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SAMPLE REALITY · David Foster Wallace, Don DeLillo, and the Littlest Literary Hoax
Fascinating... invocations of Sokal aren't productive... this is a whole different thing
The POINT Magazine: DEATH IS NOT THE END: By Jon Baskin
Insightul... "With the benefit of time, it will be recognized that Wallace had less in common with Eggers and Franzen than he did with Dostoevsky and Joyce. Against what he believed to be the outmoded theoretical commitments of his predecessors and contemporaries, he labored to return literary fiction to the deep problems of subjective experience. For those of us who came of age in the 1990s, his fiction was a relief and a gift. Confused, alienated and inauthentic though it might be, subjective consciousness still existed—and it was still the business of the novelist to describe it."
Blographia Literaria: On Specialist Realism: Infinite Summer Post #2
Most of Infinite Jest, I think, does not do this approximate deconstruction act; the bulk of it is what can be defined as specialist realism—which I think is actually a broadly popular mode of writing. I don't think very many people mind writerly ostentation by itself: there are simply far too many popular authors who are grossly ostentatious for this to be the case. And readers of all kinds are capable of showing enormous patience with heavily-detailed and at times rather tedious passages of questionable importance to the overall novel. "Specialist realism" is not terribly problematic to most readers, and is often even considered enjoyable. (Consider, here, Wallace's enthusiasm for Tom Clancy: there is not as great a distance between the two as one might think.) This mode of writing, however, sometimes slips into a different mode of writing that is indecisively subversive—a lukewarm irony that I think turns nearly everyone off. This is present, too, in Infinite Jest, and in order to have a conversation among people who really like the book and people who can't get through it, I think it's necessary to begin by separating this lukewarmness from the specialist realism that actually makes the novel so captivating.
Wallace may have had very well-thought-out, very theoretically smart reasons for trying to have things both (or more) ways, for trying to be indecisive, but there are lots of things which are really theoretically well-grounded which are simply annoying. I'm sure there are folks who think that the lukewarm ironical mode is really brilliant and is actually the most brilliant thing about the novel. I'd be happy to hear those arguments, but I want to make clear that I don't really find this lukewarmness all that much of an obstacle to enjoying the book. So please, don't confuse me with attacking Wallace or "hysterical realism" or any of that stuff.
The Influence of Anxiety
Working on This Is Water was emotionally exhausting. By this point he had ceased being David Foster Wallace, author, and had become Dave, a dear acquaintance whom I missed dreadfully. Spending so much time ruminating on the words that failed to save him was a bit much. Reading his sagacious words about mindfulness and kindness were a continuous reminder of what the world lost.
Life and Letters: The Unfinished: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
David Foster Wallace's struggle to surpass "Infinite Jest."
In Memoriam David Foster Wallace
Includes tributes from Steven Moore, Dave Eggers, Kathleein Fitzpatrick and others. If this link doesn't work, it is in: Modernism/modernity Volume 16, Number 1, January 2009.
Words I Learned From Reading David Foster Wallace
Well done.... quite a few of those words were new to me when I discovered them in DFW too!
B L A M M O S » Living With David Foster Wallace
And… / And but so… / And but so then… / We all fell in love with living again
NASCAR Cancels Remainder Of Season Following David Foster Wallace's Death | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
Apt and funny by being unfunny in a funny way...
John Krasinski on Directing (and Clooney)
John Krasinski is directing a film based on David Foster Wallace's _Brief Interviews with Hideous Men_! And he talks some about it here. Cool.
The Publishers, Part One
Includes some very interesting info on David Foster Wallace's forthcoming book of essays!
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