Both Flesh and Not: Essays
First published 2012 · English · 328 pages
- Essays and criticism
A posthumous collection of essays and reviews drawn from across Wallace's career. It includes pieces on Roger Federer, on the English language and dictionaries, on the writer Terry Eagleton, on film and on the television industry, along with the early essay on mathematics and a few shorter reviews. The pieces show his curiosity about sport, grammar, culture and ideas. Some were previously hard to find, so the book gives readers a wider picture of his nonfiction.
Quotes
There is something inescapably bovine about an American tourist in motion as part of a group. A certain greedy placidity about them. Us, rather. In port we automatically become Peregrinator americanusy Die Lumpenamerikaner. The Ugly Ones.
Can the decision to be less selfish ever be anything other than a selfish decision?
I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction’s job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
The John Ziegler Show is the first local, nonsyndicated late-night program that KFI has aired in a long time. It's something of a gamble for everyone involved. Ten o'clock to one qualifies as late at night in southern California, where hardly anything reputable's open after nine.