Presses
David Foster Wallace’s undergrad thesis
Ok, the book length interview was interesting, and the uncompleted final novel in near-form makes sense (and is compelling, even in its incompleteness), but this, this, is exploitation, and a bad idea:
Columbia University Press is publishing David Foster Wallace’s undergrad thesis next year? [more info at GalleyCat].
Undergrad thesis? I’m sorry, I love the man, and I am interested in marginalia of great minds, but this to me seems not only too much, but just incorrect. Undergrad papers, particularly ones called things like Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will, are almost always embarrassing, and even if they have some merit, don’t really belong in a body of work, unless, you know, the author is alive and willing to OK that thing to come into the world. It hadn’t cropped up since his college years for a reason.
Though I am sure I will purchase and read it (as seems their point here), I think this is a big shame on you waiting to happen. God knows if anyone ever saw what I wrote as undergrad I’d want a fork in the eye, even if I was gone. I can’t imagine that there are many who wouldn’t. Clearly, from the design of the cover of this, these people have no taste. Let a man rest.
Tags: david foster wallace, fate time and language
Woo, big agree with you on this one.
But, on the flip side, DFW as an undergrad was probably in the range if six megawatts brighter than a good number of presently publishing MFA dandies.
Your fate gets determined in no time flat by people scrounging the last six bucks off your language it looks like.
PJL
It would be easy to say that anything you don’t want published, you ought to burn yourself (i.e. don’t trust Max Brod) but this is a case where–presumably–a copy his thesis had to be filed as a degree requirement. Just like an MFA thesis. And that seems a little bit opportunistic to me, probably illegal, certainly squishy ethically. Wonder what the copyright law says about theses? Are university lawyers totally free and clear on this? Are they always?
I once read Barry Hannah’s MFA thesis–for some reason a nearby university library had ordered a shelf copy–and it was an early draft of Geronimo Rex. The title? Habitats of the Meat Blossom.
DFW is getting Tupac’d. Who’s in charge of his estate or whatever? Shit.
seems like his estate hasn’t been exactly discerning in this way. i’m sure they have some legal ability to control it. seems like they are down for putting out whatever.
wow, Habitats of the Meat Blossom. was it a lot different than the final?
As I recall–and it’s been more than ten years–the main thing was that it was much shorter. Many of the various aspects were already present–just underdeveloped. Sounded pretty much like Barry, too.
“Honey, If You Stop by the Wal-Mart, Can You Pick Me Up Some Dip?”: The Domestic Notes of David Foster Wallace
wow, that’s not at all the same title as the one on the copy I have on my hard drive.
It’s actually apparently a brilliant, rigorous piece of philosophy. The people bringing this out are philosophers who’re excited about the young work and not opportunists at a publishing company who want to make a fast buck off the guy’s death. Well, the publishers probably are happy to make a fast buck, but I think there really is supposed to be something to this work. Wallace is a big name, but scholarship of his work is really very young yet.
Also: Broom was undergrad work too, recall, and at that time, he was a novice writer but an able philosopher.
i’m not closed to the idea that it could indeed be amazing. it just feels wrong. but i am going to read.
i guess that it is a collegiate press is a better sign than another. but still. man, i can’t feel that ok about it.
right, but he sought to publish Broom. why did he never seek to publish this new thing?
The title of the thesis itself is “Richard Taylor’s ‘Fatalism’ and the Semantics of Physical Modality.” Fate, Time, and Language is the title of the published book, which has an additional half-dozen chapters (at least) wherein various philosophers place DFW’s thesis into context.
I have a copy of it saved to my desktop; it is actually very very good. It may be an undergrad thesis, but the work is easily grad-dissertation level. Wallace was a real wonk in this stuff. It’s not going to tarnish his “legacy” in any way.
ah. i hadnt realized people had been reading. that makes me feel better. but still, there is some question of author’s discerning in quality, not his audience’s, no?
i can’t pass up the idea that he never published it for a reason.
whereas, with Pale King, it was a thing he’d been working on, and was along, and not some old object that had been in his life for years and he had never worked to make widely available.
i’d be interested to find comments by him somewhere about the thesis.
I’ve never heard a good reason why. He was heavily advised to publish it, but he opted to take an English MFA instead of pursuing philosophy further (like everyone expected), and maybe he just sort of forgot about it, or never got far enough into a philosophic career (lasted less than a year at Harvard) to really concern himself w/ it.
edit – I have a copy of the thesis, not the book.
Yeah, I get an icky feeling too but that’s nice to hear.
I just can’t help thinking that if I were in his position I would definitely never want to publish undergrad work, especially in philosophy. I don’t want my first four novels published and feel iffy about my fifth. But then I won’t ever be in his position.
I imagine there’s really just a whole different approach to publishing scholarly material. You publish for different reasons, to different audiences, with different pay structures and reception. Plus, publishing a snappy, smart novel is more likely to get you laid than publishing a dense analysis of Rorty’s philosophy (or whatever this thing actually is). The point demi-puppet makes is possibly relevant as well.
It’s reasonable to worry a bit that new things coming out with Wallace’s name on them are vulturish, but I don’t get the feeling this is one of the vulturish things. I also don’t imagine it’ll sell very well outside the tight fan base and philosophy circles.
Get it from the library, maybe? It’s a nice way around the whole want-to-read-it-but-don’t-want-to-support-the-people-putting-it-out problem.
I suppose shoplifting would work as well, but I like libraries.
Woo, big agree with you on this one.
But, on the flip side, DFW as an undergrad was probably in the range if six megawatts brighter than a good number of presently publishing MFA dandies.
Your fate gets determined in no time flat by people scrounging the last six bucks off your language it looks like.
PJL
It would be easy to say that anything you don’t want published, you ought to burn yourself (i.e. don’t trust Max Brod) but this is a case where–presumably–a copy his thesis had to be filed as a degree requirement. Just like an MFA thesis. And that seems a little bit opportunistic to me, probably illegal, certainly squishy ethically. Wonder what the copyright law says about theses? Are university lawyers totally free and clear on this? Are they always?
I once read Barry Hannah’s MFA thesis–for some reason a nearby university library had ordered a shelf copy–and it was an early draft of Geronimo Rex. The title? Habitats of the Meat Blossom.
DFW is getting Tupac’d. Who’s in charge of his estate or whatever? Shit.
seems like his estate hasn’t been exactly discerning in this way. i’m sure they have some legal ability to control it. seems like they are down for putting out whatever.
wow, Habitats of the Meat Blossom. was it a lot different than the final?
As I recall–and it’s been more than ten years–the main thing was that it was much shorter. Many of the various aspects were already present–just underdeveloped. Sounded pretty much like Barry, too.
“Honey, If You Stop by the Wal-Mart, Can You Pick Me Up Some Dip?”: The Domestic Notes of David Foster Wallace
wow, that’s not at all the same title as the one on the copy I have on my hard drive.
It’s actually apparently a brilliant, rigorous piece of philosophy. The people bringing this out are philosophers who’re excited about the young work and not opportunists at a publishing company who want to make a fast buck off the guy’s death. Well, the publishers probably are happy to make a fast buck, but I think there really is supposed to be something to this work. Wallace is a big name, but scholarship of his work is really very young yet.
Also: Broom was undergrad work too, recall, and at that time, he was a novice writer but an able philosopher.
i’m not closed to the idea that it could indeed be amazing. it just feels wrong. but i am going to read.
i guess that it is a collegiate press is a better sign than another. but still. man, i can’t feel that ok about it.
right, but he sought to publish Broom. why did he never seek to publish this new thing?
The title of the thesis itself is “Richard Taylor’s ‘Fatalism’ and the Semantics of Physical Modality.” Fate, Time, and Language is the title of the published book, which has an additional half-dozen chapters (at least) wherein various philosophers place DFW’s thesis into context.
I have a copy of it saved to my desktop; it is actually very very good. It may be an undergrad thesis, but the work is easily grad-dissertation level. Wallace was a real wonk in this stuff. It’s not going to tarnish his “legacy” in any way.
ah. i hadnt realized people had been reading. that makes me feel better. but still, there is some question of author’s discerning in quality, not his audience’s, no?
i can’t pass up the idea that he never published it for a reason.
whereas, with Pale King, it was a thing he’d been working on, and was along, and not some old object that had been in his life for years and he had never worked to make widely available.
i’d be interested to find comments by him somewhere about the thesis.
I’ve never heard a good reason why. He was heavily advised to publish it, but he opted to take an English MFA instead of pursuing philosophy further (like everyone expected), and maybe he just sort of forgot about it, or never got far enough into a philosophic career (lasted less than a year at Harvard) to really concern himself w/ it.
edit – I have a copy of the thesis, not the book.
Yeah, I get an icky feeling too but that’s nice to hear.
I just can’t help thinking that if I were in his position I would definitely never want to publish undergrad work, especially in philosophy. I don’t want my first four novels published and feel iffy about my fifth. But then I won’t ever be in his position.
I imagine there’s really just a whole different approach to publishing scholarly material. You publish for different reasons, to different audiences, with different pay structures and reception. Plus, publishing a snappy, smart novel is more likely to get you laid than publishing a dense analysis of Rorty’s philosophy (or whatever this thing actually is). The point demi-puppet makes is possibly relevant as well.
It’s reasonable to worry a bit that new things coming out with Wallace’s name on them are vulturish, but I don’t get the feeling this is one of the vulturish things. I also don’t imagine it’ll sell very well outside the tight fan base and philosophy circles.
Get it from the library, maybe? It’s a nice way around the whole want-to-read-it-but-don’t-want-to-support-the-people-putting-it-out problem.
I suppose shoplifting would work as well, but I like libraries.
You can download the thesis from various places. Seems like I found a copy on Proquest some time ago.
Why wouldn’t Kafka have burned them himself, if he didn’t want them published?
You can download the thesis from various places. Seems like I found a copy on Proquest some time ago.
Having seen parts of this work somewhere, I can guarantee you it is not clumsy undergrad work. In fact, it’s something that 99.9% of readers will have no ability to comprehend (and I include myself in that percentage). As Daryl said, it is a “rigorous piece of philosophy,” more math than literature.
Why wouldn’t Kafka have burned them himself, if he didn’t want them published?
Having seen parts of this work somewhere, I can guarantee you it is not clumsy undergrad work. In fact, it’s something that 99.9% of readers will have no ability to comprehend (and I include myself in that percentage). As Daryl said, it is a “rigorous piece of philosophy,” more math than literature.
Working, as I do, for an architectural historian who is a member of the Editorial board at C.U.P, I can tell you with some certainty that they don’t publish books to make a quick buck. That’s not their mission, and more importantly, that’s not their mandate. That said, the graphic design is shit and I have no intention of reading it. Don’t have time to entertain the question of ethics right now. Late for work.
Working, as I do, for an architectural historian who is a member of the Editorial board at C.U.P, I can tell you with some certainty that they don’t publish books to make a quick buck. That’s not their mission, and more importantly, that’s not their mandate. That said, the graphic design is shit and I have no intention of reading it. Don’t have time to entertain the question of ethics right now. Late for work.
As soon as I get home, I’m going to dig out all of my short stories from my sophomore year creative writing class – and fire up the incinerator.
As soon as I get home, I’m going to dig out all of my short stories from my sophomore year creative writing class – and fire up the incinerator.
I read a piece in the NYT about two and a half years ago about some guy who had read DFW’s undergrad thesis and sort of examined the conclusions of the essay and DFW’s choice to end his life. It was really interesting. I’ll see if I can find it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14wwln-Wallace-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=david+foster+wallace+thesis&st=nyt
thanks rawbbie, i hadnt read this before
I read a piece in the NYT about two and a half years ago about some guy who had read DFW’s undergrad thesis and sort of examined the conclusions of the essay and DFW’s choice to end his life. It was really interesting. I’ll see if I can find it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14wwln-Wallace-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=david+foster+wallace+thesis&st=nyt
thanks rawbbie, i hadnt read this before
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Though I am sure I will purchase and read it, but something is still wrong here…
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