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73

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

17
terms
5
notes

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

Foster Wallace, D. (2012). The Empty Plenum: David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress. In Foster Wallace, D. Both Flesh and Not: Essays. Little, Brown and Company, pp. 73-120

a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names

74

These novels carve out for themselves an interstice between flat-out fiction and a sort of weird cerebral roman à clef.

—p.74 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

These novels carve out for themselves an interstice between flat-out fiction and a sort of weird cerebral roman à clef.

—p.74 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) in philosophy: a property (as redness) considered apart from things having the property; individual instances of subjective, conscious experience

77

the piquant qualia of a lived, albeit bizarrely lived, experience

—p.77 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

the piquant qualia of a lived, albeit bizarrely lived, experience

—p.77 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun; historical; law) the deliberate concealment of one's knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony; (literary) Harold Bloom's term for when strong writers misinterpret their literary predecessors so as to clear imaginative space for themselves

79

a sustained error that practically compels misprision

—p.79 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

a sustained error that practically compels misprision

—p.79 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago
80

A distinction of Frege, a Wittgenstein-era titan: to mention a word or phrase is to speak about it, w/ at least implicit quotation marks: e.g., "Kate" is a four-letter name; to use a word or phrase is to mention its referent: e.g., Kate is by default the main character of Wittgenstein's Mistress.

footnote 7. kinda interesting to think about

—p.80 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

A distinction of Frege, a Wittgenstein-era titan: to mention a word or phrase is to speak about it, w/ at least implicit quotation marks: e.g., "Kate" is a four-letter name; to use a word or phrase is to mention its referent: e.g., Kate is by default the main character of Wittgenstein's Mistress.

footnote 7. kinda interesting to think about

—p.80 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) an anatomical band or encircling ridge (plural: cingula)

80

flouts the ordinary cingula of "sense"

—p.80 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

flouts the ordinary cingula of "sense"

—p.80 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

referring to the verb "indite", which means to compose or write, or to treat in a literary composition

81

the conscious rendition of inditement not only rings true but serves essential functons

on Wittgenstein's Mistress

—p.81 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

the conscious rendition of inditement not only rings true but serves essential functons

on Wittgenstein's Mistress

—p.81 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago
83

[...] "I EXIST" is the signal that throbs under most voluntary writing--& all good writing. [...]

—p.83 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

[...] "I EXIST" is the signal that throbs under most voluntary writing--& all good writing. [...]

—p.83 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) previously mentioned / (verb) to mention previously

83

The other side of the prenominate 2-bind--the side rendered explicitly by WM's opening and close--is why people who write need to do so as a mode of communication.

—p.83 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

The other side of the prenominate 2-bind--the side rendered explicitly by WM's opening and close--is why people who write need to do so as a mode of communication.

—p.83 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

an invented term by DFW? split up?

86

Scholars tend to schizofy Wittgenstein, counterposing the "early" W of the Tractatus and the "late" W of the Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books, and Philosophical Investigations.

footnote 16

—p.86 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

Scholars tend to schizofy Wittgenstein, counterposing the "early" W of the Tractatus and the "late" W of the Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books, and Philosophical Investigations.

footnote 16

—p.86 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago
88

Mr. T. Pynchon, who has done in literature for paranoia what Sacher-Masoch did for whips, [...]

just a funny quote (apparently someone else who checked out the book thought so too--the passage is marked with a pencil)

(referring to Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life and for whom the term "masochism" was named

—p.88 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

Mr. T. Pynchon, who has done in literature for paranoia what Sacher-Masoch did for whips, [...]

just a funny quote (apparently someone else who checked out the book thought so too--the passage is marked with a pencil)

(referring to Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life and for whom the term "masochism" was named

—p.88 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) one of the letters adopted as books of the New Testament / (noun) a liturgical lection usually from one of the New Testament Epistles / (noun) letter, or a composition in the form of a letter

88

her objectless epistle "mirrors" it perfectly

referring to the text of WM (Kate's letter)

—p.88 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

her objectless epistle "mirrors" it perfectly

referring to the text of WM (Kate's letter)

—p.88 by David Foster Wallace
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago
89

The basic argument here is that Mr. Markson, by drawing on a definitive atomistic metaphysics and transfiguring it into art, has achieved something like the definitive anti-melodrama. He has made facts sad. For Kate's existence itself is that of an atomic fact, her loneliness metaphysically ultimate. Her world is "empty" of all but data that are like the holes in a reticular pattern, both defined & imprisoned by the epistemic strands she knows only she can weave. [...]

just a nice passage

—p.89 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

The basic argument here is that Mr. Markson, by drawing on a definitive atomistic metaphysics and transfiguring it into art, has achieved something like the definitive anti-melodrama. He has made facts sad. For Kate's existence itself is that of an atomic fact, her loneliness metaphysically ultimate. Her world is "empty" of all but data that are like the holes in a reticular pattern, both defined & imprisoned by the epistemic strands she knows only she can weave. [...]

just a nice passage

—p.89 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) intricate / (noun) a mass of nerve cells and fibers situated primarily in the brain stem and functioning upon stimulation especially in arousal of the organism

90

Her world is "empty" of all but data that are like the holes in a reticular pattern

probably means "intricate" here

—p.90 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

Her world is "empty" of all but data that are like the holes in a reticular pattern

probably means "intricate" here

—p.90 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) the study of versification / (noun) the systematic study of metrical structure / (noun) a particular system, theory, or style of versification / (noun) the rhythmic and intonational aspect of language

90

range from classical prosody to Dutch oils to Baroque quartets

—p.90 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

range from classical prosody to Dutch oils to Baroque quartets

—p.90 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) highly pertinent or appropriate; apt

91

of the survival strategies apposite one's existence as monad in a world of diffracted fact

—p.91 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

of the survival strategies apposite one's existence as monad in a world of diffracted fact

—p.91 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and often by lack of motivation, feelings of inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms

93

the neurasthenia of Descartes's Meditations

on solipsism and whether or not facts exist outside one's head

—p.93 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

the neurasthenia of Descartes's Meditations

on solipsism and whether or not facts exist outside one's head

—p.93 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago
99

[...] what's less clear and way richer is the peculiar slant "omniresponsibility" takes when the responsible monad in question is historically passive, per- and & conceived as an object and not a subject--i.e., when one is a woman, who can effect change & cataclysm not as an agent but merely as a perceived entity ... perceived by historically active testosteroids whose glands positively gush with agency. To be an object of desire (by hirsute characters), speculation (by hirsute author), oneself the "product" of male heads & shafts is to be almost Classically feminized, less Eve than Helen, responsible without freedom to choose, act, forbear. The (my) terribly blanket assumption here is that received perceptions of women as moral agents divide into those of Hellenic and those of Evian (Eve-ish) responsibility [...]

on Kate

—p.99 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

[...] what's less clear and way richer is the peculiar slant "omniresponsibility" takes when the responsible monad in question is historically passive, per- and & conceived as an object and not a subject--i.e., when one is a woman, who can effect change & cataclysm not as an agent but merely as a perceived entity ... perceived by historically active testosteroids whose glands positively gush with agency. To be an object of desire (by hirsute characters), speculation (by hirsute author), oneself the "product" of male heads & shafts is to be almost Classically feminized, less Eve than Helen, responsible without freedom to choose, act, forbear. The (my) terribly blanket assumption here is that received perceptions of women as moral agents divide into those of Hellenic and those of Evian (Eve-ish) responsibility [...]

on Kate

—p.99 by David Foster Wallace 7 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) producing no useful result; futile / (adjective) being at leisure; idle / (adjective) lacking use or effect; functionless

100

because both unsubtle & otiose reminder of gender)

on the constant references to Kate's menstruation

—p.100 by David Foster Wallace
unknown
7 years, 6 months ago

because both unsubtle & otiose reminder of gender)

on the constant references to Kate's menstruation

—p.100 by David Foster Wallace
unknown
7 years, 6 months ago

(verb) depict or describe in painting or words; suffuse or highlight (something) with a bright color or light

102

this community being nothing other than sexual society as limned by the males who scripture & epic

—p.102 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

this community being nothing other than sexual society as limned by the males who scripture & epic

—p.102 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) an anatomical band or encircling ridge (plural: cingula)

106

history & data & the cingulum of Just the Facts, Ma'am

referring the U.S.'s experience with myth-making and myth-worship

—p.106 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

history & data & the cingulum of Just the Facts, Ma'am

referring the U.S.'s experience with myth-making and myth-worship

—p.106 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

a feeling of melancholy and world-weariness; coined by German author Jean Paul

112

weltschmerz as opposed to naïveté or hubris

—p.112 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

weltschmerz as opposed to naïveté or hubris

—p.112 by David Foster Wallace
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) the scope, extent, or bounds of something

113

But recall to this abstraction's ambit prenominate stuff

—p.113 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

But recall to this abstraction's ambit prenominate stuff

—p.113 by David Foster Wallace
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago