Tag Archives: David Foster Wallace

The writer’s voice

By TF | Published: July 27, 2010
I have of late come across a number of recordings of authors reading their work and thought it prudent to gather the ones that interest me in one spot – for myself as much as anybody else. Discussions of how an author sounds are inevitable. But I would encourage listeners to take the time to [...]
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Public Library 15.7

By TF | Published: July 15, 2010
The Decisive Ones. The thing that interests me about the Middle East (a term I am far from comfortable with) so much is the fact that what is happening there is so far removed from my life and everyday experiences that it is almost unbelievable. I fear my interet is no more than the equivalent [...]
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Demanding more to teach us we’re smart again

By TF | Published: June 28, 2010
I think one of the insidious lessons about TV is the meta-lesson that you’re dumb. This is all you can do. This is easy, and you’re the sort of person who really just wants to sit in a chair and have it easy. When in fact there are parts of us…that are a lot more [...]
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Having a laugh – Timing in writing & comedy

By TF | Published: June 22, 2010
I have been thinking a lot about timing. This is relevant to writing because timing in writing is important. And I’ve been thinking about it because I am writing a novel. Timing, I have discovered, is different to rhythm. Or maybe it’s still rhythmic, just a different wave. Rhythm at a micro-level – sentence, paragraph, [...]
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Black miracle – Extract from Infinite Jest

By TF | Published: March 30, 2010
It now lately sometimes seemed like a kind of black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give [...]
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Public Library 17.3

By TF | Published: March 17, 2010
The David Foster Wallace Audio Project. DFW’s introductions are nervous and rambling. He begins, often, with an innocent joke. Some of the introductions are just like his writing: all encompassing, desperate to help you understand, for you to get a complete picture. Then he enters the writing and he is calm.  24/7 Relentless Careerism. “Now the path of the [...]
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Public Library 20.1

By TF | Published: January 20, 2010
The Pictures of War you Aren’t Supposed to See. Striking article by Chris Hedges about the impersonality of ‘industrial war’ (great term) and two new books of war photographs that tell a very different story to the media and Hollywood’s “mythic visions of war [which] keep it heroic and entertaining.” Via truth dig. The Real [...]
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I wish you way more than luck – extract from This is Water

By TF | Published: December 7, 2009
The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically [...]
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