of the novel
infinite jest is in several colors.
Orange and blue against a background of little fluffy clouds in the paperback edition I own. Zoom out to reveal the book in my hands. Filter over the lens, we're in black and white now, but the book appears in bright blue. A flower on my windowsill, which an attentive user will notice is poisonous may also be tinted blue. As film stock becomes more sepia the blue fades. Carefully aligned on the floor in front of me are 2004 pieces of beach glass.
The beach glass is important because it both reflects and transmits light. With a proper filter I can catch a reflection of the poisonous plant and the empty glass next to it. Poison reflected over and over: infection, contagion. Floor should be BRUSHED CONCRETE or carpet. I can't decide.
The color of infinity inside an empty glass:
I'm squinting my eye and turning off and on and off the light.
It's for this experimental film,
which nobody knows about, and which
I'm still figuring out what's going to go
in my experimental film.
(YEAH) You're all gonna be in this
(YEAH) experimental film and even
(YEAH) though I can't explain it
(YEAH) I already know how great it is.
The novel discusses a piece of film known as THE ENTERTAINMENT which is so good, so addictive, that it causes the viewer to sit mesmerized for hours on end. The auteur of this particular piece, a fictional (OR IS HE???) director named James O. Incandenza was fascinated with light and metempsychosis to the point that by the time he finished it, he was insane with its power. He committed suicide inside the book I'm reading, by placing his head in a microwave.
I already know the ending: it's the part that makes your face implode.
I don't know what makes your face implode, but that's the way the movie ends.
And in my experimental film which nobody knows about, but which
I'm still figuring out which face implodes in my experimental film.
This is the part of the novel where you bring in a Greek CHORUS to fill you in on the action. We represent this by drawing Medusa in white John Madden TeleStrater lines as we zoom in on the book again. Narrator mumbles quietly over the soundtrack -- an accordion and guitar solo -- that the "joke" (the INFINITE JEST of the title!!!!!) is on the family because due to some seriously wild political shit, the body of the director is buried in Canada with the films actuall implanted in his now-ruined skull.
The color of infinity inside an empty glass!
...it's for this experimental film
which nobody knows about, and which
I'm still figuring out what's going to go
in my experimental film.
NOTE: to capture the mood of the author's work I will need to zoom way in on page 940 of the text where the plot of The Entertainment is explained. Might help if at some point I could over-dub An Addictive Song about how most avant garde film is really just guesswork on the auteur's part. Tough part will be finding a band that is hip but not really wildly successful, critically acclaimed but still indie. Bonus points for lyrics that contain angst or inner turmoil.
SOFT FOCUS on left lens of my glasses. Zoom closely and snap into focus, revealing that I am gazing down at p. 940 of the book. A dragonfly is perched on my book, and reflected in its wings is my ceiling fan. ZOOM IN to reveal that the ceiling fan has been tiled in a mosaic of broken mirror glass -- emphasis on bad luck here -- and that reflected in the whirling glass is the whole scene as viewed from above. CAMERA SHOULD NOT BE VISIBLE, or mise en scene is ruined.
Also see if I can get permission to put Strong Bad in the video. He's the awesomest.
ROLL CREDITS ::: IN COURIER NEW AND MY HANDWRITING, THE FOLLOWING ADDENDUM :::Tarantino, Kubrick, Lynch, Linnel (sic), Obama, Incandenza, Flansburgh?
, But I Am Standing On Their Shoulders.
Works cited:
1. Incandenza, James O. Infinite Jest (V?). YTSDB. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited.
2. Sad, Strong and Cheat, The Experimental Film (mixed media) at
http://www.homestarrunner.com/expfilm.html, Homestar Runner Films, Ltd.
3. Incandenza, James O. Kinds of Light. BS Meniscus Films, Ltd.
4. Flansburgh, John and Linnell, John. The Spine, (first track only!) 2004 Elektra records.
5. Wallace, David Foster. Infinite Jest (a novel), 1996, Little Brown and Co.