DFW taught in the English Dept. for ten years at Illinois State U. (Normal, IL) and was beloved by the students. I love the Kenyon College address. Also recommended is Jonathan Frantzen’s essay on DFW. Thank you for bringing this literary treasure to wider notice.
Great list! Totally agree that A Supposedly Fun Thing is a great place to start. Would also recommend the collection Oblivion, which has the long story “Good Old Neon,” and the super-short and devastating “Incarnations of Burned Children.”
(I thought I was a big DFW fan, but I’d never heard of STDWPA…)
I started with Infinite Jest but pretty much read his whole oeuvre. In our house, anytime someone mentions a cruise everyone yells out "a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again". His writing is serious but he's a very funny writer as well. It's not like reading Dante...
Gonna throw in a different angle - read “Wittgenstein’s Mistress” (by Markson, not by DFW) and Wallace’s essay on the book, “The Empty Plenum” if you want to understand how well-read and thoughtful he was.
He wrote two articles for The Atlantic. One, a cover story interview and the other an essay. It's not the same as his literary work but it's definitely a taste of what made him a brilliant writer, which was being an exceptional observer.
The first thing of Wallace's I read was a rather fine biography of Georg Cantor, "Everything and More", which led me to the book of essays ("A Supposedly Fun Thing … " ) which I also enjoyed. His discursive style reminds me of Hunter Thompson, but far less abrasive.
However, despite several attempts, I haven't managed to read "Infinite Jest" yet.
I would read This is Water to my son before bed when he was in elementary school- I’d like to think that every time he stands in a check out line at a grocery store he will remember to choose how to see things, to consider how he gets to decide what to pay attention to, and experience it just as DFW described.
Nailed it Ted - those are the essentials. I decided I loathed The Broom of the System well before DFW ended it in the middle of a sentence, but the nonfiction stuff shows his range and really landed with me. I'm not sure I'll ever chance Infinite Jest.
Given interest on one author I would like to suggest another: I cannot recall if Ted had discussed this genius: Lewis Mumford, a good and thick demo of his vision is _Technics and Civilization_.
“String Theory” is a short book based around several great sports stories about tennis. DFW was a tennis player and big fan. I believe it was NPR’s Frank Deford who called him the greatest tennis sports writer ever?
This Is Water I discovered when my kids were early on in college, one of them at Kenyon a few years after Wallace’s address. That address is the last thing I remember more or less forcing them to read once they left for college. They both loved it. For me, it was affirmation that —yeah, like I really already knew — my kids will be fine. Thanks for this piece and the earlier one—Wallace was so smart in some ways he could see what tech would do to people if they weren’t careful—enslave and monetize.
I’ve found DFW’s nonfiction to be far more accessible than his fiction, which I found overly pretentious and precious. Maybe it’s just his short stories.
Years ago, I was seeing a clinical neuropsychologist who, knowing my love of wordplay, implored me to read "Ulysses." I bought a copy as I had told him I would.
At my next appointment he asked me how far I had gotten in it.
Thanks for this! I benefit from reading “This is Water” just about once a year…and have always put Infinite Jest away halfway through each attempt (I joke that the “ jest” is that there is no plot…one can start the book anywhere and move forwards or backwards from there).
Another great entry point is the title essay from the collection Consider The Lobster. Very accessible and funny and unnerving. Read it here:
http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobsterd996.html?printable=true
Absolutely. First thing I thought when I saw the title of this article.
DFW taught in the English Dept. for ten years at Illinois State U. (Normal, IL) and was beloved by the students. I love the Kenyon College address. Also recommended is Jonathan Frantzen’s essay on DFW. Thank you for bringing this literary treasure to wider notice.
Recommendations for single stories/essays from someone who’s read most of what he’s written twice:
“Good Old Neon”—short story about a man recounting his long fraudulent life leading up to his suicide
“E Unibus Pluram”—essay on the dead-end of irony in television
“Big Red Son”—Wallace’s visit to the yearly porn awards, reflections on the depravity of the industry
& his writing about tennis too: brilliant!
Great list! Totally agree that A Supposedly Fun Thing is a great place to start. Would also recommend the collection Oblivion, which has the long story “Good Old Neon,” and the super-short and devastating “Incarnations of Burned Children.”
(I thought I was a big DFW fan, but I’d never heard of STDWPA…)
I started with Infinite Jest but pretty much read his whole oeuvre. In our house, anytime someone mentions a cruise everyone yells out "a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again". His writing is serious but he's a very funny writer as well. It's not like reading Dante...
Gonna throw in a different angle - read “Wittgenstein’s Mistress” (by Markson, not by DFW) and Wallace’s essay on the book, “The Empty Plenum” if you want to understand how well-read and thoughtful he was.
He wrote two articles for The Atlantic. One, a cover story interview and the other an essay. It's not the same as his literary work but it's definitely a taste of what made him a brilliant writer, which was being an exceptional observer.
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-foster-wallace/
The first thing of Wallace's I read was a rather fine biography of Georg Cantor, "Everything and More", which led me to the book of essays ("A Supposedly Fun Thing … " ) which I also enjoyed. His discursive style reminds me of Hunter Thompson, but far less abrasive.
However, despite several attempts, I haven't managed to read "Infinite Jest" yet.
I would read This is Water to my son before bed when he was in elementary school- I’d like to think that every time he stands in a check out line at a grocery store he will remember to choose how to see things, to consider how he gets to decide what to pay attention to, and experience it just as DFW described.
Nailed it Ted - those are the essentials. I decided I loathed The Broom of the System well before DFW ended it in the middle of a sentence, but the nonfiction stuff shows his range and really landed with me. I'm not sure I'll ever chance Infinite Jest.
Given interest on one author I would like to suggest another: I cannot recall if Ted had discussed this genius: Lewis Mumford, a good and thick demo of his vision is _Technics and Civilization_.
“String Theory” is a short book based around several great sports stories about tennis. DFW was a tennis player and big fan. I believe it was NPR’s Frank Deford who called him the greatest tennis sports writer ever?
This Is Water I discovered when my kids were early on in college, one of them at Kenyon a few years after Wallace’s address. That address is the last thing I remember more or less forcing them to read once they left for college. They both loved it. For me, it was affirmation that —yeah, like I really already knew — my kids will be fine. Thanks for this piece and the earlier one—Wallace was so smart in some ways he could see what tech would do to people if they weren’t careful—enslave and monetize.
I’ve found DFW’s nonfiction to be far more accessible than his fiction, which I found overly pretentious and precious. Maybe it’s just his short stories.
I don't know what I found Infinite Jest to be, but "readable" was not in the list.
James Joyce's wife once said to him, "Why don't you write books people want to read?"
Yeah…I've got a book of literary putdowns that has that one in it. Applies to “Ulysses” for me too! Ha.
Years ago, I was seeing a clinical neuropsychologist who, knowing my love of wordplay, implored me to read "Ulysses." I bought a copy as I had told him I would.
At my next appointment he asked me how far I had gotten in it.
"Page 1/2."
Ha, fantastic! I think I’ve read the first 5 pages of that one 7 or 8 times. I finally just had to give up. Not for me, I guess.
Thanks for this! I benefit from reading “This is Water” just about once a year…and have always put Infinite Jest away halfway through each attempt (I joke that the “ jest” is that there is no plot…one can start the book anywhere and move forwards or backwards from there).
Looking forward to exploring his other work.