The David Foster Wallace Reader

by David Foster Wallace

Overview

The David Foster Wallace Reader is a compilation from one of the most original writers of our age, featuring selections of his brilliant fiction and nonfiction. For new readers, this is an accessible introduction to the pleasures of reading Wallace; for fans, a must-have best-of; and for teachers, an invaluable tool.

Astounding chapters from the novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King are here, along with legendary stories including "The Depressed Person," "Good Old Neon," and his previously uncollected first story. This collection also features Wallace's essays delving into luxury ("A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"), morality ("Consider the Lobster"), sports ("Roger Federer Both Flesh and Not"), literature, and the deep paradoxes of American life, plus reading lists from his life as a teacher.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316329170
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	11/11/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011.

Date of Birth:

February 21, 1962

Date of Death:

September 12, 2008

Place of Birth:

Ithaca, NY

Place of Death:

Claremont, CA

Education:

B.A. in English & Philosophy, Amherst College, 1985;MFA, University of Arizona, 1987

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Fiction

"The Planet Trillaphon as It Stands in Relation to the Bad thing" (1984) Afterword Kevin J. H. Dettmar 20

The Broom of the System (1987)

1 22

5 /a/ 38

11 /c/ 49

Afterword Gerald Howard 63

Girl with Curious Hair (1989)

"Little Expressionless Animals" 65

Afterword Hari Kunzru 98

"My Appearance" 100

Infinite Jest (1996)

Year of Glad 122

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment 138

"In the eighth…" 149

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment 151

Autumn-Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland 158

As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment 164

Winter B.S. 1960-Tucson Az 167

"Here is how…" 182

"But there's this…" 188

"If, by the…" 194

"The bathroom has…" 207

14 November 215

8 November 223

Winter, B.S. 1963, Sepulveda CA 250

"It is starting…" 264

"As at all…" 275

"And re Ennet…" 296

"Joelle used to…" 303

11 November 317

Afterword Nam Le 339

"The ceiling was…" 341

Notes and Errata 362

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999)

"A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life" 381

"B.I. #14" 382

"B.I. #40" 383

"Forever Overhead" 387

"The Depressed Person"

Oblivion (2004)

"Good Old Neon" 418

"Incarnations of Burned Children" 452

Afterword Nick Maniatis 455

"The Suffering Channel" 456

The Pale King (2011)

§1

§5

§6

§8

§9

§33

§36

Afterword Deborah Treisman 597

Teaching Materials

Introduction Sally Foster Wallace 601

English 64A

First-Day Pop Quiz 606

Student Data Sheet 607

English 170R, Spring 2003

Course Syllabus 609

Student Info Sheet 616

Specs and Guidelines for Peer-Review Missive 618

English 183A, Fall 2004

Guidelines for Writing Helpful Letters of Response to Colleagues' Stories 620

English 183D, Spring 2008

Syllabus 622

Student Data Sheet 629

English 183A, Your Liberal-Arts $ At Work

16 October 2002 630

30 October 2002 632

13 November 2002 633

6 October 2004 634

1 December 2004 635

Nonfiction

"Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" (1990) 639

Afterword Mark Costello 654

"E Unibus Pluram" (1990) 656

Afterword David L. Ulin 708

"Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All" (1993) 710

Afterword Anne Fadiman 759

"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (1995) 763

"The Nature of the Fun" (1998) 845

"Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed" (1999) 849

"Authority and American Usage" (1999) 584

"The View from Mrs. Thompson's" (2001) 910

"Consider the Lobster" (2004) 920

Afterword Jo Ann Beard 937

"Federer Both Flesh and Not" (2006) 938

Afterword Sven Birkerts 956

About the Contributors 959

Copyright Acknowledgments 961

Editorial Reviews

…an anthology meant to serve different purposes for different readers. For the casual ones, if Mr. Wallace has any, it's a solid but compact Greatest Hits collection: David Foster Wallace Lite…As a reintroduction, or even introduction, to Mr. Wallace…it's a reminder of what a transgressive, digressive delight he could be. For teachers, it's a textbook geared to orthodoxy-free students who can pierce the carapace of Mr. Wallace's reputation and read his work with fresh eyes. And even for those who race through it, it's a jolt of sheer genius—and a horror. There are immense, intricate, leisurely pleasures to be had here, and they should not be glimpsed like the landscape from a speeding train.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

"The best of the best."—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

"[An] intriguing collection.... What comes through clearly in the Reader is not just his originality and gorgeous prose but also Wallace's humor."—Dujour

"And now arrives this thumping great book.... A heady reminder of why we got hooked in the first place.... Wallace...had an incredible ear for the quirks and tics of spoken American - and...that is on virtuosic display throughout this Reader."—Duncan White, The Telegraph

"The time is right for THE DAVID FOSTER WALLACE READER.... As a reintroduction, or even introduction, to Mr. Wallace...it's a reminder of what a transgressive, digressive delight he could be. For teachers, it's a textbook geared to orthodoxy-free students who can pierce the carapace of Mr. Wallace's reputation and read his work with fresh eyes. And even for those who race through it, it's a jolt of sheer genius - and a horror. There are immense, intricate, leisurely pleasures to be had here, and they should not be glimpsed like the landscape from a speeding train."—Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Does a fantastic job of surveying Wallace's work."—Jonathan Russell Clark, The Millions

"A reminder of how good Wallace could be, whether he was writing about Kafka or the Illinois State Fair, whether he was making stuff up or trying to see things as they actually are."—Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek

From the Publisher