From “Infinite Jest”

From “Infinite Jest” 2014-10-13T13:40:51-04:00

Arm out like a hack’s arm, Gately blasts through B.U. country. As in backpack and personal-stereo and designer-fatigues country. Soft-faced boys with backpacks and high hard hair and seamless foreheads. Totally lineless untroubled foreheads like cream cheese or ironed sheets. All the storefronts here are for clothes or TP cartridges or posters. Gately’s had lines in his big forehead since he was about twelve. It’s here he especially likes making people throw their packages in the air and dive for the curb. B.U. girls who look like they’ve eaten nothing but dairy products their whole lives. Girls who do step-aerobics. Girls with good combed long clean hair. Nonaddicted girls. The weird hopelessness at the heart of lust.

(and you can hear in this bit the resentment and contempt which can come with eros, too–love of what’s different, and so you emphasize your differences from her, separate yourself and judge her, because you’re attracted…)


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