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I have reached page 500 of Infinite Jest – the book I am re-reading with others around the globe as part of Infinite Summer (a sort of online bookclub, in memory of the writer). Written in 1992, the book is set in the not-too-distant-future (much of the action takes place in what is now 2008/2009). So we are now in a position to judge the quality of Wallace’s vision of the future. As a comms guy interested in new technology and what it means for society and business – Infinite Jest touches on various trends.

So, half-way into it, how does it fare up? Here are some of the ones I picked up on.

Sponsorized time – for the characters of the novel, time has been sponsored by corporations from the year 2001. The idea that Americans would abandon the Gregorian calendar and accept total rebranding (Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, for eg) is as delightful as it is absurd. The device works on many levels. I.J.’s characters accept sponsorized time as some sort of bland fact. This is not far from today’s reality whereby words on Google are sponsored, major stadiums are renamed (Emerates Stadium, ANZ stadium, etc) not to mention how our time on the internet today involves advertising and subsidy on many subtle levels. DFW paints a picture of consumerism and branding, carried out to the extreme.

TP Viewers / Cartridges – OK, this doesn’t really stick. Today we download and upload, we “interface” (my marketing-speak is deliberate here) with online content. Where Wallace succeeds however is depicting a world of young adults obsessed with devices that deliver content. The cartridge model wreaks of “1992″ where the likes of Sony produced viewers and content-carrying formats (Beta/VHS, CD, DVD). Wallace’s near-future is fairly accurate, especially when looking at today’s device-centric culture with iPhones and communication in general.

DFW did not predict Twitter – he refers to ‘tweeting’ a couple of times, but I draw the line here. The young ETA students are not living in a virtual world even though many are fixated with entertainment content. They play bizarre strategic geo-political role playing games like Eschaton, they interact with one another, they play tennis, or belong to separatist secret societies, AA clinics, etc. Looks like fairly rich real-world friendships and relationships to me.

Youth depression / dependency-issues - The author himself commented on the very American nature of themes covered by the novel. Where a generation of young people, with middle-class luxuries and lifestyles, are still hounded by a particular sort of sadness, isolation and sometimes depression. Reading the stats in UK, Australia and Europe, this is now an increasingly global phenomena.

Terrorism as part of our daily lives - in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, characters in novel live within the repartitioned borders of the USA and Canada (O.N.A.N) [partly resulting from Consumption/Waste issues between the two nations]. The terrorists in the novel happen to be Quebec separatist extremists. The two key characters (Steeply and Marathe) provide a philosophical, and parallel view to goings on of the novel. When I first read the novel in 1997, the idea of living with terrorists ‘in our midst’ (especially wheelchair terrorists in drag) was the stuff of high comedy. It’s still funny, but the events of the last 10 years in many parts of the world forces one to review what this part of the book is about.

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Wallace was not a futurist or crystal ball gazer. Although he might have accepted science fiction writer Gibson’s take on the things to come, that “the future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed yet” (excuse the paraphrasing).

I suspect many fellow readers and fans would be even irritated by the notion that the novel is being judged on its predictive capabilities. This is maximalist fiction after all. Yet Wallace was a keen observer. Narrative powers aside, he could spot a trend a mile away, and run with it (for a thousand pages as it turns out).