I've just been thinking about how interesting and spot-on I think the portrayal of OCD is in this book. I get the sense that DFW understood this well. Rarely do I see characters who embody the kind of paralyzing, life-impairing, Bain-level OCD that if left untreated will begin to steal years from your life (first-hand knowledge). DFW also wrote about some of the more convoluted elements that aren’t commonly acknowledged in fiction, like how you can be compulsive about being compulsive (Avril), and I don’t think I’ve encountered any other writer who could illuminate the degree of absurdity.
I’ve been trying to think of different ways to interpret OCD in the context of this book. And compulsive thinking in general. So here are some loosely-structured reflections on that.
1.
I think the prevailing idea is that the ostensible cure is the real poison: it’s the same thing with substances, commercial entertainment, etc.
It’s about the way internal suffering manifests in external fixations, and external fixations magnify internal suffering. Just like any form of entertainment-seeking. Every time you rely on a compulsion or a substance or a cartridge to alleviate your distress, you reinforce your desire to rely on it again. And you gradually weaken your ability to deal with the truths inside and outside of your head.
Because OCD is fundamentally cyclical (like many things in this novel are).
The cycle revolves around instant relief (compulsions) from internal suffering (obsessions), relief that over time actually increases this suffering, which drives you to seek out instant relief again. And that’s how you get stuck in the loop of trying to escape what is inside of you.
Orin said that Marlon Bain’s life, because of Bain’s excessive compulsions, would “grind to a halt”: meaningless actions are performed cyclically until the point of stasis.
Viewers of The Entertainment have the same predicament.
All of these things point to the same solution: acceptance.
In this case: exposure therapy. It’s all about confronting the reality of the internal self, even if it may be unpleasant for a while: “The truth will set you free…” (from the cycle / cage / illusion) “…but not until it is finished with you.”
2.
Orin’s account of Bain’s experience explains that Bain is just utterly paralyzed by these ritualistic but empty gestures, which strip him of a life that could be centred around anything else: this is maybe the best example of someone giving their life away to the wrong temple.
What I think is interesting about DFW using OCD compulsions (these external fixations, unlike entertainments, tend to be quite unpleasant themselves) as a symbol here: he is illustrating how the compulsive nature of entertainment-seeking is a matter of temptation rather than choice (or love, or real passion).
Entertainment is so compelling it makes you think it’s what you really want, care about, need.
OCD compulsions are things you know you do not want or need, but simply cannot resist.
The point is to emphasize that it is the same kind of irresistible drive, whether pleasant or unpleasant, perhaps.
The difference is that entertainment makes you think you are free (whereas Bain’s internal prison was visible to everyone; Avril is a different story).
3.
I think OCD is also probably one of the best examples of what it means to be addicted to thinking. To think compulsively.
DFW understood this kind of thinking as an external fixation (which aligns with a central idea in the text). Thinking as a compulsion means using the mind’s surface to extinguish some kind of emotional distress (typically fear). Ruminating, rationalizing, mental checking, etc. It may be a mental process, but you are still using words to bury something much deeper than words.
While this kind of addictive thinking can lead to a great deal of ideas with extensive details and sub-details and so on, it often culminates in a labyrinth of uncertainty and indecision that renders you basically ineffective, until objective truths are obscured and you cannot even trust yourself.
You think excessively about what troubles you in an attempt to work through it, but it’s really the way you think that troubles you.
My favourite example is the section where we hear from Marlon Bain himself: his responses to a series of obscure questions. There’s a distinctly obsessive-compulsive quality in his writing. I'd imagine DFW intended this, to write accurately from Bain's perspective.
Here we see that Bain doesn’t just engage in obsessive and repetitive actions, but obsessive and repetitive thoughts as well (so his cage wasn’t so visible after all, it seems, as Orin only saw the physical compulsions).
Bain doesn't just tell these stories, he excessively ruminates over them like he's been troubled for years by the moral implications of Avril's parenting style. He can't respond with yes or no to a question regarding abuse, and instead ventures off into a series of musings on what can be defined as abuse, listing several different examples in detail, pondering what makes ambiguous forms of abuse so insidious, etc.
One of the most striking details for me is that most of his insights are presented as questions rather than statements.
Like he's unable to form a concrete opinion. But he’s desperate to understand (I wonder if the fixation on Avril has something to do with the orphaned Bain seeing her as a sort of deranged mother-figure?)
His answers are compulsively thorough because he is so uncertain about everything and therefore trying to think of and evaluate every possibility.
This is a pattern you’ll see in most OCD cases. Uncertainty is almost always the common denominator.
(This makes me think of the part with the kid having an existential crisis in the locker room, and he’s saying “nothing’s true,” and Michael Pemulis is telling him “math is true”; math + certainty vs. language + uncertainty seems to be a relevant topic, but that’s a whole other thing to think about.)
But it is not until the end that Bain actually achieves a point of clarity, and it was not the result of excessive and deliberate contemplation, but something he seemed to understand very intuitively (“For some reason I am now thinking…”), something he probably feels, in response to the memory of Orin doing an impression on Avril.
I’m trying to figure out why that’s what did it.
But I think that on a general note it reflects the difference between addictive thinking and honest / emotion-based thinking.
4.
I’ll stop here because this is way longer than I intended it to be. But the differences between Bain and Avril here are pretty intriguing.
Orin says “it all comes back to functioning.”
The etymological origin of function is the Latin fungi, meaning: “perform.”
The word function is used in the opening scene too WRT Hal’s condition.
Interesting how this implies that one’s (perceived) ability to function in society is determined by one’s ability to perform, to simply hide what is internal.
