Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with davidfosterwallace

How to Prepare for Infinite Jest

blueplasticfish — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:22:25 -0800

How should I prepare to read Infinite Jest? I feel I am ready to tackle Infinite Jest. What is the best way to prepare? Should I just jump in? Read the Wikipedia entry? Read the other books that explain Infinite Jest?

The only DFW I have read are some of his guest articles (NY Times, et. al) and Everything and More (which is non-fictiony).

"I wish you way more than luck."

suedehead — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:40:50 -0800

Do you have the video for David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon commencement speech? I'm interested in finding the video for DFW's speech. The full text is available transcribed here, but I'm looking for the video and can't find it. The Kenyon website says that they can only distribute tapes to a Kenyon graduate, and I've read online that graduates did receive a tape of the entire ceremony, but I can't find anything anywhere.

DFW's heartwrenching speech moved me nearly to tears when I first read it, and I've returned to it so many times -- I'd love, LOVE to find video of this somewhere, or at the very least an audio recording. Surely, surely somewhere out there has this speech out there. I'd be willing to buy, pay, or do whatever it takes. Are there any people who have this? Or any Kenyon College graduates who would be willing to order the tape for me?

Thanks so much, AskMe!

French language in Infinite jest?

elgilito — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:56:59 -0800

Why is French language so mangled in David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest? Infinite Jest contains a lot of French words. However, most of them are more French-sounding than actually French: imaginary words (le rai pays, fauteuils rollents), literal but incorrect translations of English (demi-maison, après-garde), bad spelling, grammatical and syntactic errors (Personnes à qui on doit surveiller)... Given DFW's love for language, I guess that these mistakes are intentional (one of them, the nonsensical "à du nous avons foi au poison" actually comes after a discussion about linguistics). But what do they mean? Has any DFW scholar noticed this? (also puzzling is that some online sources have corrected the most blatent one. For the record I have the 1996 UK Abacus edition.)

Identify a David Foster Wallace short story

hugo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:48:06 -0800

Please help me identify/find this David Foster Wallace (very) short story. By short I mean like 300 words. It's about 2 couples, one half of whom used to date. They all plan to go away for a weekend, and then for various reasons the two who didn't formerly date can't go, but they both tell the first two to still keep the reservation because it'd be stupid not to and we're all adults &c &c. The title (or last line) is something like "People really are stupid."

I think it was in the Atlantic or somewhere similar, during a regular column that was always very short.

Women writers like Neal Stephenson, are there any?

exceptinsects — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:24:03 -0800

Women writers like Neal Stephenson, are there any? I love the way his books seem to be such a reflection of what he is interested in and wants to write about, and how he is perfectly willing to take 900 pages to explore whatever he feels like. Like, a lot of other writers would take out that section in Anathem about the folding chairs, or in Cryptonomicon about the cereal, etc. but those are some of my favorite parts.

Infinite Jest has a lot of this kind of thing too, (plus footnotes, yay).

However, lately I just feel like reading more women authors. No special reason, I guess.

So: long, digressive, complicated, somewhat humorous, fun novels that teach you stuff you didn't know about...but written by women?

Should I purchase Infinite Jest now or wait for the new edition?

takeyourmedicine — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 09:54:54 -0800

Is it worth waiting for the new edition of David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest' to come out in the UK? I've been recommended it by a number of people, and just noticed on Kottke that a new edition is out in the States. Is there any reason to wait, or should I get the old edition now? I can't find anywhere in the UK selling the new edition yet...

Who else writes the kind of essays that David Foster Wallace writes?

scarylarry — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:42:55 -0800

I really like the essays that David Foster Wallace collects in _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again_ and _Consider the Lobster_. Which essayists take a similar approach? I've just read and thoroughly enjoyed DFW's two collections of essays/reviews (in fact, I liked them better than I've liked his fiction). I find thrilling the way he combines esoteric and hyperintellectual meditation/contemplation, travelogue, personal anecdote, and hilarious self-depricatory wit. I'm well-read in fiction, but haven't done much essay reading outside of an academic context. What other collections (or individual essays) might I enjoy? On KCRW's Bookworm, Wallace was compared to Thurber, who I've put on my reading list. Who else? Thanks!

Recommend some great books for me, please. (MetaFiction?)

nevercalm — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:30:15 -0800

I need some recommendations for great fiction. And yes, I've read all those other threads. I've been reading political non-fiction for too long. I need some new fiction/writers to sink my teeth into. My favorites (in some particular order, but only the first few, really) Kerouac, Ginsberg, David Foster Wallace, Annie Proulx, Don Delillo, William T Vollman, David James Duncan, Rick Moody, Jim Harrison, Chuck Palahniuk, Peter Mattheisen, Ken Kesey, John Steinbeck, Ben Marcus, Richard Russo and, when I can handle his wiseassiness without wanting to backhand him across the room, Eggers.

To a lesser (yet no less significant) extent: James Joyce, Pynchon, Celine, Irvine Welsh, Dostoevsky, Douglas Coupland, Georges Perec, Hubert Selby.

I'm also into short fiction of the Raymond Carver/Hemingway type and love short stories. If by perusing the list above you think you might have someone I'd love, bring it.

I'm currently reading "Cloud Atlas" and "Wind Up Bird Chronicles," if that helps. They're both going slowly, but I've been pretty busy at work (where I can actually read, but with frequent interruptions which make the whole endeavor strange and unsatisfying.)

No recommendation smirked or snarked at! (by me, that is...)

What happened in the last paragraph of "Oblivion?"

juniper — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 07:59:14 -0800

Long shot: can someone help me understand the ending to David Foster Wallace's short story "Oblivion" from his book of the same name? It's the one about sleep and snoring. I know that many of his stories just END, but this one seems to have a "twist" or resolution that I'm just not grasping fully.

How to read David Foster Wallace?

alan — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 20:20:32 -0800

When reading David Foster Wallace, do you stop for every footnote, or read the piece all the way through and go back and read the footnotes later? Or are you too anti-hip cool to read David Foster Wallace¹?
1. This being a likely futile attempt to deflate the anti-literati pile on that's sure to ensue whenever one of the two Daves is mentioned²

2. The other Dave being David Eggers, whom I appreciate as a craftsman and for his handling of the media, if not his actual work.