Little expressionless animals

Luckily the account representative knew CPR

Girl with curious hair

Lyndon

John Billy

Here and there

My appearance

Say never

Everything is green

short chat between a man and a woman, Mayfly? idk

Westward the course of empire takes its way

§1

pastrol. the grass description

§2

claude sylvanshine arrives in Peoria

§3

what do you think of when you masturbate (convo at IRS center, presumably)

§4

news bulletin about an IRS worker (Frederick Blumquist) dead for four days

§5

about a young boy who everyone hates because he's too, idk, obedient, naive, "good"

§6

Lane Dean Jr and his gf. reminiscent of Hills Like White Elephants. republished as Good People

§7

Sylvanshine in the vehicle that used to belong to Mister Squishee

§8

Toni Ware's backstory

§9

Author's Foreword

the "author" explaining that it's all true. about how he got paid to write essays for other people in college, then got expelled, then ended up joining the IRS

§10

two short paragraphs: "The bureaucracy is not a closed system; it is this that makes it a world instead of a thing."

§11

weird, jargon-filled internal IRS memo listing various types of medical conditions associated with prolonged IRS posting

§12

Stecyk saying hello to a neighbour and this is really the most cringe-worthy scene in the whole book

§13

David "Sweatman" Cusk and his superhero origin story

§14

the IRS interviewing employees (transcripts, with empty Q's, as in Brief Interviews)

§15

Claude Sylvanshine being a fact psychic (this chapter is clearly about the overwhelming amount of information we all face in this era of late capitalism)

§16

Lane Dean Jr. goes on his break and wants to flap his arms

§17

a short monologue (unnamed speaker) on IRS employees as small-h heroes

§18

from the filmed IRS interviews, someone talking about Desk Names (Mike Hunt, Phil Mypockets, etc)

§19

elevator convo about civics and selfishness

§20

Toni Ware moves into a new neighborhood and scares her neighbor

§21

Some unnamed IRS employee confronts an unnamed entrepreneur who has been falsifying his W2s

§22

Chris Fogle on his conversion from nilhilism

§23

(unnamed) first-person recounting of a dream about boredom?

§24

another Author Here section. about his arrival for intake processing (sitting next to David Cusk, special welcome from Ms. Neti-Neti)

§25

two columns. people turn pages, etc

§26

third-person narrator on ghosts in the IRS office

§27

Third person. David Cusk is in orientation and imagines that the woman behind him is unspeakably gorgeous. Sylvanshine is in the same room. David Wallace is in a different room (for the Alternative Tax/Shelters Immersive Group)

§28

10 Laws of IRS Personnel

All GS-9 Examiners want to be GS-11 Examiners, etc

§29

people talking about shit (Fat Marcus the Moneylender)

§30

convo at the IRS office with Claude, Reynolds, etc about Glendenning and various other employees.

§31

weird short one about someone named Shinn leaving the IRS van? ends with him ruminating on what birds are really saying

§32

first-person, on the phone with his sister Julie, asking her to do an impression from The Exorcist (i think)

§33

third-person, about Lane Dean Jr in the absolute depths of boredom in the wiggle room. ghost shows up

§34

one paragraph from an internal memo about the AMT formula

§35

the group manager's fierce infant. first-person but unnamed narrator

§36

the boy who tries to press his lips to every square inch of his body

§37

awkward convo between a Russell and an unnamed speaker at a restaurant

§38

third-person, explaining the bug that conflated the two David Wallaces in the IRS' systems

§39

ostensibly about Claude but really focuses on Leonard Stecyk's backstory (the severed-thumb incident)

§40

David Cusk is enumerating his (water-based) fears in a therapist's office

§41

dialogue between Charlie? and an unnamed speaker about sending Cardwell to get 'him'?

§42

people talking about drugs (incl "Colorado Todd")

§43

first person, by David Wallace. about a terrorist attack in another IRS center

§44

first person, unnamed narrator who spent two summers as a cart boy in the Peoria office at 21/22: "I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy." (437) "If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish." (438)

§45

about Toni's mom and playing dead. "this girl is damaged goods"

§46

third person. happy hour at Meibeyer's. Meredith Rand and Shane Drinion talk about her beauty and her institutionalization.

§47

Toni Ware investigating some gas station? don't really understand the context but it's beautifully written

§48

someone (Sylvanshine?) talking about the picnic with some special agents from Chicago. don't really get this one

§49

Fogle being coached by Reynolds and Sylvanshine for his meeting with Dr Lehrl (Blue Devils)

§50

really weird but kinda poetic. second-person? in an office, being told you do have a body

Notes and Asides

a sample of the notes DFW left that weren't incorporated in the main text

Big Red Son

investigative journalism piece for Premiere magazine in 1998 about the AVN Awards (i.e., for pornographic movies). Originally published under a pseudonym.

Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think

Re John Updike's Toward the End of Time

about John Updike's tendency to write protagonists who are all the same sort of guy and really just reflections of himself, and how sometimes Updike has moments where he's able to write really great prose but lately it's all been the same narcissistic crap

Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed

From a speech given in March at "Metamorphosis: A New Kafka," a symposium for celebrating a new translation of The Castle. 1999. loved this one.

Authority and American Usage

or, "Politics and the English Language" is Redundant

in praise of Bryan A. Gardner's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage and his masterful blend of the prescriptivist and descriptivist. so good

The View from Mrs. Thompson's

about 9/11 as experienced from DFW's community in Bloomington, Illinois

How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart

about the horribly written (ghost-written) sports memoir by tennis player Tracy Austin (Beyond Center Court: My Story), and what it tells us about the choice top athletes must make between their athletic prowess and their intellect

Up, Simba

Seven Days on the Trail of an Anticandidate

an investigative journalism piece for Rolling Stone in 1999 in which he trailed John McCain's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination (which of course he lost to Bush Jr). very long and very good

Consider the Lobster

an investigative journalism piece about the Maine Lobster Festival held every July that turns into a metaphysical inquiry into the ethics of boiling creatures alive so we can eat them

Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky

a review of a five-volume study of Dostoyevsky's life and times and writing, written by Comparative Lit professor at Princeton Joseph Frank. interspersed with agonising metaphysical questions within asterisks that aren't explained until later on in the text (and only as an aside on p271). loved this one

Host

this was a massive bitch to read because of the crazy footnote scheme. about John Ziegler, a sort of former Rush Limbaugh figure (radio personality in Southern California). makes some good points about the political landscape at the time (points that are still relevant today) but it was hard to enjoy this piece that much just because of the format.

Federer Both Flesh and Not

on the unparalleled kinetic beauty of Roger Federer. well-written even if I personally don't really care for tennis

Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young

Published 1998, written late 1987. On the recent spate of "Conspicuously Young" writers (aka the Brat Pack): Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero, David Leavitt's Family Dancing, Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City. How they were initially lauded by the media, then derided by it for being empty, trashy, etc. DFW explores the temporal reasons their writing has a tendency to be this way and why it's important to overcome it

The Empty Plenum: David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress

written in 1990. an adulatory review of David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress that briefly discusses Wittgenstein's theories. lovely to read.

Mr. Cogito

a one-page review of the English translation of Zbigniew Herbert's Mr. Cogito (Polish book of poems). DFW considers him one of the best living poets, and definitely the best of the postmodern poets

Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open

an investigative journalism piece on the 1996 U.S. Open. some funny moments but nothing special

Back in New Fire

short but interesting, though it felt weird without the context. about AIDS, and how the erotic will really only exists because of impediments (the knight's desire for the maiden in the castle is heightened by the presence of the dragon, etc)

The (As It Were) Seminal Importance of Terminator 2

from 1998. about the release of Terminator 2. no real takeaways

The Nature of the Fun

short but great (and very relevant) one about writing! starts off with a metaphor from Don DeLillo's Mao II (writing a book is like having a hideous infant following you around).

Overlooked: Five direly underappreciated U.S. novels >1960

• Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass
• Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
• Angels by Denis Johnson
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson

Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama

about how math has found its way into popular culture and entertainment (see: Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, etc). reviews two math genre books: The Wild Numbers by Philibert Schogt (apparently awful) and Uncles Petros & Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis (apparently less awful). both, however, have a problem with defining their audience (i.e., it's unclear for whom the books are written: people who love math? people who know nothing about math?). mostly just DFW showing off how much he knows about math, but not terrible.

The Best of the Prose Poem

a fairly silly book review where he makes a bulleted list of things he wants to say about The Best of The Prose Poem in order to get in under the word limit. mostly just him belittling the idea of a prose poem and the contributors to the volume (possibly deserved, idk) while praising a few of them (Jon Davis, David Ignatow, and some others)

Twenty-Four Word Notes

• Utilize: don't use it
• If vs whether
• Pulchritude: stupid word
• Toward (US) vs towards (UK)
• That vs which / that vs whom
• Effete's connotations
• Dialogue is not a verb
• Privilege as a verb: only in academic environments (the sort DFW doesn't like)
• Myriad: may or may not be followed by an of (people disagree)
• Dysphesia: appropriate for GWB
• Unique is an incomparable
• Beg the question: only in the case of petitio principii
• "To criticize" over "to critique" despite its present negative connotations
• Focus: not sure what his point is here
• Impossibly: an adverb that can only modify adjectives
• Individual: not a synonym for person unless you're a bureaucracy
• Fervent: synonymous with ardent; weaker than fervid (and perfervid)
• Loan: not a verb (lend)
• Feckless: instead of effete
• All of: usually unnecessary (note 510)
• Bland: historically different meaning
• Noma: icky
• Hairy: enumerating the many words used to describe hair (I zoned out)

Borges on the Couch

a book review of Borges: A Life by Edwin Williamson, but really an excuse to talk about the genius of Jorge Luis Borges and how it's silly to try and relate everything in his work to his life story (as Williamson does in the biography)

Deciderization 2007--A Special Report

intro to The Best American Essays 2007. explaining the general process of choosing essays and also describing how the current political sentiment has influenced his choices

Just Asking

very short. about 9/11 and whether the lives lost are "sacrifices on the altar of freedom" (Lincoln's words) the same way car accidents are an acceptable trade-off for the convenience of cars. i basically agree with everything he says here

1

1981

Lenore visits Mount Holyoke as a 15-year-old and is confronted with the full force of toxic masculinity (i.e., Biff Diggerence and Andrew Lang asking them to sign their bottoms)

2

1990

Rick tells Lenore a story about second-order vanity

3

1990

Lenore Sr. is missing. The phone lines at Frequent and Vigorous are mixed up. Rick has a dream about Queen Victoria. the shape of East Corinth (as Jayne Mansfield) is revealed.

4

1972

a transcript detailing the creation of the Great Ohio Desert (basically it's because people were getting too soft)

5

1990

Rick explains his life story (Mindy, Vince, Lenore) in POV subsections interspersed with the plot (i.e., Lenore answering phones)

6

1990

Norman Bombardini has 9 steaks while Rick and Lenore watch in horror

7

1990

Vlad the Impaler starts to speak (very inappropriately); Rick tells Lenore a story about a man with a temper problem and a woman who overeats and their greedy therapist (they eventually all die); Lenore finds Mrs. Yingst's walker in her room

8

1990

transcript between Dr. Jay and Lenore in which Lenore expresses her anxiety about words and language; Rick begins the Fiedbinder collection; Rick has a dream about a hotel room with no sheets on the bed, which he tells Dr Jay; Lenore meets Mr. Bloemker's inflatable doll, Brenda

9

1990

Lenore finally talks to her father, who explains what's going on re: Gramma and the pineal gland experiment

10

1990

Lenore visits Clarice Spaniard and watches Kopek Spasova and then the Spaniard family theatre performance; Rick continues the Fieldbinder collection and has a dream about infinite urine streams; Rick is offered a generous contract from Stonecipheco in exchange for allowing Lenore to visit her brother

11

1990

Andy leaves Mindy; Rick tells Lenore a story about a man who falls in love with a woman a toad in her neck (she dies); John LaVache is revealed to think of himself as a game show contestant; Lenore and Rick arrive at Amherst; Rick tells the story of his first and only attempt at approaching a woman (Janet) at a hors d'oeuvre bar, which ended with a Ritz cracker and bologna landing on Janet's nose; Lenore watches LaVache support his leg; Rick meets Andy Lang at The Flange, which is now a gay bar, and discovers Andy's coincidental experience on Corfu; LaVache shows Lenore the drawing of a man climbing a slope.

12

1990

On the jet, Rick tells Andy the tragic tale of Lenore's family while she sleeps; Lenore et co meet Reverend Hart Lee Sykes.

13

1990

Rick tells Lenore his fear of Andy taking Lenore away

14

1990

Candy tells Lenore that Andy is into her; Neil Obstat and Andy discuss Lenore; Rick gives Lenore a promotion; Dr Jay gets instructions from Lenore Sr., via a proxy.

15

1990

The Fieldbinder collection story "LOVE", in which Monroe Fieldbinder tells the Slotniks about Mr. Costigan's obsession with their son

16

1990

Rick has a frightening dream involving Lenore, Andy, and urine; Lenore has a session with Dr Jay in which he pretends that he's a sperm cell; Lenore and Rick discuss the Fieldbinder story and its excess of wry grins; Rick has a session with Dr Jay in which he grows increasingly hostile; Rick decides that Lenore and Lang are inevitable; Rick exacts revenge on Dr Jay in his next Fieldbinder story; Candy and Mindy meet

17

1990

Lenore and Bloemker read to Concardine, who can only say "roughage"; Rick details the story of his fascination with Mindy Metalman, beginning with her at 13; Mindy explains to Candy her quest for a violet dress like the one Lenore had in chapter 1; Andy and Lenore fail to see Kopek Spasova; Mindy and Rick catch up and discuss Lenore and Andy; Andy comes clean (though probably manipulatively) to Lenore; Rick probably fails to satisfy Mindy; Lenore and Andy cuddle in a scene that's surprisingly sweet considering the rest of the book

18

1990

Andy and Neil (in a rowboat) follow Lenore and Rick as they trudge along the shores of a strangely situated lake in the middle of the desert; Lenore tries to talk to Rick but is instead forced to listen to an extremely allegorical story about a woman with no self esteem and a dentist who can only communicate by Morse code after an accident; Rick has perhaps transcended sanity at this point and handcuffs Lenore to himself, which Andy is able to easily rectify

19

1990

two sentences about Lenore rarely crying and Rick crying a lot

20

1990

Lenore returns to the office and is confronted with: Peter Abbott explaining the problem with the tunnels; Dr Jay warning about Norman Bombardini coming to eat Lenore; Bloemker, Alvin Spaniard, and Lenore's father all trying to get her attention

21

1990

a transcript of Vlad the Impaler helping Reverend Sykes to get donations; Rick is with Mindy and in a state of denial; Rick is a man of his

Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley

about playing tennis as a child in Philo, IL. 1990.

E Unibus Pluram

television and U.S. fiction

on television and irony, and the struggles faced by a fiction writer growing up in a hyperconsumerist culture, and the failings of postmodernism as a response to that. mentions My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist.

Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All

the Illinois State Fair essay. August 5, 1993.

Greatly Exaggerated

on H. L. Hix's Morte d'Author: An Autopsy (a Ph.D dissertation in literary theory). 1992. need to read the source and then re-read this

David Lynch Keeps His Head

on Lost Highway (really weird film with Patricia Arquette and lizards) and why David Lynch is a genius. DFW gets to visit the set but doesn't interview David Lynch. his main reason for liking his films is the bothness factor (characters can be both good and bad). for Premiere magazine. 1995.

Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness

on a very capable but apparently not especially intelligent tennis player named Michael Joyce from LA. about the sacrifice professional athletes have to make for their craft. really sad, and veering on mean-spirited tbh. DFW has said that he regrets the tone and liberties he took with this one, especially since he got to know Michael Joyce pretty well. 1995.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

the famous cruise ship essay. March 11 to 18, 1995. really about sadness and loneliness and this ridiculous idea that you can ever defeat desire by submitting to it

Mister Squishy

The Soul is Not a Smithy

Incarnations of Burned Children

Another Pioneer

Good Old Neon

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Oblivion

The Suffering Channel

A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life

two paragraphs about a man and a woman who meet and care more about being liked than about liking

Death Is Not the End

basically one long sentence about an old and distinguished poet and his disgustingly decadent life. not fun to read but very ripe for analysis

Forever Overhead

boy turns 13 and climbs up the diving board (as a metaphor for puberty, etc)

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

• 14, St. Davids PA: guy who has to shout "Victory for the Forces of Democratic Freedom"
• 15, Bridgewater MA (institution): guy whose father had anger management issues so he had to be gagged
• 11, Vienna VA: Q's bf or exbf hating that he's on eggshells all the time (due to Q, in his POV, being overly paranoid?) and thus leaving Q because of her fears that he'll leave
• 3, Trenton NJ: overheard dialogue about a guy who sees a stood-up girl at an airport and guess what he does
• 30, Drury UT: guy who married someone who had a good body even after giving birth and is now worried about how that looks to Q
• 31, Roswell GA: a guy talking about "Great Lovers" being another type of notcher--selfish about being generous--while giving Q weed
• 36: Aurora IL (domestic violence center): on how his victim was clearly just playing the victim and he was unable to change her, so he got help for himself

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (xi)

guy who dreams about being blind

The Depressed Person

such a bitch to read but so, so real

The Devil is a Busy Man

first person, about "Daddy" and how he would sell things for $5 or $10

Think

a man being seduced by the younger sister of his wife's college roommate but he can't because it feels too artifical

Signifying Nothing

first person, a guy who remembers his father wagging his dick at him one day when he was 8 or 9, but his dad steadfastly denies it. idk if i like the ending

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

• 40, Benton Ridge OH: the guy with the arm (the Asset)
• 42, Peoria Heights IL: his father worked as a hotel bathroom attendant
• 2, Capitola CA: some guy telling Q that he's worried she'll get hurt because he wants her to fall in love with him more than he wants to fall in love with her. this one resonated with me in a pretty uncomfortable way
• 48, Appleton WI: the pretentious af guy who talks about chicken-sexing and bonded play and then weeping
• 51, Fort Dodge IA: short one; guy worries that he won't be able to get it up (I assume) but then he does
• 19, Newport OR: some guy trying to hit on Q by telling her she's smart
• 46, Nutley NJ: the Holocaust/bottle rape guy

Datum Centurio

set in the future. definitions of the word "date" in a much more technocratic world. didn't care for this one

Octet

LOVED THIS ONE. Pop quizzes.

• 4: two drug addicts sharing a coat; which one lives?
• 6: X and Y are close friends but then something happens and X stops being friendly but Y keeps cuckily hanging around; ends with the author concluding this is a bad question
• 7: mother gives up custody of her child to ensure the child has a trust fund
• 6(a): X's father in law, whom X hates, dies, and he weeps at his funeral due to his distress at how bad it looks to hate his father-in-law. (A) how does he eulogize him; (B) evaluate X being angry at his wife for not catching on despite him making every effort to prevent her from catching on
• 9: you are DFW and trying to make the reader feel something. this one is like 90% footnotes. ends with "So decide."

Adult World (I)

Jeni worries that her forex trader husband isn't happy with their sex life despite all evidence to the contrary, and has unsettling dreams about the two of them (involving ambulances, sneezing, and the like), resulting in her turning to her ex-boyfriend (who realises he still loves her). a warning about the dangers of solipsism

Adult World (II)

written as notes/schemata. ex proposes they have a tryst, Jeni just goes home and realises that her husband is a chronic masturbator. not a huge fan of this one or its overly deconstructive nature

The Devil is a Busy Man

first-person narrator does a charitable thing and really wants no one to know about it and in fact goes to such extremes to ensure no one knows about it because of, essentially, second-order vanity

Church Not Made With Hands

for E. Shofstahl, 1977-1987

about a ten-year-old girl named Esther who drowns, interspersed with her stepfather(?) Day and Eric Yang (good at rotating). really beautifully written though i'd have to re-read it to make more sense of it

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (vi)

Reconstructed Transcript of Mr. Walter D. ("Walt") DeLasandro Jr.'s Parents' Marriage's End, May 1956

very short, just dialogue. they flip a coin for custody of their son

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

• 59, Eastchester NY: guy who watched Bewitched a lot and as a result had this fantasy of freezing time, but then got lost in the logical and metaphysical paradoxes thereof (loved this)
• 72, North Miami Beach FL: guy who loves women and ends with "oh no not again behind you look out!" wat
• 28, Ypsilanti MI: dialogue between two guys talking about what women want (i.e., to be rescued)

Tristan: I Sold Sissee Nar To Ecko

Ovid's Metamorphoses set in Hollywood? I don't know enough about the source material so I didn't really get this one

On His Deathbed, Holding Your Hand, The Acclaimed New Young Off-Broadway Playwright's Father Begs a Boon

a sort of play, written in the second person, about a father on his deathbed (visibly and eventfully about to die) who hated his sickly son for occupying his wife's attention. you (the son) interject near the end (cruelly): "But Father it's me. Your own son. All of us, standing here, loving you so."

Suicide as a Sort of Present

about a mother who hated her child and also herself for hating her child and i don't really know tbh. i guess the child commits suicide

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

• 20, New Haven CT: Crunchy Granola story that devolves into him insulting Q: "Judge me, you chilly cunt. You dyke, you bitch, cooze, cunt, slut, gash. Happy now?"

Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (xxiv)

no clue what this one is about. narrator is in a kitchen, with his (?) family, his brother making a face?

/Solomon Silverfish/*

by David Foster Wallace

The interview

by David Foster Wallace

Introduction

The Planet Trillaphon as it Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing

wish I could write like this when I was in college

1

—also in The Broom of the System

5 /a/

—also in The Broom of the System

11 /c/

—also in The Broom of the System

Little Expressionless Animals

—also in Girl with Curious Hair

My Appearance

—also in Girl with Curious Hair

Year of Glad

Infinite Jest

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Infinite Jest

"In the eighth ..."

Infinite Jest

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Infinite Jest

Autumn--Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland

Infinite Jest

As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Infinite Jest

Winter B.S. 1960--Tucson Az

Infinite Jest

"Here is how..."

Infinite Jest

"But there's this ..."

Infinite Jest

"If by the ..."

Infinite Jest

"The bathroom has ..."

Infinite Jest

14 November

Infinite Jest

8 November

Infinite Jest

Winter, B.S. 1963 Sepulveda CA

Infinite Jest

"It is starting ..."

Infinite Jest

"As at all ..."

Infinite Jest

"And re Ennet ..."

Infinite Jest

"Joelle used to ..."

Infinite Jest

11 November

Infinite Jest

"The ceiling was ..."

Infinite Jest

Notes and Errata

Infinite Jest

A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life

—also in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

B.I. #14

—also in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

B.I. #40

—also in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Forever Overhead

—also in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

The Depressed Person

—also in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Good Old Neon

—also in Oblivion

Incarnations of Burned Children

—also in Oblivion

The Suffering Channel

—also in Oblivion

§1

—also in The Pale King

§5

—also in The Pale King

§6

—also in The Pale King

§8

—also in The Pale King

§9

—also in The Pale King

§33

—also in The Pale King

§36

—also in The Pale King

English 64A

Teaching Materials

English 170R, Spring 2003

Teaching Materials

English 183A, Fall 2004

Teaching Materials

English 183D, Spring 2008

Teaching Materials

English 183A, Your Liberal-Arts $ at Work

Teaching Materials

Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley

—also in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

E Unibus Pluram

—also in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All

—also in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

—also in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

The Nature of the Fun

—also in Both Flesh and Not: Essays

Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed

—also in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Authority and American Usage

—also in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

The View from Mrs. Thompson's

—also in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Consider the Lobster

—also in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Federer Both Flesh and Not

—also in Both Flesh and Not: Essays

Quo Vadis--Introduction

by David Foster Wallace

The Fictional Future

by David Foster Wallace

excerpt from fictional futures and the conspicuously young

LOVE: Little Expressionless Animals

by David Foster Wallace —also in Girl with Curious Hair