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David Foster Wallace
| Critical Analysis #2 |
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David Foster Wallace |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
People, they are smaller than they're used to Being, aren't they? David Foster Wallace Thinks so. Wallace doesn't say it, not in Essays written for Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, Premier, or Harper's ― "Host" is Wildly post-post-something, wear your glasses When perusing that one. No, he doesn't Say it, not exactly. What he says is Nothing. Well, it's not exactly nothing, More like shifting focus, not to answer Something, but to ask about the question. On the other hand, an Updike novel, Dostoyevski criticism, Kafka's Subtle(?) humor frees his tracts to lecture Like the dogmatists on English usage. Genius, strictly speaking, edges further Than the rest, it takes us to a place of Different styles, insights, and thoughts, and Wallace Takes us there with comments, footnotes, "trust me" Moments, artifice designed for one but Leading to another genre. Clearly, Thomas Pynchon, small black letters on the Cover tell us Pynchon, is incorrect. Hunter Thompson comes to mind, his struggle Better shows us simultaneously Foil, merit, weakness, Wallace when he Writes about 'adult' extravaganzas, John McCain's two thousand tour workers, Pain and suffering in lobsters, women Watching footage after nine eleven. One can understand his hesitancy, Praise his candor, caution. Self-effacement After all is valued in our culture. Agonizing over steaming lobsters Versus seeing insects jumping ― seen once ― From a fire. Wondering if he was to Blame, kind of, for what went on that day. People, they are smaller than they're used to Being. David Foster Wallace thinks so. |
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| © Copyright 2007 Brad - All Rights Reserved | |||
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
I confess I read this quickly--I'm familiar with the ideas--er, somewhat. I'd have liked to have seen a presentation with a bit more acuity-- I wanted it to start with quotes, and interspersed with interruption--exhales of cigarettes, and the ringing finger of "another round here"--and a little thought put to the audience. I think I might understand why you did not--but I would have liked to have been acknowledged. And at least invited to see your etchings.  The mood was lovely and warmth and potentially dark--but I missed the overhead netting and candles stuck in chianti bottles. And yeah, that would be cliche', but sometimes cliche' is a comfort. I loved the intensity though. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Yes, I concede this one is tougher. While I think everything is there, the connections have to be made spatially, especially in the second half. Also, I know you're not a scanner (Who is, really? At least on the first read), but I made some very deliberate decisions in the second half to help you see the main point. But on the bright side, I'm pretty sure this is a first for me. At least for the majority of the poem. |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
I love the last line...but this reminded me much of internal dialogue, and that last line can either qualify or disqualify, depending. I would have preferred an "eavesdrop" just for some distance. It has a lonely feel to it, (I don't do scansion, so..pbbblllt) but the tone is akin to me as looking for verification in the bottoms. I like it though. It has intrigue, and intelligence, and is chromatic in ideation--at least the way I read it. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
quote: the tone of this decade for some. |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
Contra my dear David Foster Wallace. Some of us get it right. If that is, ever right/righteous? Do I always get it right ? Always, no one has ever complained yet. [This message has been edited by chopsticks (10-12-2007 09:04 AM).] |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
Serenity You don't need to scan the whole poem to figure out the stress-pattern Brad consistently used through his poem. In this case, just scan the first two syllables. Which syllable has the main stress and which doesn't? I think Brad uses it very well in this poem. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Ess, Thanks. Chop, I don't get it. Care to expand a bit? |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
Oh. This is one of those "I meant to get back to it" moments of mine. I really do like the poem, and normally I don't really care for the cerebral "over-my-head" stuff, but there's enough intrigue to it, even if it makes me feel stupid. |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
Don’t you want to wait until the intrigue runs out ? I do. I could be wrong. It started a few years back with Rush Limbaugh . Btw, I don't do scansion either, what ever that is. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Chop, Did you slog through 'Host'? The Rush comment implies that you did. No, 'Host' is not about Rush (and neither is the poem), but it is about the same business (but the poem is not). Karen, Should we keep some of the things you do read a secret?  [This message has been edited by Brad (10-13-2007 09:05 PM).] |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
*laughing* It all comes out "in the wash" anyway... Okay. I do read. Alot. Just not enough to suit me. It doesn't mean I'm a brainiac though. I'd have to retain it for that.  But okay-- Point goes to Brad. Sheesh.  (And hey, I haven't read Updike in years!<--guilty confession) |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Ah, confessions: I haven't read any of those 'guy' writers in years (and I'm pretty sure never for some): Updike, Roth, Mailer, and what's the other guys name. I do confess to liking Bellow however. |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
I love serendipity. I happen to be reading "Love Is Stronger Than Death" by Peter Kreeft. (*winks* to Stephan and *hugs*) But right here in the Introduction, I have just read: "I write today aobut death not because it is a timely topic, but because it is a timeless topic. What is timeless is always timely. The 'spirit of the times' is soon dated; what is most up to date is more quickly out of date, like a date itself. I seek, like Thoreau, to 'read not the Times; read the eternities.' If this sounds snobbish, it shouldn't; it is the opposite of snobbery. The merely avante-garde thinker is the real snob. The obejct of his snobbery is not the living but the dead, the great 'silent majority' of precontempory thinkers who are disenfranchised not by accident of birth but by accident of death. I want to extend the franchise; I want to practice what Chesterton called 'the democracy of the dead.' For most of what I have learned about death I have learned from the dead." And if that doesn't apply to your poem, it does address our conversation (or lack of) exchange about your poem. (Or this might be better addressed in a discussion forum, I dunno.) It does shed an interesting light on the subject though, methinks. So many books, so little Times?  |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
This might help: Considerthelobster I haven't checked but the cover picture is not quite the same as my copy. As far as I can tell, it doesn't have the Pynchon quote. When someone is a new, dynamic, or downright strange writer, Pynchon is the default. I chose Thompson instead (who is always used when drugs are the topic). ------------------- Karen, If I'm allowed to keep my coffee shop metaphor, it's important that the free flow of ideas remain. We aren't just talking about this poem, we're also setting up the next one. In other words, write whatever pops into your head. [This message has been edited by Brad (10-14-2007 12:07 AM).] |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
I knew what the poem was about when it first came out. I just threw in Rush for a little color. Considerthelobster was to big of a clue. I would have said, If Wallace don't break your heart with the lobster, wait until he writes about the chicken, how they electrocute them on a conveyor hanging upside down. When I cook a lobster he/she is dead in about a second + or - a mini second. Physicist : Violently boiling water at atmospheric pressure is only slightly hotter that gently boiling water at atmospheric pressure . That is good news for the lobster. Brad, if I cooked you, death would come in about a second. You may kick a couple of times but that would be involuntary . When you see the pictures on television of a summary executions, with a shot to the head , in some foreign country , how barbaric. At least in this country we lash them to a table and invite people in to watch . Btw Brad, it’s music to hear you say “ I don’t get it.” [This message has been edited by chopsticks (10-14-2007 07:28 AM).] |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
quote: Really, I don't get most of it, I guess most of the time. |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
"Really, I don't get most of it, I guess most of the time." That sounds a little bit like Abraham Lincoln; but I dont believe it, you are real clever. I was listening to Limbaugh once when he said, I don’t care how much a lobster sufferers when I throw it into a pot of hot water. I pulled to the side of the road and threw up . I have never listened to him again . |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
quote: Isn't that what got me in trouble here in the first place? But thanks Brad, and yes, naturally I employed Google to help me out a bit--but I'm afraid any further reading is gonna have to take a number. (Nice head y'got there, though.) |
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Ryan Member
since 1999-06-10
Posts 297Kansas |
when i saw "Host", i couldn't help but think of the South Korean monster movie i saw last spring of the nearly same name. and then the entire poem was tainted in that direction, but it worked. i liked that. |
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TomMark Member Elite
since 2007-07-27
Posts 2133LA,CA |
why a poem? I think that this is a "chopped" essay. What elements make this one by Brad a poem? |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
"What elements make this one by Brad a poem?" Could it be a poem, because he said it was ? Btw, I didn't say it was a good one. [This message has been edited by chopsticks (10-16-2007 09:49 AM).] |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Ryan, Ha! That completely slipped my mind. Though in my defense it was called 'Monster' in Korean. That first scene with the foreign doctor and the mumbling Korean assistant -- I might have been able to integrate that into the thing if I had remembered. TM, What makes a poem a poem? If I told you that it was in trochaic pentameter, would that make a difference? Should it? Believe it or not, it's supposed to sound like an essay. That was the intent. The dominant metaphor are the essays by Wallace and I thought, hey, why not try to do an essay on essays in a formal structure. One of the things I've got to do, however, is add footnotes (and then footnotes for my footnotes) as that is Wallace's thing -- and I think it would be funny as hell. As Chop correctly points out, none of that means you should like it. |
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TomMark Member Elite
since 2007-07-27
Posts 2133LA,CA |
thank you Brad. do you mean that its form made it a poem? So, anything with meters can be considered as a poem? may be you are right. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
Yes. When you look at any piece of writing, you form an expectation of what you are going to read before you read it. That determines, to some extent, how you are going to read it. It's not meter, however, it's the linebreak. Confusion always sets in, however, because the word poetry means two things and they tend to be mixed/muddled in our head. |
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