Do you think DFW was a good professor? The syllabus of the course looks shit.
>>8115972
>420C Stevenson Hall
DUDE WEED LMAO
I think he tried to go for absolute basics to teach the principles of LA, which kind of makes sence.
>thinking he put any effort into teaching when all he wanted to do was write
It's not like he taught at a great school anyway
>marry higgins clark
dfw was the original avant-teen
I wonder how much he sweated while teaching
Posting the full stuff.
1/3
>>8116008
Too small to read you jerk
>>8116021
Just zoom it, it's the largest size available.
l live in Normal, IL, where Illinois State is located. I've walked around where he taught a bit, no plaques or anything.
>>8116048
Is it 'Corn, corn, corn, corn, Stuckey's, corn, corn, corn' ?
>>8116048
This is totally unsurprising. A lot of the people who knew him personally or interacted with him for extended periods of time seemed to have thought of him as an asshole.
As much as I've enjoyed the guy's books, he did seem like a total dip, t b h.
>>8116063
The town of Normal and City of Bloomington are right on top of each other and make up a metro area of probably a bit above 150K, so definitely not tiny and some development. Get outside of town and there's definitely corn all around. Chicago is about two hours, St. Louis about 2.5, so that's pretty nice. State Farm Insurance is headquartered here (I moved here to work for them) which is why it is developed. It's pretty boring sometimes but it's a white collar town with a lot of transplants due to SF and two universities so I've been able to find people. There a lot of Indian/Paki transplants, interestingly- they're easily the second largest demographic. The town is laden with a lot of smart people who don't give a shit about intellect and just want to go to church and raise their families.
If you want some insight into the area, read "The View from Mrs. Thompson's" which is collected in "Consider the Lobster." It was fascinating to have read that before moving here, and then pulling it out a few years after moving here.
>>8116075
When "The End of the Tour" came out, a couple of professors who worked with him did come on the local NPR station and do a fairly lengthy remembrance bit. When the local theater shows it, there was a pretty good turnout the night we went.
You may just need to teach somewhere longer than ten or so years and write bestsellers to get plaques, I don't know.
>>8116089
I've only read A Supposedly Fun Thing... so far but really enjoyed the stuff about Illinois and the Midwest. The other essays are definitely on the list.
>>8116013
Oh God, this is the kind of professor that fashions himself hip but stern. The one that understands what boils within these kids' minds, he gets it, he can help. Talk to me after class, kid, kid, there is a such-and-such proverb, you have great potential, don't be lazy, I see the spark - the kid nods, he yeahs, he wants to get out and have fun and he trained himself to appear smart just for middle-aged profs like this one, so easily tricked by the fascimile of unwoken genius. This prof - you meet him in a bar, he buys you a dring he says, not drink, this is his gimmick you see, your girl friend scrambles for an excuse and leaves, the apartment is open, parents are out fishing, godfuckingdamnit the chance is lost, yeah you nod and smile coy and drink your beer slowly because this guy doesn't want to talk to you, he saw Good Will Hunting or just imagined himself young and he goes and goes tritely and uselessly, another dring no thanks see you monday. This kind of professor.
>>8116104
Hey, not bad.
But by all accounts, DFW seems to have been ACTUALLY hip but stern. Is everything affect to you?
He had a pretty good syllabus with Omensetters Luck, James Baldwin and Speedboat, some sort of class for obscure narratives.
>>8116109
It's just word vomit, happens sometimes; from those papers, DFW seems like an alright or better prof. The fact that he btfo'd "young patricians" in advance - that they are not reading the novels for literary merit, the task is critique - speaks of that.
He taught at the school I go to while writing Infinite Jest. Refused to teach creative writing, taught a 100-level lit class and tried to teach Thomas Pynchon and William Gass.
Listening to his biography, just got to the part where he stalks a woman for not wanting to date him. Then he seriously tries to get a gun to shoot her husband but can't find one and that's probably the only reason he didn't kill the guy
>>8116100
Pretty sure it's meant to be like (s)he or s/he. It does seem pretty creepy without being puntuated in some way.
>>8116136
We must live in the same town, I met him once in a grocery store.
>>8116142
>Listening
>>8116100
"audience pussy"
>>8116075
"The first annual David Foster Wallace Conference was hosted by the Illinois State University Department of English in May 2014; the second conference was held in May 2015."
Okay so there's that. I didn't even hear about it or attend. Not even sure I could have as a non-student.
>>8116178
Emerson. I saw him at a grocery store once, as I said. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person and congratulated him on IJ and how it will probably outlive him, but I didn’t want to be a douche(although it was kind of douchey, i must admit) and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “Gonnatellmeboutweednow? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen snickers in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be busy and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the snickers and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to not submit myself to easy-delivered simplicity of tech” and then turned around and winked at me. After she scanned each candy bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by WARDINEBCRY really loudly.
>>8116178
Harvard
>>8116223
painfully unfunny
>>8116224
Good show
>>8116136
Lel how did that work out for him?
>>8116145
No. He literally said "she" or "her", as in, strictly feminine pronouns, repeatedly and consistently.
He does it a lot here http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/a-conversation-with-david-foster-wallace-by-larry-mccaffery/
>>8116227
Really? I like this pasta exactly because it is played out. In the beginning, it was supposed to be bait-and-switch - you see a common introduction, pretty regular and very unpastalike, but it quickly descends on you what are you reading. Now, of course, there is no bait-and-switch, but I like it even more: it's not supposed to prove anything, and is not a must-post answer to certain threads like "I live at your expense", it just exists in a vacuum. It is not funny; it is like an uncle telling you a story, which is unremarkable, for the hundredth time, something of a glory of the familiar.
>>8116178
Emerson. My poetry workshop professor knew him and said he was a dick, although Big Dave used to fuck his wife. He didn't have many friends in the faculty, from what I understand. Humorously enough, everyone I've met that says they like Big Dave at Emerson has read about 75 pages of IJ and dropped it. It's a school of pseuds, but the degree means more than a degree from UNH.
>>8116256
They told him "no" and he taught a standard syllabus.
>>8116266
this is even less funny
>>8116013
spell-check BTFO
Fuck a bitch - don't tease bitch, strip tease bitch: eat a bowl of these bitch, gobble the dick
Hoes forgot to eat a dick can shut the fuck up: gobble and swallow a nut up, shut up and get my cash
Backhanded, pimp-slapped backwards and left stranded: just pop ya collar - pimp convention, hoes for a dollar
Six-Deuce in a plush, six-deuce impala: pimping hoes from Texas to Guatemala
Bitch niggas pay for hoes, just to lay with hoes: relax one night, and pay to stay with hoes
Captain 'Save-'em-all-day', well save this dick: bitch nigga, you more of a bitch than a bitch
You ain't into hitting pussy or hitting the switch: you into hitting bitches all for the grip, you punk bitch!
- David Foster Wallace, 1999.
>>8116299
Lemme rephrase - every Emerson student I know that claims to like DFW has read 75 pages of IJ then stopped but they still say "wow he's a genius!"
I know a girl (also a huge cunt) who says the book is too difficult and that it's obvious DFW tried making it difficult on purpose. Now, I won't disagree that the book is difficult for someone who isn't a reader, but the girl was an English major. Shit is appalling.
>>8116166
>books on tape
I'm guessing
Is this verifiable? The compassion that comes across in IJ seems a bit at odds with the posturing sternness of this doc. Like, chill out mate you've not such a huge dick to be swinging there.
>>8116324
every school has stupid students, even ivies. dont be a jerk
My friend's father was a friend of DFW. She has a copy of CTL with an epigraph he wrote for her father. her father said he wasnt tremendously pleasant but seriously a genius
>>8116398
>mate
>you've
Fuck off you limey piece of shit. Go suck a dick for your TV license.
>>8116398
Yes, it has photos of his editions of the books in syllabus too.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2010/dfw/teaching/
>>8116401
Go vote in Trump faggot. Seriously it will turn our newspapers into my number 1 source of entertainment.
>>8116411
Cheers, interesting post.
It's a 102 course and is on intro analysis, what do you expect?
>>8116400
Ivies are majority-stupid, Anon.
>>8116447
>t. a boner-fide genius
>>8115972
>ENG 102
So....for freshman? But even for an intro class this is a fucking terrible syllabus.
I know he liked pop-culture fluff, but this is truly shit.
>>8116266
I feel sorry for you.
>>8115972
>Stephen King
>>8116383
>books on tape
>>8118251
>she
>gender neutral
lol shut the fuck up
I know he meant all readers, but don't you find it suspicious that le audience pussy man would use that sort of nomenclature?
>>8118286
Don't you get it? It's a grand literary statement, much like his suicide.
>>8118286
You do realize that when the sentence's subject's gender is unknown "he" is commonly used, in which case it is neutral too?
>>8118300
In the context of who he was, I'd say you're retarded.
>>8118318
>muh shitty /lit/ meme must survive at all cost
You uneducated people shouldn't be on /lit/, you peasants clog up my monocle
>>8118324
>>>/rbooks/
>Every student is _forbidden_ to keep herself from visiting Mr. Wallace in his office after each lecture in order to clear up whatever questions she may still have about the course material
>>8115984
>sence
>>8116145
i know he being a pc but it seem like a sex pervert no?
>you will never be in Wallace Reading Group 1 or 2
>>8116100
why would "she" be creepy and "he" not be?
>>8118251
he is already gender neutral
>>8116259
geez what a stalker. I bet he acted strange around the female students as well
>>8119345
Makes it seem like Wallace has a fetish or something that makes him imagine readers and writers as all female.
But in reality, that's not the case; he just means it as a neutral pronoun like s/he.
>>8119345
because he is going out of his way to appeal to the girls which is a perverty creepy thing to do
>>8119356
he would have added the / if he meant it that way
>>8119364
Then that's pretty creepy
>>8119374
There is literally nothing wrong with nailing PTP.
honestly that sounds like a great course
Seems like your everyday anal-sadistic 2nd tier university professor.
>muh liberal arts education
>muh having high expectations of a class people only take to punch their ticket and move on
DFW never left the classroom and it shows in his work t b q h.
>>8116317
Kurrupt young gotti.
>>8116089
>The town is laden with a lot of smart people who don't give a shit about intellect and just want to go to church and raise their families.
>smart people
>going to church
Pick one.
>>8118251
I've noticed the hilarious trend in analytic philosophy of using the generic "she" (and still overwhelmingly citing men, of course, so I assume the pronoun is a throwaway gesture of political allegiance).
If you refuse to use generic "he" on political grounds and refuse to use generic "one", at least learn how to into generic "they". It's all too obvious what an author is doing with generic "she", and God forbid the dual abominations "s/he" "her/him".
>>8119345
because Wallace is a hehe + she = he + she + baby - 9months
>>8119643
m'f'dora
>>8119643
Most people on the internet who give too much of a shit about the harm of religion aren't very smart.
>>8118296
Brutal
>>8118286
I actually use she and her whenever I can. I just find it catches people off guard
>>8119374
>>8119203
>>8116467
>>8116104
>>8116018
>>8116013
>>8116008
>pic related
Fuck, it was probably even on his syllabus until the department rejected it
>>8115972
His "Top Ten" list is all pop
http://www.toptenbooks.net/authors/david-foster-wallace
Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Ed McBain
Kind of a cool site btw
>>8119356
It totally was the case though. Have you actually read any of his books? Seen his interviews? It's abundantly clear that he had a really bizarre sexualized outlook on reading and writing where it was universally a lesbian endeavor.
>>8119803
That list was him pretending to be a "regular guy". He gave a "serious" one to someone else at some point and it wasn't that embarrassing.
>>8120043
jesus christ
>>8120058
He was autistic to the max about grammar (among other things). There's some video on youtube where he spergs out about something grammar-related too.
>>8116438
>it's another American-hating foreigner
God, get an identity of your own.
>>8119374
[citation needed]
>>8120027
Ya. Post the serious one? Curious
I think it's more about how you can narrate and utilize whatever you consume randomly - a writer should be able to make use of everything he reads. Any book is composed iof a myriad interpretations, all of which will help you write better. His list wants to show you an example on how to do it - properly commented.
>>8119643
Alot of smart people in small community's go to church because of the higher and smoother social cohesion it provides.
Learn to actually learn about things, and not just regurgitating false info from your latest atheist prophetizier. fucking zealot.
>>8115972
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=226583
>>8115972
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=266836
>>8116018
>Final'll
the madman.
>>8120235
Fresh off the presses
Fun fact: Paul Thomas Anderson (critically acclaimed director of There Will Be Blood) attended DFW's classes and had late night telephone conversations with him. This was before he dropped out of college.
>>8120043
>>8120058
>>8120076
Please stop hating correct grammar. It really is integral to keeping longer sentences from forcing readers to wrangle with endless ambiguities and confusing mistakes before finally allowing them to actually understand or at least guess at the underlying meaning.
It's really no fun whatsoever to sit confused trying to unravel the incohesive ramblings that come from people who can't communicate properly without the crutches that direct conversation provides, i.e. body language, the ability to receive and answer feedback immediately, intonation, etc.
>>8116239
>>8115972
It's an introduction to how a piece of fiction works. You wouldn't start by deconstructing Gravity's Rainbow, would you
>>8122208
Any good books on grammar? Genuinely curious, since English for foreigners books teach it quite different way I think.
>>8116136
He still eventually taught CW tho. In an interview he talked about students' stories and whatnot, how as a professor he learned more than the students, which is interesting.
>>8122264
I assume you're asking as a foreigner?
English is pretty much not taught at all to natives, at least in my experience in Australia, so most natives' grammar knowledge is solely intuitive and learned from others, whose own grammar is probably not perfect.
I personally learned more rigourously about English grammar in my high school German classes than anywhere else, since most concepts are very similar.
It also helped to read literature, because most literary texts are written with complex but correct grammar.
Any little doubts can generally be cleared up with a Google search.
But really I don't know about any specific grammar books.
>>8116100
It's a nineties convention to combat sexist language because referring to a group of mixed gender people always uses the male pronoun. The convention of using "they" is recent.
>>8116266
Keked hard
>>8122811
Ironically, it seems to have had the opposite effect. Though PC has always been a self-defeating endeavor.
>>8120318
>http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=266836
Very neurotic and tends to chew tobacco and spit in a cup while lecturing.
??? really
>>8120235
Very particular about usage. Excellent at explaining concepts. Very neurotic and tends to chew tobacco and spit in a cup while lecturing. If you are a female, do NOT fall under his spell...he's a heartbreaker.
>>8123149
Hal did shit like that in IJ so I guess he was basing that on himself. His books are all very autobiographical, actually.
>>8123201
That last bit sounds like he wrote it himself.
