Idiopathy: A novel and ‘A Failed Entertainment:’ The process of paying attention in and to Infinite Jest
type: CreativeWork
description: My PhD thesis combines a novel, Idiopathy, and a critical essay, ‘A Failed Entertainment:’ The Process of Paying Attention In and To Infinite Jest. Idiopathy examines the inner lives of three friends and their experiences of both separation and a reunion. By emphasising internality over externality it seeks to examine the notion that how we feel about our lives may be more important, indeed, more ‘real,’ than what takes place around us. Idiopathy is overtly concerned with the extent to which interaction with others is problematic, and pays particular attention to the emotional complexities of friendships, relationships and family dynamics. Through these pained and frequently unsatisfactory interactions the novel seeks to satirise broader social phenomena, such as media panics, health epidemics, ideological protest movements and the rise of what might be termed a ‘pathologised’ culture, in which all the characters are continually concerned that something is ‘wrong’ with them. Illness is a metaphor throughout, and is explored not only through the characters’ sense of personal malaise, but also through the device of a fictional cattle epidemic that forms a media backdrop to unfolding events. Throughout the novel I am particularly concerned with empathy: its limits, its problems, its importance. This manifests not only as a difficulty experienced by the characters, but also, I hope, for the reader herself, since empathy with the central characters is something I have deliberately problematized. ‘A Failed Entertainment . . .’ looks at the work of a writer I regard as being not only a key influence but a vital figure in the contemporary literary landscape: David Foster Wallace. Specifically, it focuses on his novel Infinite Jest and explores the way in which the novel is designed to encourage a certain kind of attention, which Wallace overtly stated was something he felt was important in contemporary life. In my essay I examine the idea that Infinite Jest not only concern…
abstract: My PhD thesis combines a novel, Idiopathy, and a critical essay, ‘A Failed Entertainment:’ The Process of Paying Attention In and To Infinite Jest. Idiopathy examines the inner lives of three friends and their experiences of both separation and a reunion. By emphasising internality over externality it seeks to examine the notion that how we feel about our lives may be more important, indeed, more ‘real,’ than what takes place around us. Idiopathy is overtly concerned with the extent to which interaction with others is problematic, and pays particular attention to the emotional complexities of friendships, relationships and family dynamics. Through these pained and frequently unsatisfactory interactions the novel seeks to satirise broader social phenomena, such as media panics, health epidemics, ideological protest movements and the rise of what might be termed a ‘pathologised’ culture, in which all the characters are continually concerned that something is ‘wrong’ with them. Illness is a metaphor throughout, and is explored not only through the characters’ sense of personal malaise, but also through the device of a fictional cattle epidemic that forms a media backdrop to unfolding events. Throughout the novel I am particularly concerned with empathy: its limits, its problems, its importance. This manifests not only as a difficulty experienced by the characters, but also, I hope, for the reader herself, since empathy with the central characters is something I have deliberately problematized. ‘A Failed Entertainment . . .’ looks at the work of a writer I regard as being not only a key influence but a vital figure in the contemporary literary landscape: David Foster Wallace. Specifically, it focuses on his novel Infinite Jest and explores the way in which the novel is designed to encourage a certain kind of attention, which Wallace overtly stated was something he felt was important in contemporary life. In my essay I examine the idea that Infinite Jest not only concern…
author: Byers, Sam
language: en
date published: 2013-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:12:03Z
provider: University of East Anglia
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of East Anglia