IJ study archive

Reverence toward the unverifiable, against corrosive skepticism — the stance Infinite Jest's AA doctrine also…

echoes

From: All That

  • Early text: The story's explicit thesis is that "the most powerful and significant connections in our lives are (at the time) invisible to us", which the narrator takes as "a compelling argument for religious reverence rather than skeptical empiricism"; the magic he prizes "could not, not ever, be trapped or outsmarted."
  • IJ echo: The Boston AA / White Flag doctrine of surrender — that the program works whether or not you believe or understand it, and that analysis is the enemy of recovery (scene 074, pp. 343-367).
  • Weight: shared-preoccupation