Levitation in the Stories of David Foster Wallace

*This article may contain spoilers.

There are people in Wallace’s writings who are able to levitate. It’s not clear to what extent they can levitate. Generally both those who are levitating and those about them are unaware of the levitation. And the levitating is very slight. Levitating only inches or millimeters most of the time.

The first time I noticed this was in The Pale King. Late in the book. The IRS worker Shane Drinnion. He levitates by being extremely focused outward, in the instance of the related story he is listening to the speaking of a fellow IRS worker, a strikingly beautiful woman who also has the habit of going on and on.

Another character who can levitate is not surprisingly Lyle from Infinite Jest. This fact seems to be entered on the sly on the part of the narrator. There is perhaps only one sentence that describes Lyle’s levitation. However, in the novel there are several examples of objects being moved around telekinetically, most of the time without any being able to notice. Most of this for some reason happens to “The Darkness” Stice, a friend of Hal.

Both Lyle and Shane come across as idle characters whose M.O. is to suck and absorb the world. Both are great listeners who don’t say much. But when Lyle does speaks generally people listen. It is why people come to him, for the little nuggets of wisdom. Similarly, people who interact with Shane want him to say at least something. They are yoga-like gurus. In fact, Lyle is called by the narrator as such, and he has the Yogic pose to go with it.

I will probably have more thoughts on this matter in the days ahead.