4 ms·

David Foster Wallace on Life and Work (unabridged)

20 points by rms 17y ago

rogerthat 17y ago
Essay in the Times on this address: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Bissell-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Bissell-t.htm... Nicer (IMHO) WSJ format of Foster's address without the extraneous stylistic emphases found in the Marginalia version: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html "lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation" It may seem inconsistent but I find it nicely complements Will Ferrell's commencement speech at Harvard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k
- rms 17y ago
  This essay came up yesterday in response to a short PG essay. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=781583 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=781583 The WSJ one is certainly easier to read and doesn't lose much but the almost excessive stylistic emphasis is what Wallace does; I'll talk the unabridged version. I do wonder if Wallace himself edited the essay for publication or if it was edited externally.
  - rogerthat 17y ago
    Marginalia received a DMCA takedown notice for their original copy of the speech: http://www.marginalia.org/log/archives/2009/05/so-very-sorry.html http://www.marginalia.org/log/archives/2009/05/so-very-sorry... But in the comments on their apology page at the link above, there's a reference to a book in which the address was published with Wallace's permission, as well an interesting note about an edit that Wallace made to the speech before publishing it: An essay on April 26 about David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005, which has now appeared in book form as "This Is Water," misstated the speech’s publishing history. It was included in the collection "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006"; it is not the case that Wallace, who died in September, "never published" the address. The essay may also have left the incorrect impression that both of the following sentences in the speech were omitted from the text of "This Is Water": "It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master." In fact, only the second sentence was left out.
rogerthat 17y ago
Another great Wallace essay: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20fede... "Federer as Religious Experience"
- rms 17y ago
  Aaronsw compiled the complete list. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/offline2 http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/offline2 I have the .pdfs of some of the paywalled ones, anyone reading this can email me.
  - unalone 17y ago
    That link you put up doesn't mention any DFW articles.
    - rms 17y ago
      Sorry, I must have pasted the wrong link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AaronSw/David_Foster_Wallace_nonfiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AaronSw/David_Foster_Walla...
      - rms 17y ago
        Actually I'm pretty sure that I AwesomeBar'd aaronsw and copy and pasted the first thing that came up without looking at what the URL actually was. The right URL was second under my AwesomeBar for aaronsw.
- Perceval 17y ago
  I just wrote a satirical piece a few days ago using the Kenyon speech and the "Federer..." article: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/8/19/17330/9169 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/8/19/17330/9169
michaelneale 17y ago
I had never heard of David Foster Wallace before this. Thanks for sharing it, has really made my day.
- brentvwilliams 17y ago
  If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely read his essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-000...
  - tptacek 17y ago
    You should buy the book; the Illinois State Fair essay is worth the price alone. Also highly recommended is the audio version of "Consider The Lobster", in which DFW implements inline footnotes in audio. I'm halfway through Infinite Jest right now (putting me many weeks behind http://infinitesummer.org http://infinitesummer.org, and I recommend it as well.
    - jraines 17y ago
      The opening essay on television (E Unibus Pluram) is a great read as well. Another great one (from "Consider The Lobster"), if you're interested in linguistics and who gets to decide what is "acceptable" English, is here: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html (Extremely long -- if any of the shorter pieces really grab you, you really should just go to Amazon and snag both nonfiction collections.)
springcoil 17y ago
I think this is a very powerful post. Something I regularly thinking about. Especially the powerful self centered posted ideas. I like PG's idea that we should embrace randomness and avoid our self centered ness. Its something I do struggle with evry day. this article unfortunately at times reads like a suicide note.
bkovitz 17y ago
Oh, come on, folks. The DFW piece is ignorant whining. Some problems: 1. The great many people who live "unexamined lives" tend to be much happier. According to the research, conservatives are happier than liberals, people in the Midwest are happier than people on the coasts, etc. 2. The default settings are really, really good. You should be extremely skeptical whenever anybody tries to sell you that everyone is born "wrong" and needs to be "fixed" (circumcision, original sin, chiropractic adjustments for all children, etc.). (Vaccination and water fluoridation are the only exceptions I know of, and those are supported by actual science.) 3. Same with anyone saying, "If you don't do this one thing (which almost nobody does), your whole life is going to be HORRRRRRIBLE!!!" 4. Standard religions most certainly do eat people alive: the people who desperately obsess about them the way his (mostly imaginary) targets obsess about money, power, etc. 5. The real message of the article is the style, and what it says, sentence after sentence, is: "The older, wiser fish knows that life is crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. And BTW, you know I'm the older, wiser fish, because I'm such a soul-sapping drag. Oh, and BTW, I'm the older, wiser fish, and you're not, and if you can't see that, that only proves what a naïve little twit you are. One day, all you goddamned self-centered little successful optimistic goddamned twits will all be sorry!!!"

20 points by rms 17y ago

Essay in the Times on this address: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Bissell-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Bissell-t.htm... Nicer (IMHO) WSJ format of Foster's address without the extraneous stylistic emphases found in the Marginalia version: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html "lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation" It may seem inconsistent but I find it nicely complements Will Ferrell's commencement speech at Harvard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k

rms 17y ago
This essay came up yesterday in response to a short PG essay. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=781583 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=781583 The WSJ one is certainly easier to read and doesn't lose much but the almost excessive stylistic emphasis is what Wallace does; I'll talk the unabridged version. I do wonder if Wallace himself edited the essay for publication or if it was edited externally.
- rogerthat 17y ago
  Marginalia received a DMCA takedown notice for their original copy of the speech: http://www.marginalia.org/log/archives/2009/05/so-very-sorry.html http://www.marginalia.org/log/archives/2009/05/so-very-sorry... But in the comments on their apology page at the link above, there's a reference to a book in which the address was published with Wallace's permission, as well an interesting note about an edit that Wallace made to the speech before publishing it: An essay on April 26 about David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005, which has now appeared in book form as "This Is Water," misstated the speech’s publishing history. It was included in the collection "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006"; it is not the case that Wallace, who died in September, "never published" the address. The essay may also have left the incorrect impression that both of the following sentences in the speech were omitted from the text of "This Is Water": "It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master." In fact, only the second sentence was left out.

rogerthat 17y ago

Another great Wallace essay: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20fede... "Federer as Religious Experience"

rms 17y ago
Aaronsw compiled the complete list. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/offline2 http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/offline2 I have the .pdfs of some of the paywalled ones, anyone reading this can email me.
- unalone 17y ago
  That link you put up doesn't mention any DFW articles.
  - rms 17y ago
    Sorry, I must have pasted the wrong link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AaronSw/David_Foster_Wallace_nonfiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AaronSw/David_Foster_Walla...
    - rms 17y ago
      Actually I'm pretty sure that I AwesomeBar'd aaronsw and copy and pasted the first thing that came up without looking at what the URL actually was. The right URL was second under my AwesomeBar for aaronsw.
Perceval 17y ago
I just wrote a satirical piece a few days ago using the Kenyon speech and the "Federer..." article: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/8/19/17330/9169 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/8/19/17330/9169

michaelneale 17y ago

I had never heard of David Foster Wallace before this. Thanks for sharing it, has really made my day.

brentvwilliams 17y ago
If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely read his essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-000...
- tptacek 17y ago
  You should buy the book; the Illinois State Fair essay is worth the price alone. Also highly recommended is the audio version of "Consider The Lobster", in which DFW implements inline footnotes in audio. I'm halfway through Infinite Jest right now (putting me many weeks behind http://infinitesummer.org http://infinitesummer.org, and I recommend it as well.
  - jraines 17y ago
    The opening essay on television (E Unibus Pluram) is a great read as well. Another great one (from "Consider The Lobster"), if you're interested in linguistics and who gets to decide what is "acceptable" English, is here: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html (Extremely long -- if any of the shorter pieces really grab you, you really should just go to Amazon and snag both nonfiction collections.)

springcoil 17y ago

I think this is a very powerful post. Something I regularly thinking about. Especially the powerful self centered posted ideas. I like PG's idea that we should embrace randomness and avoid our self centered ness. Its something I do struggle with evry day. this article unfortunately at times reads like a suicide note.

bkovitz 17y ago

Oh, come on, folks. The DFW piece is ignorant whining. Some problems: 1. The great many people who live "unexamined lives" tend to be much happier. According to the research, conservatives are happier than liberals, people in the Midwest are happier than people on the coasts, etc. 2. The default settings are really, really good. You should be extremely skeptical whenever anybody tries to sell you that everyone is born "wrong" and needs to be "fixed" (circumcision, original sin, chiropractic adjustments for all children, etc.). (Vaccination and water fluoridation are the only exceptions I know of, and those are supported by actual science.) 3. Same with anyone saying, "If you don't do this one thing (which almost nobody does), your whole life is going to be HORRRRRRIBLE!!!" 4. Standard religions most certainly do eat people alive: the people who desperately obsess about them the way his (mostly imaginary) targets obsess about money, power, etc. 5. The real message of the article is the style, and what it says, sentence after sentence, is: "The older, wiser fish knows that life is crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. And BTW, you know I'm the older, wiser fish, because I'm such a soul-sapping drag. Oh, and BTW, I'm the older, wiser fish, and you're not, and if you can't see that, that only proves what a naïve little twit you are. One day, all you goddamned self-centered little successful optimistic goddamned twits will all be sorry!!!"