Maud Newton’s NY Times essay, “Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace,” discusses yet another DFW-inspired trend–that is his “slangy approachability.”
He defined a writing style that has permeated through the blogosphere. His ability to combine legal diction with colloquialisms and “slacker lingo,” all to express one highly philosophical argument was indeed a DFW idiosyncrasy—one being reproduced by “a legion of opinion-mongers who not only lack his quick mind but seem not to have mastered the idea that to make an argument, you must, amid all the tap-dancing and hedging, actually lodge an argument.” Newton writes on the evolution of this trend and what has become of irony.
3 responses
DFW did not define a writing style that has permeated through the blogosphere. And neither did Dave Eggers. Here is a thorough rebuttal to Newton’s piece:
http://www.edrants.com/when-the-flock-changed-david-foster-wallace-maud-newton/
Wow, that is one deranged rebuttal.
Happy to support Ed with another rebuttal.
On Maud Newton vs. David Foster Wallace and “folksiness.” http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-maud-newton-vs.html
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