I still struggle on this day.

 

But today has been filled with joy too. Watching my three year old son play with his (slightly) older cousins reminds me of the unusual and powerful bonds one sometimes forms with relatives that you don't see all that often.

 

As a result I'm left thinking about the strange, and comfortable, and exciting, and reassuring, and altogether rewarding experience of meeting other David Foster Wallace scholars and enthusiasts in New York last year.

 

That was the greatest distance I've travelled to meet with people who are not my family, and yet, many of the people I met felt most certainly like they could have been. You all know who you are.

 

David Foster Wallace's work seems to do that. It brings people together. It makes us consider others. It make us care.

 

So on this day I like to take some time out to and think about the impact his work has had on my life. And here's the thing, it's more like I've allowed his work have an impact on my life. There's a conscious and personal choice going on here - and that's a very good thing.

 

So today, remember David Foster Wallace...

 

...and maybe take the time to read a few of the pieces below. They are some of my fave pieces by and about him.

 

 

Nick Maniatis

 

 

• Matt Bucher's Fantods: David Foster Wallace, wallace-l, and Literary Fandom Online

• Kathleen Fitzpatrick Requiescat in Pace

• Adam Kelly's David Foster Wallace: the Death of the Author and the Birth of a Discipline

 

Interested in excellent critical essays about David Foster Wallace? Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essay

Matt Feeney has posted an essay about Infinite Jest over at The American Scene, Infinite Manic Sadness: DFW's Universal Inner Child:

 

 

Update: I've received a couple of questions via email and there are a couple in the comments. So I'll give you all one more week to submit yor questions.

 

I'm now assuming that all of you who wanted to read David Lipsky's road-trip/biography of David Foster Wallace, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, have done so.  It's time for the next part of the journey.

 

When David Lipsky and I were working on the Howling Fantods Q&A we agreed to allow Howling Fantods readers to ask some questions too. I thought it would be more interesting to take questions after everyone had read the book. So here we are.

 

Let's try to cover new ground, so make sure you read the Howling Fantods Q&A , The American Fiction Notes Q&A , and the wallace-l Interview before you propose your question.

 

I'll put the best 10 or so questions to David Lipsky and we'll see how it goes.

 

Post your question in the comments section below (or via the contact us link).

 

I'll close comments in about a week and give a warning with a couple of days to go.

I think this speaks for itself. “How to Be ‘Artsy,’ and Mean It” by Mark Branaman and David Foster Wallace, March 1986. Published in The Piety Center Newsletter [cover pic], April 1st, 1986.

 

Pdf

 

[Thanks, jt]

 

Monday 30th August marks the release of Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays edited by David Hering and published by SSMG Press. It's an outstanding collection of essays based on papers presented at Consider David Foster Wallace: A Conference at the University Of Liverpool in July 2009.

 

I've written briefly about some of the contents here and here and would encourage anyone interested in David Foster Wallace studies to purchase this collection. The strength of this collection is a testament to the quality of scholarship David Hering attracted to the Liverpool conference and is an overview of the range of different critical eyes being cast on David Foster Wallace's fiction and non-fiction today.

 

Highly recommended. Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays @ Amazon.com

 

Update:  It's already sold out on Amazon.com! See David Hering's comment below: [don't be] "disheartened if Consider DFW is temporarily sold out at Amazon - just place an order and a copy will hopefully be with you as soon as possible."

Update: Announcement by Sideshow Media Group that, Consider David Foster Wallace is back from the printer and Amazon pre-orders will ship ASAP. [via @sideshowmedia]

 

The collection of essays about DFW edited by David Hering, Consider David Foster Wallace, is now available for pre-order at Amazon (I love the cover!). I wrote about the collection not too long ago, and since then I've read a couple more of the essays.

 

Graham Foster's - A Blaster Region: David Foster Wallace's Man-made Landscapes. This essay considers David Foster Wallace's take on the traditional American ideas of wilderness. It closely examines examples from The Broom of the System (The Great Ohio Desert) and Infinite Jest (The Concavity/Convexity).

 

Philip Coleman's - Consider Berkeley & Co.: Reading "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way". This was particularly interesting for me to read because I have quite a bit of time for this short story/novella. It takes another look at Westward to avoid DFW's (and some critic's) dismissal of its position amongst Wallace's work through close analysis, thus drawing attention to some of its overlooked and particularly successful elements.

 

Good news for readers who missed the excerpt from The Pale King, A New Examiner, in the now sold out issue six of The Lifted Brow [previously]. It will be appearing (possibly with a different title, but the same text with a few corrections) in an upcoming Fall issue of Harper's. Keep your eyes open for it - we learn even more about Lane Dean Jr.

 

Update: It's definitely in the September 2010 issue, page 23.  If you are a Harper's subscriber you can read A New Examiner online now.

Mark over at Ghostwood Hotel has put together a super useful index for David Lipsky's Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself.

 

Cheers, Mark!

 

It's been interesting watching The Best Magazine Articles Ever evolve over the weekend while I was away. Great to see some of David Foster Wallace's best non-fiction there (nothing new for regular visitors here, I don't think, and welcome if you've found this site as a result of the list!), but there are also many, many fantastic pieces of non-fiction to read. Check it out.

 

[Thanks, Jeff]