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General Updates
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 |
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Dear readers, Just in case you were wondering why I am participating in The Great Australian Internet Blackout, I'll just remind you all that I am (and always have been) an Australian resident and citizen. If all goes well you've already seen the 'blackout' version of The Howling Fantods. It is setup to display only once, although if you clear cookies fanatically - like I believe everyone should - then you might see it once a day until the end of the week. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
This protest is a small part of a bigger general initiative by Australians who are greatly concerned about the proposed Australian Internet Filter, this week's blackout is already gaining significant media attention. Cheers, Nick More info:
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Critical Analysis
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Monday, 25 January 2010 |
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I want to concentrate on Wallace’s understanding of the fictionist as, essentially and necessarily, an artist concerned with ethics, with how and why we do the things we do, with aesthetics as absolute freedom, with evil and with personal truth–truth concealed by a lie. And I want to ask why we are not more concerned with his vision. Why we do not, by and large, see aesthetics as ethics, as an ethical act, a metapolitics, for which we, as writers with the power and duty to transform, are deeply and inescapably responsible. And how we get from ethics to moral literature: literature with deep conviction and passion toward the event of truth.
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General Updates
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Monday, 25 January 2010 |
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Ryan Blanck blank made a new year's resolution to read all of David Foster Wallace's book this year. For each piece he is writing letters to DFW in response. I'm really enjoying his journey so far. Read along over at Letters to DFW. |
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DFW Remembrance
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Friday, 22 January 2010 |
Somewhat disappointingly for me (as I read the submissions last year), but fantastic for David Foster Wallace readers, the Five Dials David Foster Wallace special Issue #10 (.pdf) is out. It is a reproduction of the tiny, wonderfully designed (by the amazing Marie Mundaca) Little Brown NY Memorial publication, Celebrating the Life and Work of David Foster Wallace. (Update: Reading over this today, the words above are a pretty poor response from me after all the work the Five Dials team did to get this out. I guess I was hoping for something 'new' when really, to many people this is something new and I was just lucky to be able to read this stuff last year. I was greatly moved by these remembrances when I first read them, so I encourage you to sign up to Five Dials to grab them. Even though a quick web search will find you the .pdf in no time, they have asked for people not to, so I won't. Subscribe!) The Five Dials edition has some additional artwork by Michael Schmelling and it is totally worth your free email subscription to Five Dials to read the submissions (although, for completists, it is missing Deborah Treisman's reading from DFW's Derivate Sport in Tornado Alley). In the words of the Five Dials team:
Inside you’ll find an issue dedicated to one of our favourite writers, David Foster Wallace, featuring remembrances from Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, George Saunders, Zadie Smith and others. We hope it moves you to tears, which is exactly what happened when we read the contributions. One of our favourite Five Dials artists, a longtime DFW fan named Michael Schmelling, retreated to his New York studio and came up with a handful of beautiful visuals that celebrate both the playful and cerebral sides of Wallace’s writing. Savour them. We did. At the bottom of the email you’ll find a link to the issue. Plug it into your browser and download. This treat is meant only for subscribers. Now, you don’t need to be Matthew Broderick in War Games to figure out a way to forward the link to non-subscribers. You don’t need to be Kevin Mitnick (look him up) to attach the PDF to an email and send it out to everyone in your address book, but, you know, we like our subscription list to keep growing, so please tell interested DFW fans to sign up. We’ll happily point them in the right direction.
(Link removed, please subscribe!)
Subscribe to Five Dials here.
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The Pale King
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 |
Issue 6 of The Lifted Brow arrived today containing a previously unpublished excerpt from David Foster Wallace's upcoming unfinished novel, The Pale King. It is titled A New Examiner and subtitled The Midwest. I think because the theme for this issue is an atlas and every piece in the collection is linked to a location on our planet). A New Examiner features Lane Dean, Jr. taking a 15 minute break from processing tax returns at his workplace - that's all I'll reveal, I don't want to spoil it. It's not terribly long, but it does help to develop the character of Lane Dean, Jr. we've read in the various excerpts so far. Stylistically it is very similar to the other excerpts - measured pace, careful and matter of fact description, focus on small details of specific things. It is very restrained. Which means I am even more excited for the arrival of The Pale King - I want to know more about Lane Dean, Jr. The quality of the issue of The Lifted Brow is great. 300 pages of fiction, art, and 2 CDs of music. I'm looking forward to picking it up for a closer read later tonight.
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Infinite Jest
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Friday, 08 January 2010 |
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First I've heard of this, sounds pretty interesting - I'd be keen to see some of the interpretations.
A FAILED ENTERTAINMENT Selections from the filmography of James O. Incandenza Exhibition Dates: Jan 29 - Feb 19th Opening Reception: Friday, Jan 29th, 6-8 pm Film Screening to take place during opening reception. The LeRoy Neiman Gallery has commissioned artists and filmmakers to re-create seminal works from Incandenza's filmography. (Thanks, Ron)
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Critical Analysis
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Thursday, 07 January 2010 |
Scott F. Parker's essay over at Fiction Writers Review is a thoughtful analysis of some of the deeper themes in DFW's Good Old Neon story from Oblivion. The final paragraph, gets to the heart of what a lot of DFW's fiction is about. But be warned, if you have not read Good Old Neon the essay is filled with spoilers.
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General Updates
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Wednesday, 06 January 2010 |
The second bolano-l group read of 2666 by Roberto Bolaño begins on Jan 25 and (partly because the proposed Infinite Summer read looks dead in the water) you can find out all about it over at Matt Bucher's bolanobolano.com blog. (Matt also maintains bolano-l, wallace-l, and is a good friend. Hi, Matt!) I made it halfway through 2666 during last year's read loving every moment. Unfortunately, life got in the way of finishing the novel, so I am pleased I have a good reason to start over. If you're a wallace-l subscriber there will be plenty of familiar faces participating - join in!
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The Pale King
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Tuesday, 05 January 2010 |
The Lifted Brow ( previously) just emailed to let me know that the approx 2000 word excerpt from The Pale King in their upcoming issue #6 is titled "A New Examiner" and is about Lane Dean, Jr. The issue will ship in about 3 weeks, having been sent to the printer on Monday. I can't wait for my copy to arrive! (Thanks, R)
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Articles or Essays by DFW
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Monday, 04 January 2010 |
It's entertaining to see DFW's 1998 essay, F/X Porn, being linked to around the web in connection with Avatar discussions. I haven't seen it yet (we've got a new all digital cinema here in Canberra so I guess I'll go see it there in the next couple of weeks) but this line of DFW's from the essay has me wondering just how good it can be... "T2" is thus also the first and best instance of a paradoxical law that appears to hold true for the entire F/X Porn genre. It is called the Inverse Cost and Quality Law, and it states very simply that the larger a movie's budget is, the shittier that movie is going to be.
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DFW Remembrance
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Monday, 04 January 2010 |
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I woke this morning to an email from the Five Dials team letting me know that the new Five Dials issue is up for download and that the David Foster Wallace Tribute issue is due very soon. You will need to subscribe to their mailing list to receive the special DFW issue. Here's the email:
Here it is: our fiction issue has arrived to brighten your first day back at work now that the woeful comedown of early January has begun. The issue contains new work by James Kelman, Helen Oyeyemi, David Vann, as well as contributions from some up-and-comers like Philip Roth and Rainer Maria Rilke. There's also a list of DJ names, in case your New Year's resolution is to become a DJ.
You can download Five Dials 9 for free at:
http://www.fivedials.com/fivedials
As we like to overload our friends with gifts for New Year’s, you will also be receiving an email in the next few days to let you know where you can download our special issue on David Foster Wallace, featuring writing by Don DeLillo, Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith and others. Don’t worry, you won’t have to sign in, or give us your mobile number, or type in a code word. If you know any David Foster Wallace fans who would like to receive a link to the issue please tell them to subscribe to the magazine. It’s free.
Questions or comments? Get in touch using this address:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thank you for reading,
Craig Taylor
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