I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Austin City Limits (2007).

I’ve recently discovered the awesomeness of Austin City Limits.  And in the two or so years that I’ve been watching, I’ve seen some great live shows (even is most bands are reduced to 30 minutes).  This re-broadcast of The Decemberists, however, just blew me away.

The concert comes from The Crane Wife tour, and it is just a wonderful exploration of this fantastic CD.  I’ve liked the Decemberists for years, and have listened to all of their discs multiple times, but there was something about this recording, in particular the wailing guitar work of Colin Meloy (seeing him lying on the floor making crazed feedback was pretty impressive), and the amazing solo work of Chris Funk that gave me even more respect for this wonderful album and the band.

It is highly recommended. For more info see here.

[READ: January 14, 2010] 100 Page Tribute to David Foster Wallace

I was able to order a copy of this journal directly from The University of Arizona and received it not too long ago.  It is a two part issue (55/56) that is chock full of all kinds of things, including this 100 page tribute to DFW.  I intend to read the whole thing, or at least more than just the DFW stuff, but as I don’t see that happening too soon, I wanted to address this tribute section directly.

DFW received his MFA from UA and he was also an editor at Sonora Review.  He also published “/Solomon Silverfish/” there shortly after getting his MFA.  So the tributes make sense from this publication.  All of the tributes here come from varied people and are all either interesting or moving to the Wallace fan.

It opens with a note from the Editor who thanks DFW for his work both during and after his tenure there.

SVEN BIRKERTS focuses on DFW’s sentences, picking some more or less at random and basking in their intricacies.

TOM BISSELL (in an interview) talks in great detail about DFW’s works (although I’m unclear exactly what his relationship to DFW was as it is never explicitly stated.)  The focus is on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (he loves “Octet”), and he is curious how the film (which I have yet to see) will differ from the book’s interviews.  He also offers an insight to the interviews themselves that I had not explicitly connected.  He also raves about “The Depressed Person” including its initial publication in Harper’s and the mail it generated.  Interestingly, as Bissell talks about the rest of DFW’s work, he rather dislikes the story “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way” (which I have not read yet…I know, I know).  But of all the other tributes seem to really enjoy that particular story, so huh.  Bissell also disliked BIWHM‘s “Tri-Stan: I Sold Siesee Nar to Ecko” callilng it “migraine fiction.”  And it easily my least favorite DFW piece as well.  So I do agree there.

CHARLES BOCK looks in detail at passages in IJ, specifically Kate Gompert’s soliloquy. He introduces a great idea that seems so obvious but which I missed.  Kate says “the feeling maybe had to do with Hope,” which in her mind means Bob Hope (street slang for pot) but which readers initially see as, well, Hope.  Devilish and wonderful.

MARSHALL BOSWELL looks at DFW’s single handed dismantling of the overt realism of 1980s fiction.  This is something I was unaware of, mostly because I was not really reading new fiction at the time (being in High School) but also because retrospectively, the fiction that DFW is undermining is fiction I do not like.  But this piece puts DFW’s early stuff in context, which I think is very helpful, especially as I head back towards his early fiction very shortly. I’m also delighted by the idea that somehow DFW predicts and parodies American Psycho a few years before it was written.

GREG CARLISLE looks at the mathematical set up of IJ, and its use of lack of climax throughout the book. For even though the book ends unresolved, he posits that each section in fact ends unresolved, unless you go back and look at previous (in timeline, not necessarily in book order) elements.  He also puts forth the audacious claim that DFW’s actual suicide date is  the same date as Don Gately’s first day of sobriety (he includes the math): 12 September, YDAU (2008).

DAVE EGGERS includes a little piece about how helpful and wonderful DFW was in the launching of McSweeney’s.  There’s also a funny look at why DFW submitted “Mr. Squishy” pseudonymously as Elizabeth Klemm (the why is never given) and how many people figured out it was him so quickly.

JONATHAN FRANZEN spoke words at a memorial service.  He was one of DFW’s older friends.  And his piece is very touching.

KEN KALFUS has a couple of paragraphs about DFW as editor and unseen hand of goodness.

GLENN KENNY worked with DFW for Premier magazine on the David Lynch and Adult Video Awards pieces.  He reminiscences are very funny.

LEE MARTIN dealt with but never met DFW, but found him very useful as an editor.

MICHAEL MARTONE writes a convoluted and at time amusing piece about Endnotes and Footnotes, and his relationship with DFW.

RICK MOODY interviews MICHAEL PIETSCH the actual editor of IJ and DFW’s other works.  This is a delightfully incisive piece into DFW’s work and methods and his remarkable attention to detail.  It is, of course, while reading this that I have to wonder (again) if the full unedited manuscript of IJ (which Pietsch claims has 250 lost pages but which DFW suggested was 400 during editing) could ever see the light of day.  Oh, dare to dream.  This piece is very insightful for DFW fans.

Finally is a reprint of /Solomon Silverfish/ which I reviewed here.

This collection of pieces was really moving and also very informative.  For instance, since I have yet to read The Girl with Curious Hair, I have to decide if I should first read John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse, which “Westward” is a response to.  It also inspired me to jump back into the DFW canon.  I had put it off after reading all of those unpublished works, but I think it’s time to finish what I started.

If you’re a fan of DFW, this journal is worth having. Not only for the unpublished short story, but for the insights that the authors present.  And, heck why not help DFW’s alma mater with a check?