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A review by windycorner
Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace
4.0
David Foster Wallace is one of those oft-dropped writer names. You're supposed to have read him. At the time of his tragic death in 2008, I realized I never had. Situation corrected. I'm sort of stunned. The guy was so smart and so Word Knowledgeable that if he'd been in school with me, I would have crumpled in defeat over his mere proximity.
Admittedly, I didn't enjoy the essays about tennis. No one can cause me to enjoy a sports essay. But some of the others blew me away. In "The Nature of the Fun," DFW offers permission to stop writing when one's motives have gotten off track. "Back in New Fire" discusses the possible long-term effects of AIDS on our sexual attitudes. (DFW asserts that there is no such thing as casual sex. This concept carries more weight coming from the Real World than it does from religious purity cultures, where you expect to find it.) I learned more from "Twenty-Four Word Notes" than I did in some of my college classes. If my path crosses yours in the next few days, expect me to drop a really outrageous new word on you.
Admittedly, I didn't enjoy the essays about tennis. No one can cause me to enjoy a sports essay. But some of the others blew me away. In "The Nature of the Fun," DFW offers permission to stop writing when one's motives have gotten off track. "Back in New Fire" discusses the possible long-term effects of AIDS on our sexual attitudes. (DFW asserts that there is no such thing as casual sex. This concept carries more weight coming from the Real World than it does from religious purity cultures, where you expect to find it.) I learned more from "Twenty-Four Word Notes" than I did in some of my college classes. If my path crosses yours in the next few days, expect me to drop a really outrageous new word on you.