david foster wallace: classic or dud

the description of food

kind of wondering what the instructions he left re: publishing actually were, now

i mean, between that, the last novel, the 'this is water' thing, the lipsky book, there are more books "by" wallace out in the last two years than in any year he was alive and working

'any equivalent period', i guess, rather than 'any year'

yeah publishing this (it's a thesis from Amherst, i think) is tacky, i think

re: supposedly fun thing... the whole thing about the replacing of the used towels is hysterical.

any book cover with his picture on it is super tacky

the fact that it "reproduces Taylor's original article and other works on fatalism cited by Wallace in his critique" makes it seem tackier even. Like, what are we getting? A 50 page DFW paper along with a bunch of other stuff, selling it all on the DFW name, or what? I'm sure it'll be interesting and all, but I'm 1. geeky and 2. prurient like that.

on the other hand, of course, i want to read it

i look forward to pedants treating it like the linguistics and math stuff though |:

Que's right, it is his Amherst philosophy thesis

also, I'd imagine if he'd had wanted it published, he would've probably had it published a long time ago

that being said, yeah, I'm buying it

so i finally read a supposedly fun thing

pretty effing awesome

not that yall didnt know that

meh, seemed like he stated the obvious while over-using lengthy footnotes gimmick

nicholson baker, on the other hand...

eh tbh for a guy by whom I thought I'd read anything (is that tortured and ungrammatical or just tortured) I am not too fussed about his (70 page, says the Amherst library catalogue - let's just go there and read it!) undergraduate thesis. Except that his other undergraduate thesis is The Broom of the System. And it sounds cool. So I'll read it anyway. But fuck.

although I'm gonna be really embarrassed if I get all celebrated and shit and someone releases my undergrad philosophy thesis. And I only wrote it two years ago.

also, I'd imagine if he'd had wanted it published, he would've probably had it published a long time ago

I don't know the details of this with an undergrad thesis at Amherst, but often these things are a matter of record -- they're, you know, official fulfillments of educational requirements, not strictly personal creative property.

Which can be creepy, because yeah, there's something weird about reading (and especially publishing) someone's "homework" just because of who they turned out to be. I mean, I think there's some value to this stuff within the field -- didn't parts of this get published in academic journals? And it's probably valuable to critics/biographers/close-readers who want to, say, dig into the philosophical stuff in Broom of the System. Which are decent reasons for preserving it, but ... giving it a cover like that and trying to suggest it as a piece of Wallaciana is worth a lot of eye-rolling.

god when im a famous legendary author i hope NO ONE reads my senior thesis

haha i was just thinking thank god i'll never be famous. maybe i can get my school to burn the copy they have...

forget the theses, worry about them publishing ilx threads

my thesis is a lot more embarrassing iirc

eh i have a lot of good jokes on ilx

haha xp

arent all theses kept in school libraries anyways

nabisco: if I remember correctly, he was told that it was a publishable piece of philosophy that would actually make a contribution to the field, but I'm not sure he ever actually published the thing or even excerpts anywhere. I can only imagine that, if he were still alive, he wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of this being published. there has to be some reason it's only being released now, right? and sure, it'll be great for Wallace scholars, but even then it's like, if the dude didn't want people seeing this thing, maybe we just shouldn't be seeing it

i haven't even really read up too much on what's in his archives, but I wonder how he would've felt with all of that stuff being owned by someone else. the idea of some institution having a bunch of my personal stuff for other people to comb through is a little bit O_O

xpost - I might be talking out of my ass here, but I think there are distinctions between (a) things that are archived and on-record in school libraries, and (b) things that are on-record but sort of sealed unless you become a notable enough figure that there's some public interest in seeing it?

Markers: as a former (work-study) archivist of things like this, I will offer the following advice -- if you're leaving your papers to some institution, be REALLY ORGANIZED about what's in the papers and what's in your personal belongings, or some college kid hired to sort through your stuff will get really interested in your personal life. (The nicest thing I ever found was doing this was a series of emails a guy had printed out where he was corresponding with a woman in the field about how excited they were to finally meet each other at a conference: it was ever-so-slightly flirty and extremely sweet, particularly when charged by remembering that dude was dead.)

I think I read a supposedly fun thing a few months after returning from a 7 day cruise in the alaskas and the man was OTMFM to the power of OTMFM

― You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife? (dyao), Tuesday, July 27, 2010 12:35 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i mentioned this probably on ilx before but rereading that after going on a carnival cruise w/wifey's fam was just.....unreal....it might be the most amazing essay ever

xpost

if you're leaving your papers to some institution, be REALLY ORGANIZED about what's in the papers and what's in your personal belongings

of course! but in DFW's case, the situation's way more complicated than that insofar as he didn't get the final say over what was donated and what wasn't. right? unless he left some instructions I'm completely unaware of

i should go read up on this more. a lot was written about his archives and I didn't check any of that stuff out carefully enough

To be fair though, when you submit an undergraduate thesis chances are you're not thinking about whether opportunistic publishers are going to cash in on it after you become really famous.

oh I didn't know it was an undergrad thesis, that's p fucked up

the thought of anybody reading my undergrad thesis has me literally sweating...it was such a mailed in piece of shit from a burnout

like there are times when I fantasize about offering to redo the whole thing to my prof, just to clear the whole thing from my conscience

the thought of anybody reading my undergrad thesis has me literally sweating...it was such a mailed in piece of shit from a burnout

like there are times when I fantasize about offering to redo the whole thing to my prof, just to clear the whole thing from my conscience

― You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife? (dyao), Tuesday, July 27, 2010 3:22 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahaha 10000000000000000000000x otm. still afraid to talk to my thesis advisor

lol

xpost - I might be talking out of my ass here, but I think there are distinctions between (a) things that are archived and on-record in school libraries, and (b) things that are on-record but sort of sealed unless you become a notable enough figure that there's some public interest in seeing it?

nah dude anyone can go read it and possibly make a copy

http://fcaw.library.umass.edu:8991/F/75L2BX8B7C8748Q255MJ7QXVT4CP5NMS7LB8RU8VSCXL3FMPQD-07357?func=full-set-set&set_number=111224&set_entry=000030&format=999

what does Item Status Library Use Only mean? just can't check it out?

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/unfinshed-david-foster-wallace-novel-gets-cover-and-release-date/

LETS DO THIS

Little, Brown said it will release “The Pale King” on – when else? – April 15.

started the the Lipsky book last night...OMFG i want to KILL LIPSKY

obv a lot of this is fascinating esp cuz the stuff i was reading was DFW on the eve of Infinite Jest coming out and the book tour, etc...really great stuff but goddamn Lipsky is such a douchebag...everything in brackets in this book should be shot in the head.

worst thing so far:

he makes some aside early on after DFW uses the word "lonely" like "[He uses "lonely" a lot]

then later after the word comes up again (for only like the 2nd time), he brackets:

[the word lonely, again; interesting]

OH REALLY SIGMUND FUCKING FREUD...I CAN JUST SEE YOU STROKING YR BEARD AND GAZING DOWN AT YOUR NOTEPAD...WHY HOW FASCINATING THAT THE GREAT WRITER WHO BATTLED WITH DEPRESSION AND EVENTUALLY KILLED HIMSELF USED THE WORD LONELY, HOW FUCKING REVEALING....THANKS FOR POINTING THAT OUT...FUCK YOU.

(still it's way worth it just for the dfw freestyling thoughts stuff)

the lipsky stuff gets worse.

yeah, i set this aside due to cares earlier this summer, but the lipsky stuff was really, really, really grating.

(just finished this last night btw)

he's so bitter & jealous, both in '96 and now that he's aware that people are only reading his book for DFW, not for him.

couldn't even finish the lipsky book

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/19/david-foster-wallace-s-personal-files.html

I read Consider the Lobster earlier this year and it was pretty solid... kinda feel like i should give his fiction another shot, maybe short stories just aren't my thing... but whenever I read a description of IJ my eyelids slam shut

He's a great writer of prose, imo, a great, great stylist. Also obviously a great, great human being. I'm not saying anything new here obviously

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y6ggl

In April The Pale King, Wallace's final, unfinished novel will be published. Few literary novels have been more eagerly anticipated in recent years. Its great subject is Boredom.

heh its about a guy reading Oblivion