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/lit/ - Literature

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4254554 No.4254554[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I want to read something by David Foster Wallce; however I hestitate to start with the obvious choice Infinite Jest. I'm not patrician, so I fear not getting through it without being faimiliar with his style. Might it be a good option to so start e.g. with The Pale King or is that a bad idea?

>> No.4254558

go for it

>> No.4254574

Read his journalism first.

>Consider the Lobster
>A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

I just jumped straight into Infinte Jest though.

>> No.4254582

if you are patrician you can read Cicero and Seneca, I don't think reading some greasy post-post-post-something nerd has anything to do with it

>> No.4254636

>>4254582
what's something readable by cicero? and senaca's that are not his plays?

>> No.4254647

>>4254554
Don't read David Foster Wallace.

I read Brief Interviews first, which is about as good an example as any of some of DFW's good and some of his shit works.

>> No.4254670

>>4254636
Cicero http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Officiis/home.html
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/home.html

Seneca
http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_1.html
http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_2.html

>> No.4254673

>>4254647
Brief Interviews was pretty good enough.

>> No.4254707

>>4254554
I'd go with some of the short stories in Oblivion rather than The Pale King. Broom of the System is also good. As his his journalism.

>> No.4254751

Why don't you read his biography?

Read all about how he dragged his sister through dogshit.

Or about that time when he referred to his female fans as "audience pussy"

Read about the time he almost murdered his ex-girlfriend's husband and had her name tattooed onto his arm.

This is the real David Foster Wallace

>> No.4254760

>>4254751
hey man, why be a writer if you can't sample audience pussy? at least he was being honest.

>> No.4254801

Start with Brief Interviews.

>>4254751
Everyone has done fucked up shit in their life.

>> No.4254806

>>4254751
gr8 b8 m8; i r8 it an 8

>> No.4254815

>>4254751
>Or about that time when he referred to his female fans as "audience pussy"

What other purpose do dick-hungry female fans serve?

>> No.4254821

>>4254751
Are you attempting to convince us that females are something other than audience pussy?

>> No.4254827

>>4254647
>>4254673
>>4254801
I'll look into these.

>>4254751
As with any other writer, I don't care what kind of person he was.

>> No.4254844

>>4254827
I've always regretted getting to know writers whose work I've enjoyed.

I've read Infinite Jest. There was a lot to like in it, but I think the major appeal of the book is simply getting through it and telling everyone you did.

>> No.4254846

>>4254751
Are you on /lit/ all the time?

>> No.4255603

>>4254751
I'll have you know, I have read Infinite Jest and I met David during the spring of 85. I was a secretary at Cornell and a colleague informed me that David would be coming by to see a friend of his, who happened to be my brother.

David walked into the office and took a seat, he was carrying a dog-eared copy of Thomas Pynchon's "V." and carried it as if it were a holy item. I exchanged a few words with him when my brother introduced us, he shook my hand. I can remember the exact way his hand felt--it was so clammy, so awkward. He exited the room and when I returned to my seat I noticed he had forgotten his book, so I went leafed through it, having not been familiar with Pynchon at that time in my life. I met him later down, after Wallace's suicide, he didn't have much of anything to comment on that, oddly enough.

>> No.4255617

I'd read the essays (A Supposedly Fun Thing... or Consider the Lobster, not Both Flesh...)and some of the short fiction first. If you have not read any American Postmodern fiction do so. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon would be best as Wallace's projects take a lot from Pynchon.

That said it may not be the end of the world if you just dived into it but I think that'd give you some idea if you really wanted to read IJ.

>> No.4256137

>>4254844
Dubs on the truth