New Course: Understanding Infinite Jest
July 12 - August 30 at 2 pm MST
Our next class at my school will be “Understanding Infinite Jest,” David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel. We will spend 8 weeks exploring this intricate novel from Saturday, July 12 at 2 pm MST until Saturday, August 30. To enroll and attend live, cost is $225 or if you just want a subscription to the videos, the cost is $150. To enroll, contact me at johndavidebert@gmail.com
I also still do astrology readings, so if you’re interested in one hmu at the same email (I have really good transits this year, so it should be a great year!). And I also do private tutoring, as well.
Here is a complete list of all of my courses. hmu at the same email if you would like to purchase any of them:
Transformations of Consciousness Through Time (Rudolf Steiner, Sri Aurobindo, Erich Neumann, Jean Gebser, Teilhard de Chardin, Arthur Young)
The Psychology of Carl Jung (8 video lectures)
Understanding Mythology (Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, William Irwin Thompson, John David Ebert, Mary Settegast, Marija Gimbutas, J.P. Mallory)
The History of German Idealist Philosophy (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer)
The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (The Birth of Tragedy, Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, The Anti Christ, Ecce Homo)
The Cosmology, Mythology and Philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (Theosophy, How to Know Higher Worlds, Cosmic Memory, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, The Fifth Gospel, Karmic Relationships, The Dawning of the Age of Archangel Michael)
Philosophies and Mythologies of World History (Joachim of Fiore, Vico, Hegel, Spengler, Toynbee, Carroll Quigley)
The Evolution of Media Studies (Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Vilem Flusser, Neil Postman, Leonard Shlain and John David Ebert)
Mythology and the Movies (2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, The Shining, Alien, Blade Runner, Videodrome)
Understanding James Joyce 1: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Understanding James Joyce 2: Ulysses
Thomas Mann and the Magic Mountain
Thomas Mann’s Epic Tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers
Jean Gebser and The Ever-Present Origin
Finnegans Wake
Understanding Jean Baudrillard
Understanding Paul Virilio
Understanding Moby Dick
Understanding Mason & Dixon
Understanding the Western Canon Part 1: The Greek Mytghs
Understanding the Western Canon Part 2: The Iliad
Understanding European Art
Understanding Martin Heidegger
Understanding Dostoevsky
Understanding Deleuze & Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus
Understanding Against the Day
Both Erdedy and JOI are brilliant creatives whose work destroys the world. Erdedy’s ads at Viney&Veals get Johnny Gentle elected; and of course JOI’s movie deletes everyone’s brains. Infinite Jest itself was DFW’s attempt to create a brilliant work that destroys the world as well. The novel is a pathway into madness for its avid readers. This is a psychopathology of creativity. Apparently, also, it is an alternative history where Jack Kemp and Rush Limbaugh are elected president rather than Bill Clinton; there’s a reference to a Kemp/Limbaugh administration. Finally, the Militant Grammar Riots in Boston (mentioned in footnotes) imply that at some point NLP or some similar “weaponized grammar hypnosis” was developed that gave communicators like Gentle superpowers of persuasion. The book came long before YouTube and social networks whose mantra of “engagement” has turned us all into hypnotized Subjects. Would be interesting if the founders of such platforms were into the book as they have all hypostasized it. The internet was never about hypnotizing people into obsession when this book was written. Hypnosis is the essence of JOI’s film. Interesting how DFW like JOI ends his own life.