Paul Debraski is on fire over at I Just Read About That. Following from his A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again article last week where he gave a great overview of the essays in the collection, this week he's compared them to the original articles with a focus on the excisions. David Foster Wallace–original articles that comprise A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (1991-1996).
There's some great stuff buried in here including this one from “Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood” (Harper’s, December 1991):
But the biggest, most amazing excision comes on page 70 (article). Three paragraphs which basically tell the origin of the “mold” story in IJ. (Remember, this was published in 1991–IJ in 1996). The entire story is told almost exactly as it will be in IJ including what the mold eater says and his mother’s reaction. It is a FASCINATING look at how a true story turns into a novel. And for that reason alone, it is worth checking out this article.
Read the whole piece here.
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