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Don Gately
James is Avril’s husband, the father (or presumed father, in the case of Mario) of Orin, Mario, and Hal, and the Founding Director of E.T.A. As a child, he was a promising junior tennis player, before going on to gain a PhD in Optical Physics. He eventually left scientific research to found E.T.A. and, later, began working as a director of avant-garde film. Aside from a few exceptions, James’s films were not particularly famous or successful, although they are very popular among film fanatics and scholars. James’s masterwork is a lethally compelling film called Infinite Jest, referred to as “the Entertainment” (and sometimes “the samizdat”). He made it in order to connect with Hal, whose emotionlessness and inability to communicate was deeply disturbing to James. An alcoholic with clinical depression, James managed to get sober with the help of Joelle and the goal of connecting with Hal. However, unable to bear sobriety, he committed suicide by sticking his head in a microwave at the age of 54. His sons nicknamed James “Himself” or “the Mad Stork.”
Dr. James Incandenza / Jim Quotes in Infinite Jest
The Infinite Jest quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. James Incandenza / Jim or refer to Dr. James Incandenza / Jim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
“I'm ten for Pete's sake. I think maybe your appointment calendar's squares got juggled. I'm the potentially gifted ten-year-old tennis and lexical prodigy whose mom's a continental mover and shaker in the prescriptive grammar academic world and whose dad's a towering figure in optical and avant-garde film circles and single-handedly founded the Enfield Tennis Academy but drinks Wild Turkey at like 5:00 a.m. and pitches over sideways during dawn drills, on the courts, some days, and some days presents with delusions about people's mouths moving but nothing coming out. I'm not even up to J yet, in the condensed O.E.D., much less Québec or malevolent Lurias.
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Chapter 69
Quotes
Was amateurish the right word? More like the work of a brilliant optician and technician who was an amateur at any kind of real communication. Technically gorgeous, the work, with lighting and angles planned out to the frame. But oddly hollow, empty, no sense of dramatic towardness - no narrative movement toward a real story; no emotional movement toward an audience.
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Dr. James Incandenza / Jim Quotes in Infinite Jest
The Infinite Jest quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. James Incandenza / Jim or refer to Dr. James Incandenza / Jim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
“I'm ten for Pete's sake. I think maybe your appointment calendar's squares got juggled. I'm the potentially gifted ten-year-old tennis and lexical prodigy whose mom's a continental mover and shaker in the prescriptive grammar academic world and whose dad's a towering figure in optical and avant-garde film circles and single-handedly founded the Enfield Tennis Academy but drinks Wild Turkey at like 5:00 a.m. and pitches over sideways during dawn drills, on the courts, some days, and some days presents with delusions about people's mouths moving but nothing coming out. I'm not even up to J yet, in the condensed O.E.D., much less Québec or malevolent Lurias.
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Chapter 69
Quotes
Was amateurish the right word? More like the work of a brilliant optician and technician who was an amateur at any kind of real communication. Technically gorgeous, the work, with lighting and angles planned out to the frame. But oddly hollow, empty, no sense of dramatic towardness - no narrative movement toward a real story; no emotional movement toward an audience.
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