Introduction: David Foster Wallace and “The Long Thing”

Negating the Human, Narrating a World Without Us

“…In keeping with C.S. Lewis's observation that "we must attend even to discover that something is not worth attention" (Lewis 1961: 132), 2 Wallace explores "paying attention" (TPK 545, "Notes and Asides") as part of the novel's "broad arcs" (TPK 545, "Notes and Asides") as a remedy against the passivising effects of monotony and irrelevant masses of data (see Boswell 2014, Clare 2012, Hayes-Brady 2016. Among many other things, the short interjection "Devils are really angels" (TPK 312, §25) seems to suggest that §25 is not only spatially but also conceptually a central chapter.…”

“…Perceptions of monotony, boredom, dullness and the effects of information overload are related to Wallace's central question of relevance and irrelevance (see Boswell 2014, Wouters 2012. It seems therefore appropriate to relate his writings to Dan Sperber's and Deirdre Wilson's Relevance Theory (RT).…”

“…The first presumption of relevance recalls, of course, observations by critics like Jonathan Culler who consider the worthiness of one's reading efforts as a precondition for, if not a convention of literature (see Culler 2000: 26). In that sense, the literary discourse, the novel itself and Wallace's renown "as one of the most gifted, important, and influential writers of his generation" (Boswell 2014: viii) provide a priori a strong stimulus to start reading this "long thing" (see Boswell 2014) called The Pale King. Yet, to convince readers to make the effort to read attentively despite seemingly uninformative chapters like §25, the text must provide further stimuli that strengthen the presumption of relevance; that is, the renown of the author has to be confirmed by his ability to choose and set ostensive stimuli well.…”