Tag Archives: dfw

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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(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 →

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David Foster Wallace on John McCain

Posted on 6/4/2008 by chris

[photo by Steve Rhodes] David Foster Wallace’s essay on John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign is being re-issued as a book called McCain’s Promise. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, DFW responded to the question of whether he had … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Good People (David Foster Wallace)

Posted on 1/29/2007 by chris

David Foster Wallace has a new story in the New Yorker…

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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 →

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