Comments on: Suttree paper, comments by DFW

By: Nathan Caldwell

Nathan Caldwell — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:32:11 +0000

I literally LOL’ed at him referring to “problematize” as a “bullshit academic word” and his suggestion to “Shun it. Fly it. Trust me.”

It would have been incredible (and intimidating) to have had him as an instructor.

By: Matt Evans

Matt Evans — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:19:37 +0000

@ James:
‘Long-ass paragraph’ — that certainly made me laugh. What about ‘J is a wordy fucker, too’ at the top of page 19?

Thanks, Matt, for posting this.

By: James

James — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:48:39 +0000

This is absolutely fantastic. All the comments I’ve seen from Wallace’s students are really incredible. It’s hard to think of another writer who was so devoted to his teaching, and received such uniformly positive responses from his students.

My jaw dropped at the ‘Long-ass paragraph’ comment at the top of page three – from David Foster Wallace of all people. Pot/Kettle anyone?

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:05:57 +0000

Very cool to see Shawn’s paper here. I was in this same class in 1997, but wrote a very ham-handed essay on McCarthy’s A Frolic of His Own. Wallace’s comments were incisive, honest, a little mocking and, at times, devastating; I totally deserved it all, and more. His comments were in three different inks, too, so I know he spent more time reading it than I probably did writing it. DFW cared more about word choice, syntax and argumentative logic than any writing instructor I’ve studied under or known professionally.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:45:08 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by mattbucher: Here is a long student paper on Suttree, with annotations by David Foster Wallace: http://bit.ly/9h7hjg...