DOCSLIB.ORG

Modern Myth and Ideology in David Foster Wallace's the Pale King

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Modern Myth and Ideology in David Foster Wallace's the Pale King BearWorks MSU Graduate Theses Spring 2016 Modern Myth And Ideology In David Foster Wallace's The Pale King Matthew Ryan Stewart As with any intellectual project, the content and views expressed in this thesis may be considered objectionable by some readers. However, this student-scholar’s work has been judged to have academic value by the student’s thesis committee members trained in the discipline. The content and views expressed in this thesis are those of the student-scholar and are not endorsed by Missouri State University, its Graduate College, or its employees. Follow this and additional works at: https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Stewart, Matthew Ryan, "Modern Myth And Ideology In David Foster Wallace's The Pale King" (2016). MSU Graduate Theses. 2543. https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/2543 This article or document was made available through BearWorks, the institutional repository of Missouri State University. The work contained in it may be protected by copyright and require permission of the copyright holder for reuse or redistribution. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MODERN MYTH AND IDEOLOGY IN DAVID FOSTER WALLACE’S THE PALE KING A Masters Thesis Presented to The Graduate College of Missouri State University TEMPLATE In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts, English By Matthew Ryan Stewart July 2016 Copyright 2016 by Matthew Ryan Stewart ii MODERN MYTH AND IDEOLOGY IN DAVID FOSTER WALLACE’S THE PALE KING English Missouri State University, July 2016 Master of Arts Matthew Ryan Stewart ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyze David Foster Wallace’s novel The Pale King through the critical lenses of Lubomir Doležel’s Heterocosmica and Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” to arrive at a theory of the heroic in the novel. The Pale King features multiple characters experiencing various crises in the face of an invisible, adversarial force that can be understood through Doležel’s modern myth formulation, in which an invisible domain oppresses characters. This study analyzes three themes of the novel in which this interaction is most observable: the religious, the supernatural, and the civic themes. Althusser’s work is applied to argue that the invisible domain functions through an ideological mechanism. The thesis’s last chapter arrives at a twofold theory of the heroic that both helps illuminate The Pale King’s central characters and augments Doležel’s theory. The heroic characters of the novel follow one of two models: the mystical model – embodied by Shane Drinion – comprises being able to find meaning in meaningless work, rather like Sisyphus; the civic model – embodied by DeWitt Glendenning – entails adhering to the outmoded but noble convictions of civic responsibility despite inevitable downfall in the face of the invisible domain. KEYWORDS: The Pale King, Heterocosmica, modern myth, ideology, heroism, civic responsibility. This abstract is approved as to form and content _______________________________ Matthew Calihman, PhD Chairperson, Advisory Committee Missouri State University iii MODERN MYTH AND IDEOLOGY IN DAVID FOSTER WALLACE’S THE PALE KING By Matthew Ryan Stewart A Masters Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College Of Missouri State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, English July 2016 Approved: _______________________________________ Matthew Calihman, PhD, Associate Professor _______________________________________ Kenneth Gillam, PhD, Associate Professor _______________________________________ Lanya Lamouria, PhD, Associate Professor _______________________________________ Julie Masterson, PhD: Dean, Graduate College iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A truly exhaustive list of people to whom I will always be grateful at Missouri State University could not fit here, but I do owe very much to the support, generosity, guidance, and wisdom of Matt Calihman throughout the development of this thesis as well as throughout my undergraduate and graduate experience at MSU. For their thoughtful care in the development of this thesis I am also deeply indebted to Lanya Lamouria and Ken Gillam. Finally, I owe my emotional and psychological well-being to the support system created by the English Department GAs, 2014-2016. Thanks, all. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Doležel’s Mythology .....................................................................................5 I. An Introduction to Possible Worlds Formulae .....................................................5 II. Multi-Person Worlds .........................................................................................10 III. The Modern Myth ............................................................................................13 Chapter Two: The Pale King and Religion .......................................................................19 I. “Good People” ....................................................................................................20 II. Chris Fogle’s Coming-to-the-Light Moment ....................................................24 III. The Exorcist and the Stygian Wiggle Rooms ..................................................27 Chapter Three: The Supernatural Aspects of The Pale King .............................................33 I. Claude Sylvanshine and Random-Fact Intuition ................................................34 II. Shane Drinion’s Levitation ...............................................................................38 III. Ghosts/Apparitions ..........................................................................................41 Chapter Four: The Civic Aspect of The Pale King ............................................................44 I. The Elevator Discussion .....................................................................................45 II. The Ideological Mechanics of the Invisible Domain ........................................55 Chapter Five: Heroism in the Modern Myth......................................................................62 I. The Mystic Model of Heroism ...........................................................................64 II. The Civic Model of Heroism ............................................................................68 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................72 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................74 vi INTRODUCTION Even if he had given up writing after the publication of 1996’s Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s place in the circle of Great American Writers would have been more or less granted. Some of the acclaim garnered for that behemoth novel – e.g. “it's as though Paul Bunyan had joined the NFL or Wittgenstein had gone on `Jeopardy!'” (Caro) - would be enough to settle the matter: the novel was a post-postmodern game-changer, the work of a deeply talented writer. It was also the work of a writer deeply interested – morally interested – in the state of America at the turn of the millennium. The impetus behind the writing of the novel was Wallace’s desire to “do something real American,” and, specifically, to capture the “stomach level sadness” that “doesn’t have much to do with physical circumstances, or the economy, or any of that stuff that gets talked about on the news” (Miller). I probably do not have to remake the case of Wallace’s moralism here (though it will get explored later in the essay): rather, suffice it to say, Wallace was keenly aware that there was some nebulous lack in American life at the cusp of the twenty-first century. In the years after Infinite Jest, Wallace seemed to have zeroed in more specifically on what the “stomach-level sadness” comprised. In his later short fiction and, famously, his Kenyon College Commencement Speech address, Wallace perceived a problem with attention and awareness endemic in U.S. culture. Ultimately, it is his final work of fiction, the unfinished, posthumously-published The Pale King, that Wallace presented his most forceful thesis on the issue of American sadness. The Pale King, assembled from hundreds of pages of manuscript that Wallace left after his suicide in 2008, presents 1 perhaps a new novelistic form that understands the forces at work in U.S. society in a “modern mythological” format. The novel explores the forces at play in late capitalist America that disable feelings of satisfaction and legitimacy in its populace: these forces have perverted, in a sense, political, religious, and familial values at some juncture in the second half of the twentieth century. This paper primarily aims to prove two points. The first is that Lubomir Doležel’s modern myth novel theory, as outlined in his Heterocosmica, clearly illustrates the form of The Pale King. The second point is that since Doležel’s myth formulations – which comprise invisible forces that oppress the denizens of the myth world – can be understood as ideological in nature, I will use an Althusserian understanding of ideological functions to further illustrate the oppressive forces in the novel. From these lenses of interpretation I intend to arrive at a model of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How Do Fish See Water? Building Public Will to Advance Inclusive Communities
    How Do Fish See Water? Building Public Will to Advance Inclusive Communities Tiffany Manuel, TheCaseMade “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’” —David Foster Wallace1 Cultivating more equitable and inclusive communities is challenging work. In addition to the technical challenges of fostering such communities, there also is the added conundrum of how we build public support for policies and investments that make equitable and inclusive development possible. On the public will-building front, this work is made exponentially tougher because it generally means asking people to problematize an issue—racial and economic segregation—that they do not see as a problem that threatens the values and vitality of the communities in which they live. Unlike climate change, health care, education, or other social “issues” that are well-understood as requiring public intervention, racial and economic segregation operates so ubiquitously that it is often ignored as a “thing” to be solved. It just is. And, when people are asked explicitly to reflect on the high level of concentrated segregation that characterizes their communities and to consider the well-documented negative consequences of us living so separately, many struggle to “see” this as a compelling policy problem with the same shaping force of other issues requiring national attention. Perhaps most importantly, they struggle to see their stake in shaping solutions and supporting policies that cultivate more equitable and inclusive places.
    [Show full text]
  • This Is Water and Religious Self-Deception Kevin Timpe in The
    This is Water and Religious Self-Deception Kevin Timpe OF WATER AND ESKIMOS In the spring of 2005, David Foster Wallace offered the commencement speech at Kenyon College, which was soon widely reproduced across the internet.1 It contains a forceful warning against intellectual arrogance and about the need to “exercise control over how and what you think” (53, emphasis original). Wallace began his speech with the following parable: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How‟s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre[,] … but if you‟re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don‟t be. I am not the wise old fish. The point 1 After his death in 2008, this speech was published as This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2009). All subsequent references to “This is Water” will be made parenthetically and will refer to this printing. of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.
    [Show full text]
  • Performance, Everyday Life, and the Self in the Novels of David Foster Wallace
    Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version South, Daniel (2015) Watching As The World Turns: Performance, Everyday Life, and the Self in the Novels of David Foster Wallace. Master of Arts by Research (MARes) thesis, University of Kent. DOI Link to record in KAR https://kar.kent.ac.uk/54755/ Document Version UNSPECIFIED Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html Watching As The World Turns: Performance, Everyday Life, and the Self in the Novels of David Foster Wallace Mr. Daniel South A thesis submitted for the Degree of Masters in Drama by Research School of Arts, University of Kent September 2015 33,421 words Daniel South MA by Research Abstract This thesis examines the manifestation of performance in the novels of David Foster Wallace.
    [Show full text]
  • Signifying Rappers PDF Book
    SIGNIFYING RAPPERS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK David Foster Wallace | 176 pages | 29 Aug 2013 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780241968314 | English | London, United Kingdom Signifying Rappers PDF Book But so too you know all this already , the book is dated. His final novel, The Pale King , was published posthumously in For example, my favorite quote from the book: "Ironies abound,of course, as ironies must when cash and art do lunch. I agree to the Terms and Conditions. But, like my diet Dr Pepper left outside overnight or a green pear eaten too soon, this book hints at DFW's later genius without quite delivering the thing you want. Both of the authors are brilliant men, but I felt as if their arguments were often dressed in such intricate language that it was easy to lose track of the overarching idea. Legendary thriller writer David Morrell transports readers to the fogbound streets of London, where a It's interesting to see our hero in his youth; his brief descriptions of his grad school life are priceless. Joyce A. David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello's exuberant exploration of rap music and culture. They aren't trying to make personal con After reading this, I'm still shocked that it even exists. Less about rap than the dystopia that was Reagan's s. I Dream of Jeannie vs race riots. He could conjure up an absurd future If this is desegregation, then shopping malls hold treasure Are pop-products ever relevant? But this does not invalidate their thoughts, nor does it make reading this a waste of time.
    [Show full text]
  • The End of the Tour
    Two men bare their souls as they struggle with life, creative expression, addiction, culture and depression. The End of the Tour The End of the Tour received accolades from Vanity Fair, Sundance Film Festival, the movie critic Roger Ebert, the New York Times and many more. Tour the film locations and explore the places where actors Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg spent their downtime. Get the scoop and discover entertaining, behind-the-scene stories and more. The End of the Tour follows true events and the relationship between acclaimed author David Foster Wallace and Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky. Jason Segel plays David Foster Wallace who committed suicide in 2008, while Jesse Eisenberg plays the Rolling Stone reporter who followed Wallace around the country for five days as he promoted his book, Infinite Jest. right before the bookstore opened up again. All the books on the shelves had to come down and were replaced by books that were best sellers and poplar at the time the story line took place. Schuler Books has a fireplace against one wall which was covered up with shelving and books and used as the backdrop for the scene. Schuler Books & Music is one of the nation’s largest independent bookstores. The bookstore boasts a large selection of music, DVDs, gift items, and a gourmet café. PHOTO: EMILY STAVROU-SCHAEFER, SCHULER BOOKS STAVROU-SCHAEFER, PHOTO: EMILY PHOTO: JANET KASIC DAVID FOSTER WALLACE’S HOUSE 5910 72nd Avenue, Hudsonville Head over to the house that served as the “home” of David Foster Wallace. This home (15 miles from Grand Rapids) is where all house scenes were filmed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lobster Considered
    6 ! e Lobster Considered Robert C. Jones ! e day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. — Jeremy Bentham Is it not possible that future generations will regard our present agribusiness and eating practices in much the same way we now view Nero ’ s entertainments or Mengele ’ s experiments? — David Foster Wallace ! e arguments to prove man ’ s superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in su" ering the animals are our equals. — Peter Singer In 1941 M. F. K. Fisher " rst asked us to consider the oyster,1 n o t a s a m o r a l but as a culinary exploration. Sixty-three years later when David Foster Wallace asked us to consider the lobster2 for ostensibly similar reasons, the investigation quickly abandoned the gustatory and took a turn toward the philosophical and ethical. In that essay, originally published in Gourmet magazine, Wallace challenges us to think deeply about the troubling ethical questions raised by the issue of lobster pain and our moral (mis)treatment of these friendly crustaceans. Since the publication of that essay, research on nonhuman animal sentience has exploded. News reports of the " ndings of research into animal behavior and cognition are common; 2010 saw the publication of a popular book of the title Do Fish Feel Pain? 3 In this essay, I accept Wallace ’ s challenge and argue not only that according to our best 1 M. F. K. Fisher, Consider the Oyster (New York: Still Point Press, 2001).
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Krzysztof Piekarski 2013
    Copyright by Krzysztof Piekarski 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Krzysztof Piekarski Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Buddhist Philosophy in the Work of David Foster Wallace Committee: Martin Kevorkian, Supervisor Margaret Syverson Brian Bremen Andrew Cooper Frank Richardson ii Buddhist Philosophy in the Work of David Foster Wallace by Krzysztof Piekarski, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2013 iii Dedication For my Grandma, Mother and Michałek, and in memory of David Foster Wallace iv Acknowledgements I would also like to thank my committee at the University of Texas for their support, generosity, intelligence and patience. Special thanks to Peg Syverson and Flint Sparks for your generosity and for teaching me that sitting still while looking at a wall is by far a way better idea than any I’ve had previously. To Andrew Cooper who over the years slowed down enough for me to keep up with him in all manners of speaking. To Martin Kevorkian whom I’ve always considered to be an absolutely best-case-scenario role-model and who pretty much grabbed me by the scruff for nine years and wouldn’t let go no matter how often I wanted to run away–– there’s a kindness in your spirit that proved my most valuable lesson. To Jean, Sean, and Phil for your warmth and joyful ways. To Cory and Uncle whose spirits of giving and adventure is unfair for those of us with less backbone.
    [Show full text]
  • David Foster Wallace: Media, Metafiction, and Miscommunication
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2018 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2018 "Becoming" David Foster Wallace: Media, Metafiction, and Miscommunication Gordon Hugh Willis IV Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2018 Part of the American Literature Commons, and the American Popular Culture Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Willis, Gordon Hugh IV, ""Becoming" David Foster Wallace: Media, Metafiction, and Miscommunication" (2018). Senior Projects Spring 2018. 133. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2018/133 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. !i “Becoming” David Foster Wallace: Media, Metafiction, and Miscommunication Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College by Gordon Hugh Willis IV Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2018 !ii Dedicated to Nathan Shockey for keeping me on track, something with which I’ve always
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding David Foster Wallace, Marshall Boswell LEG the Legacy of David Foster Wallace, Ed
    The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies is published by the International David Foster Wallace Society. Copyright © 2019 International David Foster Wallace Society The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies (Print) ISSN 2576-9995 The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies (Online) ISSN 2577-0039 Interior designed by David Jensen Cover art copyright © 2019 Chris Ayers STAFF Editor Clare Hayes-Brady, University College Dublin Managing Editor Matt Bucher Editorial Board Grace Chipperfield Alexander Moran Ándrea Laurencell Sheridan Rob Short Matthew Luter Advisory Board David Hering Jonathan Laskovsky Adam Kelly Mike Miley Nick Maniatis Lucas Thompson Linda Daley Subscriptions To subscribe to the Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies, simply join the International David Foster Wallace Society (http://dfwsociety.org). Membership includes a subscription to our journal as well as access to electronic editions of the journal. Submissions All submissions are welcome. Send directly to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @dfwsociety Volume 1, Number 2 Fall 2019 Special Issue Guest Editors: Alice Bennett and Peter Sloane Volume 1, Number 2 • Fall 2019 Preface by Clare Hayes-Brady ...................................................... 7 Wallace Short Things by Alice Bennett and Peter Sloane .......... 11 Footnotes, Footsteps, Ghostprints by David Punter .................... 25 Wallace’s Ambivalence toward Insight: The Epiphany in “Octet” and “Adult World” (I) and (II) by Jacob Hovind ......................... 45 “The lie is that it’s one or the other”: Extracting “Forever Overhead” and “Church Not Made with Hands” from the Short Story Cycle by Rob Mayo ........................................................... 71 The Case of “Think” in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: Is Dialogism Possible? by Pia Masiero ............................................ 95 “The Fragment”: “Cede,” Ancient Rome, and The Pale King by Tim Groenland ...................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Trilogy—The Broom of the System (1987), Infinite Jest (1996), and the Pale King (2011)—According to His Philosophy of Post Postmodernism
    Critical Literary Studies Vol. III, No. 2, Series 6 Spring and Summer 2021 Abdolreza Goudarzi (Corresponding Author) 1 Instructor, Department of English Language and Literature, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran Morteza Lak 2 Assistant Professor, English Department, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.34785/J014.2021.945 Article Type: Original Article Page Numbers: 143-158 Received: 6 January 2021 Accepted: 21 June 2021 The progression of culture and literature in the three subsequent eras of Modernism, Postmodernism and Post Postmodernism since the late-20th-century can be considered as one of the vivid factors that has led to the chain of transformation of man. In Modernism, the superiority of authentic and governmental power over people was dominant and later in the era of Postmodernism or the late capitalism, the notion of fragmentation controlled the life of the people; but in the third one, Post Postmodernism, a freshgenus of humanism was introduced by innovative authors such as David Foster Wallace who, in his philosophy of writing, illustrates not only the pain and limitations of man but also the healing instruments. Philosophically speaking, through the critical gates of Wallace’s philosophy, the subjectivity of man is given a niche, and thanks to the opportunity he has gained in the social networks, he could have made it possible to create a type of sharing and mutual communication amongst the fragmented individuals. That is to say, all alienated and limited individuals can have the role of active agents, communicators, and producers instead of being passive watchers, readers, and one-way communicators organized by the structures of the past eras.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Postmodernism in David Foster Wallace by Shannon
    Reading Beyond Irony: Exploring the Post-secular “End” of Postmodernism in David Foster Wallace By Shannon Marie Minifie A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in English Language and Literature in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada August 2019 Copyright © Shannon Marie Minifie, 2019 Dedicated to the memory of Tyler William Minifie (1996-2016) ii Abstract David Foster Wallace’s self-described attempt to move past the “ends” of postmodernism has made for much scholarly fodder, but the criticism that has resulted focuses on Wallace’s supposed attempts to eschew irony while neglecting what else is at stake in thinking past these “ends.” Looking at various texts across his oeuvre, I think about Wallace’s way “past” postmodern irony through his engagement with what has come to be variously known as the “postsecular.” Putting some of his work in conversation with postsecular thought and criticism, then, I aim to provide a new context for thinking about the nature of Wallace’s relationship to religion as well as to late postmodernism. My work builds on that of critics like John McClure, who have challenged the established secular theoretical frameworks for postmodernism, and argue that such post-secular interventions provide paradigmatic examples of the relationship between postmodernism and post-secularism, where the latter, as an evolution or perhaps a mutation of the former, signals postmodernism’s lateness—or at least its decline as a cultural- historical dominant. I also follow other Wallace critics in noting his spiritual and religious preoccupations, building on some of the great work that has already been done to explore his religious and post-secular leanings.
    [Show full text]
  • Editing David Foster Wallace
    ‘NEUROTIC AND OBSESSIVE’ BUT ‘NOT TOO INTRANSIGENT OR DEFENSIVE’: Editing David Foster Wallace By Zac Farber 1 In December of 1993, David Foster Wallace printed three copies of a manuscript he had taken to calling the “longer thing” and gave one to his editor, Michael Pietsch, one to a woman he was trying to impress, and one to Steven Moore, a friend and the managing editor of the Review of Contemporary Fiction, whose edits and cuts Wallace wished to compare with Pietsch’s. The manuscript, which Little, Brown and Company would publish as Infinite Jest in 1996, was heavy (it required both of Moore’s hands to carry) and, Moore recalled, unruly: It’s a mess—a patchwork of different fonts and point sizes, with numerous handwritten corrections/additions on most pages, and paginated in a nesting pattern (e.g., p. 22 is followed by 22A-J before resuming with p. 23, which is followed by 23A-D, etc). Much of it is single-spaced, and what footnotes existed at this stage appear at the bottom of pages. (Most of those in the published book were added later.) Several states of revision are present: some pages are early versions, heavily overwritten with changes, while others are clean final drafts. Throughout there are notes in the margins, reminders to fix something or other, adjustments to chronology (which seems to have given Wallace quite a bit of trouble), even a few drawings and doodles.1 Wallace followed some of Pietsch and Moore’s suggestions and cut about 40 pages from the first draft of the manuscript2, but before publication he added more than 200 pages of additional material, including an opening chapter that many critics have praised as the novel’s best and more than 100 pages of (often footnoted) endnotes.3 Editing Wallace could be demanding, and those who attempted it found themselves faced with the difficulty of correcting a man with a prodigious understanding of the byzantine syntactical and grammatical rules of the English language.
    [Show full text]