The Howling Fantods

A Writerly Type Guiltily Ponders...

Friday, 08 May 2015 10:47 General Updates

On ABC Radio National (Australian Radio) today from Radiotonic by the Creative Audio Unit (@rn_cau) (Fri)11am and Sunday 3pm as well as online:

A writerly type guiltily ponders the narrative of someone else's tragedy, all the while wondering, 'what would David Foster Wallace do?'

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Last Updated on Friday, 08 May 2015 11:05

DFW Orbit Special Issue CFP

Thursday, 19 March 2015 13:43 Critical Analysis

UPDATE: Last day for abstract submisisons!

Some more interesting news in the world of Wallace Studies. Read and follow the links below to the call for papers for a special David Foster Wallace issue of the journal, Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon.

Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon –an open access, peer reviewed e-journal of scholarly work pertaining to the writings of Thomas Pynchon, related authors, and adjacent fields– will publish a special issue dedicated to David Foster Wallace.

The editors for this issue, Dr. Tony Venezia, Dr. Xavier Marco del Pont, and Edward Jackson, welcome articles that consider any number of topics related to David Foster Wallace’s body of work, which might include, but are in no way limited to:

Wallace and canonicity
Periodizing Wallace (the long 1990s, ‘post-postmodernism,’ etc.)
Wallace’s influences (Pynchon, DeLillo, Barth, Gaddis, etc.)
Wallace’s influence (Egan, Franzen, Diaz, Eggers, etc.)
Archival Research and Wallace’s sources
Gender and sexuality in Wallace
Race and ethnicity in Wallace
Ethics, Philosophy, and Wallace
Wallace on pop culture, Wallace in pop culture
Political implications of Wallace’s work
Wallace’s journalism and essays
Aesthetics (Wallace as novelist, short story writer, etc.)

Article abstracts (300-500 words) and a brief CV can be submitted to the “David Foster Wallace Special Issue” online and should be uploaded by April 30th 2015. Submissions with detailed outlines or in draft form will be given stronger consideration. Completed essays of 5000-8000 words must be submitted by 31st July in accordance with the submission guidelines of Orbit. Brief queries to Tony Venezia, Xavier Marco del Pont, and Edward Jackson are welcome, should there be questions about appropriate submission topics. Please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the issue. Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon is run by academics and supports its open access nature through university grants; there are no author fees.

All the information you need can be found right here.

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Last Updated on Thursday, 30 April 2015 21:16

The End of the Tour - April 2015 Updates

Saturday, 18 April 2015 11:31 The End of the Tour

James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour will open in limited release from July 31. After recent screenings there are a few new write-ups about it:

Craft: When being B-N isn't quite good enough (9/4/15)

‘End of the Tour’ starts off Ivy Film Festival (10/4/15)

Where's James Ponsoldt going after his film screens at Eberfest? Take a guess. (12/4/15)

Ebertfest to welcome Jason Segel, Chazz Palminteri and more (13/4/15)

Jason Segel to kick off Independent Film Festival Boston (15/4/15)

Ebertfest extra: 'The End of The Tour' (17/4/15)

Becoming David Foster Wallace: Jason Segel talks The End of the Tour (17/4/15)

The End of the Tour review, Letterboxd (17/4/15)

Ebertfest: Leading man Segel defers to his director on Wallace flick (17/4/15)

“The End of the Tour:” Honoring David Foster Wallace at Ebertfest (17/4/15)

An Update to the Spit Take Award and “The End of the Tour” (17/4/15)

The End of the Tour Q&A YouTube

Check out the Sundance Review Round-up for more reviews.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 18 April 2015 12:02

Symposium This Week - DFW and the Ethics of Writing

Monday, 30 March 2015 22:04 Conferences

This Thursday, April 2nd. 3pm - 9pm, David Foster Wallace and the Ethics of Writing

Anyone attending?

This interdisciplinary symposium, organized by Gallatin professors Gregory Erickson and Scott Korb, brings together scholars, authors, students, and actors to explore the ethical and moral side of writing through the work of David Foster Wallace. Comprising five events, diverse in format and approach, the symposium will engage topics including Wallace and religion, Wallace and race, and the ethics of biographical writing. The final event will be an excerpt from director Daniel Fish’s acclaimed theater piece based on audio recordings of Wallace, to be performed by Mary Rasmussen and Jenny Seastone. Participants include Maria Bustillos (Dorkismo: The Macho of the Dork as well as The Awl, The New Yorker and more - Nick),Samuel Cohen (The Legacy of David Foster Wallace), Paul Elie (Reinventing Bach), D.T. Max (Every Love Story is A Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace), David Lipsky (Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace), editor Matthew Sitman, and Kevin Timpe (Free Will).

This event is hosted by New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the Gallatin Writing Program, with co-sponsorship from NYU’s Creative Writing Program.

Schedule of Events and RSVP here.

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Last Updated on Monday, 30 March 2015 22:16

Due in April - Freedom and the Self

Thursday, 19 March 2015 13:20 Upcoming Publications

This looks interesting! Due in April, a new collection about the philosophy of David Foster Wallace Edited by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert (editor of Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will)

"The book Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, published in 2010 by Columbia University Press, presented David Foster Wallace's challenge to Richard Taylor's argument for fatalism. In this anthology, notable philosophers engage directly with that work and assess Wallace's reply to Taylor as well as other aspects of Wallace's thought.

With an introduction by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert, this collection includes essays by William Hasker (Huntington University), Gila Sher (University of California, San Diego), Marcello Oreste Fiocco (University of California, Irvine), Daniel R. Kelly (Purdue University), Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham University), Justin Tosi (University of Arizona), and Maureen Eckert. These thinkers explore Wallace's philosophical and literary work, illustrating remarkable ways in which his philosophical views influenced and were influenced by themes developed in his other writings, both fictional and nonfictional. Together with Fate, Time, and Language, this critical set unlocks key components of Wallace's work and its traces in modern literature and thought." via Columbia University Press.

Pre-order now: Freedom and the Self: Essays on the Philosophy of David Foster Wallace Edited by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert.

Columbia University Press site here.

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Last Updated on Thursday, 19 March 2015 13:33

The End of the Tour - Limited Release July 31

Thursday, 19 March 2015 12:43 The End of the Tour

Old-ish news now (I've taken a bit of a long needed break from the site, I'm back now) but exciting for US Wallace enthusiasts, James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour will open in limited release from July 31. I wonder what the international release schedule is?

[...]

His estate has also voiced serious disapproval over the adaptation. In a statement, they expressed their discontent over their loved one's memory being "capitalized upon”. The David Foster Wallace Literary Trust and Wallace’s family have both said that they want the late author to be remembered for his extraordinary writing gifts, and would rather bequeath his story to artists who will vigilantly guard the ideals he upheld during his lifetime.

Both the director and producer of The End of the Tour have stated that their intent with the film was to stimulate the minds of viewers and increase Wallace's reach. In that sense, the film has succeeded. The publicity surround the picture has renewed discussions surrounding his work, possibly provoking interest from those who were previously unaware of his ideas. These viewers will have the opportunity to see a side of the man whose words were brutal and honest, but often the perfect remedy for reality.

[...]

Continue reading Disturbing the Past: The Legacy of David Foster Wallace.

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Supposedly Fun Things Colloquium Review

Thursday, 19 March 2015 11:57 Conferences

Iain Williams has put together a review of 'Supposedly Fun Things: A Colloquium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace' held at Birkbeck, University of London [see previous update]:

[...]

Although the panels were each only an hour long, leaving little time for questions after papers had been given, the colloquium proved a stimulating forum for the continuation of Wallace Studies. The papers were of a consistently high standard, and the notable proliferation of scholars willing to resist or question existing critical and theoretical positions on Wallace points to promising new arenas for academic debate. Particularly, in relation to class, gender, and race. Extending my own paper’s emphasis on dialectics within Wallace’s work, the colloquium may have provided the first concerted evidence of a second wave of antithetical Wallace scholarship, suggesting that exciting times lie ahead for the fledgling discipline. Indeed, there may develop something of a split in Wallace Studies, with those who buy into Wallace’s self-professed attempts to write ethically and morally on one hand, and scholars that challenge Wallace’s politics of representation and his representation of politics, on the other. Future Wallace scholars may look back at this colloquium as the event at which the critical horizons of Wallace Studies were expanded.

[...]

I followed as much of the day's events as I could from here in Australia via twitter (which you can kind of do yourself here via Tony Venezia's Storify feed of the event).

I'm interested greatly in the papers presented in the first panel, mostly because I understand places like Wallace-l and this site were mentioned in the paper, but Iain William's review seems to focus on some of the other places Wallace fans also gather online. I'm not sure the review paints the full picture presented across the panel.

The final paragraph of the review (quoted above) seems to suggest this Wallace Studies thing is so new that it is only just maturing... I don't think that's the case. The Conferences and Critical Analysis articles I've posted here over the years tend to suggest otherwise.

I just hope the breadth and depth of the conversation doesn't end any time soon!

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Last Updated on Thursday, 19 March 2015 13:54

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