Essays on David Foster Wallace

February 21, 1962, Ithaca, New York, United States

September 12, 2008, Claremont, California, United States

Writer, University Professor

1987–2008

Literary Fiction, Non-fiction

Postmodern Literature, Post-postmodernism, Metamodernism, Hysterical Realism, New Sincerity

• Infinite Jest (1996)

• "Fiction's about what it is to be a human being."
• "This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside."
• "The interesting thing is why we're so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness."

February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008

David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, short stories and essays, and a university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.

“Infinite Jest”, “The Broom of the System”, “The Pale King”, "Consider The Lobster"

Throughout his writing, Wallace examines themes of loneliness and desire, detachment and self-awareness, and mass culture and spectacle.

Wallace wanted to progress beyond the irony and metafiction associated with postmodernism and explore a post-postmodern or metamodern style. Wallace's fiction combines narrative modes and authorial voices that incorporate jargon and invented vocabulary, such as self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long, multi-clause sentences, and an extensive use of explanatory endnotes and footnotes.

Wallace's greatest contribution to literature was his ability to document and transfigure not only the last two decades of the twentieth century in America, but also the years of “literally indescribable war” he fought against himself. Considered by many to be the greatest writer of his generation, David Foster Wallace was at the height of his creative powers when he committed suicide in 2008. His death also became his legacy.

“Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.”
“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”
“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”