormant within him and seems to become active as a result of his experimentation with various drugs.  As Hal begins his decline that will result in his behavior becoming first subnormal then subhuman then subanimal, mold-like, with waggles and sounds unseen, unheard before within the human community, a metamorphosis not unlike that of Gregor Samsa -- as Hal begins his decline, the most immediate effect is that the mold's hold on him acts as a kind of truth-serum, e.g. Hal to himself and in his verbal expression to others is very worried about the Darkness's loss of part of his face but to others Hal's own face presents an incongruous hilarity.  Hal's facial expression of pleasure as opposed to his verbal worry and concern stems from fact that the Darkness is an aspiring rival of his on the tennis court. As the mold becomes active, Hal becomes more and more simply an organic life-form, imposing on Hal and on us the realization that this is what we actually are: mold-like. The mold -- itself a source of DMZ --works on Hal through its organic, chemical interaction with its human host, enabled (how else!) by their organic kinship. So it is as well with all addictive drugs which our neurology selects first on the basis of pleasure but then locks in as a need even though the pleasure no longer obtains.  Thus it is that our organic being triumphs over the lies we tell ourselves.  As Madame Psychosis might say: I am sorry, so sorry, so so very sorry, so terribly . . . .