Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (60 page)

Nardil, 52, 114–17, 154, 251, 297, 298, 300, 322
n

“Neiman-Marcus Nihilism,” 110

New Republic,
264–65

Newsday,
228–29

New York City, 127, 152

Wallace’s visits to, 67, 76, 83, 97–98, 99, 103, 125, 130, 131–32, 173, 174, 196, 202, 207, 208, 220–25, 279, 290–91

New Yorker,
87, 273, 292–93, 323
n

New York Observer,
242–45, 314
n

New York Review of Books,
255

New York Times,
82, 132, 217, 254–55, 279

New York Times Book Review,
81–82, 126, 128–29, 217, 229, 254, 265, 276

New York Times Magazine,
168, 220, 221, 222, 290, 299, 323
n

nicknames, 27, 52, 320
n

Nirvana, 221, 321
n
–22
n

Nogales, 77

nursing homes, 46, 312
n

Obama, Barack, 299

Oberlin College, 13–14

Oblivion
(Wallace), 78, 276–80, 324
n

O’Brien, John, 177, 189, 231

O’Connor, Flannery, 115–16

“Octet” (Wallace), 247

Ohio, 71, 119

Omensetter’s Luck
(Gass), 74

“Order and Flux in Northampton” (Wallace), 118, 138, 316
n

Ostheimer, Martha, 105, 113

paintings, 314
n,
318
n

Pale King, The
(Wallace), 8, 10, 12, 78, 255–59, 262, 274, 276, 280, 289–97, 298, 301, 312
n,
324
n
–25
n

cars in, 33

readings from, 273, 292

writing style and, 320
n

“Panic of Influence, The” (Scott), 255

Papineau, David, 276

Paris Review,
95, 101, 112

Parker, Andrew, 38, 56, 100, 104, 247

Patchett, Ann, 127

Penner, Jonathan, 61–65, 72, 313
n,
314
n

Perkins, Susan, 13, 24, 28, 51, 52, 53, 59, 62, 185, 249

Peterson, Dale, 46, 74–75, 87, 101, 113, 155, 266, 267

Granada House and, 138, 141–42

Wallace’s teaching and, 84, 88, 99–100, 176

Wallace’s thesis and, 43, 48

Phaedo
(Plato), 11

philosophy, 1, 11, 25–26, 28, 29, 38–41, 49, 82, 90, 251, 312
n,
317
n

Wallace’s return to, 119, 126, 127, 132–33, 137

Wallace’s thesis in, 39–41

Wittgenstein and, 32, 44–47, 65

Pietsch, Michael, 171–73, 202, 205–10, 212, 216, 225, 253, 263, 264, 290, 299, 301

Infinite Jest
edited by, 182–83, 190, 191, 193–96, 198–200, 205–6, 234

magazine pieces and, 227–28

short stories and, 245, 247–48, 274, 276–77

Placebo Records, 73, 314
n

plagiarism, 106, 319
n

“Planet Trillaphon as It Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing, The” (Wallace), 34–38, 41, 311
n,
312
n

Plato, 11

Playboy,
87, 96, 106–7, 125, 128, 245

Poag, Doug, 220, 248–49, 252

Poag, Erin, 220, 248–49

poetry, 58, 74, 150, 257, 317
n

of Berkeley, 91, 314
n

of Dickinson, 15, 152

of Eliot, 38, 58

of Keats, 234–35

of Wallace, 3, 4, 5, 23, 74

politics, 21, 25, 212, 259–60, 295–96, 299, 313
n

Pomona College, 266–71, 273, 274, 296

pornography, 29, 123–28, 133, 142, 184, 257, 261, 316
n,
318
n,
323
n

awards ceremony and, 244–45, 323
n

postmodern literature, 29–31, 47, 60, 62, 65, 66, 71, 89, 91, 94, 95–96, 107, 111, 115, 126, 135, 156, 157, 159, 191, 212, 217, 231, 255, 315
n,
318
n

see also
Barth, John; Barthelme, Donald; Pynchon, Thomas

Premiere,
244–45, 323
n

psychiatry, 114, 116, 136, 300

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
(Bangs), 122

Publishers Weekly,
216, 253

Puente, Tito, 153

Purple America
(Moody), 213

Pynchon, Thomas, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 43, 53, 56, 60, 67, 76, 85, 105, 156, 192, 213–14, 225, 316
n

Broom
and, 47, 48, 60, 66, 69, 70, 77, 80, 82, 312
n

Vollmann and, 130, 316
n

Wallace’s disappointment with, 152

waste in, 313
n

Rabbit at Rest
(Updike), 184

“Rabbit Resurrected” (Wallace), 184

Ragde, Prabhakar, 276

Rainbow Stories, The
(Vollmann), 130, 213, 316
n

Rawls, John, 119, 133

reading, physics of, 69–70, 182

Reagan, Ronald, 212, 221, 256, 259, 313
n

realism, 38, 39, 50, 60, 61, 84, 92, 101, 115, 153, 212–13, 231, 314
n

religion, 114, 140, 164, 166, 181, 251, 257, 316
n

Review of Contemporary Fiction,
118, 124, 151, 174

Walden’s job at, 189–90

Wallace interview in, 155, 178, 214, 215, 314
n

Wallace’s work in, 109–12, 120, 142, 172

Rich C., 113–14, 115, 251

Girl
and, 132, 133

Wallace’s correspondence with, 105, 117, 118, 138, 139–40, 257, 259

Rolling Stone,
223, 259–60, 262–63

Rose, Charlie, 223, 229–30, 231

rose, frying of, 89, 92, 315
n

Rucker, Rudy, 276

Russell, Bertrand, 26, 126, 251

Ryan, Michael, 138

Sabrina,
26–27, 31

“Sabrina Brothers in the Case of the Hung Hamster, The” (Wallace), 26–27

Saint James, Susan, 85, 106–8

Salinger, J. D., 4, 35, 288

Salon.com
, 229, 253, 259, 264, 321
n

San Francisco, Calif., 105, 113, 224, 316
n

Scott, A. O., 255

Seattle, Wash., 224, 321
n

Sedaris, David, 299

“Self-Harm as a Sort of Offering” (collected later as “Suicide as a Sort of Person”; Wallace), 241–42

September 11 attacks, 262–63

sex, 29, 30, 57–58, 96, 181, 221, 225, 232–34, 241, 247, 277, 323
n,
324
n

advertising and, 123

in fiction, 48, 58, 69, 73, 197, 243

masturbation, 153, 317
n

Signifying Rappers
(Wallace and Costello), 125, 150–51, 208, 323
n

Silverblatt, Michael, 253–54

Simpson, Mona, 96

sincerity, 157, 158, 164, 178, 208, 213, 221, 231, 255, 263, 288, 319
n,
321
n

Slick Rick, 122–23

Smith, Lee, 125, 208

“Solomon Silverfish” (Wallace), 63–64, 313
n

Somerville, Mass., 119–25, 127–28, 130, 133, 136, 142, 145, 146, 155, 316
n,
317
n,
318
n

Sorrentino, Gilbert, 56, 109, 116, 321
n

Spano, Brian, 13

Spark, Debra, 139, 146, 154, 164, 167, 175, 210

Story of My Life
(McInerney), 95, 103

Streitfeld, David, 219

substance abuse recovery, 135–39, 149, 179, 219, 317
n

suffering, 163, 237, 272, 317
n

“Suffering Channel, The” (Wallace), 278–81, 296

suicide, 22, 33, 35, 37, 42, 52, 57, 104, 109, 117, 134, 143, 154, 298–301, 322
n

in fiction, 130, 159, 161, 199, 241–42, 278

Supposedly Funny Thing I’ll Never Do Again, A
(Wallace), 228–29, 232, 234

Suttree
(McCarthy), 166, 213

Swarthmore College, 163–64

Syracuse, N.Y., 152, 164–70, 173, 177, 179–84, 234

tattoos, 138, 147, 249, 282

taxes, 194, 296, 315
n

Taylor, Richard, 40–41

television, 18, 31, 88, 106–11, 152, 218, 233, 252

in fiction, 67, 75–76, 85–86, 103, 104, 106–9, 112

Wallace’s appearances on, 223–24, 229–30, 231

Wallace’s piece on, 148–49, 155–58, 172, 184

Wallace’s watching of, 6, 20–21, 42–43, 51, 94, 101, 104, 113, 116, 120, 213, 220, 251, 283, 286, 311
n

tennis, 8–12, 14, 17, 20, 56, 58, 95, 130, 161, 167, 179, 188, 320
n

in letters, 186, 194

“Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes” (Wallace), 184, 228, 319
n
–20
n

tennis, Wallace’s writing on, 208, 261, 290, 320
n

Tennis
(magazine), 208, 320
n

Texas, 167, 258–59, 261, 265

therapy, 22, 29, 70, 113, 136, 149, 169–70, 177, 179, 181, 233, 283

electroconvulsive, 25, 35, 42, 117, 123

in fiction, 62, 68, 318
n

group, 139, 169

marriage and family, 29, 70, 283

Thich Nhat Hanh, 262

“This Living Hand” (Keats), 234–35

“Three Protrusions” (Wallace), 175

“Ticket to the Fair” (Wallace), 184–87, 319
n,
320
n

Titanic
(movie), 230

tobacco chewing, 103, 163, 165, 202, 222, 232, 251, 315
n

tornadoes, 200, 320
n

Toward the End of Time
(Updike), 243–44

Tractatus Logico-Philosophus
(Wittgenstein), 44, 126, 142, 315
n

Trebek, Alex, 67, 75, 76, 117–18

Tucson, Ariz., 51, 53–65, 71–77, 132, 314
n

apartments in, 54–55, 64, 71–72, 79, 88

cabin near, 115, 167

Wallace’s returns to, 105, 112–16

see also
Arizona, University of

Turner, Alice, 96, 97, 104, 106–7, 108, 125, 128

Wallace’s correspondence with, 106, 173, 210, 211, 227, 230

Twenty-Seventh City, The
(Franzen), 115, 130

Understanding David Foster Wallace
(Boswell), 288, 324
n