What order would you suggest for reading david foster wallace >

What order would you suggest for reading david foster wallace >

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You start with his first book and proceed chronologically by order of publication, as you would with any other writer.

False

A Supposedly Fun Thing --> Brief Interviews --> IJ --> Oblivion --> [If you're curious about his juvenilia, Broom of the System, if not, The Pale King]

No order at all, with DFW being born a rich spoiled brat that had everything taken care of his entire life and decided to kill himself anyways. Nothing of value there.

you need to go back.

Reddit is the place where people have jobs, grew up with actual families that supported them and have good lives if you haven't noticed, idiot.

iagine having to cope with being a bugman so much that you list various socially accepted characteristics and try to prove that some of the worst, least educated, least intelligent, least attractive basement dwellers do have those characteristics simply because their echo chamber is more mainstream. good lord.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Try living on the streets and get back to me.

Living on the streets has nothing to do with the fact that despite (probably) having grown up with "actual family", redditors are the worst group of bugmen known to man, and their "good lives" are far from what you imagine them to be. They have no souls, no interests, no goals, no ambitions. Some of them do have jobs, sure, but those jobs were probably chosen for them by the very market itself, because all they wanted to do was to make money in the most effortless way possible. The fact that you hate DFW and at the same time you defend Reddit is incredibly funny and says quite a lot about you.

This is predicated on a desire to understand the writer chronologically, which is just as arbitrary of a critical approach as a desire to emphasize the writer’s use of shoes in the narrative or the frequency of the word “the.” Assuming like many anons and your concern is accessibility and getting hooked on Wallace I’d recommend covering your bases on the necessay intro texts (Hamlet, the Metamorphoses, maybe passages from Ulysses, and Crying of Lot 49) and plunging headlong into Infinite Jest. Then a robust sampling of his nonfiction (Consider the Lobster, A Supposedly Fun Thing, or as excerpted in the DFW Reader), a light sampling of his stories (stick to Oblivion, I caution against Brief Interviews until you’re really sold on his more caustic material), and then a brief glimpse backward at his younger works and a glance forward at where he was going with The Pale King. IJ really is the crowning achievement, though, and the only text that holds up to scrutiny.

I'm not defending reddit, idiot, that's a criticism of it, and DFW would fit right in there.

Except he wouldn't. Reddit is anti-intellectual, loves pop culture, remains very conformist when it comes to politics and social issues. DFW has nothing to do with any of these.
I told you to go to Reddit because your idea about DFW (you haven't read him, have you?) is naive and ridiculous, and your attempt at comparing that worthless site to DFW, while not pointing out the most important thing about the very site and its users, which is anti-intellectualism, makes no sense. Do you just hate everyone for having grown up with a family? It's far from the worst thing about redditors.

i'd shit on your corpse

So this is the order ?

This thread became more about reddit and less about the original question

thanks for ignoring my insightful answer and then bitching about the quality of your own misguided thread user. you should probably abandon all hope as reading reductive flowcharts seems to be your stronger suit.

I actually completely missed that, sorry man.
Why Ulysses though ? I really dislike this book.

Metempsychosis is referenced throughout the book and takes the form of a main character.

This, Wallace is the Wes Anderson of literature: pretentious and coddled.
Read something other than dead white men for once.

Just don't start with The Pale King or Broom of the System and you'll be fine.

I read a few of his non fiction pieces then jumped straight into Infinite Jest, finished it a few days ago and enjoyed it thoroughly although the first 100 pages were somewhat strenuous getting used to the style.

>finished it in a few days

got some bad news

So, OP: and is the standard, fairly safe way to do it. is also fairly reasonable - and if you're feeling lost, don't worry, is also right in a way.

no read oblivion before IJ
oblivion is so good and short that you'll regret didn't read it sooner

Reading comprehension?

Ulysses > Gravity's Rainbow > Infinte Jest