Introduction: A Living Transaction

Value, Ground, and Balancing Books

about Wallace's presumed quest for balance, and the way he tries to understand "value" (which is, itself, a multivalent term). the goal: a "culture-wide redemption of value" (p.31)

Come to Work

Capitalist Fantasies and the Quest for Balance in The Broom of the System

an exploration of Broom as an interrogation of work in this era of late capitalism and conspicuous consumption

New Deals

(The) Depression and Devaluation in the Early Stories

about Crash of '69 (a short story that I haven't actually come across yet), John Billy, Westward, and, briefly, London. examining their links to the Great Depression and the New Deal that followed. this chapter also mentions Graeber's Debt book

Dei Gratia

Work Ethic, Grace, and Giving in Infinite Jest

apparently Don Gately is the character who makes IJ a masterpiece (p.88). This chapter's all about IJ: the Protestant ethic when it comes to work, the critiques of neoliberalism and trade, the portrayal of addiction as slavery, the questioning of wealth as something inherently valuable. Some other topics covered: grace and redemption, gifts, and language being the ultimate commonwealth (p.127).

Other Math

Human Costs, Fractional Selves, and Neoliberal Crisis in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

• the title "Other Math" refers to a 3-page short story of DFW's from 1987 that was never collected (about a boy named Joseph who believes himself to be in love with his grandfather)
• the bulk of this chapter concerns Brief Interviews, and the dangers of applying the concept of cost to human relationships
• Adult World was influenced by the Asian stock market crash in 1997; one major theme in the story is the difficulty of defining moral values in an era of financialization
• covers Zadie Smith's work: her essay on DFW, as well as NW (and how it could be read as a tribute to DFW)

His Capital Flush

Despairing Over Work and Value in Oblivion

• Oblivion captures office cultures simultaneously infused with optimism and with the recent memory of economic downturns (like the dot com crash)
• set/written between 1999-2004
• by this point, DFW has pretty much given up faith in the power of the Protestant work ethic (p.165) - work is portrayed more as alienating than anything else
• medallions and coins are a recurring motif (a precursor to Pale King)
• another motif: the insurance industry (esp in Smithy)
• The Suffering Channel: anorexia; the anemic work of the Brat Pack; Skip as the protagonist (the only one who really finds any value in his work). also the fictional German conglomerate Eckleschafft-Böd Medien is supposed to be a reference to Bertelsmann AG.

E Pluribus Unum

Ritual, Currency, and the Embodied Values of The Pale King

• work's potential for codifying shared values
• cognitive labour based on attention--the true meaning of "pay attention"
• TPK set in the past, and the farmland--atavistic, nostalgic
• TPK as a direct response to Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
• mentions Egger's The Circle--apparently inspired by DFW
• Freud's psychic associations between blood and money
• coins embodying value (as a motif)

Conclusion

In Line for the Cash Register with Wallace

• the subtitle refers to the cash register analogy in TPK that was analysed at the end of the last chapter (which itself borrows from The User Illusion)
• DeLillo's White Noise is mentioned
• This Is Water is mentioned
• a few weeks before his suicide, DFW cancelled plans to attend the DNC to profile Barack Obama