“[Wallace had ] structured the story like a Sierpinski gasket, a geometrical figure that can be subdivided into an infinite number of identical geometrical figures. The shape of the book— following Wallace’s natural cast of mind— was recursive, nested. Big things— Infinite Jest, a novel you keep having to reread to understand— find their counterpart in smaller things…” (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story 183).

The image to the right, a Sierpinski Gasket, is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.