The real person who appears in Wallace's essay under the pseudonym "Harold Hecuba" was/is my friend Evan Wright, who gives a brief account of how he came to meet Wallace in the introduction to his latest collection of journalism, Hella Nation. [...] Wright, who at the time of this meeting was on the staff of Hustler magazine, and trying rather desperately to get leave the staff of Hustler magazine, also discusses his initial befuddlement at some of Wallace's references (the two in fact became pretty fast friends not too long after first meeting, though) ...
Consider the Archive: An Evening of David Foster Wallace, 9/14, UT Jessen Auditorium, reception at Harry Ransom Center. Readers include: Elizabeth Crane, Jake Silverstein, Owen Egerton, Doug Dorst, and Chris Gibson. Readings from the DFW archive at the University of Texas' Harry Ransom Center.
Veronica Rueckert interviewed David Lipsky and Amy Wallace-Havens for Wisconsin Public Radio on July 16. It's a good interview to listen to because both Lipsky and Wallace-Havens are given a good amount of air-time to reflect and respond to questions.
Last Updated on Thursday, 22 July 2010 13:39
Check out a round table over at The Morning News about sports writing, Paper Tigers, where David Foster Wallace's contributions end up getting quite a mention, including: Katie Baker: [...] But the piece that grabbed me and never let go is “The String Theory” by David Foster Wallace, which is ostensibly about a young professional tennis player named Michael Joyce qualifying for a tournament but is really about T-shirts and physics and IQ and exponents and how much Wallace hates Agassi (“his domination…doesn’t make me like him any better; it’s more like it chills me, as if I’m watching the devil play.”) It’s the glorious opposite of the sport’s typically bubbly coverage. When you’re reading Wallace, tennis has never been more relatable or more melancholy. “The applause of a tiny crowd,” Wallace writes, “is so small and sad and tattered-sounding that it’d almost be better if people didn’t clap at all.” Nic Brown: [...] But my favorite is going to have to be “Federer as Religious Experience,” the essay David Foster Wallace published in the New York Times Magazine in 2006, concerning—of course—the tennis star Roger Federer. It wasn’t until well after reading it that I realized Wallace wrote the entire piece without ever once interviewing the subject. I think it was his most generous work—to himself, and to the reader. It seemed like he was having fun, not something I associate with much else of his work. He also just knew so much about the subject and was so damn smart that it made every sentence leap screaming off the page. Again, the piece was excellent because it was really about beauty, obsession, precision, and the mysteries of the human condition. It just also happened to be about tennis as well.
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