Posts tagged "David Foster Wallace"
(More) David Foster Wallace on Depression
Literature / Philosophy / Suffering

(More) David Foster Wallace on Depression

by David Zahl on Jun 14, 2010 • 2 Comments

From the recently published book-length interview Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself:

“I’m not biochemically depressed. But I feel like I got to dip my toe in that wading pool and, um, not going back there is more important to me than anything… It’s worse than any kind of physical injury, or any kind of – it may be what in the old days was called a spiritual crisis or whatever. It’s just the feeling as though the entire, every axiom of your life turned out to be false, and there was actually nothing, and you were nothing, and…

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Another Week Ends: More Shore, Facebook Happiness, DFW, Marriage, IMonk and The National
Books / Identity / Music / Poetry / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: More Shore, Facebook Happiness, DFW, Marriage, IMonk and The National

by David Zahl on May 14, 2010 • 5 Comments

1. John Shore’s follow-up to his Huffington Post piece, “How My Wife Took The News Of My Sudden Conversion”. It should be noted that Mr. Shore published a book in 2007 with the killer title: “I’m OK-You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending To Non-Believers And Why We Should Stop”. Along those lines, it’s worth taking a look at his post “What Non-Christians Want Christians To Hear”.

2. Fascinating report from the San Fracisco Chronicle about behavior on Facebook and LinkedIn. Turns out both networks employ scientists whose sole job it is to track and analyze our behavior… With a particular…

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Another Week Ends: Bad Church Kids, DFW, Dylan, Trailers, More Spiritualiosity
Children / Church / Film / Humor / Literature / Music / Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Bad Church Kids, DFW, Dylan, Trailers, More Spiritualiosity

by David Zahl on May 7, 2010 • 5 Comments

1. From an article Why Church Kids Must Go Bad that talks about contemporary youth ministry through the lens of this book. Not sure if the book is any good, but the article, though definitely a little churchy, is pretty great. ht EC:

“Have we communicated that Christianity is ultimately about goodness, about positivity, and has little to do with the reality of the human condition—little to do with suffering, brokenness, and yearning? These good kids have become the role models for others; we have labeled them the good and positive leaders, while the doubting, the yearning,…

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Conference Book Table
Books / Conferences / Literature / Music / Theology

Conference Book Table

by Mockingbird on Apr 26, 2010 • 6 Comments

As promised, here’s the full inventory of what we had on offer last week. It’s by no means a definitive collection or ‘canon’, just what we were able to gather up in time for the conference. They’re listed in order of author, with links to where you can purchase them. They all come highly recommended!

NON-FICTION

Basics 1. Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book).2. Brewer, Todd [ed.]. The Gospel According To Pixar. Coming Soon!4. Hawkins, David. The Useful Sinner.5. Long, Anne. Listening. 6. Manning, Brennan. The Ragamuffin Gospel.7. Norris, Sean [ed.]. Judgment & Love: Expanded Edition.8. Paulson, Steven.…

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The Perspective of David Foster Wallace
Books / Humor / Literature / Suffering

The Perspective of David Foster Wallace

by Jeff Hual on Apr 23, 2010 • 2 Comments

This is just a little something for your Friday afternoon, if you have the time.

I know this is a rather long video, but it’s definitely worthwhile. It’s the author himself reading two brilliantly humorous yet thoughtful works. His style has a way of using humor to get past the heart’s defenses in order to communicate some deeper truth at the same time.

Of course, we now know all to well that behind his humorous approach was a fellow sufferer who tragically ended his life before its time (though every death is untimely), but while he was with us his…

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David Foster Wallace on David Lynch, LOST (by extension), Irony, and Preaching
Art / Literature / Sermons / TV

David Foster Wallace on David Lynch, LOST (by extension), Irony, and Preaching

by David Zahl on Apr 22, 2010 • 7 Comments

From DFW’s definitive take on Lynch “David Lynch Keeps His Head”:

Like most storytellers who use mystery as a structural device and not a thematic device, Lynch is way better at deepening and complicating mysteries than he is at wrapping them up. And [Twin Peaks]‘ second season showed that he was aware of this and that it was making him really nervous. By its thirtieth episode, the show had degenerated into tics and shticks and mannerisms and red herrings, and part of the explanation for this was that Lynch was trying to divert our…

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The Upside Of Depression?
Humor / News / Psychology / Suffering / TV

The Upside Of Depression?

by David Zahl on Mar 8, 2010 • 5 Comments

From Jonah Lehrer’s fascinating article in last week’s NY Times magazine entitled “Depression’s Upside” which traces the research currently being done on depression from an evolutionary perspective, i.e. the attempt to answer the question, “Is there an evolutionary purpose to depression and if so what is it?”. Shaky ground…  Most of the article outlines the so-called “analytic rumination hypothesis” which boils down to the following:

“If depression didn’t exist — if we didn’t react to stress and trauma with endless ruminations — then we would be less likely to solve our predicaments. Wisdom isn’t cheap, and we pay for it with…

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Another Week Ends: Whole Foods, Heidi Montag, Colombian Eunuchs, Dostoevsky vs Marquis de Sade, DFW
Celebrity / Literature / Religion / Suffering / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Whole Foods, Heidi Montag, Colombian Eunuchs, Dostoevsky vs Marquis de Sade, DFW

by David Zahl on Jan 22, 2010 • 5 Comments

1. A fascinating profile in last week’s New Yorker of John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, sort of a footnote to JDK’s recent post on environmentalism. There is a lot in the article worth mentioning, but for our purposes, I thought it was particularly interesting that Whole Foods was founded as a self-consciously non-judgmental health food store (ht RJH):

“[The first Whole Foods store] was ten thousand square feet. They stocked not just lentils and granola but, in contravention of the co-op ethos, indulgences like meat, beer, and wine; there were aisles full of five-gallon bottles of distilled water, to…

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via http://fish-man.deviantart.com/
Addiction / Literature / Psychology / Suffering

David Foster Wallace on Depression, Powerlessness and Other Bad Things

by David Zahl on Jan 21, 2010 • 44 Comments

From a very early, as-of-yet uncollected short story “The Planet Trillaphon As It Stands In Relation To The Bad Thing”. He’s writing about depression (i.e. the Bad Thing), but one could almost substitute “sin” for “bad thing.” As we all know, it is easy to cling to human agency and willpower when it comes to less significant problems. But depression (or anger, or addiction for that matter) is not one of them. DFW paints a perfect and frankly rather horrifying picture of man in need of a solution outside of himself:

“Because the Bad Thing [depression] not only attacks you and…

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Another Week Ends: DFW, A. Null, female Atheists, Big Love and Twin Peaks
Literature / Religion / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: DFW, A. Null, female Atheists, Big Love and Twin Peaks

by David Zahl on Dec 11, 2009 • 25 Comments

1. The New Yorker published a posthumous short story from David Foster Wallace this past week, “All That”. A touching look at childhood and the ‘religious impulse’, it is sort of a must-read. The ending is particularly moving.

2. An illuminating interview with friend/theologian Ashley Null over at VirtueOnline about a number of subjects, including the English Reformation, contemporary Anglicanism and modern American culture (trust me, it’s more interesting than it sounds…). His distinction between unconditional affirmation and unconditional love strikes me as pertinent to some of the recent discussions on this site re: love & faith (ht TB).

3. An…

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Music / Theology

"She Is Love" by Parachute VA

by Lauren R.E. Larkin on Apr 7, 2009 • 2 Comments

A good friend of mine [shout out to Nate Lee] introduced me to this song.

I love it.

Because I’ve never encountered a song that echos the Love of the Cross so well.

It doesn’t even matter if the “she” in the song is a “real” woman or the feminine that is wisdom (Prov. 8; as wisdom is the fear/love of God (Prov. 1:7)); because, Love, described as such, is never separate/can never be separated from Jesus and the Cross. Love is the Cross; and, the Gospel, which is the proclamation of the Cross, is all love and all “Yes”. St. Paul,…

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4.5 Links 4 The Weekend
Film / Humor / Literature / Religion / TV / Week In Review

4.5 Links 4 The Weekend

by David Zahl on Mar 20, 2009 • 9 Comments

1. This weekend sees the release of the comedy I Love You, Man, starring Jason Segel and Paul Rudd. Having been a serious Segel fan since his days on Freaks And Geeks (top-five TV series ever!), I am considerably more excited for his next project – writing and producing the new Muppet movie. An early version of the script leaked this week and sounds very promising. According to AICN, “the movie revolves around The Muppets reuniting after a huge falling out to save The Muppet Studios in Hollywood.” If anyone can do justice to the spirit of Henson, it’s them.

2.…

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4.5 Links 4 The Weekend
Comics / Conferences / Literature / Music / Suffering

4.5 Links 4 The Weekend

by David Zahl on Mar 7, 2009 • 3 Comments

1. The amazing and important New Yorker article about David Foster Wallace’s final, unfinished novel, The Pale King. A couple of quick quotations from the article, the first from DFW himself:

“It seems like the big distinction between good art and so-so art lies . . . in be[ing] willing to sort of die in order to move the reader, somehow. Even now I’m scared about how sappy this’ll look in print, saying this. And the effort to actually to do it, not just talk about it, requires a kind of courage I don’t seem to have yet.”

And the second from…

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Everybody Worships: David Foster Wallace on Real Freedom and the Skeleton of Every Great Story
Everyday / Literature / Religion

Everybody Worships: David Foster Wallace on Real Freedom and the Skeleton of Every Great Story

by Drake on Sep 20, 2008 • 8 Comments

The Wall Street Journal was kind enough to reprint the watershed commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College by late author/Mbird hero David Foster Wallace, now collected in the slim This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life volume. Some call it the finest example of the form, and I’m not sure I’d disagree:

A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. Here’s one example of the utter wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything…

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David Foster Wallace, R.I.P.
Books / Literature / News / Suffering

David Foster Wallace, R.I.P.

by David Zahl on Sep 15, 2008 • 5 Comments

I was gutted to find out that my favorite living author, David Foster Wallace, committed suicide this past Friday. He was 46. This is a real tragedy and a serious loss. His gifts were enormous, perhaps even genius-level. It didn’t matter what subject caught his interest – tennis or cruise lines or depression or talk radio or addiction or math – he imbued them all with the same dazzling insight and wisdom and humor. I credit his book Infinite Jest with getting me through my year abroad in Vienna.

Everything he published is fantastic, but if you’re a newcomer, I suggest…

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