To those intimidated by the late David Foster Wallace’s literary masterpiece, “Infinite Jest”, fear no more−English Professor Kevin Griffith had his 11-year-old son, Sebastian, Lego-fy it.
It took the duo most of the past summer to construct more than 100 scenes from 1,079 pages of text (footnotes excluded).
Yet, what started as a visual aid to help students get through Critical Writing 211 has managed to grab the literary world’s attention. At its peak, brickjest.com receives 15,000 hits a day.
The Guardian was the first publication on the scene, saying Brick Jest “…puts [other] Lego scenes of classic literature to shame.”
Hundreds of other media outlets, including Salon.com and The London Telegraph, have since caught whiff of the phenomenon. Capital University is now making world news, said Griffith.
Griffith said even documentary director Lucy Walker contacted him for a potential Disney film, but that Sebastian said no.
“We’re working on a book deal with a New York publisher [Sky Horse Publishing]…and we were invited, all expenses paid, to be special guests at the Frankfurt Book Fair,” Griffith said. “It’s just something that went viral. You never think it’s going to happen to you.”
The inspiration for translating this brick of a book through the medium of plastic bricks came from Brendan Powell Smith’s The Brick Bible, said Griffith. However, it’s hard to say which Lego novel is best suited for children. Brick Jest scenes include mismatching, joint-smoking, woman-beating, cat-killing Lego people. Homer Simpson and Nelson Muntz even make appearances.
Unlike Will Ferrell, who played the controlling dad in “The Lego Movie”, Griffith trusted his son’s artistic vision. Sebastian simply built according to his father’s description of passages.
How did Sebastian, who The Guardian called “an appropriately precocious child,” take to media coverage?
According to his father, fame doesn’t interest the 11 year old.
“He’s already on to what he’s going to wear for Halloween,” Griffith said. “…but he was interviewed by 614 [Magazine]. I think their Oct. issue is going to be devoted to this project and other Lego products in Ohio. Apparently [alternative forms of storytelling is] the zeitgeist right now. People are looking for innovative ways to tell stories.”
Whether or not Brick Jest gets published depends on the David Foster Wallace estate giving the project a thumbs up. The public’s welcoming response seems to point to how the author would approve of such a project.
Griffith said he likes to think David Foster Wallace would really like Brick Jest, especially since one of the novel’s major characters, Mario, is famous for filming little puppet shows of historical events.
