"That is Not Wholly True" Notes on Annotation in David Foster Wallace's Shorter Fiction (and Non-Fiction) | Bookmarker

This is a personal project by @dellsystem. I built this to help me retain information from the books I'm reading.

Source code on GitHub (MIT license).

156

8

terms

1

notes

on his footnotes. pretty interesting given the limited nature of the topic. the title refers to section 594, when the green hedges are mentioned as being unlike anything else on Earth (Jeffrey Severs' reading takes it to mean that it's like money). on the footnotes in Supposedly continuing the theme of waste management, and annotation to incur reader annoyance in Depressed Person (as a form of critique), and how footnote usage decreases in Oblivion compared to BI (with Good Old Neon's single footnote being a notable counterexample).


        ? (2015). "That is Not Wholly True" Notes on Annotation in David Foster Wallace's Shorter Fiction (and Non-Fiction). In Hering, D. Consider David Foster Wallace. Sideshow Media Group, pp. 156-171

(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

160

Wallace is a master at balancing where to place notes, always minding the prosody of his prose.

—p.160 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

Wallace is a master at balancing where to place notes, always minding the prosody of his prose.

—p.160 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

161

The second example is footnote 119, a brief comment on the clause "guys in the Guy division have to slide out on a plastic telephone pole slathered with Vaseline (336-7). The footnote inserts a laconic "(the pole)", which combines rhetorical distance with a boundless "drive for disambiguation" to maximize a humorous effect: it is the note itself that sparks the question who or what was slathered with Vaseline.

on Supposedly

—p.161 missing author 7 years, 5 months ago

The second example is footnote 119, a brief comment on the clause "guys in the Guy division have to slide out on a plastic telephone pole slathered with Vaseline (336-7). The footnote inserts a laconic "(the pole)", which combines rhetorical distance with a boundless "drive for disambiguation" to maximize a humorous effect: it is the note itself that sparks the question who or what was slathered with Vaseline.

on Supposedly

—p.161 missing author 7 years, 5 months ago

(noun) the language or speech pattern of one individual at a particular period of life

162

the real "problem" of the text is the way in which the narrator adopts and/or simulates the protagonist's subjective stance and idiolect.

on The Depressed Person

—p.162 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

the real "problem" of the text is the way in which the narrator adopts and/or simulates the protagonist's subjective stance and idiolect.

on The Depressed Person

—p.162 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

a word refers back to a previous word for its meaning

162

even when the anaphoric or cataphoric elements explained are at most semi-ambivalent

on the "(i.e., the therapist)" used in Depressed Person

—p.162 missing author

strange

7 years, 5 months ago

even when the anaphoric or cataphoric elements explained are at most semi-ambivalent

on the "(i.e., the therapist)" used in Depressed Person

—p.162 missing author

strange

7 years, 5 months ago

when a word in a text refers to another later in the text and you need to look forward to understand

162

even when the anaphoric or cataphoric elements explained are at most semi-ambivalent

—p.162 missing author

uncertain

7 years, 5 months ago

even when the anaphoric or cataphoric elements explained are at most semi-ambivalent

—p.162 missing author

uncertain

7 years, 5 months ago

(adjective) showing or pointing out directly / Deictic terms are words whose meaning shifts depending on the point of view of the speaker

163

in which the deictic element "here" assumes a double meaning and points both to the referred scene and the insertion's locutionary act itself

—p.163 missing author

uncertain

7 years, 5 months ago

in which the deictic element "here" assumes a double meaning and points both to the referred scene and the insertion's locutionary act itself

—p.163 missing author

uncertain

7 years, 5 months ago

(noun) a particular form of expression or a peculiarity of phrasing / (noun) a word or expression characteristic of a region, group, or cultural level / (noun) style of discourse; phraseology

163

in which the deictic element "here" assumes a double meaning and points both to the referred scene and the insertion's locutionary act itself

—p.163 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

in which the deictic element "here" assumes a double meaning and points both to the referred scene and the insertion's locutionary act itself

—p.163 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

the worship of words

166

the gaping trap of logolatry

quoting Goerlandt & Herman, from an essay on DFW

—p.166 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

the gaping trap of logolatry

quoting Goerlandt & Herman, from an essay on DFW

—p.166 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

(verb) to thrust out; extrude / (verb) to force or impose (as oneself or one's ideas) without warrant or request / (verb) to become unduly prominent or interfering; intrude

168

its notable absence of all forms of obtruding annotation

on PQ4 in Octet

—p.168 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago

its notable absence of all forms of obtruding annotation

on PQ4 in Octet

—p.168 missing author

notable

7 years, 5 months ago