/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6273839]

David Foster Wallace's short fiction and non-fiction.

I've read A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Girl with Curious Hair. Next and last is Oblivion.

I don't get it. I don't see the charm that others feel for his writing. I read his short fiction to try and see what all the hubub was all about without committing to IJ. Is Infinite Jest that much different from his short fiction, or is this not just for me/I'm fundamentally overlooking something?

So far the only piece I have enjoyed is Forever Overheard in Brief Interviews. Some of the non-fiction and the short story The Depressed Person are OK, but that's about it.

Please don't say, it's not just for me. I understand that is a possibility but I want to talk about it, I don't want to throw it under the rug.

tldr; DFW.

[Anonymous No.6273860]

I don't really like the short fiction I've read by him but I just finished IJ and it's one of my favorite books now. I enjoyed it more than GR and J R even if Pynchon and Gaddis are better writers.

[Anonymous No.6273883]

>>6273860
>I don't really like the short fiction I've read by him but I just finished IJ and it's one of my favorite books now.

What exactly is the difference between the two? I know this is a vague as hell question but I know nothing substantial about IJ so I don't know what to ask about specifically.

Is there a lot of postmodern/meta-x/mental-trickery going on in the work? So much of what I've read by him is just that, and it's so fucking bad. It's not clever or refreshing, it's just plain stupid.

[Anonymous No.6273903]

>>6273883
>What exactly is the difference between the two?
I haven't read enough of his shitty short stories but it's just better
>s there a lot of postmodern/meta-x/mental-trickery going on in the work?
Not really but I've no way of knowing if you're a no fun allowed queer or just don't like DFW thus far.
>So much of what I've read by him is just that, and it's so fucking bad. It's not clever or refreshing, it's just plain stupid.
That still doesn't help with my above-stated ignorance but that is how I felt about the story Girl with Curious Hair and resolved not to finish the collection after hearing the final long story is outright awful.

[Anonymous No.6273948]

>>6273903
>I haven't read enough of his shitty short stories but it's just better
Mind being a bit more specific?
>Not really-
Ok.
>but I've no way of knowing if you're a no fun allowed queer or just don't like DFW thus far.
Well that wasn't needed. That had nothing at all to do with my question. Me being fun or no wouldn't change the amount of postmodern tricks in IJ.
>That still doesn't help with my above-stated ignorance
There doesn't need to be any help. It's a problem you've made out of thin air. No offense implied, I'm just confused why this is an issue all of a sudden.

And yeah, the titular short story Girl with Curious Hair was pretty bad. Actually though, I've heard the last short story in Girl with Curious hair is something like a precursor to IJ. Maybe you should give it a read.

[Anonymous No.6273960]

I think one can easily dislike his short fiction while still being able to enjoy IJ. A few chapters aside, IJ is a coherent ambience piece with (eventually) recurrent characters and settings, has a bit of a plot, and has more than enough in the way of silly jokes to keep you entertained inbetween Wallace's usual academic posturing and whining about depression.
I personally found his short fiction hit-or-miss, only enjoying the piecces I could laugh at (sometimes ironically, because look, this is really what those knobheads call literature these days) and dismissing the rest as understandable but boring wank.

[Anonymous No.6273962]

IJ is his only good work, you moron

very few writers can pull off interesting short fiction

[Anonymous No.6273987]

>>6273962
Who would you say are the very few that can pull off good short fiction?

I ask because I've been on a short fiction binge lately. Hated Updike, Cheever, Fitzgerald, and Wallace, enjoyed Hemingway, Salinger, Carver, and Joyce.

Thinking of going to Nabakov next.

[Anonymous No.6273994]

>>6273987
George Saunders, Chekhov, Alice Munro, Poe

Bonus mention of Stephen King because his short stories are far superior to his novels

[Anonymous No.6273995]

>>6273987

I would definitely add Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor to that list

also PKD if you're an interesting person

[Anonymous No.6274001]

Chekov and Kafka.

Also,
>Nabakov

[Anonymous No.6274013]

>>6273948
What I mean is for one thing, IJ has some kind of meta-ironic elementa going on, but it's mostly straightforward, emotional and just really thorough and self-aware. However, if you outright dislike any and all postmodern elements for whatever fuddy duddy reason, you may not like it. It is not as heavy on these things as other pomo authors, but I also haven't read as much of his other stuff like you have so I'm not absolutely sure what you aren't willing to put up with.

Honestly I think the biggest barrier reading in IJ is setting Hal's mary-sue esque character (which works out after you keep reading) and way of sort of referring to elements or organizations as if you'll know what they are not to explain it for 200 pages. The narative is shuffled around a bit but the story unfolds mostly in a linear fashion and there isn't really like significant time jumps in any character's individual life.

[Anonymous No.6274018]

>>6274013

>there isn't really like significant time jumps in any character's individual life.

Top kek!

[Anonymous No.6274043]

>>6273987
Etgar Keret is my favorite.

[Anonymous No.6274047]

>>6274018
It doesn't really impact the narrative for like almost 900 pages of the thing and most of what you're thinking of here is probably memories anyway.

[Anonymous No.6274105]

>>6273994
I've already read Chekhov. I can respect what he did for literature but I didn't enjoy his stories. Only read Lady with a Dog and other stories, or something like that.

Poe is definitely one that I have high hopes for. I enjoy a good ghost story/horror story and the few I read of his years ago were pretty damn good.
>>6273995
Noted
>>6274001
>Nabakov
I didn't even notice..
>>6274013
Hm. Well how about you give an example of what is pomo in IJ and I give an example of what is pomo in his short fiction? Actually I'll give two.

There are a set of stories where the author explains that he planned for 8 stories to be produced and to connect to one another but couldn't finish, so instead there are only, if I remember right, three finished stories, and a fourth which is a rough skeleton of how the 8 stories were supposed to go.

There is another set of stories, three, that are connected through one revelation. The revelation is fairly easy to see coming, and the pay is very, very shallow. The set begins with the story "On his Deathbed.." and is a father on his deathbed talking to a supposed priest about how he hates his son. It turns out the priest is his son, the father simply can't tell because he is dying. This is not the revelation I mentioned before. The next two stories set up a mother character with a guilt complex and how this affects her son. You can then connect the three and see that these three stories are about the same family, and that the evil son is the author of all three short stories. The twist goes nowhere since the son is just a flat cardboard evil character who exploits his family.

[Anonymous No.6274142]

>>6274105
Infinite Jest is movie created by Hal's dad that is so entertaining it causes people to lose control of their life and only demand the tape and rough descriptions of this video are interspersed with narrations of hardcore drug abuse and cravings and the star of the video who is a breathtakingly stunning woman who is so pretty she is repellant.

It's not flat emotionally whatsoever, in my opinion. Just like I said the beginning setting characterization is odd at first.

There are a lot of memories that reveal certain aspects of things but i personally think they're executed pretty well.

[Anonymous No.6274191]

>>6274142
How is that pomo though?

[Anonymous No.6274235]

>>6274191
the jesting never ends

Like I said m8 it doesn't have a lot of meta elements it's just ironic yet sad and has some narrative dickery.

[Anonymous No.6274268]

Brief Interviews and Curious Hair are his most experimental works. Some of it reads like stuff that was never intended for publication.

The opening story of Oblivion is one of his oddest and most impenetrable but the rest is fairly straightforward and of a much higher quality than Brief Interviews and Curious Hair. Good Old Neon is the best thing he ever wrote as far as I am concerned and Another Pioneer is right up there too.

[Anonymous No.6274280]

Guys, does this thread contain IJ spoilers?

Im scared to read it

and Im 450 pages into IJ

[Anonymous No.6274302]

You need to be a pretentious hipster before you enjoy his shit

[Anonymous No.6274331]

>>6274280
>Giving a fuck

Looks like someone doesn't understand postmodernism

[Anonymous No.6274374]

>>6274268
OP here. I've heard similar things, that's why I decided to end with Oblivion, if not IJ.

Did anyone like the short story Forever Overheard in Brief Interviews?

The ending is just whatever, but that's only a paragraph. The rest of it is really well fucking done and it was hard for me to choke down the rest of the book when compared to that near first story.

I don't understand how he couldn't reproduce stories like that.
>>6274302
Yeah people say that but I don't really pay attention to stuff like that

[Anonymous No.6274411]

A supposedly fun thing is hilarious. The story about the hippie chick in brief interviews is great. Most of his stuff is funny. Do you not like funny?

[Anonymous No.6274425]

>>6274411
I didn't find it funny whatsoever.

The Brief Interview with the hippie chick who is getting raped and is trying to channel her energy to not get killed was really forced. It felt bizarre to read because of how forced it was.

[Anonymous No.6274448]

>>6274425

You seem like a penal colony kinda guy.

[Anonymous No.6274479]

>>6274448
>>6274448
Do you mean Kafka's short story or that I'm a no a fun person?

Because if it's the second, then I'm about to blow that small mind of yours
There is more than one kind of sense of humor

[Anonymous No.6274874]

Forever Overhead would be my least-favorite of his short work, so it's pretty cool that people like it here.

[Anonymous No.6275021]

>>6274374
>I don't understand how he couldn't reproduce stories like that.

He could have, but it was one of his least ambitious stories. Most quality writers could comfortably churn out stuff like that, but they need to aim higher for greatness.

[Anonymous No.6275026]

>>6274479
I think he means that you remind him of genital herpes.

[Anonymous No.6275575]

I'm reading brief interviews right now. It's good and I really like his thoughts on the self-serving nature of therapy but it's so fucking pretentious. Constantly looking up latin and french phrases is so annoying I don't think I could ever stomach Jest.

[Anonymous No.6275661]

>>6275575
>Constantly looking up latin and french phrases is so annoying I don't think I could ever stomach Jest.

He doesn't do this in IJ except with the quebec nationalists but you don't actually need to know the words he explains them. Gaddis and Pynchon are worse for this kind of shit as well with random german ot french or yiddish

[Anonymous No.6275698]

>>6275575
ive never read any of his other fictions, but Infinite Jest is super unpretentious compared with Joyce and Pynchon

[Anonymous No.6275715]

>>6273987

I like/dislike the same authors, I'll give you some recommendations

Because you liked Carver you should check out his contemporaries like Joy Williams, Ann Beattie, Fredrick Barthelme, Lydia Davis
Some more 'modern' short story writers you might enjoy: Elizabeth Ellen, Scott McClanahan, Taoi Lin, Richard Chiem, Noah Cicero

[Anonymous No.6275726]

>>6275575

as people said, you won't have a problem with any foreign language, I think some of it is Wallace's nonsense because my kindle doesn't recognize any of the words. you will mostly have to pay attention to word choice because some adjectives apply to multiple aspects of the story