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June 27, 2005
DFW stock soars.
According to the always reliable Howling Fantods, David Foster Wallace is set to release a new book of essays and arguments on December 13, entitled "Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays". This is his second such collection, after the hilarious and educational "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again", which came out a hell of a long time ago. Here's what'll be in the new book:
1. Big Red Son
2. Certainly the End of Something or Other...
3. Some Remarks on Kafka...
4. Authority and American Usage
5. The View from Mrs. Thompson's
6. How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart
7. Up, Simba
8. Consider the Lobster
9. Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky
10. Host
If 'Authority and American Usage' is what I think it is, then you can read at least an earlier version of it right here- it's probably one of the best things that Wallace has ever written, and features some excellent arguments about prescriptive and descriptive linguistics, and touches on Wittgenstein's talk about private languages, etc., but mostly it's about lexicography and usage (and it's way funnier than it sounds).
That's like 3 books from DFW in half as many years, which is nice and all, but hey- when are we going to get another novel? Doesn't have to be as long as "Infinite Jest" or anything...
Posted by Kevin at June 27, 2005 10:32 AM
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Comments
good to have you back, mr. hyde.
i only mention this because i've not yet fully recovered from the trauma of you correcting me in public about the correct usage of 'tout de suite' (which you were nonetheless right to do), but unless mr. wallace has coined a neologism, it's "prescriptive" linguistics. although a lot of prescriptive linguistics is, at root, proscriptive ("don't split your infinitives!"), the two are not interchangeable.
still, your mistake could've been a typo, whereas mine involved a real mangling of a foreign language, so i might still have to find something to really get you on. i am a small, petty man.
also, i wanted very much for 'dfw' to be a legitimate ticker symbol.
Posted by: matt at June 27, 2005 04:43 PM
Ah, you're right, Matt- good catch. I did actually mangle that pretty well, but one of these days I'll just post a string of consonants or something, then you can really harangue me.
nice Ida post, btw.
Posted by: Kevin at June 27, 2005 05:37 PM
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