Concavity Show

In Episode 38 we talk again with Mike Miley, Vice President of the International David Foster Wallace Society and quiz kid extraordinaire. Topics include film, game shows, Oliver Stone, JFK assassination scoops, and hanging out with Michael Silverblatt. 

Show Notes: 

Smart Set – “Reading Wallace Reading”

https://thesmartset.com/article08181401/

Medium – “Caught in the Bandana Trap”

https://medium.com/just-words/caught-in-the-9fa2c864b76d

Medium – “The Eye of Sauron”

https://medium.com/just-words/the-eye-of-sauron-d454ed83377a

Critique­ – “…And Starring David Foster Wallace as Himself: Performance and Persona in The Pale King”

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00111619.2015.1028611?needAccess=true

Mike’s Twitter: twitter.com/MikeCMiley

In Episode 37 we welcome the Diversity Committee Coordinators from the International David Foster Wallace Society to talk about issues of representation in the writing of Wallace, and within the Wallace community itself.

Relevant links: 

• Diversity Announcement - https://www.dfwsociety.org/2017/05/27/introducing-the-diversity-committee/

• Diversity Blog Posts - https://www.dfwsociety.org/category/diversity/

• Sean Gandert's “A Short Meditation on the Whiteness of David Foster Wallace’s Writing” -  https://www.dfwsociety.org/2017/07/15/a-short-meditation-on-the-whiteness-of-david-foster-wallaces-writing/

• “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian, from The New Yorker - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

• Andrea’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nmn80418

• Diego’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/diego_baez

As always, you can reach Dave and Matt via email at [email protected] and on Twitter and Instagram @ConcavityShow 

In Episode 36 we have not one, but two special guests(!), both experts in the cartography of Infinite Jest's Boston (and beyond). William Beutler is the creative mind behind the staggeringly glorious Infinite Map (among other things), and Bill Lattanzi has led a series of walking tours in the Boston area tracing the locations of Wallace's opus, so you can see the emerging theme of the episode here. 

List of links to pertinent discussion points in the episode:

Infinite Atlas: http://infiniteatlas.com/ 

In this episode, we stray a bit off our usual Wallacian course (but not too far) to discuss our literary and pop-culture highlights from the last solar revolution. 

Links we said we'd share:

Robyn O'Neil's 20 Years of Drawings: https://www.archonprojects.com/shop/robyn-oneil-20-years-of-drawings

Me Reading Stuff podcast by Robyn O'Neil: https://www.robynoneil.com/me-reading-stuff

George Saunders' "Sea Oak": http://www.barcelonareview.com/20/e_gs.htm

The Great Concavity's Best Music of 2017 playlists: 

• iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/playlist/the-great-concavitys-best-of-2017/pl.u-pMyllebf4KoErM

Bottom's Dream Twitter page: https://twitter.com/BottomsMeme

In post-production, Dave realizes he'd mentioned we'd discuss video games we liked this year, but we forgot to do this, so games we played and liked include:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)

In this episode we're joined by friends Nick and Tony to discuss Australia's first ever David Foster Wallace conference, which was held in Melbourne during September 1-3, 2017. Following a discussion of the conference proceedings, join auxillary Concavityite Nick Maniatis as he interviews a host of presenters live from the conference weekend. Huge thanks go to Nick for towing his microphone around and getting all the juicy details for those of us who couldn't attend, and to Tony for organizing the conference! 

Nick Maniatis' DFW website, The Howling Fantods: http://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw/ (with day-by-day conference recaps) 

Conference Abstracts and presenter bios: https://tinyurl.com/y9n8hu79

Conference Schedule: https://tinyurl.com/yc5mjclc

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OzWallace2017/

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Samatha Wallace's new podcast, Circulating Spaces: https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Circulating_Spaces/podcasts/

TGC listener Scarlett Sims defeating Austin Rogers on Jeopardy!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nck0RW1AbFU

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Contact The Great Concavity:

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - @concavityshow (https://twitter.com/concavityshow)

Instagram - @concavityshow (https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow)

In this episode we talk with Allard about philosophy and film in relation to the work of Wallace, and to lesser extent, Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer. Dr. Allard den Dulk is Lecturer in Philosophy, Literature and Film at Amsterdam University College, and Research Fellow at the Faculty of Humanities of the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is the author of Existentialist Engagement in Wallace, Eggers and Foer, which is a significant topic of our conversation as well. Other topics include what it's like to show up unannounced at J.S. Foer's personal residence, and DFW cosplay.

Allard's website is: http://www.allarddendulk.nl/

His book, published by Bloomsbury, is available here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/existentialist-engagement-in-wallace-eggers-and-foer-9781501322679/

In this episode we talk to award-winning Vancouver poet and writer Shazia Hafiz Ramji about her three consecutive stints as a guide for Infinite Jest online community reads (Poor Yorick's Summer, Sacred Jest, and the recent Ennet House), as well as her own writing and the influence of DFW.

You can find her on Twitter at @Shazi_R

Her chapbook is Prosopopoeia

Poor Yorick's Summer on Twitter at @poor_summer

Sacred Jest on Twitter at @SacredJest

Ennet House on Twitter at @infinitejestyvr 

In this episode we speak with Matthew Luter, DFW scholar and author of Understanding Jonathan Lethem. https://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/2015/7512.html

We discuss the state of DFW studies, academia, and Matt's paper at this year's DFW Conference. Matt's paper deals with, among other things, Rita Felski's work and Kevin Birmingham's book on Ulysses, "The Most Dangerous Book."

We also make mention of Sidney Peterson's 1947 experimental film "The Cage" which you can watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXEW_ZCqWsc

You can follow Matt on Twitter at @matthewjluter.

In this episode we are joined by Australian Wallace scholar Grace Chipperfield of Flinders University, whose recent work on Wallace deals with the concepts of protracted adolescence and political landscape in Wallace's writing. The recent DFW17 conference and her experience there is also discussed, as is the possible vampireness of Australian politicians (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmqKSKDfSSQ). 

On our first live episode (recorded in front of conference attendees at the fourth annual DFW conference at Illinois State University) we talk to Charlie Harris and Jim Plath about the life and legacy of Wallace, give some prizes away, and feature live music for the very first time on the show. 

You can also watch the Facebook live video stream, which is archived for posterity, at the top of the page here: https://www.facebook.com/concavityshow/