Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Read Free Book Online Page B

pray to, or for, earnestly; to beseech; to entreat. Weak synonym: urge. Strong synonym: beg. Etymology unmixed: from Latin implorare, im meaning in, plorare meaning in this context to cry aloud. O.E.D. Condensed Volume Six page 1387 column twelve and a little bit of thirteen.’
    'Good lord she didn't exaggerate did she?’
    'I tend to get beat up, sometimes, at the Academy, for stuff like that. Does this bear on why I'm here? That I'm a continentally ranked junior tennis player who can also recite great chunks of the dictionary, verbatim, at will, and tends to get beat up, and wears a bow tie? Are you like a specialist for gifted kids? Does this mean they think I'm gifted?’
    SPFFFT. 'Here you are. Drink up.’
    'Thanks. SHULGSHULGSPAHHH . . . Whew. Ah.’
    'You were thirsty.’
    'So then if I sit down you'll fill me in?’
    '. . . professional conversationalist knows his mucous membranes, after all.’
    'I might have to burp a little bit in a second, from the soda. I'm alerting you ahead of time.’
    'Hal, you are here because I am a professional conversationalist, and your father has made an appointment with me, for you, to converse.’
    'MYURP. Excuse me.’
    Tap tap tap tap.
    'SHULGSPAHHH.’
    Tap tap tap tap.
    'You're a professional conversationalist?’
    T am, yes, as I believe I just stated, a professional conversationalist.’
    'Don't start looking at your watch, as if I'm taking up valuable time of yours. If Himself made the appointment and paid for it the time's supposed to be mine, right? Not yours. And then but what's that supposed to mean, "professional conversationalist"? A conversationalist is just one who converses much. You actually charge a fee to converse much?’
    'A conversationalist is also one who, I'm sure you'll recall, "excels in That's Webster's Seventh. That's not the O.E.D.’
    Tap tap.
    'I'm an O.E.D. man, Doctor. If that's what you are. Are you a doctor? Do you have a doctorate? Most people like to put their diplomas up, I notice, if they have credentials. And Webster's Seventh isn't even up-to-date. Webster's Eighth amends to "one who converses with much enthusiasm."
    'Another Seven-Up?’
    'Is Himself still having this hallucination I never speak? Is that why he put the Moms up to having me bike up here? Himself is my dad. We call him Himself. As in quote "the man Himself." As it were. We call my mother the Moms. My brother coined the term. I understand this isn't unusual. I understand most more or less normal families address each other internally by means of pet names and terms and monikers. Don't even think about asking me what my little internal moniker is.’
    Tap tap tap.
    'But Himself hallucinates, sometimes, lately, you ought to be apprised, was the thrust. I'm wondering why the Moms let him send me pedalling up here uphill against the wind when I've got a challenge match at 3:00 to converse with an enthusiast with a blank door and no diplomas anywhere in view.’
    'I, in my small way, would like to think it had as much to do with me as with you. That my reputation preceded me.’
    'Isn't that usually a pejorative clause?’
    'I am wonderful fun to talk to. I'm a consummate professional. People leave my parlor in states. You are here. It's conversation-time. Shall we discuss Byzantine erotica?’
    'How did you know I was interested in Byzantine erotica?’
    'You seem persistently to confuse me with someone who merely hangs out a shingle with the word Conversationalist on it, and this operation with a fly-by-night one strung together with chewing gum and twine. You think I have no support staff? Researchers at my beck? You think we don't delve full-bore into the psyches of those for whom we've made appointments to converse? You don't think this fully accredited limited partnership would have an interest in obtaining data on what informs and stimulates our con-versees?’
    'I know only one person who'd ever use full-bore in casual conversation.’
    'There is nothing casual about a