Read the excerpt from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. be
I cannot make myself understood. 'I am not just a jock,' I say slowly. Distinctly. 'My transcript for the last
year might have been dickied a bit, maybe, but that was to get me over a rough spot. The grades prior to
that are de moi.' My eyes are closed; the room is silent. 'I cannot make myself understood, now.'I am
speaking slowly and distinctly. 'Call it something I ate.'
It's funny what you don't recall. Our first home, in the suburb of Weston, which I barely remember—my
eldest brother Orin says he can remember being in the home's backyard with our mother in the early
spring, helping the Moms till some sort of garden out of the cold yard. March or early April. The garden's
area was a rough rectangle laid out with Popsicle sticks and twine.
Which element of structure most contributes to the postmodern quality of this excerpt?
sudden shift of time and setting
O unexpected change in perspective
O use of irony to emphasize a point
O use of allusion to reference an idea