Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 642 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: David Foster Wallace. Oblivion.(Book Review)
Author: Tim Feeney
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 24Issue: 2Page: 125(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 1993. The length of the article is 8195 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: David Foster Wallace differs from most contemporary writers in that he does not use post-structuralist literary devices for the sake of using post-structuralist literary devices. Like Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophical pondering, which greatly influenced Wallace, he plays theoretical games in order to address real problems. Neither Wittgenstein nor Wallace takes anything for granted, but their cynicism is not the end, but the means to the end, unlike many contemporary authors and philosophers.

Citation Details
Title: Termite art, or Wallace's Wittgenstein. (David Foster Wallace)
Author: Lance Olsen
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1993
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: v13Issue: n2Page: p199(17)

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Customer Reviews (4)

Oldie but a Goldie
Yes this book is outdated, and yes this book is wordy, but thats what makes it so great. This is an exploration of two nerdy white guys resting on the cusp of what we now know was an cultural explosion, and one which they seem to have known, though at the time it had nothing to do with themthat it soon would have eveything to do with them and us too. Furthermore some of the forecasting that they do is so right on its scary..
These guys are taliking agbout NWA like its current because it was current! Take this book as an opportunity to view one of those rare historical accounts that happens before the storm and seems to have something good to say about why it started raining in the first place..

a bit outdated...but then again IS old...
i am actually doing a report on rap and selected this book expecting someinsight...i was surprised. it seems like some of this was even just puthere to take up space; i was dissapointed, expecting something better fromcostello. a point of view not needed in most situations. of course, tenyears ago it might have been close to adequate--now it seems totallyinadequate to use in my report.

Outdated but occasionally still insightful
David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello are too cute by half in this book, and it is horribly out of date. (Just to give an idea, A Tribe Called Quest, who were considered an elder statesman group when they broke up twoyears ago, had not yet released an album when this book was published.) Butmost of the analysis of rap's place within popular culture remains somehowapplicable to the current scene if you are willing to do a bunch ofcritical work along the same lines and ignore the dumber flights of fancy.Still a fun book to read and a fun book to debate. Not to be missed if youremember when LL Cool J was good and you have read anything by a master ofpostmodern philosophy.

an interesting look at what shapes our culture
costello and wallace examine rap culture and rappers as they influence our society.although at times it seems like they are being narrow minded, this book examines what shapes society and how society can react to thesethings.the book goes well beyond merely rap music and examines howsociety is influenced and how it influences.anyone who reads this andsees it as simply a look at rap music is missing the entire point of thebook. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 545 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Marshall Boswell. Understanding David Foster Wallace.(Book Review)
Author: Robert L. McLaughlin
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 24Issue: 2Page: 126(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
Stairs, ladders and lifts are the motifs of Thomas Demand's latest monograph, L'Esprit d'Escalier, which is published on the occasion of his show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. The title actually refers to so-called "staircase wit," that concise French expression for the chagrin of missed retorts--those hapless comebacks one only ever thinks up belatedly (i.e. when already descending the stairs): "I should've said (fill in blank)!" etc. One of Demand's ironic allusions to his title is a new work titled "Landing," which shows the shards of broken Qing vases on a staircase--a mishap caused by a visitor to The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge in January 2006, who stumbled on his shoelaces and crashed into the three eighteenth-century vases, smashing them to pieces. As ever, Demand combines conceptual rigor and exacting craft in his painstakingly re-created sets, with their eerie edge of artifice. L'Esprit d'Escalier presents an overview of his current work in 23 large photographs, plus a film project and an architectural installation specially prepared for his Irish Museum exhibition. Alongside an excerpt from David Foster Wallace's Girl with Curious Hair, it also includes commissioned writings by Dave Eggers, Paul Oliver, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, Rachael Thomas and Enrique Juncosa. ... Read more

Product Description
Writings by Marianne Hauser, David Foster Wallace, Alberto Moravia, Wang Meng. AIDS Art, Photomontages from Germany and England ... Read more