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Hello everyone, this is Jack Wilson. I hope you are enjoying the new year. This week we have a special treat, an episode on David Foster Wallace by our old friend Mike Palindrome, the President of the Literature Supporters Club.

We get a lot of requests for more David Foster Wallace and I am the last person in the world

who should be doing an episode on him, so I'm very grateful to Mike for stepping up and giving me the week off.

I will be back soon with more history of literature podcast episodes.

Until then, thank you for listening.

And now, enjoy the episode. The David Foster Wallace said you teach the reader that he's way smarter than he thinks he was.

Hello serious readers this is Mike Palandrome and I'm flying solo today on the history of literature. I've spotted Jack Wilson, your regular host, a rare day night off. No doubt he's his new found free time reading my old favorites

a little Marius Merakami and Virginia wolf sipping a glass of Barolo so today

we're going to talk about David Foster Wallace.

Probably the single writer most likely to be remembered from our era.

I'll just throw that out there.

We're going to do this in two parts, part two, will be on his 1,200 plus page

Gorgantuan novel, Infinite Just, one of the funniest books I've ever read.

And now in the process of re-reading, and is a real historical cultural monument.

You know, it's a membership card of sorts.

It's kind of on par with having read all a Proust or Finnegan's wake

in certain conversation, all circles and social circles.

Plus in that part two I'll throw in a bonus bit on his unfinished manuscript, The Pale Can.

So part one is today and will be about everything else he wrote and maybe that's what will work best for most people who haven't read him.

And personally, this is how I fell in love with his work through his,

actually through his non-fiction.

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