“To run against the boundaries of language”: Speech and silence in david foster wallace's infinite jest

Abstract

The article deals with the opposition of speech and silence as one of the basic conflicts in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. The author of the philosophical novel resorts to Wittgenstein's concept of language as representation of material “facts”. But the ethical does not belong to the factual sphere and, as a result, cannot be expressed with the help of linguistic means; so “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”. The language in the novel is treated as a characteristic property of a human being, its distinctive feature, an elaborate system of signs, allowing people to connect with each other through verbal communication and impact the surrounding world; but at the same time, it appears as a finite and artificial construction that oversimplifies the psychological and spiritual complexity of reality, reducing it to primitive mathematical and logical operations, putting impassable barriers in the way of cognition and empathy, and forcing a person into a tight corner of solipsism. The ambiguous power of language is compared in the novel with female nature, comfortable and soothing but stifling at the same time. The idea is manifested primarily in the character of Avril Incandenza, whose “bewitchment” turns into the compelling force that other characters in the novel have to fight against. Consequently, the inner spiritual progress that the characters achieve in the novel is symbolically represented as penetrating the boundaries of language and falling into silence. Silence in the novel becomes a new type of ethical language that allows spiritually oriented people to communicate without resorting to conventional signs, like James Incandenza does with his son Mario or with the potential audience of his silent films. The main characters in the novel, Hal Incandenza and Don Gately, also find themselves speechless as a result of their dynamic development and spiritual progress. But what accompanies their new state is deep physical discomfort on their own part and lack of understanding on the part of those surrounding them. As the language of ethics, according to Wittgenstein, is incompatible with a common human language, the characters' final leap into the ethical realm severs their ties with the world of “normal” people and makes further communication with them impossible. Thus, crossing the language barriers is viewed in the novel as an act allowing a person to achieve inner freedom and personal development but at the same time destroying one of the core essences of human nature, so that the results of the act remain irrevocably “sad”.