Book Review: A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace
I first came across David Foster Wallace when I was working in the Processing department at the Monroe County Public Library, circa 1995. At the time, I was an undergrad and working part time putting barcodes on new library books, and checking them in to the library’s computerized card catalog.
Infinite Jest was the first book of Wallace’s that I saw, and the thing was a BRICK. I mean, the heft of the guy was unlike any other book I had come across – large, weighty, and something you would bludgeon a burglar with.
On the back of the book, there was a photo of the author. A little fuzz on his chin and a bandanna around his forehead, I noted how young the guy looked (and was). My first encounter with Wallace made me think that he wasn’t that much older than me… and yet he had already written a book. As a wanna-be writer still in college, I felt like I was already falling behind.
Sad to say, I’ve never read Infinite Jest, nor have I read any of Wallace’s other works of fiction. I wouldn’t pick up anything of his until much, much later… maybe ten years down the line, when I grabbed a copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, a collection of his essays.
Though this is the only DFW book I’ve read/owned, I can’t tell you how much I like it. I’ve re-read the thing several times, and recently just got done re-reading it again, going over and relishing the some of the essays that I just loved the first time through… and still get a great deal of pleasure from, with each subsequent pass.
DFW’s style is an interesting one. First off, he’s got these long, rambling, Victorian-era sentences that just seem to wind around the corner and down the block. And he’s also got this wonderful vocabulary that he ducks in and out of, selectively. Sometimes he’ll throw a high-value SAT word out there, and other times he’ll just drop an f-bomb. It’s this particular mix that makes his voice so interesting, and the verbal gymnastics make him feel both intellectual and accessible all at the same time.
He’s also well-known for his unique use of the footnote. In many of his essays, footnotes function as authorial asides. But they also end up taking on a life of their own, and in some cases turn out to become little mini-essays in and of themselves. There’s a lot of jumping around at times, between the actual essay and the essay’s footnotes… but Wallace pulls it off, somehow. It never comes off as pretentious or encyclopedia-dull; it ends up being informative, colorful, and (most importantly) enjoyable.
Below is an example of some of his writing style/voice, from the title essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” Paid by Harper’s to go on a week-long luxury cruise and write about his experiences, Wallace documents the entire process with an amazingly keen eye… and is funny as hell about the whole thing.
The following quotation is from the eessay’s opening, before he gets into the specifics of the cruise. It was tough to pick an excerpt honestly, as I wanted to try to do his style justice. I’ve held back from adding in more line breaks to make the thing a little more web-friendly in terms of readability.
I have learned that there are actually intensities of blue beyond very, very bright blue. I have eaten more and classier food than I’ve ever eaten, and eaten this food during a week when I’ve also learned the difference between “rolling” in heavy seas and “pitching” in heavy seas. I have heard a professional comedian tell folks, without irony, “But seriously.” I have seen fuschia pantsuits and menstrual-pink sportcoats and maroon-and-purple warm-ups and white loafers worn without socks. I have seen professional blackjack dealers so lovely they make you want to run over to their table and spend every last nickel you’ve got playing blackjack. I have heard upscale adult U.S. citizens ask the Guest Relations Desk whether snorkeling necessitates getting wet, whether the skeetshooting will be held outside, whether the crew sleeps on board, and what time the Midnight Buffet is. I now know the precise mixological difference between a Slippery Nipple and a Fuzzy Navel. I know what a Coco Loco is. I have in one week been the object of over 1500 professional smiles. I have burned and peeled twice. I have shot skeet at sea. Is this enough? At the time it didn’t seem like enough. I have felt the full clothy weight of a subtropical sky. I have jumped a dozen times at the shattering, flatulence-of-the-gods sound of a cruise ship’s horn. I have absorbed the basics of mah-jongg, seen a part of a two-day rubber of contract bridge, learned how to secure a life jacket over a tuxedo, and lost at chess to a nine-year-old girl.
(Actually, it was more like I shot at skeet at sea.)
I have dickered over trinkets with malnourished children. I now know every conceivable rationale and excuse for somebody spending over $3000 to go on a Caribbean cruise. I have bitten my lip and declined Jamaican pot from an actual Jamaican.
Almost all the essays in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again are winners, with the exception of maybe two: the one on Television and U.S. Fiction… and another one on literary criticism. They might be your cup of tea, but I found them pretty dull and impenetrable. All in all, they’re the shortest ones in the book and simply weren’t for me. The other essays though… man oh man, the other essays are spectacular.
Here’s a little something that hopefully tells you more about DFW. I, myself, am not particularly a fan of David Lynch. I’ve only seen a handful of things (Dune (which I understand doesn’t count), Lost Highway, Mulhollad Drive and a few minutes of Eraserhead), so I say that I don’t like Lynch knowing that I haven’t really given him a chance.
However – I love Wallace’s essay on David Lynch. Weird, isn’t it?
If it’s any testament to Wallace’s writing abilities, he’s able to take a subject I’m at best indifferent to (Lynch and his work), and makes it an essay that I not only enjoy re-reading… but it ends up being an essay I forwar
d on to friends. Once I find out someone likes Lynch, I immediately think of this essay (and it’s clear that Wallace was a big fan).
A few years back, I found a copy of Wallace’s essay hosted on a geocities site. For whatever reason, it’s been sitting up there, unmolested, for years now. You can read much of the essay online, though the whole footnote process isn’t quite the same on-screen as it is on paper. Still though, the words are there if you want an extended peek into Wallace’s writing style and voice.
On a sad note – David Foster Wallace (after battling depression for many, many years) took his own life last year. It was quite a shock when the news came out, as he was still someone who was incredibly young – with seemingly decades of potential work/books ahead of him. Someone in the prime of his career.
On hearing about his death, it prompted me to pull my copy of his essays off my shelf and re-read them again. It’s definitely among my favorites, and as time has shown… something that I enjoy re-reading. If you’re not familiar with David Foster Wallace’s voice, his detailed eye, his playfulness, his ability to construct one hell of a sentence… I definitely encourage you to pick up a copy of his essays. They’re all good reads… even the one about David Lynch.
i had no idea you had read so little dfw! we’ve got multiple copies of ij, oblivion, broom, and brief interviews with hideous men if you want to borrow any/all of them.
nickd (March 31, 2009 at 8:24 am)I picked up Infinite Jest in the summer of 1997, and I must admit, I really only undertook it to be able to say I had read a book of that magnitude. It took me months to read it through, but I was amazed and ended up loving Wallace.I would also highly recommend Girl With Curious Hair, as one of my favorites.i think I sent Jay/Grumpy my extra copy of Infinite Jest years ago. Looking back at it now, I kind of wish I kept that copy instead, since it was the original one I read.¬?¬? My original copy of Infinite Jest was a softcover, I would end up buying a hardcover of it years later.
Dustin (March 31, 2009 at 10:23 pm)