Tag Archives: david foster wallace

On David Foster Wallace’s Birthday

Posted on 2/25/2010 by chris

[CC licensed image by darkpatator] Eighteen months ago– a day after his suicide– I packed up every David Foster Wallace authored book, every journal, magazine, and photocopied piece of ephemera he appeared in, and everything else I could find with … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Life & Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Fiction, Entrapment, Loneliness (David Foster Wallace)

Posted on 2/24/2010 by chris

“You don’t have to think very hard to realize that our dread of both relationships and loneliness, both of which are like sub-dreads of our dread of being trapped inside a self (a psychic self, not just a physical self), … Continue reading →

Posted in Commonplace Book | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

One Year Later: Are You OK?

Posted on 9/12/2009 by chris

I’m sitting in exactly the same spot I was exactly one year ago when I heard the news that David Foster Wallace was dead. A touch of frost this morning weighs down the blotted yellow leaves that are already barely … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Life & Politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Some Thoughts While Reading Borges’ Ficciones

Posted on 7/26/2009 by chris

[image by caese] In Borges I keep seeing the roots of Pynchon… particularly in stories like "The Babylon Lottery" and "The Library of Babel." Consider this passage from "The Babylon Lottery": The Company, with divine modesty, eludes all publicity. Its … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Life & Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

DFW’s “Lukewarm Irony”

Posted on 7/2/2009 by chris

In an interesting (to people like me) bit of analysis, Andrew Seal writes about Infinite Jest: Specialized knowledges pervade the book—tennis, recreational drug use, optics, burglary, even punting (surely the most narrowly specialized position in football). But one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Death in a Small Town

Posted on 3/25/2009 by chris

[image by naccarato] It was pretty disconcerting to stumble upon, while reading The Guardian, a news story on the suicide–right here in tiny town–of a former faculty member at the small University I work for. And it was even more … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Life & Politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Slate Audio Book Club and Not Getting It

Posted on 3/24/2009 by chris

I’ve just finished listening to an absolutely maddening episode of the Slate Audio Book Club:  on Infinite Jest which reaches epic heights of cluelessness. You’d think that with three reviewers–Troy Patterson, Katie Roiphe and James Surowiecki–there’d be a bit more … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Life & Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Ironist

Posted on 10/5/2008 by chris

[image by S. Casey]  David Foster Wallace’s passing has spurred a lot of conversations that in one way or another invoke the idea of irony and his work’s relationship to it. Some of the arguments to be found in and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

(Re)Reading Ulysses

Posted on 9/18/2008 by chris

Monday morning I Twittered that I was digging into Ulysses, a book I read once and too-quickly many years ago, and before I knew it a few friends were joining in. We have formed some kind of rule-free, schedule-less reading … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Allusive Cartoons

Posted on 5/6/2008 by chris

I’ve been enjoying pictures for sad children and came across a couple of literary-ish comics worth sharing since they reference a couple of my favorite authors and works. First, David Foster Wallace: [click for full comic] Then T.S. Eliot and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Television and Good Art

Posted on 1/16/2006 by chris

I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art. This seems like a poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with. … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Comments Off