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Critical Analysis
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
When Wallace died in 2008, Wood wrote, “Whatever one felt about his work, it was hard to imagine any serious reader of fiction not being intensely interested in what he was going to do next. I had been looking forward to witnessing his literary journey, and to adjusting my own opinions and prejudices—or rather, being forced by the quality of the work to do so. Of great interest to me was his own ambivalent relation with some elements of postmodernism (irony, too-easy self-consciousness, and so on), and the burgeoning presence of moral critique in his work. One had the feeling that this new work was being written under considerable pressure— and I don’t just mean psychological pressure, but the pressure of staying loyal to his fractured, non-linear epistemology while at the same time incorporating some of that admiration he had for the concerns of the nineteenth-century novel. To put it flippantly, he was aesthetically radical and metaphysically conservative, and the negotiation of that asymmetry would have been a marvelous thing to follow, as a reader.”(Thanks, Ricardo)
James Wood on David Foster Wallace If we consider some of Wood's published views about Wallace this could turn out to be a very interesting evening. I'd love to attend, so I'm looking forward to a write-up over at Emdashes. Whatever one felt about his work, it was hard to imagine any serious reader of fiction not being intensely interested in what he was going to do next. I had been looking forward to witnessing his literary journey, and to adjusting my own opinions and prejudices — or rather, being forced by the quality of the work to do so. And finally, Wood's review of Oblivion: The Digressionist (the link gives me certificate errors with firefox - misconfigured server maybe?) contains this memorable quote - bold type is my emphasis (thanks for the reminder, Adam): Wallace has many ardent followers (his name is just "DFW" on some college campuses), but surely no one has ever claimed to be moved by him. Amused, impressed, challenged, even finely tormented; but not involved, quickened, raised, imparadised. Wallace may be torn between desiring the ordinary satisfactions of readerly connection and disdaining their very ordinariness. Alas, the latter impulse almost always vanquishes the former. No one has ever claimed to be moved by him?
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DFW Archive
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
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Matt Bucher visited the Harry Ransom Center foyer today and took some pics of the four items on display with his iPhone (So jealous over here, Matt!) Currently on display are the cover page from the first two sections of Infinite Jest, a notebook of typescript pages from IJ, annotated galley of the Borges Bio DFW reviewed, and a poem about vikings DFW wrote when he was young(!). Thanks for heading over and taking the pics, Matt. Also, here's a similar article to yesterday's from U Texas with a different picture - this one shows corrections to IJ for the paperback release.
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DFW Biography
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 |
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I've been holding off making further comments about this (fantastic) book until I post some neat little things later this month, but I'll just mention one little thing to stave off those calls for more info. David Lipsky follows DFW everywhere over the five days, including to one of his Prose Classes. As a teacher myself, it was electrifying to read about his teaching style and technique. Lispsky writes: He paces around the classroom. Happy, energetic. At one point, thinking, he even drops into a quick knee bend. Class laughs; they really like him.
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General Updates
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 |
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It's been a busy few days, so here's a collection of DFW stuff from around the web.
- Ryan Walsh has updated his David Foster Wallace Audio Project archive page with some new pieces - certainly worth checking out if you have missed some of the audio bits and pieces that have appeared around the web the last few months (and particularly if you'd like them in nice self contained mp3 format). Cheers, Ryan.
(Thanks to Matt, everyone over at wallace-l, and Ryan for keeping an eye on the web this past couple of weeks.)
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This is Water
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Sunday, 21 February 2010 |
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Hatchette Book Group are advertising that the original David Foster Wallace recording (and video it seems...) of This is Water will be available to purchase from the 1st of May. If this is the commencement speech video (no word yet if it is) this is pretty exciting news! Update: Thanks go to artistic snorkel for this YouTube link to a clip of the original commencement speech audio!
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DFW Remembrance
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Tuesday, 23 February 2010 |
The Winter issue of Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction ( Table of Contents) contains essays about fiction writers who have died over the past decade. It includes an essay David Foster Wallace: “That Distinctive Singular Stamp of Himself” by his Illinois State University colleague of 10 years, Charles B. Harris. It is an insightful piece about DFW, includes a number of moving personal anecdotes and considers his wide reaching achievements. It's not yet available freely online (I'm not sure if it will be) but if you have access to academic journals through your work you should be able to track it down.
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Conferences
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Monday, 22 February 2010 |
Scott F. Parker's Rain Taxi piece, Notes from Footnotes: New Directions in David Foster Wallace Studies is a comprehensive overview that successfully catches the energy present at the conference I attended in NY last year. Considering the depth and breadth of material covered in one day it does do a pretty good job of getting across the energy in the room during a very busy day. I have to disagree with Parker that session 2 could be seen as a low point of the day, Taveira and Hering's were a couple of my fave papers for the day... maybe I'm more visual. (Thanks, Judd)
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