William Skidelsky's positive review of the String Theory tennis essay collection in the Guardian from the end of last month, String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis review – the best writer on the game ever:
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Read together, these pieces demonstrate a few things. One is that Wallace’s grasp of tennis was truly prodigious. The analytical powers that must have ended up hindering him as a player made him a peerless observer of the sport. He has often been described as the best tennis writer of all time, and these essays don’t disabuse that notion. Wallace is interested in – and understands – every aspect of the game, from its strategic complications and technical evolution through to sponsorship deals and methods of hydration. In itself, of course, such knowledge isn’t exceptional. But where Wallace stands apart is that he is never boring with it. One of the marvels of his writing is the way it combines a nerd’s outlook with a novelist’s gift for exposition. And so when you read, say, the third essay in this book – a 12,000-word screed on the long-forgotten American journeyman Michael Joyce – you don’t begrudge the need to break off from the narrative to take in a half-page footnote on the politics of players’ appearance fees.
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Continue reading, String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis review – the best writer on the game ever.
More reviews here.
Buy String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication via Amazon.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 July 2016 11:16
Check out Sam Levine's piece for The Huffington Post about Wallace's Kenyon commencement speech, David Foster Wallace's Famous Commencement Speech Almost Didn't Happen.
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"He's foregrounding that idea and playing with it, the idea of being aware of what you're doing at the moments where you wouldn't ordinarily be aware is where you're going to find peace and some wisdom," Pietsch said. "That's what he was exploring -- what people think of boring and ordinary is really the stuff of life."
Even back at Pomona, Wallace had been guarded about what he was going to say in the address. Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Rena Fraden, two of Wallace's colleagues, said he was always discreet about what he was writing. They don't remember Wallace mentioning the address at all. Pietsch said he remembers hearing the address was happening, but didn't speak with Wallace about it. Wallace's sister, Amy, said she doesn't remember her brother mentioning he would be giving Kenyon's commencement address until a week before he did it.
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Continue reading David Foster Wallace's Famous Commencement Speech Almost Didn't Happen.
With the hardcover release on May 10th 2016 (and my copy finally here) it's time to collate some of the reviews and articles surrounding the latest David Foster Wallace collection, String Theory with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
- Micah Mattix for The Washington Free Beacon, Double Fault. [21/5/16]
- Greg Chase for Guernica, David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Athletics. [19/5/16]
- Ben Leubner for 3am Magazine, David Foster Wallace and String Theory. [19/5/16]
- Stephen Phillips for The Millions, He Doesn’t Wear a Game Face: On David Foster Wallace’s ‘String Theory’. [17/5/16]
- Ryan Bort for Newsweek and mini interview with John Jeremiah Sullivan, Rediscovering David Foster Wallace Through His Tennis Writing. [13/5/16]
- Jen Vafidis for Men's Journal another mini-interview, What David Foster Wallace Got Right About Tennis.
- Audio Esquire Classics, Esquire Classic explores the enduring strangeness, and brilliance, of David Foster Wallace’s “String Theory”. [10/5/16]
- Douglas Perry for The Oregonian, David Foster Wallace's 'String Theory' defines Roger Federer, but that's only the beginning. [3/5/16]
- Touré for Town and Country, David Foster Wallace's New Collection of Essays About Tennis is Masterful. [1/5/16]
- A version of the introduction was published in The New Yorker recently as, David Foster Wallace's Perfect Game.
Buy String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication via Amazon.
Last Updated on Sunday, 22 May 2016 17:32
Wow, Infinite Winter is in its final week. That flew!
It's wrap-up / reflection post time and there are many posts worth heading over to the Infinite Winter site to read. Of note, is Matt Bucher's piece, Living with Infinite Jest for 20 Years (so much of it is quote worthy - just read it all):
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Infinite Jest survives partly because it still speaks to how things are now. We can only guess how long society and the novel will hold this sort of equilibrium. It might seem quaintly outdated by 2036 or even more relevant. In 1997, it was somewhat difficult to find another soul who’d actually read the whole of Infinite Jest. That’s part of why we treasured those early group reads. Now, it’s much more likely that any serious reader I meet has either read the book or has a good story about why they haven’t or can’t, but they all know it. For years after his death I was reluctant to admit that Wallace’s suicide played a central role in his new-found fame or even brought in hordes of new readers. My reply would be “Well maybe, but so…” And yet by now there is no question that people who had never heard of Wallace prior to 2008 picked up his books because they heard about his suicide, his commencement address, or saw Jason Segel in that role. As the scale of readership has increased, so have the number of homages, side projects, and tributes. Yes, there are more poseurs, more articles to read, more backlash, more politics to negotiate, but all of that is outweighed, in my humble opinion, by the good and honorable and ultimately more lasting stuff effected by and from new readers.
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Continue reading Matt's piece, Living with Infinite Jest for 20 Years, here.
Oh, I wrote a little something too - Coming Full Circle.
(Watercolour - Nathan Seppelt)
Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 May 2016 15:46
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Hardcover release next week on May 10th 2016:
String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication, fresh (physical) release of Wallace's tennis essays with an introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
A version of the introduction was published in The New Yorker recently as, David Foster Wallace's Perfect Game:
[...]
David Foster Wallace wrote about tennis because life gave it to him—he had played the game well at the junior level—and because he was a writer who in his own way made use of wilder days, turning relentlessly in his work to the stuff of his own experience. But the fact of the game in his biography came before any thought of its use as material. At least I assume that’s the case. It can be amazing how early in life some writers figure out what they are and start to see their lives as stories that can be controlled. It is perhaps not far-fetched to imagine Wallace’s noticing early on that tennis is a good sport for literary types and purposes. It draws the obsessive and brooding. It is perhaps the most isolating of games. Even boxers have a corner, but in professional tennis it is a rules violation for your coach to communicate with you beyond polite encouragement, and spectators are asked to keep silent while you play. Your opponent is far away, or, if near, is indifferently hostile. It may be as close as we come to physical chess, or a kind of chess in which the mind and body are at one in attacking essentially mathematical problems. So, a good game not just for writers but for philosophers, too. The perfect game for Wallace.
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Continue reading David Foster Wallace's Perfect Game, and if you wish support this website by pre-ordering String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication from Amazon.
Last Updated on Sunday, 22 May 2016 17:32
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