Mario's (and Hal's) paternity
This asks who fathered whom in the Incandenza family — chiefly whether Mario is really Charles Tavis's biological son, and whether Hal's paternity is meant to be in doubt. It is contested because the strongest hints are planted rather than stated, and the novel seems to engineer the ambiguity on purpose.
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 |
| joi-father-scene — the 1960 Tucson scene enacts JOI's | open |
Discussed in
- Community book club 3
- 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
- IJ Book Club Ep. 02: Are they addicted to the process, the secrecy, or the drug? — early-pages session, Orin's phone call through the pump room
- IJ Book Club Ep. 03: To sleep, perchance to dream? — early season-1 panel on the Gately/DuPlessis burglary, JOI's biography, Kate Gompert, and a first tour of the filmography (pp. ~55–79 + endnote 24)
- IJ Book Club Ep. 07: Who's There? — the chapter-one catch-up session (pp. 3–32 + the garage postscript): I-am vs who's-there, the conversationalist as reverse interrogation, Brando in the family tree
- IJ Book Club Ep. 08: When does routine become ritual? — the Feral Prodigy film, the Ennet House drop-in transcripts, and the Madame Psychosis broadcast scene (pp. ~170–193, archive-derived)
- IJ Book Club Ep. 15: Quick question, Mike — Is the map the territory? — the shortest Marathe/Steeply interlude (p. ~317), then Eschaton whole (the I-Day debacle + n. 123)
- IJ Book Club Ep. 41 (S3 Ep 7 by feed position): Meaning from angle of incidence redux — the narrative changes on the page: unfiltered Gately, Hal horizontal in the viewing room, the wraith's misleading account of Hal's speech, and a live three-copy punctuation hunt (pp. ~891–900)
- 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
- Infinite Notes — co-(re)-reading notes for Infinite Jest
- Overdue Ep. 200: Infinite Jest — Andrew's deadline read, the Swartz architecture arriving secondhand via chronology blog posts, and a pre-election Gentle/Trump reading (recorded September 2016)
- The Great Concavity Ep. 19: first-time Infinite Jest readers — Rachel Laird & Amy Peltier on finishing the book (recorded ~late summer 2016)
- an online forum — full-history archive digest