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