David Foster Wallace

This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).  Carrie Soto is Back and other works by Taylor Jenkins Reid are available here.  "David Foster Wallace noticed early on that tennis is a good sport for literary types and purposes. It draws the obsessive and brooding. It is perhaps the most isolating of games. Even boxers have a corner, but in professional tennis it is a rules violation for your coach to communicate with you beyond polite encouragement, and spectators are asked to keep silent while you play. Your opponent is far away, or, if near, is indifferently hostile. It may be as close as we come to physical chess, or a kind of chess in which the mind and body are at one in attacking essentially mathematical problems. So, a good game not just for writers but for philosophers, too." - John Jeremiah Sullivan, String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis *** In a world where all relations have become gamified and subject-oriented, the tennis court provides the ideal soil for metaphor. In this week’s episode, we read a passage from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling tennis epic Carrie Soto is Back (translated, as always, into cat language). A cat with a tennis ball in its mouth then explores its surprising parallels with David Foster Wallace’s voluminous and genre-transcending writings on the sport, meowing its thoughts with unexpected clarity. “The lattice of the Fates twines the destinies of these disparate minds, their intersecting views reinforcing the epistemic grid to create a resilient yet malleable hermeneutic surface, imparting force and direction  to the anomized and deliterated individual, as the finest catgut racket gives flight to its impetuous target.” – Cuddle Princess, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair *** MEOW is the first and only literary podcast for your cat, conceived and presented in its native language. This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats). Praise for Meow: A Novel "Breathtaking... a revelation." - Stubbs, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair "Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow? Meow." - Joan Didion Follow us on Instagram: @meowliterature Facebook: facebook.com/themeowlibrary   Twitter: twitter.com/meowlibrary and YouTube

Episode 476: The Library or Study has long been the haven of the contemplative pipe smoker. In our ‘From The Library’ series, we take a look into the musings, writings, poetry, and more that pique our interest and consider the mind of the author and how we can, or perhaps can’t, relate from our own experience. This week: David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College Commencement AddressPipe Question: (From Frank) Can I damage my pipe with a pipe cleaner? Specifically the metal piece inside the cleaner. I recently used some…let’s say, sub quality cleaners and noticed the metal in the middle was exposed and sharpish to the touch. I inserted into my pipe but could swear I felt a scratching occurring on the inside of the pipe and thus my soul…. Did I damage anything? Could I damage anything? Please help! - FrankQuick Fire Questions: N/AListener Feedback: Dear Beau and Jon David, Earlier today I ordered a fifth of Cedar Ridge Bourbon and had it sent to the Squire, and I wanted to let you guys know a little bit about it. Whether or not you decide to include it in a future Squire Select, I wanted to share a little bit of Iowa with you. Iowa is one of my homes (which has also included Oklahoma, northeast Italy, Chicago, and Ethiopia), and, if I’m being honest, I am surprised at how I’ve come to love and appreciate the people and the land as much as I do. It is truly a great place to raise a family. That said, although I have had this whiskey in a handful of mixed drinks at various restaurants, I hadn’t tried it straight until I ordered some for myself alongside my order for you guys. I’m told that it is the best whiskey made in Iowa, and that it wins awards nationally. I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Enjoy, and thanks for the community that you’ve cultivated at CSR. P.S. - Jon David, I wanted to thank you for your patience and your kindness as I stuttered and stammered in front of you at the pipe show. Such is my personality that, although I’m sure that you can both enjoy/appreciate and be irritated by folks coming up to you at events, all I can think is that I’m probably being a nuisance, which distracts me from what I’m saying (which, ironically, actually makes me more of a nuisance that if I didn’t worry about it!). I imagine that one of the more unexpected challenges of hosting a popular and long-running podcast is that folks (like me) can know quite a bit about you, and can feel like they do know you, while you, of course, know essentially nothing about them, and don’t know them at all. Anyway, I’m glad I got to meet you and thank you in person for how you and Beau have helped me over the last couple of years. Your brother in Christ, John Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On this week’s short story skirmish we read two American heavyweights, David Foster Wallace’s psychological spiral “Good Old Neon” and Shirley Jackson’s disturbing drawing of names in “The Lottery”. Jackson’s story was once a staple of Wallace’s freshman English syllabus, and perhaps a similarity between the two can be found in their examinations of toxic behaviour. “The Lottery” exposes the toxic side of tradition, and in “Good Old Neon” we see just how destructive a cycle of cynicism can be. Some of the books and authors discussed in this episode include: "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson “Good Old Neon” David Foster Wallace “Bright Lights Big City” by Jay McInerney “Cain” by Jose Saramago “Autobiography of My Mother” by Jamaica Kincaid Additional segments throughout the podcast include: Inner Shelf Fact or fiction What are you reading? On that Quote Email: seamusandblake@gmail.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/on.the.same.page.podcast/ #bookpodcast #podcast #book #novel #stories #shortstories #thelottery #shirleyjackson #goodoldneon #davidfosterwallace #brightlightbigcity #cain #josesaramago #bukowski #autobiographyofmymother #jamaciakincaid #jaymclnerney #shortstoryskirmish #litfacts #paris #literature #books #novels #podbean #spotifypodcasts #applepodcasts #audible #books #novels #audibleau #lit #onthesamepage #whatareyoureading #literaryfacts #podbean #whatareyoureading

Ben and Bob discuss the 1996 essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” by the late, great David Foster Wallace in which DFW hilariously documents his experience taking a weeklong luxury Caribbean cruise and opines about the implicit fantasies at the heart of these sorts of vacations. Ben explains how he became drawn to DFW and Bob talks about his own experience on a luxury cruise, which maps all too closely to what’s captured in the essay.

We're talking about minor simpsons character studies as the only true art, being a bug who is bumming out your family, how terrorists have goals and DFW talking about Franz Kafka in a very cool essay which you can find below.Links for Articlehttps://tetw.org/David_Foster_Wallace

Warning: this episode contains irony. (To ruin the fun: It's actually about Henry Miller. Wait ... is that technically irony? It's not what I mean, and it's intended for comedic affect - I think it counts. Wallace was more concerned with Irony on a large scale cultural level which is obviously what this podcast will never have - so we get to have fun with the irony instead of wringing our hands.)Come sit in the bookstore for a while.www.patreon.com/westernthought

In this episode, we have our first discussion of Infinite Jest. We discuss the problem of mass entertainment, how Wallace’s world is different from our world, the difference between books and movies, and much more.Two Guys One Book is now in podcast form! It is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please consider subscribing directly to our feed so you get updates in your podcast catcher whenever a new podcast goes live!You can also watch the video here: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxchapin.substack.com

In this episode, we discuss Oblivion, the problem of fraudulence, the possibility of sincerity in the modern world, DFW’s complexity, and much more.Two Guys One Book is now in podcast form! It is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please consider subscribing directly to our feed so you get updates in your podcast catcher whenever a new podcast goes live!You can also watch the video here: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxchapin.substack.com

In this episode we unpack American Novelist and Journalist David Foster Wallace's essay "Consider the Lobster" from 2004. The essay explores... -The strange history of eating lobster in America -How the language we use influences the way we think about animals -How future generations might look at the way we currently treat animals Link to Reading "Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace **note** reading is not required to enjoy the episode! Host: Zach Stehura UnpackingIdeas.com Guests: Danny Jimenez & Manny Caride thevegangents.com (Dozens of easy, nutritious, and delicious vegan recipes!) Theme Music: Polyenso listen here

Tex Gresham and I discuss the short story "Incarnations of Burned Children" by David Foster Wallace. I drink a double IPA. Tex drinks tequila with jalapeno lemonade.