First published in 1996, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is already accepted as a classic work of literature. The book is set in a dystopic future, where the years themselves have been subsidized, Upper New England is toxic waste dump, and giant feral hamsters roam the land in ravenous packs. The action mostly revolves around life at an elite tennis academy, ETA, and life at the much-less-elite rehab down the road. The book, which is famously 1,079 pages long, endnoted to infinity, not to mention highly unwieldy, plot-wise, has been adapted into music videos and avant garde art shows. But now it has come to possibly the greatest medium of all: LEGO.
Inspired by the LEGO Bible, Kevin Griffith, a Professor of English at Capital University, and his son Sebastian, decided to stage scenes from the book last February. They’ve covered a surprising amount of the plot, and caption each of their photos with a relevant quote. Their process sounds adorable: the elder Griffith describes the scenes to eleven-year-old Sebastian, who then creates them. We’ve included a few of our favorites below, but you can check out the rest on Brickjest.com. Oh, and be warned, there are tons of spoilers…although, with a book like Infinite Jest, spoilers probably don’t matter too much.
Here’s the opening scene, Hal Incandenza’s interview with the various Deans of the University of Arizona:
A scene from James Incandenza’s masterpiece, Blood Sister: One Tough Nun:
Orin Incandenza, flying high with the Cardinals of the future:
Here’s Donald Gately and the rest of the Enfield residents, sitting in the common room:
And here’s the scene with Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (A.F.R.), the Antitoi Bros., and the broomstick. If you’ve read the book, you know which one we mean, and please don’t ask us to describe it any further. Just be glad we left the Raquel Welch scene out…
