Fiction’s about what it is to be a human being.
– David Foster Wallace
Tag: David Foster Wallace
Quotable 63
If some people read my fiction and see it as fundamentally about philosophical ideas, what it probably means is that these are pieces where the characters are not as alive and interesting as I meant them to be.
– David Foster Wallace
Pen to Paper: ‘This is Water’
The text for today’s lesson is a commencement address David Foster Wallace gave at Kenyon College in 2005. Despite having skipped both of my college graduation ceremonies, I have a fondness for reading good commencement speeches. Read Wallace’s now, and then come back for my take on what it means for writers.
Pen to Paper: I Write Like
My friend Susan told me about the I Write Like site. I’ve had entirely too much fun playing with it. I tested 30 of my fiction posts with the IWL analysis. Here is the short version of the results:
Once each: Margaret Atwood, Jack London, J.D. Salinger, Ian Fleming (on a story involving multiple ways to kill someone), David Foster Wallace, Margaret Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse (!), Raymond Chandler, Harry Harrison, and Bram Stoker (on a vampire story).
Twice each: Kurt Vonnegut, James Joyce, and JK Rowling.
Three times: Chuck Palahniuk.
Four times: Dan Brown:.
Seven times: Stephen King.