Welcome to Bookmarker!

This is a personal project by @dellsystem. I built this to help me retain information from the books I'm reading.

Source code on GitHub (MIT license).

116

8

1990

2
terms
3
notes

transcript between Dr. Jay and Lenore in which Lenore expresses her anxiety about words and language; Rick begins the Fiedbinder collection; Rick has a dream about a hotel room with no sheets on the bed, which he tells Dr Jay; Lenore meets Mr. Bloemker's inflatable doll, Brenda

Foster Wallace, D. (2004). 8. In Foster Wallace, D. The Broom of the System. Penguin Books, pp. 116-145

119

LENORE: Well see, it seems like it's not really like a life that's told, not lived; it's just that the living is the telling, that there's nothing going on with me that isn't either told or tellable, and if so, why the difference, why live at all?

[...]

LENORE: Pretty keen perception. If there's nothing about me but what can be said about me, what separates me from this lady in this story Rick got [...]? She's exactly what's said about her, right? Nothing more at all. And same with me, seems like. Gramma says she's going to show me how a life is words and nothing else. Gramma says words can kill and create. Everything.

[...]

LENORE: [...] if she can do all that just by talking to me, with just words, then what does that say about words?

JAY: ". . . she said, using words."

—p.119 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago

LENORE: Well see, it seems like it's not really like a life that's told, not lived; it's just that the living is the telling, that there's nothing going on with me that isn't either told or tellable, and if so, why the difference, why live at all?

[...]

LENORE: Pretty keen perception. If there's nothing about me but what can be said about me, what separates me from this lady in this story Rick got [...]? She's exactly what's said about her, right? Nothing more at all. And same with me, seems like. Gramma says she's going to show me how a life is words and nothing else. Gramma says words can kill and create. Everything.

[...]

LENORE: [...] if she can do all that just by talking to me, with just words, then what does that say about words?

JAY: ". . . she said, using words."

—p.119 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago

(verb) to bring out (as something latent) / (verb) deduce

122

She's not even produced, she's educed.

Lenore on characters in a story

—p.122 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 5 months ago

She's not even produced, she's educed.

Lenore on characters in a story

—p.122 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 5 months ago
132

"Gee," I say, "there are no sheets on this bed."

The mouse looks at me. "Señor," he says, "if you sheet on my bed, I will keel you."

We both laugh, and the mouse punches me on the arm.

—p.132 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago

"Gee," I say, "there are no sheets on this bed."

The mouse looks at me. "Señor," he says, "if you sheet on my bed, I will keel you."

We both laugh, and the mouse punches me on the arm.

—p.132 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago

(noun) a frame of latticework used as a screen or as a support for climbing plants / (noun) a construction (as a summerhouse) chiefly of latticework / (noun) an arrangement that forms or gives the effect of a lattice / (verb) to provide with a trellis / (verb) to train (as a vine) on a trellis / (verb) to cross or interlace on or through; interweave

133

"I see a trellis I have to climb."

Patrice LaVache speaking in a therapy session

—p.133 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 5 months ago

"I see a trellis I have to climb."

Patrice LaVache speaking in a therapy session

—p.133 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 5 months ago
144

"The not blinking really bothers me, I've got to tell you. And what's this on her neck, here? On Brenda's neck?"

"Birthmark. Pimple."

"Is this an air-valve? This is an air-valve! See, here's the cap. Are you sitting with an inflatable doll?

"Don't be ridiculous."

"You're sitting with an inflatable doll! This isn't even a person."

"Brenda, this isn't funny, show Ms. Beadsman you're a person."

"My god. See, she weighs about one pound. I can lift her up." Lenore lifted Brenda way up by the thigh. Brenda suddenly fell out of Lenore's hand and her head got wedged between the bench and Mary-Ann's hand, and she was upside down. Her dress fell up.

"Good heavens," said Mr. Bloemker.

"One of those dolls. That's just sick. How can you sit in public with an anatomically correct doll?"

"I must confess, the wool seems to have been completely pulled over my eyes. I thought she was simply extremely shy. A troubled Midwesterner, in an ambivalent relation ..."

—p.144 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago

"The not blinking really bothers me, I've got to tell you. And what's this on her neck, here? On Brenda's neck?"

"Birthmark. Pimple."

"Is this an air-valve? This is an air-valve! See, here's the cap. Are you sitting with an inflatable doll?

"Don't be ridiculous."

"You're sitting with an inflatable doll! This isn't even a person."

"Brenda, this isn't funny, show Ms. Beadsman you're a person."

"My god. See, she weighs about one pound. I can lift her up." Lenore lifted Brenda way up by the thigh. Brenda suddenly fell out of Lenore's hand and her head got wedged between the bench and Mary-Ann's hand, and she was upside down. Her dress fell up.

"Good heavens," said Mr. Bloemker.

"One of those dolls. That's just sick. How can you sit in public with an anatomically correct doll?"

"I must confess, the wool seems to have been completely pulled over my eyes. I thought she was simply extremely shy. A troubled Midwesterner, in an ambivalent relation ..."

—p.144 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 5 months ago