u/willardTheMighty

Pale as in dead

King as in best writer of his generation

I have nearly finished reading The Pale King. I read Infinite Jest six or seven months ago, and I enjoyed it so much. I'm glad I read IJ before TPK because the latter feels like Wallace's more mature novel (which is to be expected, considering he was a decade older writing it), and IJ gave a full and complete primer for how Wallace engages with novel-writing.

The Pale King feels like the beginning or one section of a story which involves some sinister happenings at the Midwest R.E.C. in 1985. All the characters are making their way there, and, like the journey to the Convexity with Don Gately and Hal and Joelle in Infinite Jest, the big events and plot points don't happen on-page. Wallace shows that you don't need to have them occur on the page. Wallace shows that plot is subordinate to theme. Unlike the plot, the themes of this book are introduced, developed, and completed. They follow a full and fulfilling arc, and now I am near the end and am grateful for the experience Wallace has led me on exploring these ideas.

The dozens of vignettes scattered throughout the novel come together to provide a multifaceted exploration of the same few memes. Wallace doesn't try to hide the themes: he puts them in the mouths (or internal monologues) of various characters and narrators.

1. Citizens in contemporary America have outsourced their morality to the government, and believe that following the law is the best way to be a good person.
2. You can achieve anything in contemporary America if you are capable of enduring boredom.

These are two major metaphysical objects that I think Wallace was exploring. The depth of the discussion surrounding the first point in the stuck-in-the-elevator chapter really struck me, and I saw Wallace being super sincere through the mouth of Glendenning. Is it explored other places through the novel? Well, consider "Irrelevant" Chris Fogle's father's career scrutinizing fine print of city liability contracts, work the type of which eventually renders his family unable to reasonably seek recompense for his wrongful death. Every litigant demonstrated how loopholes in the law free them from liability; everyone follows the law but no one does the right thing.

And then the second point of course is perhaps the central theme. I love how he explores this theme in "Backbone:" the kid believes he can do the impossible, and the "work" involved is sitting in one strained position for hours, days, weeks, months, years.

I'm just scratching the surface to try to show you how I am seeing these themes explored. I'd say there are more themes, given more glancing treatment. But they all serve the same tone, pacing, progress... and they all serve the large themes... I am very curious what the actual plot is involving the excitement at the REC. I will have to read the last few subsections and see what more detail I can glean.

He shows up on a job site and asks the foreman, a gruff old Irish fella, if they need an additional laborer. The foreman says, “You probably wouldn’t be much help. Do you even know the difference between a joist and a girder?”

The lad stops to think, then says, “Of course I do. One wrote Ulysses and the other wrote Faust.”