Not Moving While the World Falls Apart: Living in Quotes in John Weir's The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket

The paper deals with John Weir's 1989 novel The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket through the lens of boredom studies. Weir portrays the anxieties brought by an era that is usually associated with excitement, innovation, movement, and development through a character that does not move. Set in 1980s New York against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, the novel portrays a young gay man who, as a reaction to the epidemic, is overcome by numbness. By highlighting the most relevant aspects of the novel and the tension between anxiety and paralysis, this paper shows the relationship between boredom and trauma in Weir's response to AIDS.