These ten pieces of journalism were written between 1994 and 2005, and range in length from 6 to 79 pages. Language, both written and spoken, is a major concern.There are reviews of a novel, a dictionary, and the "breathtakingly insipid autobiography" of former tennis star Traci Austin, as well as general discussions of Updike, Kafka, and Dostoevsky.
The spoken word is dealt with not only in the dictionary piece, but also in articles about a radio talk show host and the Republican leadership campaign of 2000.
Interest in language can also be detected in the coverage of porn film awards in 1998 and the reactions of people in Bloomington Illinois during 9-11.
Following are the pieces I enjoyed most. They are also among the longest in the book. Greater lengths allow for the exploration of complex subjects and a fiendish indulgence in footnotes that are often lengthy, numerous, and themselves footnoted.
Frequent use of acronyms is another characteristic of DFW's style.
Consider the Lobster - A report on the Maine Lobster Festival. You can listen to DFW reading this essay on Youtube.
...lobsters are basically giant sea insects.
Authority and American Usage - An appreciation of Bryan Garner's A Dictionary of American Usage along with an erudite and entertaining discussion of "Usage Wars." First appeared in Harper's.
...there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person.
Up, Simba - Seven days on the campaign trail with John McCain during his quest for the Republican nomination for President, and the ugly mudslinging that took place before the pivotal vote in South Carolina. Bush is referred to as Bush2 or the Shrub, and Al Gore as "amazingly lifelike." This is longest piece in the book and was written on assignment for Rolling Stone.
By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.
Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky - An appreciation of Joseph Frank's massive biography leads to a knowledgeable discussion of Dostoevsky.
"One sign of the formidable problems in translating literary Russian is the fact that lots of FMD's books have alternate English titles -- the first version of Notes from Underground I ever read called itself Memoirs from a Dark Cellar."
The opportunity for digressions is so rich that instead of footnoting DFW uses a sort of two-dimensional hypertext. Reading it is an unique experience, though the format would be exhausting in a longer work.
The article is still available on the Atlantic Monthly's website, though it has been altered to make it more reader-friendly.
After DFW died in 2008, Zeigler wrote an editorial slamming the piece for its "inaccuracies and distortions" and called DFW "overrated" as a writer. One useful piece of information he gives is that DFW made some additions to the piece for its inclusion in Consider the Lobster.
