A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
OCLC 35318437 | | |
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.
In the title essay, originally published in
Another essay in the same volume takes up the vulgarities and excesses of the Illinois State Fair. This collection also includes Wallace's influential essay "E Unibus Pluram" on television's impact on contemporary literature and the use of irony in American culture. In 2019, the collection was ranked in Slate as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction works of the past 25 years.[1]
Essays
Essays collected in the book:
- "Derivative Sport in Harper's, December 1991, under the title "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes"): An autobiographical essay about Wallace's youth in the Midwest, his involvement in competitive tennis, and his interest in mathematics.
- "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993)
- "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" (Harper's, 1994, under the title "Ticket to the Fair"): Wallace's experiences and opinions on the 1993 Illinois State Fair, ranging from a report on competitive baton twirling to speculation on how the Illinois State Fair is representative of Midwestern culture and its subsets.
- "Greatly Exaggerated" (Harvard Book Review, 1992): A review of Morte d'Author: An Autopsy by H. L. Hix, including Wallace's personal opinions on the role of the author in literary critical theory.
- "Premiere, 1996): Wallace's experiences and opinions from visiting the set for Lost Highwayand his thoughts about Lynch's oeuvre.
- "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness" (Esquire, 1996, under the title "The String Theory"): Wallace's reporting of the qualifying rounds for 1995 Canadian Openand the Open itself, with the author's thoughts on the nature of tennis and professional athletics.
- "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (Harper's, 1996, under the title "Shipping Out"): Wallace's experiences and opinions on a seven-night luxury Caribbean cruise.
In popular culture
In his 2011 book
References
- ^ Miller, Dan Kois, Laura (2019-11-18). "The 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Wallace, David Foster (June 1993). "E unibus pluram: television and U.S. fiction". The Review of Contemporary Fiction – via The Free Library.
- Wallace, D. F. (1997). A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-92528-4
- Wallace, D. F. (1996). "Shipping Out", Harper's Magazine, January 1996 (292:1748)
External links
- "Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise", Harpers Magazine. Also known as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again".
- "Ticket to the Fair", Harper's Magazine. Also known as "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All".
- "The String Theory", Esquire. Also known as "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness".
- "David Lynch Keeps His Head" Premiere, 1996
- "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley", Harper's Magazine. Originally under the title "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes"