Not real bright—she thought the figure he’d trace without thinking on her bare flank after sex was the numeral 8...

Not real bright—she thought the figure he’d trace without thinking on her bare flank after sex was the numeral 8, to give you an idea

what did he mean by this?

p. 47 in IJ btw

She's dumb and doesn't know math and he's being a dick about it.
Can someone explain to an ESL pleb what pronouncing beautiful as having four syllables implies. It happens twice in IJ, once an elderly black man says it that way, whereas the other time it's a young girl.

The narrator sounds like a pretentious wanker.

That would be pronouncing it bee-yoo-ti-ful. As for why it's important, I couldn't say

Bee you tee full

why doesn't she know math? he just traces some figure on her flank what's wrong in thinking it's an 8? was it the infinity sign that he traced?

i can answer your question though - the normal pronounciation of beautiful has three syllables: beau-ti-ful. i assume these people were stating that something or someone was explicitly beautiful, drawing out the words length, resulting in something like be-au-ti-ful, which are four syllables.

infinity

So it's a joke ... about infinity ... !
Whoa. Bravo DFW

Thank you, I can imagine the pronounciation, but the connotations w/r/t socio-economic or ethnic background completely exceed my grasp of American dialects. DFW gives Joelle's thoughts on this:
>she's pronounced beautiful like
the earlier interested in
four syllables, splitting the diphthong, betraying her class and
origin with the heartbreaking openness Joelle's always viewed as
either terribly stupid or terribly brave
What exactly does she betray here?

just b u tiful.

I looked up the other bit and it was actually "interested" not "beautiful". Here's the excerpt. Hope I don't fuck up quoting this time
>then a pleasant and gentle-faced older black man in raincoat and hat with a little flat black feather in the band and the sort of black-frame styleless spectacles pleasant older black men wear, with the weary but dignified mild comportment of the older black, waiting alone with her on the chill dim Davis Square subway platform, this man had folded his Herald neatly lengthwise and had it under the same arm he tipped his hat with and said to excuse him if this was an intrusion, he said, but he'd had occasion to see one or two of these linen veils before, around, like what she wore, and was interested and rendered curious. He pronounced all four syllables of interested, which Joelle, from Kentucky, enjoyed.

the remark that she's from kentucky is really useful here. most american accents pronounce interested in away that the first e is not heard - like intrested, whereas people with a kentucky accent pronounce the word with an empasis on the first e, sort of like the first two syllables of internet. so joelle is probably reminded of kentucky when she hears the guy pronounce the word in this distinct way.

So the black guy's accent is similar to Joelle's Kentucky accent when pronouncing that word? Can you share some insight about the other occasion as well?

>Little did she know it was an infinite jest

What a fucking hate

what page is it? i need some more context

My physical copy is a Little, Brown and Company first edition hardcover, the one with the clouds on the front cover. Both incidents occur in the bit focused on Joelle buying drugs, going to the party in Molly Notkins' honor and eventually overdosing in the bathroom.
Elderly black man: p. 226
Girl: p. 230

didn't reply to your post

it's sort of like i already tried to describe in , she's drawing the word out because she really is convinced and ecstatic (since she's on e) that here breasts are very, very beautiful. joelle views this statement as either terribly stupid (ecstatically complimenting your own breasts) or terribly brave (coming to terms with and accepting your own body, which is a hard thing for many women to do).

Okay, I guess I was distracted by Joelle talking about class and origin. Thanks and sorry for hijacking the thread.

not really a joke, though there is some metahumor, sure, but its more poetic than that: he subconsciously traced on her thigh that sign, which equals forever, in that moment of love, and perfection,