David Foster Wallace was an American
authorA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
of novels, essays, and
short storiesA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, and a professor at
Pomona CollegePomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
in
Claremont, CaliforniaClaremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
. He was widely known for his 1996 novel
Infinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
, which
Time included in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list (covering the period 1923–2006).
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
book editor David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years".
Wallace's unfinished novel,
The Pale KingThe Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011. After Wallace's death in September 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend...
, was published in 2011. A biography of Wallace by D. T. Max is projected for publication in 2012.
Personal
Wallace was born in
Ithaca, New YorkThe city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, to
James Donald WallaceJames Donald Wallace is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the author of several books on the subject of morality and ethics that draw on the American Philosophical tradition of Pragmatism, in particular the ethical theory of John Dewey...
and Sally Foster Wallace. In his early childhood, Wallace lived in
Champaign, IllinoisChampaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
. In fourth grade, he moved to
UrbanaUrbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
and attended Yankee Ridge school and Urbana High School. As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked
junior tennisJunior Tennis refers to tennis games where the participants are aged 18 and under. Eligibility to compete is not based on age, but year of birth: as a result, some players must move out of juniors soon after their 18th birthday, while others can play juniors until they are nearly 19...
player.
He attended his father's alma mater,
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, and majored in
EnglishEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
and
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, with a focus on
modal logicModal logic is a type of formal logic that extends classical propositional and predicate logic to include operators expressing modality. Modals — words that express modalities — qualify a statement. For example, the statement "John is happy" might be qualified by saying that John is...
and
mathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. His philosophy senior
thesisA dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
on modal logic, titled
Richard Taylor's 'Fatalism' and the Semantics of Physical Modality (described in James Ryerson's 2008
New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
essay "Consider the Philosopher") was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize. His other senior thesis, in English, would later become his first novel. Wallace graduated
summa cum laude for both theses in 1985, and in 1987 received a
Master of Fine ArtsA Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in
creative writingCreative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from the
University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
.
Though he made little mention of it in his writing, Wallace belonged to a church wherever he lived.
Family
Wallace's father was
James D. WallaceJames Donald Wallace is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the author of several books on the subject of morality and ethics that draw on the American Philosophical tradition of Pragmatism, in particular the ethical theory of John Dewey...
, who accepted a teaching job at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
in the fall of 1962 after finishing his graduate course work in philosophy at
Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. He received his PhD from Cornell in 1963 and is now Emeritus Professor at Urbana-Champaign. Wallace's mother, Sally Foster Wallace, attended graduate school in
English CompositionEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at the University of Illinois and became a professor of English at
Parkland CollegeParkland College is a is a two-year community college in Champaign, Illinois, a member of the Illinois Community College System serving Community College District 505. District 505 includes all of Ford County, and parts of Coles, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Iroquois, Livingston, Moultrie,...
—a community college in
ChampaignChampaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
—where she won a national Professor of the Year award in 1996. Wallace's younger sister, Amy Wallace Havens of
Tucson, ArizonaTucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
, has practiced law since 2005.
In the early 1990s, Wallace had a relationship with the poet and memoirist
Mary KarrMary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars' Club...
(
The Liars' ClubThe Liars' Club is the childhood memoir of American author Mary Karr. Published in 1995 and a New York Times bestseller for over a year it tells the story of Mary Karr's childhood in the 1960s in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas...
). Wallace married painter Karen L. Green on December 27, 2004. Dogs played an important role in Wallace's life; he was very close to his two dogs, Bella and Warner, had spoken of opening a dog shelter, and according to
Jonathan FranzenJonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His third novel, The Corrections , a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction...
"had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and [were] unlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them."
Death
Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008. In an interview with
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Wallace's father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that
antidepressantAn antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
medication had allowed him to be productive. When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant,
phenelzinePhenelzine is a non-selective and irreversible monoamine oxidase inhibitor of the hydrazine class which is used as an antidepressant and anxiolytic...
. On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007, and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including
electroconvulsive therapyElectroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness. In the months before his death, his depression became severe.
Numerous gatherings were held to honor Wallace after his death, including memorial services at
Pomona CollegePomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
,
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
,
University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, and on October 23, 2008, at
NYUNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
—the latter with speakers including his sister, Amy Wallace Havens; his agent, Bonnie Nadell; Gerry Howard, the editor of his first two books; Colin Harrison, editor at
Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
; Michael Pietsch, the editor of
Infinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
and Wallace's later work; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
; as well as authors
Don DeLilloDon DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
,
Zadie SmithZadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors...
,
George SaundersGeorge Saunders is a New York Times bestselling American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ, among other publications...
,
Mark CostelloMark Costello, a native of Decatur, Illinois, is the author of the story collections The Murphy Stories , which won the St. Lawrence Award for Short Fiction, and Middle Murphy...
,
Donald AntrimDonald Antrim is an American novelist. His first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, was published in 1993...
, and
Jonathan FranzenJonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His third novel, The Corrections , a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction...
.
Career
Wallace's first novel, 1987's
The Broom of the SystemThe Broom of the System is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.-Background:Wallace stated that the initial idea for the novel sprang from a remark made by an old girlfriend. According to Wallace, she said "she would rather be a character in a piece of...
, garnered national attention and critical praise. Caryn James of
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it a successful "manic, human, flawed extravaganza", "emerging straight from the excessive tradition of
Stanley Elkin'sStanley Lawrence Elkin was a Jewish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships.-Biography:...
Franchiser,
Thomas Pynchon'sThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
V.V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named...
,
John Irving'sJohn Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
World According to GarpThe World According to Garp is John Irving's fourth novel. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years.A movie adaptation of the novel starring Robin Williams was released in 1982, with a screenplay written by Steve Tesich....
." Wallace moved to
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts, for graduate school in philosophy at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, but soon abandoned it. In 1991 he began teaching literature as an adjunct professor at
Emerson CollegeEmerson College is a private coeducational university located in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," Emerson is "the only comprehensive college or university in America dedicated exclusively to communication and the arts in a liberal arts...
in Boston.
In 1992, at the behest of colleague and supporter
Steven MooreSteven Moore is an American author and literary critic. Best known as an authority on the novels of William Gaddis, he published the first volume of his major work The Novel: An Alternative History in April 2010.-Biography/Career:...
, Wallace obtained a position in the
EnglishEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
department at
Illinois State UniversityIllinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
. He had begun work on his second novel,
Infinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
, in 1991, and submitted a draft to his editor in December 1993. After the publication of excerpts throughout 1995, the book was published in 1996.
Wallace published short fiction in
MightMight was a San Francisco-based magazine co-founded in the early 1990s by David Moodie, Marny Requa and Dave Eggers, who went on to describe the magazine's rise and fall in his bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius....
,
GQGQ is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books...
,
PlayboyPlayboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
,
The Paris Review,
Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
,
Mid-American ReviewMid-American Review is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, MAR is a publication of the Department of English and the College of Arts & Sciences at Bowling Green State University...
,
ConjunctionsConjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
,
EsquireEsquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
,
Open CityOpen City Magazine and Books was a New York City based magazine and book publisher that features many first-time writers alongside those who are well known. The editors are Thomas Beller and Joanna Yas. It is published by a nonprofit organization, Open City, Inc. Open City Magazine is released...
,
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly ConcernTimothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a literary journal, first published in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers. The first issue featured only works rejected by other magazines, but thereafter the journal began to include pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. McSweeney’s has since published works by...
,
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and
ScienceScience is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
.
In 1997, Wallace received a MacArthur Fellowship, as well as the
Aga Khan Prize for FictionThe Aga Khan Prize for Fiction is awarded by the editors of The Paris Review for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. No applications are accepted. The winner gets $1,000...
, awarded by editors of
The Paris Review for one of the stories in
Brief Interviews—"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men #6"—which had appeared in the magazine.
In 2002, he moved to
Claremont, CaliforniaClaremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
, to become the first
Roy E. DisneyRoy Edward Disney, KCSG was a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt Disney founded. At the time of his death he was a shareholder , and served as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...
Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at
Pomona CollegePomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
. He taught one or two undergraduate courses per semester, and focused on his writing.
In May 2005, Wallace delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at
Kenyon CollegeKenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
. The speech was published as a book in 2009 under the title
This Is Water.
Bonnie Nadell was Wallace's literary agent through his entire career. Michael Pietsch was his editor on
Infinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
.
In March 2009,
Little, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
announced that it would publish the manuscript of an unfinished novel,
The Pale KingThe Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011. After Wallace's death in September 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend...
, that Wallace was working on at the time of his death.
The Pale King was pieced together by editor Michael Pietsch from pages and notes the author left behind. Several excerpts from it were published in the
New Yorker and other magazines.
The Pale King was published on April 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews.
In March 2010, it was announced that Wallace's personal papers and archives – drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, letters, and research, including the handwritten notes for
Infinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
– had been purchased by the
University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
and will reside at the University's Harry Ransom Center.
Themes and styles
Wallace's fiction is often concerned with
ironyIrony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
. His essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", originally published in the small-circulation
Review of Contemporary Fiction in 1993, proposes that television has an ironic influence on fiction writing, and urges literary authors to eschew TV's shallow rebelliousness: "I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that at the same time they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists they pose terrifically vexing problems". Wallace used many forms of irony, but focused on individuals' continued longing for earnest, unself-conscious experience and communication in a media-saturated society. Literary critic
Adam KirschAdam Kirsch is an American poet and literary critic.-Early life and education:Kirsch is the son of lawyer, author, and biblical scholar Jonathan Kirsch, and a 1997 graduate of Harvard College.-Career:...
said that Wallace's "self-conscious earnestness" and "hostility to irony defined a literary generation."
Wallace's novels often combine various writing modes or voices, and incorporate jargon and vocabulary (sometimes invented) from a wide variety of fields. His writing featured self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long multi-
clauseIn grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
sentences, and a notable use of explanatory
footnotes and endnotesA note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the text, or both...
—often nearly as expansive as the text proper. He used endnotes extensively in
Infinite Jest and footnotes in "Octet" as well as in the great majority of his nonfiction after 1996. On the
Charlie RoseCharlie Rose is an American television interview show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show is syndicated...
show in 1997, Wallace claimed that the notes were used to disrupt the linearity of the narrative, to reflect his perception of reality without jumbling the entire structure. He suggested that he could have instead jumbled up the sentences, "but then no one would read it."
According to Wallace, "fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being," and he expressed a desire to write "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" that could help readers "become less alone inside." In his Kenyon College commencement address, he describes the human condition of daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warns against
solipsismSolipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
, invoking
compassionCompassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...
, mindfulness, and
existentialismExistentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
:
Nonfiction work
Wallace covered Senator
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's 2000 presidential campaign for
Rolling Stone in an article titled "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and The Shrub" that was later reprinted as a book called
McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope. He was commissioned shortly before his death to write a story about Barack Obama. He wrote about the September 11 attacks for
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
; cruise ships (in what became the title essay of his first nonfiction book), state fairs, and tornadoes for
Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
; the US Open tournament for
TENNIS MagazineTennis Magazine is an American sports magazine owned by the Miller Publishing Group, LLC. It is a monthly magazine which covers news from the world of tennis.-History:...
; the director
David LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
and the pornography industry for
PremierePremiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
magazine; the tennis player Michael Joyce for
EsquireEsquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
; the special-effects film industry for
Waterstone'sWaterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe....
magazine; conservative talk radio host
John ZieglerJohn Ziegler is a conservative radio talk show host turned documentary film writer/director.Ziegler's most prominent work in radio has been as the evening host of a radio talk show called The John Ziegler Show on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles, California from January 12, 2004 until November 13, 2007...
for
The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
; and a Maine lobster festival for
GourmetGourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. Founded by Earle R. MacAusland and first published in 1941, Gourmet also covered "good living" on a wider scale....
magazine. He also reviewed books in several genres for the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
,
The Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and
The Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
. In the November 2007 issue of
The Atlantic, which commemorated the magazine's 150th anniversary, Wallace was among the authors, artists, politicians and others who wrote short pieces on "the future of the American idea".
Other media
Twelve of the interviews from
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men were adapted into a stage play in 2000, the first theatrical adaptation of Wallace's work. The play,
Hideous Men, adapted and directed by Dylan McCullough, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2000.
A
filmed adaptationBrief Interviews with Hideous Men is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski, based on a short story collection of the same name by David Foster Wallace.-Plot:...
of
Brief Interviews, directed by
John KrasinskiJohn Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...
, was released in 2009 and premiered at the
Sundance Film FestivalThe Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. The film stars
Julianne NicholsonJulianne Nicholson is an American actress. She is known for having played Det. Megan Wheeler on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
and an ensemble cast including
Christopher MeloniChristopher Peter Meloni is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as inmate Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz.-Early life:Meloni was born the youngest of three children in...
,
Rashida JonesRashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
,
Timothy HuttonTimothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
,
Josh Charles,
Will ForteOrville Willis Forte IV, better known as Will Forte , is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002–2010 and for starring in the SNL spin-off film MacGruber.-Early life:Forte was born in Alameda County, California, the son of...
and
Corey StollCorey Daniel Stoll is an American stage and screen actor. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Intimate Apparel, opposite Tony winner and Oscar nominee Viola Davis. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1998...
.
Brief Interviews was also adapted by director Marc Caellas as a play called
Brief Interviews With Hideous Writers, which premiered at Fundación Tomás Eloy Martinez in Buenos Aires on November 4, 2011.
The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko" from
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men was adapted by composer Eric Moe into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections. The piece was described as having "subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture".
Awards
- Inclusion of "Good Old Neon" in The O. Henry Prize Stories
The O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
2002
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, 1997–2002
- Lannan Foundation Residency Fellow, July–August 2000
- Named to Usage Panel, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th Edition et seq., 1999
- Inclusion of "The Depressed Person" in Prize Stories 1999: The O. Henry Awards
- Illinois State University, Outstanding University Researcher, 1998 and 1999
- Aga Khan Prize for Fiction
The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction is awarded by the editors of The Paris Review for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. No applications are accepted. The winner gets $1,000...
for the story "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men #6", 1997
- Time magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction), 1996
- Salon Book Award (Fiction), 1996
- Lannan Literary Award (Fiction), 1996
- Inclusion of "Here and There" in Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards
- Whiting Writers' Award
The Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
, 1987
Novels
- The Broom of the System
The Broom of the System is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.-Background:Wallace stated that the initial idea for the novel sprang from a remark made by an old girlfriend. According to Wallace, she said "she would rather be a character in a piece of...
(1987)
- Infinite Jest
Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
(1996)
- The Pale King
The Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011. After Wallace's death in September 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend...
(2011) (unfinished)
Short story collections
- Girl with Curious Hair
Girl with Curious Hair is a collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace first published in 1989. Though the stories are not related, many of them share the theme of society's fascination with celebrity, some using real celebrities, including Alex Trebek, David Letterman and Lyndon Johnson,...
(1989) (published in Europe as Westward the Course of the Empire Takes Its Way)
- Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a collection of 23 short stories by David Foster Wallace. Several of the stories are entitled "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" and are presented as transcripts of interviews with male subjects...
(1999)
- Oblivion: Stories
Oblivion: Stories is a collection of short fiction by American author David Foster Wallace. Oblivion is Wallace’s third and last short story collection and was listed as a 2004 New York Times Notable Book of the Year...
(2004)
Nonfiction
- Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race In the Urban Present
Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present is a nonfiction book by David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello. The book explores this music's history as it intersects with historical events, either locally and unique to Boston, or in larger cultural or historical contexts.- Title :The title...
(1990), coauthored with Mark Costello
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.In the title essay, originally published in Harper's as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses of his one-week trip in the Caribbean aboard the cruise ship ,...
(essays) (1997)
- Up, Simba! (2000)
- Everything and More (2003)
- Consider the Lobster
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays is a collection of essays by novelist David Foster Wallace. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in Gourmet Magazine in 2004.-Content:The entire list of essays is as follows:...
(essays) (2005)
- McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope (paperback reprint of Up, Simba!) (2008)
- This Is Water
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life is an essay by David Foster Wallace, first published in book form by Little, Brown and Company in 2009. The text originates from a commencement speech given by Wallace at Kenyon College on May 21,...
(2009)
- Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, Eds. S. Cahn and M. Eckert, Columbia University Press (2011).
Further reading
- Benzon, Kiki. "Darkness Legible, Unquiet Lines: Mood Disorders in the Fiction of David Foster Wallace." Creativity, Madness and Civilization. Ed. Richard Pine. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007: 187–198.
- Boswell, Marshall. Understanding David Foster Wallace. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 1-57003-517-2
- Bresnan, Mark. "The Work of Play in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 50:1 (2008), 51–68.
- Burn, Stephen. "Generational Succession and a Source for the Title of David Foster Wallace's The Broom of the System." Notes on Contemporary Literature 33.2 (2003), 9–11.
- Burn, Stephen. David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: A Reader's Guide. New York, London: Continuum, 2003 (= Continuum Contemporaries) ISBN 0-8264-1477-X
- Carlisle, Greg. "Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Austin, L.A.: Sideshow Media Group Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9761465-3-7
- Cioffi, Frank Louis. "An Anguish Becomes Thing: Narrative as Performance in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Narrative 8.2 (2000), 161–181.
- Delfino, Andrew Steven. "Becoming the New Man in Post-Postmodernist Fiction: Portrayals of Masculinities in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and Chuck Palahniuk
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter...
's Fight ClubFight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups...
. MA Thesis, Georgia State University.
- Dowling, William, and Bell, Robert. A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest. Xlibris, 2004. ISBN 1-4134-8446-8 (http://rci.rutgers.edu/%7Ewcd/jestcomp.htm)
- Esposito, Scott, et al. Who Was David Foster Wallace? A Symposium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace
- Ewijk, Petrus van. "'I' and the 'Other': The relevance of Wittgenstein, Buber and Levinas for an understanding of AA's Recovery Program in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." English Text Construction 2.1 (2009), 132–145.
- Goerlandt, Iannis and Luc Herman. "David Foster Wallace." Post-war Literatures in English: A Lexicon of Contemporary Authors 56 (2004), 1–16; A1-2, B1-2.
- Goerlandt, Iannis. "Fußnoten und Performativität bei David Foster Wallace. Fallstudien." Am Rande bemerkt. Anmerkungspraktiken in literarischen Texten. Ed. Bernhard Metz & Sabine Zubarik. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2008: 387–408.
- Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Put the book down and slowly walk away': Irony and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 47.3 (2006), 309–328.
- Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Still steaming as its many arms extended': Pain in David Foster Wallace's Incarnations of Burned Children." Sprachkunst 37.2 (2006), 297–308.
- Harris, Jan Ll.'Addiction and the Societies of Control: David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest', paper delivered at Figuring Addictions/Rethinking Consumption conference, Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University, April 4–5, 2002
- Harris, Michael. "A Sometimes Funny Book Supposedly about Infinity: A Review of Everything and More." Notices of the AMS 51.6 (2004), 632–638. (full pdf-text)
- Holland, Mary K. "'The Art's Heart's Purpose': Braving the Narcissistic Loop of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 47.3 (2006), 218–242.
- Jacobs, Tim. "The Fight: Considering David Foster Wallace Considering You". Rain Taxi Review of Books. Online Edition, Part Two. Winter 2009.
- Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 271. Ed. Jeffrey Hunter. New York: Gale, 2009.
- Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 49.3 (2007): 265–292.
- Jacobs, Timothy. "American Touchstone: The Idea of Order in Gerard Manley Hopkins and David Foster Wallace." Comparative Literature Studies 38.3 (2001): 215–231.
- Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace's The Broom of the System." Ed. Alan Hedblad. Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. Detroit: Gale Research Press, 2001. 41–50.
- Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." The Explicator 58.3 (2000): 172–175.
- Kelly, Adam. "David Foster Wallace: the Death of the Author and the Birth of a Discipline." Irish Journal of American Studies Online 2 (2010). Link.
- LeClair, Tom. "The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers
Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.- Life and work :...
, William T. VollmannWilliam Tanner Vollmann is an American novelist, journalist, short story writer, essayist and winner of the National Book Award...
, and David Foster Wallace." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 38.1 (1996), 12–37.
- Lipsky, David
David Lipsky is an American author. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1983 and Brown University in 1987, and holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Lipsky is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone Magazine. He received a National Magazine Award for writing about...
. Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster WallaceAlthough Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace is a 2010 book by author David Lipsky, about a five day road-trip with the author David Foster Wallace.- Summary :...
. New York: Broadway, 2010.
- Mason, Wyatt. "Don't like it? You don't have to play." London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
26.22 (2004). http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n22/maso02_.html
- Morris, David. "Lived Time and Absolute Knowing: Habit and Addiction from Infinite Jest to the Phenomenology of Spirit." Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History 30 (2001), 375–415.
- Nichols, Catherine. "Dialogizing Postmodern Carnival: David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest." Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 43.1 (2001), 3–16.
- Rother, James. "Reading and Riding the Post-Scientific Wave. The Shorter Fiction of David Foster Wallace." Review of Contemporary Fiction 13.2 (1993), 216–234. ISBN 1-56478-123-2
- Tysdal, Dan. "Inarticulation and the Figure of Enjoyment: Raymond Carver's Minimalism Meets David Foster Wallace's 'A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life.'" Wascana Review of Contemporary Poetry and Short Fiction 38.1 (2003), 66–83.
External links
Sources
Biographical
- "An Appraisal: Writer Mapped the Mythic and the Mundane", by Michiko Kakutani
is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times and is considered by many to be a leading literary critic in the United States.-Life and career:...
, The New York Times, September 14, 2008
- "On David Foster Wallace", by Dustin Luke Nelson, from Guernica Magazine
Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy...
, September 14, 2008.
- Modernism/modernity
Modernism/modernity is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1994 by Lawrence Rainey and Robert van Hallberg. Since 2001 it has been the official publication of the Modernist Studies Association and each September issue presents papers from their annual conference.The journal is...
16:1 (January 2009), "In Memoriam David Foster Wallace," 1–24. Featuring tributes from Steven Moore, Dave EggersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Marshall Boswell, Michael NorthMichael North is an American literary critic and a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Background:North received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1973 and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1980...
, Stephen J. Burn, and Brendan Beirne.
- "David Foster Wallace, 1962–2008", by David Gates
David Gates is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s. The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame...
, NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, September 14, 2008.
- "The Unfinished" by D.T. Max, The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, March 9, 2009.
- "Everything & More: The Work of David Foster Wallace" by Malcolm Knox, The Monthly
The Monthly is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer Morry Schwartz...
November, 2008.
- Wyatt Mason: "Smarter than You Think" The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- "David Foster Wallace and the Velveteen Rabbit" Identity Theory, August, 2011.
- "King of the Ghosts" n+1, October, 2011.
Interviews
- Charlie Rose Show: An interview with Wallace following the publication of Infinite Jest and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Mar 27, 1997
- Charlie Rose Show: A roundtable discussion on fiction with Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and Mark Leyner, May 17, 1996
- This American Life Episode 160 broadcast May 19, 2000 "Character Assassination" Act 2 'Sonny Takes a Fall' – (19 minute radio where David Foster Wallace "reports on a turning point in 2000's Presidential primaries: the moment when John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
failed to respond well to an attack by George BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
". Description of broadcast from thislife.org)
- "David Foster Wallace: A Profile" – (by Bill Katovsky)
- David Foster Wallace on Bookworm, Link to a set of lengthy radio interviews David Foster Wallace gave to KCRW's Bookworm over a period of ten years. The first is from April 11, 1996; the last March 2, 2006.
Portals
Fan art tribute
- FOREVER DFW – A collection of art and other material in memory of David Foster Wallace
- A Failed Entertainment: Film and art exhibit based on the James O. Incandenza Filmography from Infinite Jest
- Incandenza Filmography interpretations and other Infinite Jest-inspired works online: "Infinite Jest IV", "Zero Gravity Tea Ceremony", "The Medusa v. The Odalisque", "The Cold Majesty of the Numb", "Kinds of Light", "Baby Pictures of Famous Dicatators 2: Eschatong", "Good-Looking Men In Small Clever Rooms That Utilize Every Centimeter Of Available Space With Mind-Boggling Efficiency", "Cage - Planar Version", "Various Small Flames", "The Exhibit and the Cage", "Après-Garde Film", "For Infinite Jest", "Sixty Minutes More or Less with Madame Psychosis", "Hal at Age 4", "Poor Yorick Entertainment" poster art