How do you personally say DFW? I say it duff-wub.
>>8184610
>speaking verbally
>>8184610
dee-eff-double-yew
>>8184610
I say God.
Duh-fwuh
>>8184610
Tryhard. I hope you hate yourself.
>>8184610
D F Dubs
Doofwoo
>>8184638
How can I, in the liberating light of the writings of Duffwub?
I see a lot of people interested in IJ here. Some people are eager to jump in, others are intimidated. I've read the book about eleven times, so I just want say a few words and address people who are thinking about reading it or are just beginning.
Before you embark on your journey into the mind of a genius, you have to understand a few things that are very important. When we talk about David Foster Wallace, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. We can’t measure it. When it comes to Wallace-tier geniuses, the standard tests simply don’t apply. You see, Wallace could have entered any field he wanted. He was a real-life Will Hunting. He could’ve been a doctor or a lawyer, or both, if he wanted. He could’ve been a pioneer in physics. He could’ve been a codebreaker for the NSA. But no. He decided to be a writer. He decided to devote his life to aesthetic beauty and to illuminating for us the way to live. That was the beauty and the tragedy of his life. In one way, it’s a blessing to have been born in Wallace’s time, to be able to hear his voice in interviews, to hear him delivering his famous commencement speech, which is already transforming people both intellectually and spiritually. On the other hand, I will surely die before we know even half of the secrets buried within the labyrinth of Infinite Jest. That I consider a curse.
It’s been eighteen years since Infinite Jest was published and scholars have only begun to come to terms with its full implications. This is what you must understand. Wallace reverse-engineered not only the novel, but all of Western literature as well as language itself. Packed within Infinite Jest is Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, and everything else. Hell, it even serves as an overview of human history, from dawn to today. It’s a book you could spend a lifetime studying. A lifetime spent in bliss, no doubt. It would be more worthwhile to spend one’s life reading and rereading Infinite Jest than to achieve being “well-read” in the traditional sense.
I don’t say this to intimidate you, but to encourage you. You must understand that, on your first time through, you will not understand everything Wallace is trying to communicate to you. Don’t worry. He knew things about life that we won’t discover for decades. Your job is merely to get on the road. In the decades to come, we may, if we’re lucky, discover scientific applications for the new ways of thinking Wallace gave us. We may have to throw out science altogether. We simply don’t know. For now, we have to be content with our vanguard roles. We are the ones who will break the ground and loosen the soil for Wallace’s future interpreters. This is not only our pleasure, but our duty. And for that, as Wallace famously said, “I wish you way more than luck.”
>>8184673
beautiful
Look I'm sorry, I know this makes me a pleb, but jesus Christ every time I see that picture of him he looks like Jason Segel
>>8184720
Personally, whenever I see DFW (pronounced "David Foster Wallace") threads, I always click on it in the hope someone made a mistake and it's a Tiny Tim thread.
dee eff double-u
Dee eff dubya
>>8184720
>Jason Segel
every time
>>8184673
Is this original pasta?
>>8184913
https://www.reddit.com/user/jeremy1122
three pages of DFW shitposts
>>8184916
Who is this fucking madman?
>>8184916
>I learned recently about a video-game term that teenagers these days throw around: "overpowered," or "OP" for short. If a character type in a competitive video game is inordinately more powerful than the others, then it is "overpowered"; the game as a result is deemed "unbalanced," and fans will complain on forums that the developers have delivered to them a swift "slap in the face." It's an interesting metaphor. Life, of course, is no game, and it's a truism that it isn't fair. But every once in a while we get a striking reminder of how unevenly Mother Nature distributes her gifts. Take the literary world for instance. By any measure, David Foster Wallace, the author of the acclaimed novel Infinite Jest, was overpowered. If he were a class in a role-playing game, then you wouldn't hear the end of the complaining. When it came to the writing of fiction, Wallace blew his competitors—historical and contemporary both—out of the water. To borrow another term from video gaming, it's fair to say that he "owned" them. When Infinite Jest hit book stores in February 1996, the title's two words were in the mouth of every serious reader in America; every living writer, however, was faced with a different pair of words: "Game Over."
HHhooooly shit... this guy needs more love.
>>8184610
Diary For Wimps.
>>8184944
that was an impressive segue.
There's one thing and one thing only that the mods could do to immensely improve the board, instantly, overnight, and that's facilitate more threads about David Foster Wallace. Create them, nurture the ones that exist, guide the discussions, and make sure they stay on track. If we're here to discuss literature, ultimately, we are here to discuss David Foster Wallace. There is no way for a person to grasp the full implications of Infinite Jest and not realize this. We're talking about the smartest man who ever lived. You must realize this. It's not a joke anymore. We're seeing the world degenerate further and further into chaos, and we're standing by and watching it happen. You want to fix this board? You want to fix the world? You want to fix your life? You need only take one step: read Infinite Jest. There is no substitute for hard work, and that's what Wallace requires of you if you are to understand him. If you are to understand not just him, but the world. We're not talking about escapist literature, fan fiction, genre nonsense. We're talking about saving our lives. We're talking about meditating on God. We're talking about communing with the primary presence. This is not an issue to be treated lightly.
Dee Few
Dallas Fort Worth
I just shout it.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
/dfw/
Do you even IPA, faggot?
>>8184610
dee eff wee
>>8185451
you stupid fuck that's not even pronounceable in IPA
>>8184610
420 DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
>>8185641
Mein Neger.
>>8184610
I don't say it, I feel it.
>>8184610
Dee-Foo
Diff-wa
>>8185807
"something written in the alphabet of pronunciation is not pronounceable"
stay anglophone amigo
>>8184652
this>>8184652
My library doesn't carry infinite jest for some reason. This guy wrote any other good books?
>>8184610
davey frosty wallet
I will forever say duf wub
>>8187805
You know what's hard to photograph? Talent. You wouldn't know from his photographs that David Foster Wallace was the most talented writer ever to live. The long hair, the scruffy beard, the bandana. He looked more like a grunge rocker than the greatest writer to walk the planet since nobody. The truth is that he had no precedents. No precursors. And there was certainly no warning. The world of higher learning didn't know they were going to encounter a David Foster Wallace in the era when they did. But isn't that how it always happens? History teaches us over and over that we don't know when the paradigm-shifters are going to come. All we can do is wait for them. Cute dog.
Daaaaavid foster wallaaaaaace
