Do you think DFW was a good professor? The syllabus of the course looks shit

l live in Normal, IL, where Illinois State is located. I've walked around where he taught a bit, no plaques or anything.

Is it 'Corn, corn, corn, corn, Stuckey's, corn, corn, corn' ?

This is totally unsurprising. A lot of the people who knew him personally or interacted with him for extended periods of time seemed to have thought of him as an asshole.

As much as I've enjoyed the guy's books, he did seem like a total dip, t b h.

The town of Normal and City of Bloomington are right on top of each other and make up a metro area of probably a bit above 150K, so definitely not tiny and some development. Get outside of town and there's definitely corn all around. Chicago is about two hours, St. Louis about 2.5, so that's pretty nice. State Farm Insurance is headquartered here (I moved here to work for them) which is why it is developed. It's pretty boring sometimes but it's a white collar town with a lot of transplants due to SF and two universities so I've been able to find people. There a lot of Indian/Paki transplants, interestingly- they're easily the second largest demographic. The town is laden with a lot of smart people who don't give a shit about intellect and just want to go to church and raise their families.

If you want some insight into the area, read "The View from Mrs. Thompson's" which is collected in "Consider the Lobster." It was fascinating to have read that before moving here, and then pulling it out a few years after moving here.

When "The End of the Tour" came out, a couple of professors who worked with him did come on the local NPR station and do a fairly lengthy remembrance bit. When the local theater shows it, there was a pretty good turnout the night we went.

You may just need to teach somewhere longer than ten or so years and write bestsellers to get plaques, I don't know.

That sounds horrible. Also

>Anybody gets to ask any question about any fiction-reated issues she wants.
>she
I've noticed this a lot. In his interviews he always seemed to refer to writers and readers as "she". It's kinda creepy.

I've only read A Supposedly Fun Thing... so far but really enjoyed the stuff about Illinois and the Midwest. The other essays are definitely on the list.

Oh God, this is the kind of professor that fashions himself hip but stern. The one that understands what boils within these kids' minds, he gets it, he can help. Talk to me after class, kid, kid, there is a such-and-such proverb, you have great potential, don't be lazy, I see the spark - the kid nods, he yeahs, he wants to get out and have fun and he trained himself to appear smart just for middle-aged profs like this one, so easily tricked by the fascimile of unwoken genius. This prof - you meet him in a bar, he buys you a dring he says, not drink, this is his gimmick you see, your girl friend scrambles for an excuse and leaves, the apartment is open, parents are out fishing, godfuckingdamnit the chance is lost, yeah you nod and smile coy and drink your beer slowly because this guy doesn't want to talk to you, he saw Good Will Hunting or just imagined himself young and he goes and goes tritely and uselessly, another dring no thanks see you monday. This kind of professor.

Hey, not bad.

But by all accounts, DFW seems to have been ACTUALLY hip but stern. Is everything affect to you?

He had a pretty good syllabus with Omensetters Luck, James Baldwin and Speedboat, some sort of class for obscure narratives.

It's just word vomit, happens sometimes; from those papers, DFW seems like an alright or better prof. The fact that he btfo'd "young patricians" in advance - that they are not reading the novels for literary merit, the task is critique - speaks of that.

He taught at the school I go to while writing Infinite Jest. Refused to teach creative writing, taught a 100-level lit class and tried to teach Thomas Pynchon and William Gass.

Listening to his biography, just got to the part where he stalks a woman for not wanting to date him. Then he seriously tries to get a gun to shoot her husband but can't find one and that's probably the only reason he didn't kill the guy

Pretty sure it's meant to be like (s)he or s/he. It does seem pretty creepy without being puntuated in some way.

We must live in the same town, I met him once in a grocery store.

>Listening

Emerson or ISU?

"audience pussy"

"The first annual David Foster Wallace Conference was hosted by the Illinois State University Department of English in May 2014; the second conference was held in May 2015."

Okay so there's that. I didn't even hear about it or attend. Not even sure I could have as a non-student.

Emerson. I saw him at a grocery store once, as I said. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person and congratulated him on IJ and how it will probably outlive him, but I didn’t want to be a douche(although it was kind of douchey, i must admit) and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.

He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”

I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “Gonnatellmeboutweednow? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen snickers in his hands without paying.

The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be busy and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.

When she took one of the snickers and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to not submit myself to easy-delivered simplicity of tech” and then turned around and winked at me. After she scanned each candy bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by WARDINEBCRY really loudly.

Harvard

painfully unfunny

Good show

Lel how did that work out for him?

No. He literally said "she" or "her", as in, strictly feminine pronouns, repeatedly and consistently.

He does it a lot here dalkeyarchive.com/a-conversation-with-david-foster-wallace-by-larry-mccaffery/

Really? I like this pasta exactly because it is played out. In the beginning, it was supposed to be bait-and-switch - you see a common introduction, pretty regular and very unpastalike, but it quickly descends on you what are you reading. Now, of course, there is no bait-and-switch, but I like it even more: it's not supposed to prove anything, and is not a must-post answer to certain threads like "I live at your expense", it just exists in a vacuum. It is not funny; it is like an uncle telling you a story, which is unremarkable, for the hundredth time, something of a glory of the familiar.

Holy fuck, this is the stuff of my nightmares.

Emerson. My poetry workshop professor knew him and said he was a dick, although Big Dave used to fuck his wife. He didn't have many friends in the faculty, from what I understand. Humorously enough, everyone I've met that says they like Big Dave at Emerson has read about 75 pages of IJ and dropped it. It's a school of pseuds, but the degree means more than a degree from UNH.
They told him "no" and he taught a standard syllabus.

this is even less funny

spell-check BTFO

Fuck a bitch - don't tease bitch, strip tease bitch: eat a bowl of these bitch, gobble the dick
Hoes forgot to eat a dick can shut the fuck up: gobble and swallow a nut up, shut up and get my cash

Backhanded, pimp-slapped backwards and left stranded: just pop ya collar - pimp convention, hoes for a dollar
Six-Deuce in a plush, six-deuce impala: pimping hoes from Texas to Guatemala

Bitch niggas pay for hoes, just to lay with hoes: relax one night, and pay to stay with hoes
Captain 'Save-'em-all-day', well save this dick: bitch nigga, you more of a bitch than a bitch

You ain't into hitting pussy or hitting the switch: you into hitting bitches all for the grip, you punk bitch!

- David Foster Wallace, 1999.

Lemme rephrase - every Emerson student I know that claims to like DFW has read 75 pages of IJ then stopped but they still say "wow he's a genius!"
I know a girl (also a huge cunt) who says the book is too difficult and that it's obvious DFW tried making it difficult on purpose. Now, I won't disagree that the book is difficult for someone who isn't a reader, but the girl was an English major. Shit is appalling.

>books on tape

I'm guessing

Is this verifiable? The compassion that comes across in IJ seems a bit at odds with the posturing sternness of this doc. Like, chill out mate you've not such a huge dick to be swinging there.

every school has stupid students, even ivies. dont be a jerk

My friend's father was a friend of DFW. She has a copy of CTL with an epigraph he wrote for her father. her father said he wasnt tremendously pleasant but seriously a genius

>mate
>you've

Fuck off you limey piece of shit. Go suck a dick for your TV license.

Yes, it has photos of his editions of the books in syllabus too.

hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2010/dfw/teaching/

Go vote in Trump faggot. Seriously it will turn our newspapers into my number 1 source of entertainment.

Cheers, interesting post.

It's a 102 course and is on intro analysis, what do you expect?
Ivies are majority-stupid, user.

>t. a boner-fide genius

>ENG 102

So....for freshman? But even for an intro class this is a fucking terrible syllabus.

I know he liked pop-culture fluff, but this is truly shit.

I feel sorry for you.

>Stephen King

>books on tape

>I've noticed this a lot. In his interviews he always seemed to refer to writers and readers as "she". It's kinda creepy.

It's just a "she" as a gender neutral pronoun, very common in academia, no need to overinterpret you autists

>she
>gender neutral
lol shut the fuck up

I know he meant all readers, but don't you find it suspicious that le audience pussy man would use that sort of nomenclature?

Don't you get it? It's a grand literary statement, much like his suicide.

You do realize that when the sentence's subject's gender is unknown "he" is commonly used, in which case it is neutral too?

In the context of who he was, I'd say you're retarded.

>muh shitty Veeky Forums meme must survive at all cost

You uneducated people shouldn't be on Veeky Forums, you peasants clog up my monocle

>>>/rbooks/

>Every student is _forbidden_ to keep herself from visiting Mr. Wallace in his office after each lecture in order to clear up whatever questions she may still have about the course material

>sence

i know he being a pc but it seem like a sex pervert no?

>you will never be in Wallace Reading Group 1 or 2

why would "she" be creepy and "he" not be?

he is already gender neutral

geez what a stalker. I bet he acted strange around the female students as well

Makes it seem like Wallace has a fetish or something that makes him imagine readers and writers as all female.

But in reality, that's not the case; he just means it as a neutral pronoun like s/he.

because he is going out of his way to appeal to the girls which is a perverty creepy thing to do

he would have added the / if he meant it that way

Then that's pretty creepy

Dave was a huge creeper. Franzen has told stories of Dave hooking up with his students.

There is literally nothing wrong with nailing PTP.

honestly that sounds like a great course

Seems like your everyday anal-sadistic 2nd tier university professor.
>muh liberal arts education
>muh having high expectations of a class people only take to punch their ticket and move on

DFW never left the classroom and it shows in his work t b q h.

Kurrupt young gotti.

>The town is laden with a lot of smart people who don't give a shit about intellect and just want to go to church and raise their families.

>smart people
>going to church

Pick one.

I've noticed the hilarious trend in analytic philosophy of using the generic "she" (and still overwhelmingly citing men, of course, so I assume the pronoun is a throwaway gesture of political allegiance).

If you refuse to use generic "he" on political grounds and refuse to use generic "one", at least learn how to into generic "they". It's all too obvious what an author is doing with generic "she", and God forbid the dual abominations "s/he" "her/him".

because Wallace is a he

he + she = he + she + baby - 9months

m'f'dora

Most people on the internet who give too much of a shit about the harm of religion aren't very smart.

Brutal

I actually use she and her whenever I can. I just find it catches people off guard

>pic related
Fuck, it was probably even on his syllabus until the department rejected it

His "Top Ten" list is all pop

toptenbooks.net/authors/david-foster-wallace

Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Ed McBain

Kind of a cool site btw

It totally was the case though. Have you actually read any of his books? Seen his interviews? It's abundantly clear that he had a really bizarre sexualized outlook on reading and writing where it was universally a lesbian endeavor.

That list was him pretending to be a "regular guy". He gave a "serious" one to someone else at some point and it wasn't that embarrassing.

...

jesus christ

He was autistic to the max about grammar (among other things). There's some video on youtube where he spergs out about something grammar-related too.

>it's another American-hating foreigner

God, get an identity of your own.

[citation needed]

Ya. Post the serious one? Curious

I think it's more about how you can narrate and utilize whatever you consume randomly - a writer should be able to make use of everything he reads. Any book is composed iof a myriad interpretations, all of which will help you write better. His list wants to show you an example on how to do it - properly commented.

Alot of smart people in small community's go to church because of the higher and smoother social cohesion it provides.

Learn to actually learn about things, and not just regurgitating false info from your latest atheist prophetizier. fucking zealot.

ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=226583

ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=266836

Fuck I'm envious of all these people.