David Foster Wallace (1962–2008)
Autor(a) de Graça Infinita
About the Author
Writer David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York on February 21, 1962. He received a B.A. from Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was working on his master's degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona when he published his debut novel The Broom of the System (1987). Wallace mostrar mais published his second novel Infinite Jest (1996) which introduced a cast of characters that included recovering alcoholics, foreign statesmen, residents of a halfway house, and high-school tennis stars. He spent four years researching and writing this novel. His first collection of short stories was Girl with Curious Hair (1989). He also published a nonfiction work titled Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present. He committed suicide on September 12, 2008 at the age of 46 after suffering with bouts of depression for 20 years. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Obras de David Foster Wallace
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (2009) — Autor — 1,512 cópias
String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis: A Library of America Special Publication (2016) 187 cópias
McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters,… (2008) 83 cópias
Good Old Neon 5 cópias
Incarnations of Burned Children 5 cópias
Dit is water enkele gedachten over meevoelend leven die werden uitgesproken bij een bijzondere gelegenheid (2023) 4 cópias
Good People 3 cópias
He ballat breument la conga. 3 cópias
Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley 3 cópias
Lyndon [novella] 2 cópias
The Gospel of God Romans 2 cópias
Infinite Jest: Part II 2 cópias
On His Deathbed, Holding Your Hand 2 cópias
Forever Overhead 2 cópias
Mister Squishy (in Oblio) 1 exemplar(es)
Sonora Review 12 (Summer 1987) — Fiction Editor — 1 exemplar(es)
ISTO É ÁGUA 1 exemplar(es)
L'anima non è una fucina (in Oblio) 1 exemplar(es)
Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address 1 exemplar(es)
Order and Flux in Northampton (in Love is Strange, ROSE) 1 exemplar(es)
Tense present: Democracy, English, and the wars over usage 1 exemplar(es)
Un altro pioniere (in Oblio) 1 exemplar(es)
Uncollected Works of DFW 1 exemplar(es)
PROFESOR DAVID FOSTER WALLACE 1 exemplar(es)
Teoria das cordas 1 exemplar(es)
La filosofia e lo specchio della natura (in Oblio) 1 exemplar(es)
Uma Coisa Supostamente Divertida que Nunca Mais vou Fazer 1 exemplar(es)
Unendlicher Spaß Teil 1 1 exemplar(es)
John Billy (in La ragazza dai capelli strani) 1 exemplar(es)
A New Examiner 1 exemplar(es)
How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart [essay] 1 exemplar(es)
Remembering David Foster Wallace 1 exemplar(es)
E' tutto verde (in La ragazza dai capelli strani) 1 exemplar(es)
La mia apparizione (in La ragazza dai capelli strani) 1 exemplar(es)
Da una parte e dall'altra (in La ragazza dai capelli strani) 1 exemplar(es)
Unendlicher Spass Teil 2 1 exemplar(es)
Unendlicher Spass Teil 3 1 exemplar(es)
Greatly exaggerated [essay] 1 exemplar(es)
David Lynch keeps his head [essay] 1 exemplar(es)
Tennis player Michael Joyce's professional artistry as a paradigm of certain stuff about choice, freedom, discipline,… 1 exemplar(es)
Per fortuna il funzionario commerciale sapeva fare il massaggio cardiaco (in La ragazza dai capelli strani) 1 exemplar(es)
Il canale del dolore (in Oblio) 1 exemplar(es)
Associated Works
There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure (1998) — Contribuinte — 210 cópias
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contribuinte — 184 cópias
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contribuinte — 147 cópias
Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays from Might Magazine (1998) — Contribuinte — 146 cópias
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contribuinte — 132 cópias
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contribuinte — 83 cópias
The Chaffey Review: Volume 1 (January 2009) — Contribuinte — 2 cópias
Clarion: Writing at Amherst 1985 — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Sonora Review 56 — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Sonora Review 13 (Fall 1987) — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
The New Yorker, Dec. 14, 2009 — Contributor - Fiction — 1 exemplar(es)
Thomas Demand: L'Esprit d'Escalier — Contribuinte — 1 exemplar(es)
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1962-02-21
- Data de falecimento
- 2008-09-12
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Local de nascimento
- Ithaca, New York, USA
- Local de falecimento
- Claremont, California, USA
- Causa da morte
- suicide
- Locais de residência
- Claremont, California, USA
Ithaca, New York, USA
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA
Normal, Illinois, USA - Educação
- Amherst College (BA|1985)
University of Arizona (MFA|1987) - Ocupação
- author
professor (Creative Writing) - Organizações
- Illinois State University
Pomona College - Premiações
- MacArthur Fellowship (1997)
Lannan Literary Award (Fiction, 1996)
Whiting Writers' Award (1987)
Membros
Discussions
I Think, Therefore I Jest: EFs recursive IJ reading thread em Infinite Jesters (Dezembro 2015)
David Foster Wallace em Legacy Libraries (Agosto 2015)
Into the heart of America, zenomax's IJ thread. em Infinite Jesters (Janeiro 2013)
RSVP Thread for Infinite Jest, Opening the First Page on 01.01.2013 em Infinite Jesters (Janeiro 2013)
anna reads IJ em Infinite Jesters (Janeiro 2013)
Why you shouldn't read Infinite Jest; or, A Thread for Haters em Infinite Jesters (Janeiro 2013)
Year of Beelzebubba singing unforgettable Ethel Merman covers and reading Infinite Jest for the seco em Infinite Jesters (Dezembro 2012)
When Art and Infinite Jest Collide em Infinite Jesters (Dezembro 2012)
Out-of-the-Blue Question Thread: In which Infinite Jest's Themes are mined obliquely em Infinite Jesters (Dezembro 2012)
INFINITE JEST: Its Structure em Infinite Jesters (Novembro 2012)
Looking for a prospective Infinite Jest reader willing to take the plunge em Book talk (Novembro 2010)
Requesting the help of some Infinite Jesters em Book talk (Novembro 2010)
Resenhas
Not only in light of DFW's suicide I don't think, but certainly in light of it, the despair that this collection of stories is shot through with is sobering. There is here a merciless, microlevel, and exacting existential critique both of our outward facing lives in contemporary society, centered in the banalities and inanities of work life, showing through the characters' very commitment to their jobs and roles the utter meaninglessness of them without having to stoop to any even tiny bit of triteness in making the point (instead depending heavily on, ahem, irony), and of our inner lives, or at least of his own inner life, I'm afraid, weighted down heavily with contradictory feelings of grandiosity and insignificance, of feeling like a genius and feeling like the worst fraud imaginable.
I don't know how exactly true to life the hilarious and pathetic workplace procedures and terminology and culture and such of the focus group and market testing company as portrayed in the opener, "Mister Squishy", are, as the characters revolve around a new snack cake confection, but the existential horror of finding oneself spending one's life in such an environment is effectively (and comprehensively... some might say too comprehensively!) portrayed.
"The Soul Is Not A Smithy" continues this theme of the horror of modern adult life in a story from the point of view of a grown man looking back to when he was a grade school student involved in an "incident" when he failed to notice his teacher having a mental breakdown at the blackboard, so occupied was he in his own creative imaginations that his soul could be said to be absent from the classroom his body is sat in. The adult narrator at one point remarks,
In "Good Old Neon" the narrator turns from the despair over one's outward-facing life to despair over one's core inner self. Essentially, the feeling that human nature is fundamentally bad, in some sense. He expresses this through a focus on how his connection to other people is inauthentic due to an inability to be honest about himself:
I mean. Ouch.
I can imagine a "love it or hate it" reaction to the prose itself in this collection. I listened to it as an audiobook and thought it worked really well. I'm curious how I would have taken the prose if I was reading it in print instead.
Normally I think I wouldn't be a fan of something that comes off overall so, well, nihilistic. But it's not for effect, not to be transgressive, not fraudulent one might say. The voices here are at root sympathetically all too human, even good, it seems to me. They just can't see their way out into something more of the light.… (mais)
I don't know how exactly true to life the hilarious and pathetic workplace procedures and terminology and culture and such of the focus group and market testing company as portrayed in the opener, "Mister Squishy", are, as the characters revolve around a new snack cake confection, but the existential horror of finding oneself spending one's life in such an environment is effectively (and comprehensively... some might say too comprehensively!) portrayed.
"The Soul Is Not A Smithy" continues this theme of the horror of modern adult life in a story from the point of view of a grown man looking back to when he was a grade school student involved in an "incident" when he failed to notice his teacher having a mental breakdown at the blackboard, so occupied was he in his own creative imaginations that his soul could be said to be absent from the classroom his body is sat in. The adult narrator at one point remarks,
For my own part, I had begun having nightmares about the reality of adult life as early as perhaps age seven. I knew, even then, that the dreams involved my father’s life and job and the way he seemed when he returned home from work at the end of the day.
In "Good Old Neon" the narrator turns from the despair over one's outward-facing life to despair over one's core inner self. Essentially, the feeling that human nature is fundamentally bad, in some sense. He expresses this through a focus on how his connection to other people is inauthentic due to an inability to be honest about himself:
There was a basic logical paradox that I called the 'fraudulence paradox' that I had discovered more or less on my own while taking a mathematical logic course in school...The fraudulence paradox was that the more time and effort you put into trying to appear impressive or attractive to other people, the less impressive or attractive you felt inside - you were a fraud. And the more of a fraud you felt like, the harder you tried to convey an impressive or likable image of yourself so that other people wouldn't find out what a hollow, fraudulent person you really were.
I mean. Ouch.
I can imagine a "love it or hate it" reaction to the prose itself in this collection. I listened to it as an audiobook and thought it worked really well. I'm curious how I would have taken the prose if I was reading it in print instead.
Normally I think I wouldn't be a fan of something that comes off overall so, well, nihilistic. But it's not for effect, not to be transgressive, not fraudulent one might say. The voices here are at root sympathetically all too human, even good, it seems to me. They just can't see their way out into something more of the light.… (mais)
“Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity” is a book by David Foster Wallace that explores the concept of infinity and its implications for mathematics, philosophy, and human understanding. A dramatic undertaking by a brilliant writer, the book covers the historical development of infinity, from the ancient Greeks to the modern era, explaining ideas and proofs in an accessible and engaging way, using examples, analogies, and humor. He also discusses the philosophical and theological implications of infinity, such as the paradoxes of the infinite and the nature of God. In it he reveals his own struggles with depression and anxiety, and how mathematics helped him cope with them—for a time—because now he’s dead. It’s difficult to read something like this and know what happens after. Nevertheless, I recommend “Everything and More” for anyone who is interested in mathematics, infinity, or Wallace’s writing.… (mais)
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Prêmios
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 93
- Also by
- 45
- Membros
- 42,175
- Popularidade
- #408
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Resenhas
- 797
- ISBNs
- 449
- Idiomas
- 18
- Favorito
- 334
At its core, Infinite Jest is the story of the Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) in Massachusetts, a school for elite junior tennis players. The Academy is run by the widow of its founder, James Incandenza, and her purported half-brother, Charles Tavis. Its second-best player is Hal Incandenza, son of the late founder and current Administrator, Avril.
It is also the story of Don Gately, a recovering drug addict who works at a halfway house for alcoholics and drug addicts. Gately is a mountain of a man who has a violent conflict with several non-residents seeking revenge for the killing of their dog by another resident of Ennet House. Gately's story could be pulled out of the novel and made its own story; both novels would be stronger for this separation.
Most significantly, Infinite Jest is the story of the eponymous movie (frequently referred to as an entertainment), the watching of which results in a fatal comatose state for the viewer, and the efforts of several governments and terrorist organizations to obtain the original, duplicatable master copy, which can then be used against the U.S. population. Equally significant is the fact that this movie was created by the same James Incandenza who founded the ETA.
There are several good websites offering explanations of the symbolic meaning of characters and speculation on the occurrence of "offscreen" events and the nefarious roles of several major characters associated with the ETA. I would suggest spending time on these sites after finishing the novel, rather than rereading it. The insights they provide made me feel like Jennie Fields of The World According to Garp fame, who has to have her son explain the meaning of his story "The Magic Gloves" to her. Once he does, she says, "[i]f that's what it means, I like it." Similar to Jennie, I see and appreciate that Infinite Jest is a treatise on how readers should actively engage with novels rather than viewing them as mere entertainment and how the ETA can be viewed as an allegorical MFA program, but getting to my pseudo-understanding was a long and at times tedious slog through a book that in my mind could have been significantly shorter without losing its meaning.… (mais)