Oedipus

So what’s with Mrs. Inc? In the part with Pemulis and Avril, Pemulis is having a discussion about the “Oedipal child” and the mother figure as the Barbie Doll. Then, conveniently, we meet Avril doing splits in the cheerleader outfit with the football player. This reminded me a lot of Orin and Joelle (football player and cheerleader) and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this happened. I think David Foster Wallace is hinting at some sort of relationship between Orin and Avril. But that’s gross. Maybe that’s why he avoids her all the time. And why James blew his head up. Maybe it's why Orin dates married women, so they will be occupied with him instead of their kids like Avril was with Orin.
There’s an interesting section when Gately is talking to Joelle about the man (Chuck?) being shot in the bar. Gately says that they tried to help Chuck by walking with him instead of taking him to the hospital and it ends with Chuck dieing from the wound. But the men were too drunk to realize that what they were doing wasn’t working. This might be a parallel to Ennet House or AA. AA’s methods only work for some problems, and some people have problems that can’t be cured by AA. Just like Gately and his friends, the AA staff believes that they can cure everyone but in reality may be making their problems worse.

The whole part with Idris Arslanian was kind of odd.