Sunday, June 9, 2013
Tributes to DFW
McSweeney's published a number of tributes to David Foster Wallace, some of which are worth reading.
Incidentally, while skimming along I noticed one of my Latin professors from undergrad (Alex Tetlak) contributed.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sprezzatura
IJ: 158 - "The way he'd oh so clearly practiced a chair's back-leg tilt over and over."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprezzatura
Sprezzatura [sprettsaˈtura] is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it".[1] It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them".[2] Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance".[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprezzatura
Sprezzatura [sprettsaˈtura] is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it".[1] It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them".[2] Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance".[3]
The word has entered the English language; the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "studied carelessness".[4]
Frank Gehry's Strata Center at MIT
IJ 186: "The Union itself... is a great hollow brain frame, an endowed memorial to the North American seat of Very High Tech, and is not as ghastly as out-of-towners suppose it must be..."
(In real life) In 2007, MIT sued architect Frank Gehry over flaws in this building, which opened in 2004 to much critical acclaim.
Difference between an alcoholic and an addict
IJ pp. 179: McDade offers to help look for pudding that he stole.
Craig Ferguson:
Potential
IJ 168 - "Potential may be worse than none, Jim."
173 - "Talent is sort of a dark gift, talent is its own expectation."
Dylan Moran on potential:
Heroism/Success/Boredom
IJ 141- "He is a bureaucrat, and his heroism is bureaucratic, with a genius for navigating cluttered fields."
IJ 172-176 - TENNIS AND THE FERAL PRODIGY
DFW's Pale King - “True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.”
David Brooks NY Times Op-Ed, In Praise of Dullness (5/09):
"The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/opinion/19brooks.html?_r=07
IJ 168 - "Potential may be worse than none, Jim."
173 - "Talent is sort of a dark gift, talent is its own expectation."
Dylan Moran on potential:
Heroism/Success/Boredom
IJ 141- "He is a bureaucrat, and his heroism is bureaucratic, with a genius for navigating cluttered fields."
IJ 172-176 - TENNIS AND THE FERAL PRODIGY
DFW's Pale King - “True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.”
David Brooks NY Times Op-Ed, In Praise of Dullness (5/09):
"The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/opinion/19brooks.html?_r=07
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