Supposedly Fun Things...: Essays Inspired by the Creative Nonfiction of David Foster Wallace

by Ryan M. Blanck

Chaperoning Grad Nite at Disneyland… Spending eight hours in the Prospective Juror holding room… Reading AP exam essays for fifty-six hours… Detoxing from an addiction to prescription narcotics… Travelling 7000 miles to present a paper at a literary conference in Antwerp, Belgium… In this collection of narrative and critical essays, Ryan M Blanck explores the “irony of the banal” in these situations and others. Influenced by the writing style of David Foster Wallace and heavily footnoted, Supposedly Fun Things… offers candid reflections on some of life’s most ordinary – and extraordinary – events.

230 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2013

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I readily recommend this book to David Foster Wallace fans and to anyone interested in how a young writer can be inspired by another writer, for this is indeed a story of inspiration.

Good fiction, really good fiction, will get you to look inside yourself, to learn more about who you really are. *Great* fiction will *inspire* you, get you to go beyond just thinking into the realm of doing, and DFW's fiction (and nonfiction) is truly great fiction. In this interesting book, the author talks about how he came upon DFW's writing and was so influenced by it that he wrote and presented a paper at an international conference on DFW's works. He shares this journey with us, doing so in the hyperattentive style of his inspiration.

He also presents his Master's Thesis on DFW and gives us several essays done in his variation on Mr. Wallace's style. He is particularly fond of using footnotes in the DFW style, with Mr. Wallace being known not only for the number of his footnotes but also for having footnotes within footnotes. David did not do this to show that he was clever, although clever he was. It was one of the ways he tried to synchronize with readers who have become not only easily distractible, but who also seek distraction. We actually live footnote lives. Just think about you talking to someone, mentally pausing to make a footnote This man's breath is the worst on the planet, following that with another footnote to buy a more soothing shaving balm (the thought of smell made you think of your aftershave, which made you think of your itchy beard, etc.), and then picking back up in the conversation.

This focus of DFW on the reader was what inspired Mr. Blanck and is what ultimately led to this book. Pretty cool how inspiration can work.

[David Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun introduction, preparation, seduction to David Foster Wallace. Enjoyed the bounce-around of pieces throughout. Some of the pieces take you on trips through the Land of Mundania 1, while colored in with the wonder of David Foster Wallace. One of the chapters lay out a thesis of a bright and shiny reality the rest of us have been in the dark about--or, mostly in the dark, with occasional flashes of light 2. A most fascinating thing about the thesis is Ryan deals with some of the same stuff DFW struggles with. But here's the thing: Ryan wrote it before discovery of DFW. So he was gaining on him. Now even better: Ryan gets to share DFW in the classroom. A learning experience that I am sure leaves his students more honest and real and paying more attention. That's what the journey of this book does for you, serving as an introduction to some hard reading; and for your post reading experience 3. And 4.

1 I first heard of the term Mundania in the title of a book I read when I was 14: The Man From Mundania by Piers Anthony.
2 Go watch Dancing in the--I mean, Singing In The Rain.
3 Or something like that. You see, one needs a book club. Primarily a DFW book club. This book is a member of that book club. And Ryan has helped me through. Because, I have nobody in my immediate bubble to talk with about the late genius. I am just left talking to myself. Sigh.
4 What's with all the footnotes.

[Juliane Detweiler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amusing essays. I love the way that Ryan M.Blanck observes his world.