User:GhostRiver/infinite

Adaptations and popular culture

Infinite Jest has been described as an unfilmable novel for a variety of reasons, including the number of characters, the length and density of the text and plot, and the difficulty of filming a novel whose text relies more on its characters' internal lives than their actions. In 2011, Michael Schur acquired the film rights to Infinite Jest, but he told reporters at the time that he had no plans to adapt the work. In a 2015 interview, Schur said that he had optioned the book "with the intention of working it into a film project in the near future", but that the "challenges of adapting it are numerous".

Schur has incorporated Infinite Jest into two other projects. In 2011, he directed the music video for "Calamity Song" by folk rock band The Decemberists, which depicts a round of Eschaton, a fictional tennis game central to a scene in Infinite Jest. Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy had written "Calamity Song" shortly after reading Wallace's novel, which gave him the idea to adapt the Eschaton game for the music video. He had difficulty finding a willing director to adapt the concept until Schur, who had attended Harvard University with the brother of the band's manager. Two years after the release of the "Calamity Song" music video, Schur released "Partridge", the seventeenth epsiode of the fifth season of the sitcom Parks and Recreation. Entertainment Weekly referred to the episode as "one long homage" to Infinite Jest, with an abundance of character references such as the law firm of Gately, Wayne, Kittenplan, and Troeltsch; Facklemann Memorial Hospital; and the Incandenza–Pemulis Parenting Compatability Quiz. Additionally, the town visited in the episode is a reference to Partridge, Kansas, where Infinite Jest character Ortho Stice is from, and J. K. Simmons makes a guest appearance as Mayor Stice.