IJ study archive

Filmed entertainment as the medium of the father-son bond

echoes

From: All That

  • Early text: The narrator's closest bond with his father is formed in front of the television — "usually took place on the couch," the boy lying "with my head on a pillow on my father’s knees" — and the story climaxes on a war movie the two watched together and now remember differently.
  • IJ echo: James Incandenza and Hal — the filmmaker father whose relationship to his son runs through screens and staged scenes; the professional-conversationalist episode, in which the disguised J.O.I., convinced his son never speaks, cannot hear Hal talking right in front of him (scene 005, pp. 27-32).
  • Weight: shared-preoccupation