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Symbols
The Entertainment is undoubtedly the most important symbol in the novel and reflects the negative and dangerous potential of entertainment. It is the final film made by James Incadenza, and its actual title is Infinite Jest. The fact that it is referred to as “the Entertainment” rather than by its title points to its status as the ultimate form of entertainment—a film so engrossing that it kills its viewers by destroying their willingness to do anything but watch it. The first victim of the Entertainment depicted in the novel is the medical attaché to Saudi Prince Q——, who watches the cartridge after receiving it in the mail by accident. The attaché’s wife and several others die in the same incident, as each person who enters the attaché’s apartment to check on him ends up looking at the film and becoming instantly overpowered by it. Indeed, the Entertainment is so potent that one does not have to spend any significant period of time looking at it. Rather, as soon as one’s eyes catch sight of the screen on which it is playing, there is no hope of looking away. This surreal exaggeration of entertainment’s capacity to totally absorb viewers becomes a way for the novel to explore the negative and dangerous aspects of entertainment in general.
The other key element of the Entertainment lies within the fact that the A.F.R. wants to use it as a terrorist weapon to advance the cause of Québécois separatism. This goal drives several of the novel’s many subplots, as members of the A.F.R. attempt to get hold of the (possibly fictitious) master copy of the Entertainment while government agents, most notably Hugh/Helen Steeply, attempt to thwart the separatists’ plan. The idea that a film could be used as a weapon of mass destruction again emphasizes that while entertainment may seem harmless, it can have a powerful, dangerous effect on people. In some senses, the novel suggests that entertainment is damaging because, like Substances, it has a soporific effect, meaning that it makes people passive, sluggish, and vulnerable to manipulation. This may indicate that the most dangerous forms of entertainment are those that are popular, addictive, and easy to consume. At the same time, it is also important to remember that James Incandenza was known as an avant-garde filmmaker who did not have a mass following. Indeed, his biggest fans tend to be overly-intellectual film scholars. This suggests that entertainment is perhaps no less dangerous even if it is artful and “challenging.”
The Entertainment Quotes in Infinite Jest
The Infinite Jest quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Entertainment. 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 51
Quotes
I couldn't even stand to be in the same room, see him like that. Begging for just even a few seconds - a trailer, a snatch of soundtrack, anything. His eyes wobbling around like some drug-addicted newborn.
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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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The Entertainment Symbol Timeline in Infinite Jest
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Entertainment appears in Infinite Jest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 16
...quadruple agent.) Steeply discusses an unmarked cartridge distributed through the mail, which he calls “ the Entertainment .” He notes that the cartridge was received by a Saudi medical attaché in Boston,...
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Steeply accuses A.F.R. of having something to do with the Entertainment , suggesting that the cell wanted to “make an example” out of the attaché. He...
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Chapter 20
...Depend Adult Undergarment. Steeply points out that Boston is the home of the creator of the Entertainment , and Marathe replies that it is also the city nearest to the Great Concavity...
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Chapter 41
...Adult Undergarment. Marathe suggests to Steeply that Canadians are not the real threat, considering that the Entertainment was produced by an American. He points out that the American government knows the country’s...
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Chapter 46
Again, Marathe asks how A.F.R. could be blamed for harming the U.S. simply by making the Entertainment available. If Americans believe that freedom is so important, then why ban the Entertainment at...
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Chapter 50
...by the whole situation. Steeply points out that the experiment is a good analogy for the Entertainment .
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...Outcropping Northwest of Tucson AZ U.S.A., Still. Steeply asks if Marathe has ever considered watching The Entertainment . First Marathe confirms that the A.F.R. have a “read-only” copy of the cartridge, and...
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Chapter 51
...admits that the Office of Unspecified Services have already lost a couple of people to the Entertainment , people whose curiosity got the better of them and chose to watch it. One...
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Chapter 53
...then discuss the myth of the Odalisque, alluding to the similarity between this figure and the Entertainment . Marathe said he has to leave soon, but that it has been good to...
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Chapter 55
...the O.U.S., owns a “special metric ruler” with which he measures his penis every morning. The Entertainment has been surfacing in a number of different locations, and each time the O.U.S. dispatches...
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...had to be taken to prevent President Gentle from acting on his wish to see the Entertainment himself. The intelligence community as a whole refer to it as “the samizdat.” Technically, the...
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Chapter 62
...James’ suicide. He knows that James cast Joelle in a “radical new type of filmed entertainment that supposedly was driving him to a breakdown.” Bain warns Helen that Orin has a...
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Chapter 67
...with ease. The A.F.R., meanwhile, are considering two methods of locating James’s master copy of the Entertainment . They could track down James’s family members and Joelle and torture them if necessary,...
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Chapter 68
...taken place over the course of multiple days. The A.F.R. believe that if they unleash the Entertainment on the U.S., Canada will not just allow but force Quebec to secede in order...
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DuPlessis had original copies of the Entertainment and appeared to have obtained them via a relative who was an athlete (Orin). Steeply...
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Chapter 69
...Unfortunately, in the process two of the team members (Desjardins and Joubet) are lost to the Entertainment . Even more unfortunately, the team soon discovers that the cartridge is read-only. They decide...
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...them everything he knew about Joelle’s whereabouts. They have exposed their first “test Subject” to the Entertainment , telling the Subject that he could repeat the film if he agreed to saw...
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...or if he should leave immediately and inform the A.F.R. that the master copy of the Entertainment is likely in this very house. Or, perhaps, he should do neither and summon Steeply...
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Chapter 71
...okay.) Back in the main narrative, Molly Notkin is being interrogated by O.U.S. operatives about the Entertainment . Molly says that the Entertainment—whose title, “Infinite Jest (V) or (VI)”, is mentioned for...
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...also says that Madame Psychosis’s real mother killed herself using a garbage disposal on Thanksgiving. The Entertainment was made using a Bolex H32 with a peculiar lens. Molly explains that Madame Psychosis...
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...problems stem from her guilt over James’s suicide, which itself has nothing to do with the Entertainment . She also thinks that Avril planted the bottle of Wild Turkey whisky near James’s...
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...to sobriety and spent the last 90 days of its life making a film ( the Entertainment ) that it hoped would be a way to communicate with Hal.
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The wraith/James hoped that the Entertainment would be so compelling that it would force Hal out of his anhedonia, like a...
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Chapter 74
Joelle responds to questions (presumably posed by Hugh/Helen Steeply) about the Entertainment . She describes the only two scenes in which she appears, both of which are...
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