Misplaced Pages

#356643

103-555: David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing . Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times ' s David Ulin called Wallace "one of

206-673: A "Status model", whereby the point of fiction is to be Art, and also a "Contract model", whereby the point of fiction is to be Entertainment, and finds that he subscribes to both models. He praises The Recognitions , admits that he only got halfway through J R , and explains why he does not like the rest of Gaddis's novels. In 2004, Franzen published "The Discomfort Zone", a personal essay about his childhood and family life in Missouri and his love of Charles M. Schulz 's Peanuts , in The New Yorker . Susan Orlean selected it for

309-436: A 1997 interview on Charlie Rose , Wallace said that the notes were to disrupt the linear narrative, to reflect his perception of reality without jumbling the narrative structure, and that he could have jumbled the sentences "but then no one would read it". D. T. Max has described Wallace's work as an "unusual mixture of the cerebral and the hot-blooded", often featuring multiple protagonists and spanning different locations in

412-418: A career as a novelist. While writing his first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City , he worked as a research assistant at Harvard University 's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, coauthoring several dozen papers. In September 1987, a month after he and his wife moved to New York City, Franzen sold The Twenty-Seventh City to Farrar Straus & Giroux . The Twenty-Seventh City , published in 1988,

515-608: A creative outlet to encourage rehabilitation. These programs' continuation relies heavily on volunteers and outside financial support from sources such as authors and activist groups. The Poets Playwrights Essayists Editors and Novelists, known as PEN , were among the most significant contributors to creative writing programs in America. In 1971, PEN established the Prison Writing Committee to implement and advocate for creative writing programs in prisons throughout

618-793: A degree in German in 1981. As part of his undergraduate education, he studied abroad in Germany during the 1979–80 academic year with Wayne State University 's Junior Year in Munich program. While there, he met Michael A. Martone , on whom he would later base the character Walter Berglund in Freedom . He also studied on a Fulbright Scholarship at Freie Universität Berlin in Berlin in 1981–82; he speaks fluent German. Franzen married in 1982 and moved with his wife to Somerville, Massachusetts to pursue

721-496: A drug and alcohol detoxification program. He later said his time there changed his life. Dogs were important to Wallace, and he spoke of opening a shelter for stray canines. According to his friend Jonathan Franzen , he "had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and [were] unlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them". In the early 1990s, Wallace was in a relationship with writer Mary Karr . She later described Wallace as obsessive about her and said

824-428: A fifth novel he was currently working on, although he went on to suggest that while he had a proposal there was no guarantee that what was proposed would make the final cut, saying of similar proposals for previous novels, "I look at the old proposals now, and I see the one part of them that actually got made into a book, and I think, 'How come I couldn't see that? What is all this other stuff?'". Franzen also hinted that

927-406: A gun to kill Karr's ex-husband. In a 2015 NPR interview, Karr stated that, "I'm not the only woman [Wallace] was violent with. It was, it's common knowledge among women who dated him, you know, that he was violent." Since publicizing Wallace's abuse, Karr says women have contacted her to share stories of Wallace hiting, lying, and preying on them, including former students of Wallace. The Broom of

1030-584: A kind of restorative justice. Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award , was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize , and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award . His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on

1133-420: A lecture on autobiography and fiction, Franzen discussed four perennial questions often asked of him by audiences, all of which annoy or bother him in some way. They are: In the lecture he said of the third question in particular "This one always raises my blood pressure" and quoted Nabokov in response. In February 2010, Franzen (along with writers such as Richard Ford , Margaret Atwood , and Anne Enright )

SECTION 10

#1732780093357

1236-498: A literary manifesto in Harper's Magazine entitled " Perchance to Dream ". Referencing manifestos written by Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe , among others, Franzen grappled with the novelist's role in an advanced media culture which seemed to no longer need the novel. In the end, Franzen rejects the goal of writing a great social novel about issues and ideas, in favor of focusing on the internal lives of characters and their emotions. Given

1339-536: A lovely singing voice". In studying philosophy, Wallace pursued modal logic and mathematics, and presented in 1985 a senior thesis in philosophy and modal logic that was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize and posthumously published as Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (2010). Wallace adapted his honors thesis in English as the manuscript of his first novel, The Broom of

1442-553: A media-saturated society. Wallace's fiction combines narrative modes and authorial voices that incorporate jargon and invented vocabulary, such as self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long, multi- clause sentences, and an extensive use of explanatory endnotes and footnotes, as in Infinite Jest and the story "Octet" (collected in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men ), and most of his non-fiction after 1996. In

1545-626: A much publicized feud with the talk show host. Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois , the son of Irene (née Super) and Earl T. Franzen. His father, raised in Minnesota , was the son of an immigrant from Sweden; his mother's ancestry was Eastern European. Franzen grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Webster Groves , a suburb of St. Louis , Missouri, and graduated with high honors from Swarthmore College , receiving

1648-522: A novel of social criticism, garnered considerable critical acclaim in the United States, winning both the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel was also a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award , and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (won by Richard Russo for Empire Falls ). In September 2001, The Corrections

1751-849: A private two-page suicide note to his wife, arranged part of the manuscript for The Pale King , and hanged himself on the back porch of his house in Claremont, California. Memorial gatherings were held at Pomona College, Amherst College, the University of Arizona, Illinois State University, and on October 23, 2008, at New York University (NYU). The eulogists at NYU included his sister, Amy Wallace-Havens; his literary agent, Bonnie Nadell; Gerry Howard , editor of his first two books; Colin Harrison , an editor at Harper's Magazine ; Michael Pietsch, editor of Infinite Jest and later works; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at The New Yorker magazine; and

1854-415: A room with Todd Field, Jonathan Franzen and Daniel Craig bashing out the story. They're extremely interesting people." Purity was a relative commercial disappointment compared to Franzen's two previous novels, selling only 255,476 copies, compared to 1.15 million copies of Freedom and 1.6 million copies of The Corrections . On November 13, 2020, Franzen's publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced

1957-438: A rundown of words that were not used quite correctly in stories from that week's workshop. (I still remember him explaining to us the difference between cement and concrete.) At the same time, he was eminently supportive and sympathetic; I don't remember those corrections ever feeling condescending." For the 1992 class, Franzen invited David Foster Wallace to be a guest judge of the workshop pieces. Franzen's The Corrections ,

2060-477: A single work. His writing comments on the fragmentation of thought, the relationship between happiness and boredom, and the psychological tension between the beauty and hideousness of the human body. According to Wallace, "fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being", and he said he wanted to write "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" that could help the reader "become less alone inside". In his Kenyon College commencement address, Wallace described

2163-659: A stage play in 2000 by Dylan McCullough. This was the first theatrical adaptation of Wallace's work. The play, Hideous Men , was also directed by McCullough, and premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2000. Brief Interviews was also adapted by director Marc Caellas as a play, Brief Interviews with Hideous Writers , which premiered at Fundación Tomás Eloy Martinez in Buenos Aires on November 4, 2011. In 2012 it

SECTION 20

#1732780093357

2266-589: A tuxedo T-shirt while eating in the ship's dining room. The 2015 film The End of the Tour is based on conversations David Lipsky had with Wallace, transcribed in Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010). Jason Segel played Wallace, and Jesse Eisenberg Lipsky. The film won an Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Sarasota Film Festival , and Segel was nominated for

2369-486: Is a more contemporary and process-oriented name for what has been traditionally called literature , including the variety of its genres . In her work, Foundations of Creativity , Mary Lee Marksberry references Paul Witty and Lou LaBrant 's Teaching the People's Language to define creative writing. Marksberry notes: Witty and LaBrant...[say creative writing] is a composition of any type of writing at any time primarily in

2472-522: Is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird, pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that, at the same time, they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that, for aspiring fictionists, they pose terrifically vexing problems. Wallace used many forms of irony, but tended to focus on individual persons' continued longing for earnest, unself-conscious experience and communication in

2575-629: Is also being challenged, with critics pointing out that Western literary canon and writing pedagogy is "historically rooted and linked to exclusion and structural racism in creative writing programs." In the late 1960s, American prisons began implementing creative writing programs due to the prisoner rights movement that stemmed from events such as the Attica Prison riot . The creative writing programs are among many art programs that aim to benefit prisoners during and after their time in prison. Programs such as these provide education, structure, and

2678-541: Is and sets out to uncover his identity. The narrative stretches from contemporary America to South America to East Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall , and hinges on the mystery of Pip's family history and her relationship with a charismatic hacker and whistleblower. In 2016, Daily Variety reported that the novel was in the process of being adapted into a 20-hour limited series for Showtime by Todd Field who would share writing duties with Franzen and

2781-556: Is considered by some academics (mostly in the US) to be an extension of the English discipline, even though it is taught around the world in many languages. The English discipline is traditionally seen as the critical study of literary forms, not the creation of literary forms. Some academics see creative writing as a challenge to this tradition. In the UK and Australia , as well as increasingly in

2884-607: Is considered by some to constitute experience in creative problem-solving . Despite a large number of academic creative writing programs throughout the world, many people argue that creative writing cannot be taught. Essayist Louis Menand explores the issue in an article for the New Yorker in which he quotes Kay Boyle , the director of the creative writing program at San Francisco State University for sixteen years, who said, "all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law." Contemporary discussions of creative writing at

2987-542: Is in universities . Following a reworking of university education in the post-war era, creative writing has progressively gained prominence in the university setting. In the UK, the first formal creative writing program was established as a Master of Arts degree at the University of East Anglia in 1970 by the novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson . With the beginning of formal creative writing programs: For

3090-516: Is part of a novel that he hoped will be out in the summer of 2015. On November 17, 2014, The New York Times Artsbeat Blog reported that the novel, titled Purity , would be out in September. Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, described Purity as a multigenerational American epic that spans decades and continents. The story centers on a young woman named Purity Tyler, or Pip, who doesn't know who her father

3193-470: Is set in Franzen's hometown, St. Louis, and deals with the city's fall from grace, St. Louis having been the "fourth city" in the 1870s. This sprawling novel was warmly received and established Franzen as an author to watch. In a conversation with novelist Donald Antrim for Bomb Magazine , Franzen described The Twenty-Seventh City as "a conversation with the literary figures of my parents' generation[,]

David Foster Wallace - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-512: Is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. ... The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Wallace covered Senator John McCain 's 2000 presidential campaign and the September 11 attacks for Rolling Stone ; cruise ships (in what became the title essay of his first nonfiction book), state fairs , and tornadoes for Harper's Magazine ;

3399-1041: Is usually taught in a workshop format rather than seminar style. In workshops, students usually submit original work for peer critique. Students also format a writing method through the process of writing and re-writing. Some courses teach the means to exploit or access latent creativity or more technical issues such as editing , structural techniques , genres , random idea generating , or unblocking writer's block . Some noted authors , such as Michael Chabon , Sir Kazuo Ishiguro , Kevin Brockmeier , Ian McEwan , Karl Kirchwey , Dame Rose Tremain and reputed screenwriters, such as David Benioff , Darren Star and Peter Farrelly , have graduated from university creative writing programs. Many educators find that using creative writing can increase students' academic performance and resilience . The activity of completing small goals consistently rather than unfinished big goals creates pride in one's brain, which exudes dopamine throughout

3502-555: The New York Times said it was "warmer than anything he's yet written, wider in its human sympathies, weightier of image and intellect." According to the Times Literary Supplement : Crossroads is largely free from the vices to which Franzen's previous work has been addicted: the self-conscious topicality; the show-off sophistication; the formal heavy-handedness. It retains many of his familiar virtues:

3605-584: The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction , awarded by editors of The Paris Review for one of the stories in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men , which had been published in the magazine. In 2002, Wallace moved to Claremont, California , to become the first Roy E. Disney endowed Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College . He taught one or two undergraduate courses per semester and focused on writing. Wallace delivered

3708-881: The Arab Spring ; and unfurling how media conglomerates influence politics in their quest for profits." Franzen published his third essay collection, The End of the End of the Earth: Essays , in November 2018. According to advance press for the book, the collection "gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, [and] Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes—both human and literary—that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at

3811-572: The Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead . "Partridge", a Season 5 episode of NBC 's Parks and Recreation , repeatedly references Infinite Jest , of which the show's co-creator, Michael Schur , is a noted fan. Schur also directed the music video for The Decemberists ' "Calamity Song", which depicts the Eschaton game from Infinite Jest. Twelve of the interviews from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men were adapted as

3914-567: The Los Angeles Times , The Washington Post , The New York Times , and The Philadelphia Inquirer . In the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic , which commemorated the magazine's 150th anniversary, Wallace was among the authors, artists, politicians and others who wrote short pieces on "the future of the American idea". These and other essays appear in three collections, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again , Consider

4017-519: The US Open tournament for Tennis magazine; Roger Federer for The New York Times ; the director David Lynch and the pornography industry for Première magazine; the tennis player Michael Joyce for Esquire ; the movie-special-effects industry for Waterstone's magazine; conservative talk radio host John Ziegler for The Atlantic ; and a Maine lobster festival for Gourmet magazine. He also reviewed books in several genres for

4120-512: The irony and metafiction associated with postmodernism and explore a post-postmodern or metamodern style. In the essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (written 1990, published 1993), he proposed that television has an ironic influence on fiction, and urged literary authors to eschew TV's shallow rebelliousness: I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction

4223-535: The "...material from his new (reportedly massive) novel" was "as buoyant and compelling as ever" and "marked by his familiar undercurrent of tragedy". Franzen read "an extended clip from the second chapter." On September 9, 2010, Franzen appeared on Fresh Air to discuss Freedom in the wake of its release. Franzen has drawn what he describes as a "feminist critique" for the attention that male authors receive over female authors—a critique he supports. Franzen also discussed his friendship with David Foster Wallace and

David Foster Wallace - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-570: The Consequences" a takedown of the beloved German poet, "Nestroy and Posterity" which established that playwright's reputation in Austria to this day, and "Afterword to Heine and the Consequences"". The essays are accompanied by "Franzen's [own] plentiful, trenchant yet off-beat annotations" taking on "... Kraus' mantle-commenting on what Kraus would say (and what Franzen's opinion is) about Macs and PCs ; decrying Twitter's claim of credit for

4429-584: The English departments in the respective schools, but this notion has been challenged in recent times as more creative writing programs have spun off into their own department. Creative Writing undergraduate degrees tend to be Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees, but Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees also exist. Some continue to pursue a Master of Arts , Master of Fine Arts , or Master of Studies in Creative Writing. Once rare, Ph.D. programs are becoming more prevalent in

4532-652: The Lobster and the posthumous Both Flesh and Not , the last of which contains some of Wallace's earliest work, including his first published essay, "Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young". Wallace's tennis writing was compiled into a volume titled String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis , published in 2016. Some writers have found parts of Wallace's nonfiction implausible. Jonathan Franzen has said that he believes Wallace made up dialogue and incidents: "those things didn't actually happen". Of

4635-529: The Oprah logo on the cover dissuaded men from reading the book: I had some hope of actually reaching a male audience and I've heard more than one reader in signing lines now at bookstores say "If I hadn't heard you, I would have been put off by the fact that it is an Oprah pick. I figure those books are for women. I would never touch it." Those are male readers speaking. I see this as my book, my creation. Soon afterward, Franzen's invitation to appear on Oprah's show

4738-549: The September/October 2008 issue of MIT Technology Review . In 2012 he published Farther Away , a collection of essays dealing with such topics as his love of birds, his friendship with David Foster Wallace , and his thoughts on technology. In 2013, Franzen published The Kraus Project . It consists of three major essays by the "Perennially ... impossible to translate" Austrian "playwright, poet, social commentator and satirical genius" Karl Kraus – ""Heine and

4841-548: The System (1987) garnered national attention and critical praise. In The New York Times , Caryn James called it a "manic, human, flawed extravaganza ... emerging straight from the excessive tradition of Stanley Elkin 's The Franchiser , Thomas Pynchon 's V. , [and] John Irving 's World According to Garp ". In 1991, Wallace began teaching literature as an adjunct professor at Emerson College in Boston. The next year, at

4944-411: The System (1987), and committed to being a writer. He told David Lipsky : "Writing The Broom of the System , I felt like I was using 97 percent of me, whereas philosophy was using 50 percent." Wallace completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Arizona in 1987. He moved to Massachusetts to attend graduate school in philosophy at Harvard University , but soon left

5047-618: The U.S. The PEN Writing Committee improved prison libraries , inspired volunteer writers to teach prisoners, persuaded authors to host workshops, and founded an annual literary competition for prisoners. Workshops and classes help prisoners build self-esteem, make healthy social connections, and learn new skills, which can ease prisoner reentry . Creative writing programs offered in juvenile correction facilities have also proved beneficial. In Alabama, Writing Our Stories began in 1997 as an anti-violence initiative to encourage positive self-expression among incarcerated youths. The program found that

5150-490: The US and the rest of the world, creative writing is considered a discipline in its own right, not an offshoot of any other discipline. To say that the creative has no part in education is to argue that a university is not universal. Those who support creative writing programs either as part or separate from the English discipline, argue for the academic worth of the creative writing experience. They argue that creative writing hones

5253-465: The album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships by The 1975 , borrows its title from the opening line of Infinite Jest . Matty Healy , The 1975's lead singer, said in an interview with Pitchfork that he was inspired by the novel after reading it during a stint in rehabilitation: I was reading [ Infinite Jest ] when I was in rehab. There was no one there. It was me and my nurses, who'd come in and check on me, and then Angela [the protagonist of

SECTION 50

#1732780093357

5356-551: The blackboard: "truth" and "beauty," and told his students that these were the goals of fiction. Haslett describes Franzen's classroom manner as "serious." "He meant what he said and didn't suffer fools gladly." But this seriousness was leavened by a "great relish for words and writing," adds Kathleen Lawton-Trask '96, a 1994 workshop student who is now a writer and high school English teacher. "People who teach fiction workshops aren't always starry-eyed about writing, but he was. He read our stories so closely that he often started class with

5459-675: The book's challenging narrative, which moves through time and cuts forwards and back": that would be "difficult to sustain in a series and challenging for viewers to follow, hampering the potential show's accessibility." In September 2019, The Corrections was voted sixteenth in a list of the 100 best books of the twenty-first century so far by writers and critics of the Guardian newspaper. On June 8, 2009, Franzen published an excerpt from Freedom , his novel in progress, in The New Yorker . The excerpt, titled "Good Neighbors", concerned

5562-638: The book, Franzen became the first American author to appear on the cover of Time magazine since Stephen King in 2000. Franzen appeared alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". He discussed the implications of the Time coverage, and the reasoning behind the title of Freedom in an interview in Manchester, England, in October 2010. On September 17, 2010, Oprah Winfrey announced that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom would be an Oprah book club selection,

5665-423: The brain and increases motivation. It has been shown to build resilience in students by documenting and analyzing their experiences, which gives the students a new perspective on an old situation and allows sorting of emotions. It also has been proven to increase a student's level of compassion and create a sense of community among students in what could otherwise be deemed an isolating classroom. Creative writing

5768-458: The commencement address to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College . The speech was published as a book, This Is Water , in 2009. In May 2013, parts of the speech were used in a popular online video, also titled "This Is Water". Bonnie Nadell was Wallace's literary agent during his entire career. Michael Pietsch was his editor on Infinite Jest . Wallace died in 2008. In March 2009, Little, Brown and Company announced that it would publish

5871-427: The cover of Time magazine alongside the headline " Great American Novelist ". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy. Franzen has contributed to The New Yorker magazine since 1994. His 1996 Harper's essay " Perchance to Dream " bemoaned the state of contemporary literature. Oprah Winfrey's book club selection in 2001 of The Corrections led to

5974-559: The decade's best-selling works of literary fiction. At the National Book Award ceremony, Franzen said "I'd also like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her enthusiasm and advocacy on behalf of The Corrections ." Following the success of The Corrections and the publication of The Discomfort Zone and How to Be Alone , Franzen began work on his next novel. In the interim, he published two short stories in The New Yorker : "Breakup Stories", published November 8, 2004, concerned

6077-458: The disintegration of four relationships; and "Two's Company", published May 23, 2005, concerned a couple who write for TV, then split up. In 2011, it was announced that Franzen would write a multi-part television adaptation of The Corrections in collaboration with The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach for HBO. HBO has since passed on Corrections , citing "difficulty" in "adapting

6180-674: The essays "Shipping Out" and "Ticket to the Fair", John Cook has remarked that in Wallace's nonfiction: Wallace encounters pitch-perfect characters who speak comedically crystalline lines and place him in hilariously absurd situations...I used both stories [when teaching journalism] as examples of the inescapable temptation to shave, embellish, and invent narratives. Wallace's father said that David had suffered from major depressive disorder for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. Wallace suffered what

6283-442: The field, as more writers attempt to bridge the gap between academic study and artistic pursuit. Creative writers often place an emphasis in either fiction or poetry, and it is normal to start with short stories or simple poems. They then make a schedule based on this emphasis including literature classes, education classes and workshop classes to strengthen their skills and techniques. Though they have their own programs of study in

SECTION 60

#1732780093357

6386-518: The fields of film and theatre , screenwriting and playwriting have become more popular in creative writing programs since creative writing programs attempt to work more closely with film and theatre programs as well as English programs. Creative writing students are encouraged to get involved in extracurricular writing-based activities, such as publishing clubs, school-based literary magazines or newspapers, writing contests, writing colonies or conventions, and extended education classes. Creative writing

6489-560: The first of the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show . On December 6, 2010, he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote Freedom where they discussed that book and the controversy over his reservations about her picking The Corrections and what that would entail. Franzen has stated the writing of Freedom was influenced by the death of his close friend and fellow novelist David Foster Wallace. In an interview with Portland Monthly on December 18, 2012, Franzen revealed that he currently had "a four-page, single-spaced proposal" for

6592-447: The first time in the sad and enchanting history of literature, for the first time in the glorious and dreadful history of the world, the writer was welcome in the academic place. If the mind could be honored there, why not the imagination? Creative Writing programs are typically available to writers from the high school level all the way through graduate school/university and adult education. Traditionally these programs are associated with

6695-746: The global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we've come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary." In September 2019, Franzen published an essay on climate change in The New Yorker entitled "What If We Stopped Pretending?", which generated controversy among scientists and online pundits because of its alleged pessimism. The term doomerism became popular amid

6798-532: The great sixties and seventies Postmoderns", adding in a later interview "I was a skinny, scared kid trying to write a big novel. The mask I donned was that of a rhetorically airtight, extremely smart, extremely knowledgeable middle-aged writer." Strong Motion (1992) focuses mainly on a dysfunctional family , the Hollands, and uses seismic events on the American East Coast as a metaphor for

6901-452: The huge success of The Corrections , this essay offers a prescient look into Franzen's goals as both a literary and commercially minded author. In 2002, Franzen published a critique of the novels of William Gaddis , entitled " Mr. Difficult ", in The New Yorker . He begins by recounting how some readers felt The Corrections was spoiled by being too high-brow in parts, and summarizes his own views of reading difficult fiction. He proposes

7004-457: The human condition as daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warned against succumbing to solipsism , invoking the existential values of compassion and mindfulness: The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. ... The only thing that's capital-T True

7107-482: The impact of Wallace's suicide on his writing process. Freedom was the subject of a highly unusual "recall" in the United Kingdom starting in early October 2010. An earlier draft of the manuscript, to which Franzen had made over 200 changes, had been published by mistake. The publisher, HarperCollins , initiated an exchange program, but thousands of books had been distributed by that time. While promoting

7210-575: The influence of his childhood and adolescence on his creative life, which is then further explored in The Discomfort Zone . In September 2007, Franzen's translation of Frank Wedekind 's play Spring Awakening (German: Frühlings Erwachen ) was published. In his introduction, Franzen describes the Broadway musical version as "insipid" and "overpraised." In an interview with New York magazine, Franzen stated that he had in fact made

7313-447: The inmates' mental health, relationship with their families, and the facility's environment. The study evidenced improved writing skills enhanced one's ability in other academic areas of study, portraying writing as a fundamental tool for building one's intellect. Teaching prisoners creative writing can encourage literacy, teach necessary life skills, and provide prisoners with an outlet to express regret, accountability, responsibility, and

7416-494: The manuscript of an unfinished novel, The Pale King , that Wallace had been working on before his death. Pietsch pieced the novel together from pages and notes Wallace left behind. Several excerpts were published in The New Yorker and other magazines. The Pale King was published on April 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times wrote that The Pale King "showcases [Wallace's] embrace of discontinuity; his fascination with both

7519-637: The meta and the microscopic, postmodern pyrotechnics and old-fashioned storytelling; and his ongoing interest in contemporary America's obsession with self-gratification and entertainment." The book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Throughout his career, Wallace published short fiction in periodicals such as The New Yorker , GQ , Harper's Magazine , Playboy , The Paris Review , Mid-American Review , Conjunctions , Esquire , Open City , Puerto del Sol , and Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern . Wallace wanted to progress beyond

7622-606: The most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended Amherst College . He taught English at Emerson College , Illinois State University , and Pomona College . After struggling with depression for many years, he died by suicide in 2008, at age 46. David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York , to Sally Jean Wallace ( née Foster) and James Donald Wallace . The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois , where he

7725-442: The new novel would probably also be long, adding "I've let go of any illusion that I'm a writer of 150-page novels. I need room to let things turn around over time and see them from the whole lives of other characters, not just the single character. For better or worse, one point of view never seems to do it for me." In October 2014, during a discussion at Colgate University , Franzen read a "self-contained first-person narrative" that

7828-421: The participants gained confidence, the ability to empathize and see their peers in a more positive light, and motivation to want to return to society and live a more productive life. One California study of prison fine arts programs found art education increased emotional control and decreased disciplinary reports. Participation in creative writing and other art programs result in significant positive outcomes for

7931-419: The playwright Sir David Hare . It would star Daniel Craig as Andreas Wolf and be executive produced by Field, Franzen, Craig, Hare & Scott Rudin . However, in a February 2018 interview with The Times London, Hare said that, given the budget for Field's adaptation (170 million), he doubted it would ever be made, but added "It was one of the richest and most interesting six weeks of my life, sitting in

8034-462: The program. In 2002, Wallace met the painter Karen L. Green , whom he married on December 27, 2004. Wallace struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicidal tendencies, and was repeatedly hospitalized for psychiatric care. In 1989, he spent four weeks at McLean Hospital —a psychiatric institute in Belmont, Massachusetts , affiliated with Harvard Medical School—where he completed

8137-480: The publication of Franzen's new novel, Crossroads , the first volume in a trilogy titled A Key to All Mythologies. Crossroads was published October 5, 2021. The novel received mostly favorable reviews, with a cumulative "Positive" rating at the review aggregator website Book Marks , based on 48 book reviews from mainstream literary critics. Bookforum called it Franzen's "finest novel yet," his "greatest and most perfect novel," and Dwight Garner of

8240-423: The quakes that occur in family life (as Franzen put it, "I imagined static lives being disrupted from without—literally shaken. I imagined violent scenes that would strip away the veneer and get people shouting angry moral truths at each other." ). A ' systems novel ', the key 'systems' of Strong Motion according to Franzen are "... the systems of science and religion—two violently opposing systems of making sense in

8343-495: The relationship was volatile, with Wallace once throwing a coffee table at her as well as physically forcing her out of a car, leaving her to walk home. In 2018, she alleged that Wallace's biographer D. T. Max underreported Wallace's abuse. Of Max's account of their relationship, she tweeted: "That's about 2% of what happened." She said that Wallace kicked her, climbed up the side of her house at night, and followed her five-year-old son home from school. Wallace also attempted to buy

8446-576: The response to the piece. A Sierra Club interview with Franzen, from January 2019 further explores Franzen's feelings about climate change and action. In an interview with Transatlantica conducted in March 2018, Franzen mentioned that he had just started work on a new novel, having recently sold it to publishers on the basis of a three-page proposal. Later that year, in a profile piece for The New York Times Magazine in June 2018, Franzen confirmed that he

8549-576: The robust characterization; the escalating comedy; the virtuosic command of narrative rhythm. Critics especially praised the character of Marion, whom Garner called "one of the glorious characters in recent American fiction." The novel is about a pastor, his wife, and four children. It's split into two sections called 'Advent' and 'Easter.' Writing for The Nation , Rumaan Alam says "in Crossroads , every plotline leads to God." In 1996, while still working on The Corrections , Franzen published

8652-440: The service of such needs as Unlike its academic counterpart of writing classes that teach students to compose work based on the rules of the language , creative writing is believed to focus on students' self-expression. While creative writing as an educational subject is often available at some stages, if not throughout, primary and secondary school ( K–12 ), perhaps the most refined form of creative writing as an educational focus

8755-410: The song], miles away. I was surrounded by no one, and the book was just open on the front page, as most copies of Infinite Jest are ... nobody reads [ Infinite Jest ] all the way! Everyone our age has got a battered, quarter-read copy of Infinite Jest . Creative writing Creative writing can technically be considered any writing of original composition . In this sense, creative writing

8858-411: The students' abilities to clearly express their thoughts and that creative writing entails an in-depth study of literary terms and mechanisms so they can be applied to the writer's work to foster improvement. These critical analysis skills are further used in other literary studies outside the creative writing sphere. Indeed, the process of creative writing, the crafting of a thought-out and original piece,

8961-406: The subsequent volume of The Best American Essays . Since The Corrections Franzen has published How to Be Alone (2002), a collection of essays including "Perchance To Dream", and The Discomfort Zone (2006), a memoir. How To Be Alone is essentially an apologia for reading, articulating Franzen's uncomfortable relationship with the place of fiction in contemporary society. It also probes

9064-476: The suggestion of colleague and supporter Steven Moore , Wallace obtained a position in the English department at Illinois State University . He had begun work on his second novel, Infinite Jest , in 1991, and submitted a draft to his editor in December 1993. After the publication of excerpts throughout 1995, the book was published in 1996. In 1997, Wallace received a MacArthur Fellowship . He also received

9167-512: The translation for Swarthmore College's theater department for $ 50 in 1986 and that it had sat in a drawer for 20 years since. After the Broadway show stirred up so much interest, Franzen said he was inspired to publish it because "I knew it was a good translation, better than anything else out there." Franzen published a social commentary on cell phones, sentimentality, and the decline of public space, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" (2008), in

9270-601: The trials and tribulations of a couple in St. Paul, Minnesota . On May 31, 2010, a second excerpt — titled "Agreeable" — was published, also in The New Yorker . On October 16, 2009, Franzen made an appearance alongside David Bezmozgis at the New Yorker Festival at the Cedar Lake Theatre, reading a portion of his forthcoming novel. Sam Allard, writing for North By Northwestern about the event, said that

9373-699: The university level vary widely; some people value MFA programs and regard them with great respect, whereas many MFA candidates and hopefuls lament their chosen programs' lack of both diversity and genre awareness. The pedagogy of creative writing is also a source of controversy. Critics of MFA and English graduate programs argue that the methods of instruction discriminate against people with disabilities, emphasizing writing practices such as daily writing requirements or location-based writing that students with chronic illness, physical or mental health barriers, and neurodivergent students are unable to access. The selection of texts used in traditional creative writing programs

9476-403: The world." The novel was not a financial success at the time of its publication. Franzen subsequently defended the novel in his 2010 Paris Review interview, remarking "I think they [critics and readers] may be overlooking Strong Motion a little bit." Franzen taught a fiction-writing seminar at Swarthmore in the spring of 1992 and 1994: On that first day of class, Franzen wrote two words on

9579-628: The writers Don DeLillo , Zadie Smith , George Saunders , Mark Costello, Donald Antrim , and Jonathan Franzen . In March 2010, it was announced that Wallace's personal papers and archives—drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, letters, and research, including the handwritten notes for Infinite Jest —had been purchased by the University of Texas at Austin . They are held at that university's Harry Ransom Center . Since 2011, Loyola University New Orleans has offered English seminar courses on Wallace. Similar courses have also been taught at Harvard University . The first David Foster Wallace Conference

9682-811: Was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He wrote about this period in the essay "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley", originally published in Harper's Magazine as "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes". Although his parents were atheists , Wallace twice attempted to join the Catholic Church , but "flunk[ed] the period of inquiry". He later attended a Mennonite church. Wallace attended Amherst College , his father's alma mater, where he majored in English and philosophy and graduated summa cum laude in 1985. Among other extracurricular activities, he participated in glee club ; his sister recalls that he "had

9785-520: Was adapted as a play by artist Andy Holden for a two-night run at the ICA in London. The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko", from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men , was adapted by composer Eric Moe into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections. The piece was described as having "subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture". Infinite Jest

9888-423: Was believed to be a severe interaction of the medication with the food he had eaten one day at a restaurant, and in June 2007, on his doctor's advice, he stopped taking phenelzine , his primary antidepressant drug. His depression recurred, and he tried other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy . Eventually he went back on phenelzine but found it ineffective. On September 12, 2008, at age 46, Wallace wrote

9991-460: Was currently at work on the early stages of his sixth novel, which he speculated could be his last. "So, I may be wrong ... But somehow this new one really does feel like my last.". Subsequently, in an interview reproduced on The Millions website in April 2020, Franzen mentioned that he was "almost done" with writing this sixth novel. Crossroads: A Novel was published on October 5, 2021. During

10094-1095: Was hosted by the Illinois State University Department of English in May 2014; the second was held in May 2015. In January 2017, the International David Foster Wallace Society and the Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies were launched. Among the writers who have cited Wallace as an influence are Dave Eggers , Jonathan Franzen , Rivka Galchen , Matthew Gallaway , David Gordon , John Green , Porochista Khakpour , George Saunders , Michael Schur , Zadie Smith , Darin Strauss , Deb Olin Unferth , Elizabeth Wurtzel , and Charles Yu . A feature-length film adaptation of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men , directed by John Krasinski with an ensemble cast,

10197-506: Was performed once as a stage play by Germany's experimental theater Hebbel am Ufer . The play was staged in various locations throughout Berlin , and the action took place over a 24-hour period. "Good Old Neon", from Oblivion: Stories , was adapted and performed by Ian Forester at the 2011 Hollywood Fringe Festival , produced by the Los Angeles independent theater company Needtheater. The song "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies", from

10300-669: Was raised along with his younger sister, Amy Wallace-Havens. His father was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign . His mother was an English professor at Parkland College , a community college in Champaign, which recognized her work with a "Professor of the Year" award in 1996. From fourth grade, Wallace lived with his family in Urbana , where he attended Yankee Ridge Elementary School, Brookens Junior High School and Urbana High School . As an adolescent, Wallace

10403-480: Was released in 2009 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival . The 19th episode of the 23rd season of The Simpsons , " A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again " (2012), is loosely based on Wallace's essay "Shipping Out" from his 1997 collection, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again . The Simpson family takes a cruise, and Wallace appears in the background of a scene, wearing

10506-514: Was rescinded. Winfrey announced, "Jonathan Franzen will not be on the Oprah Winfrey show because he is seemingly uncomfortable and conflicted about being chosen as a book club selection. It is never my intention to make anyone uncomfortable or cause anyone conflict. We have decided to skip the dinner and we're moving on to the next book." These events gained Franzen and his novel widespread media attention. The Corrections soon became one of

10609-604: Was selected for Oprah Winfrey 's book club . Franzen initially participated in the selection, sitting down for a lengthy interview with Oprah and appearing in B-roll footage in his hometown of St. Louis (described in an essay in How To Be Alone titled "Meet Me In St. Louis"). In October 2001, however, The Oregonian printed an article in which Franzen expressed unease with the selection. In an interview on National Public Radio 's Fresh Air , he expressed his worry that

#356643