the Avril–Orin incest question
This asks whether there is an incestuous element to Avril's relationship with her son Orin. It is contested because the hints are pattern-rich but the one direct claim reaches the reader through unreliable, second-hand testimony, so readers split over whether anything happened at all.
Adjudication
This crux has an adversarial ledger: Wayne, Avril, and the A.F.R.. The per-reading verdicts are below.
Theories on this crux
| Reading | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Avril–Orin, and the parentage lattice | open |
Discussed in
- Community book club 2
- Community book club 4
- Hardcore Literature IJ Lecture II: In the Zone (pp. 233–489) — the Entertainment as womb-return, Joelle's veil and overdose, flow states, AA clichés, the freedom debate, Eschaton
- Hardcore Literature IJ lecture III: The Map is Not the Territory (pages 489–795)
- I Hate Infinite Jest ep. 23 (pp. 652–682) — guest Hannah Smart: the Marlon Bain endnote, Avril–Orin, and a spoiler run through the wraith, JOI's suicide, and DMZ
- I Hate Infinite Jest ep. XXXII (pp. 938–981, the end) — guest Tim Eastwood: the ending-theories finale — the Lyle-toothbrush DMZ walkthrough, the single-quote narrator argument, and the Marathe ER identification
- IJ Book Club Ep. 13: Separatism and Return — Orin's backstory reappraised, Poor Tony's seizure, endnote 110 begun (pp. ~283–306 + n.110): the light inventory and the lightless last sentence
- IJ Book Club Ep. 22 (S2 Ep 2): The Back-Door Slip — the government-side samizdat briefing, the Avril/Wayne tableau, Lenz & Green, the hand-model scene with endnote 234, and Arslanian's fusion lecture (pp. ~548–575)
- IJ Book Club Ep. 26 (S2 Ep 6): The Founder Let You Guys on the Grounds — the Hal–Stice exhibition as the book's Mousetrap, the narrator's axe against Steeply, the Avril blind spot, the Bain letters (pp. ~651–673)
- IJ Book Club S2 Ep. 3: So It Goes — the Lenz/Green walk to the dog-killing, Bruce Green's backstory, Mario's Ennet House night (pp. ~575–589)
- Infinite Cast Part 83: Marlon Bain dishes on Orin's past — commentary segment (~18 min): the virtue-philanthropy passage as proto-virtue-posting, cartoonish violence as tempo design, and a pinned theory that JOI was killed by Charles Tavis
- Infinite Jest Book Club ep. 14: Word is Wayne has exactly one gear — endnote 110 line-by-line (the Orin–Hal call as coded warning), plus Mario's birth section
- Michael Pietsch to DFW, December 22, 1994 (second-read letter + cut-suggestion list)
- The Great Concavity Ep. 19: first-time Infinite Jest readers — Rachel Laird & Amy Peltier on finishing the book (recorded ~late summer 2016)