Review of Contemporary Fiction: XVI, #1: The Future of Fiction

by David Foster Wallace (Editor), John O'Brien (Editor)

The Review's aesthetic focus has been called many things postmodern, experimental, avant-garde, metafictional, subversive but in bringing this aesthetic to a wider audience it also seeks to expose the artificial barriers that exist between and within cultures. To this end, The Review has a special affinity for the works of foreign writers who may otherwise go unread in the United States, as well as American writers whose work has gone unchampioned in their own country. An extensive book review section also covers recent works of innovative writing. Above all, The Review of Contemporary Fiction attempts to expand readers' notions of what fiction is and what it can do.

ToC

David Foster Wallace, “Quo Vadis—Introduction”
Sven Birkerts, “Second Thoughts”
Melvin Jules Bukiet, “Crackpot Realism: Fiction for the Forthcoming Millennium”
Mary Caponegro, “Impressions of a Paranoid Optimist”
Peter Dimock, “Literature as Lyrical Politics”
Jonathan Franzen, “I’ll Be Doing More of Same”
Janice Galloway, “Bad Times”
Gerald Howard, “Slouching towards Grubnet: The Author in the Age of Publicity”
Carole Maso, “Rupture, Verge, and Precipice/Precipice, Verge, and Hurt Not”
Bradford Morrow, “Rivages Roses for Niels Bohr”
John O’Brien, “31 Questions and Statements about the Future of Literary Publishing, Bookstores, Writers, Readers, and Other Matters”
Christopher Sorrentino, “Specially Marked Packages”
Steve Tomasula, “Three Axioms for Projecting a Line (or Why It Will Continue to Be Hard to Write a Title sans Slashes or Parentheses)”
William T. Vollmann, “SYSOUT=A”
Curtis White, “Writing the Life Postmodern”
Focus on Mexico
Rikki Ducornet, “On Returning from Chiapas: A Revery in Many Voices”

Genres: Literary Criticism

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

David Foster Wallace was an acclaimed American writer known for his fiction, nonfiction, and critical essays that explored the complexities of consciousness, irony, and the human condition. Widely regarded as one of the most innovative literary voices of his generation, Wallace is perhaps best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. His unfinished final novel, The Pale King, was published posthumously in 2011 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Born in Ithaca, New York, Wallace was raised in Illinois, where he excelled as both a student and a junior tennis player—a sport he later wrote about with sharp insight and humor. He earned degrees in English and philosophy from Amherst College, then completed an MFA in creative writing at the University of Arizona. His early academic work in logic and philosophy informed much of his writing, particularly in his blending of analytical depth with emotional complexity.
Wallace’s first novel, The Broom of the System (1987), established his reputation as a fresh literary talent. Over the next two decades, he published widely in prestigious journals and magazines, producing short stories, essays, and book reviews that earned him critical acclaim. His work was characterized by linguistic virtuosity, inventive structure, and a deep concern for moral and existential questions. In addition to fiction, he tackled topics ranging from tennis and state fairs to cruise ships, politics, and the ethics of food consumption.
Beyond his literary achievements, Wallace had a significant academic career, teaching literature and writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. He was known for his intense engagement with students and commitment to teaching.
Wallace struggled with depression and addiction for much of his adult life, and he was hospitalized multiple times. He died by suicide in 2008 at the age of 46. In the years since his death, his influence has continued to grow, inspiring scholars, conferences, and a dedicated readership. However, his legacy is complicated by posthumous revelations of abusive behavior, particularly during his relationship with writer Mary Karr, which has led to ongoing debate within literary and academic communities.
His distinctive voice—by turns cerebral, comic, and compassionate—remains a defining force in contemporary literature. Wallace once described fiction as a way of making readers feel "less alone inside," and it is that emotional resonance, alongside his formal daring, that continues to define his place in American letters.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

.I. The Future of Fiction issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1996, edited by David Foster Wallace is a little time capsule. What was the future seventeen years ago?

And my apologies for setting aside Ms. Woolf’s book for a day but this is a double-duty dose of literary candy candy candy for the likes of me :: RCF is always candy and on top of that thing is the thing where fictioneers talk about fiction and fictioning which is something I just can’t put down. One nugget follows another nugget until I’ve eaten up the whole damn thing.

Our contributors and my blurbs ::

David Foster Wallace -- The yet uncollected “Quo Vadis--Introduction” which used to be viewable on-line.
Sven Birkerts -- I’d like a revised version of this essay incorporating what Vollmann has done with the historical novel.
Melvin Jules Bukiet -- His Crackpot Realism designation was over-run by the choice of the opposition, Hysterical Realism.
Mary Caponegro -- She is a “Stone Age fictioneer” like me.
Peter Dimock -- Either I didn’t understand or I didn’t buy what he was arguing as “Literture as Lyrical Politics.”
Jonathan Franzen -- Strawman-diremptions years prior to the Mr Difficult stupidity ; as his title predicts, “I’ll Be Doing More of Same.”
Janice Galloway -- How to deal with “suggestions from noncreators about what ‘true’ creation should consist in”; or, art censorship by the reactionary, anti-art right-wing.
Gerald Howard -- Or, why I, “N.R.”, will likely not bother with Amis’ The Information.
Carole Maso -- Do you people know Maso? Maso is fantastic!
Bradford Morrow -- “‘Rivages Roses’ for Niels Bohr” ; or, “The physicist and fabulist are both magicians”.
John O'Brien -- “31 Questions and Statements about the Future of Literary Publishing, Bookstores, Writers, Readers, and Other Matters” -- I know that this volume of RCF is still in print, but good gods! can we just have this available far and wide on the internet already? Fantastic!!!
Christopher Sorrentino -- Like father like son ; and this one is better than the DFW stuff about fiction and Television and pop-culture. I will be reading Sorrentino The Younger’s books.
Steve Tomasula -- “Imagination dead, imagine!” says Beckett.
William T. Vollmann -- Bill likes to print ; ie, “SYSOUT=A” ;; I’d like to reproduce this for Vollmann fandom sake, but this volume is still in print.
Curtis White -- UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE YOU ARE IN THE POSTMODERN CONDITION ; “Get with it” ; “come to terms with theory” already. : a great anecdote about Spivak farting in response to a hostile anti-theory question ;; and a thing that goes Barth ->Acker -> Leyner.
Please correct me if I have linked incorrectly to the various author pages.


.II. A very nice surprise on page 122 : a photograph of Fernando Del Paso followed by an interview with him on the occasion of the Dalkey publication of his Palinuro of Mexico which I reallyreally want to read. (What we have here is a two-piece “Focus on Mexico”.) The interview is followed by a travel report by Rikki Ducornet, “On Returning from Chiapas: A Revery in Many Voices.” Do you know what happened in Chiapas in the early to mid-1990’s? Likely not. But thanks to people like Ducornet, voices like those of Chiapas may still be heard.


.III. This is where it all started to continue for me ; here in the review section of RCF ; in this issue is one of the most important reviews I have ever read. Here it was that my world of books was first made infinite ; by finding Steven Moore’s review of Infinite Jest. This is the review whence my “Family Resemblances” photo originates ; and my encyclopedic novels list(s) ;; and this is where I first learned of Robert Coover, D. Keith Mano, Richard Powers, Alexander Theroux, William T. Vollmann, Joseph McElroy (Gaddis and Gass I had learned of from Barth ;; Barth, DFW, Pynchon each came to me independently) ;;; so I hope maybe you’ll understand why I feel I owe so much to Steven Moore. This review can be read at the bottom of THIS PAGE. (There are other reviews in this issue which take one deeper into that time capsule I mentioned above ; seems like 1996 was a good year for fiction -- my complaint here is that Evan Dara’s first book did not get reviewed in this issue.)

[Wendy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book in my neverending journey to complete my David Foster Wallace book collection. My background in literary criticism is recent, and thus scant (I rarely read anything literary post-high school until about a year ago, when I got Extremely Into DFW) but I still really appreciated this book. My favourite essays:

* Jonathan Franzen's "I’ll Be Doing More of Same" (I'm pretty sure chunks of it were lifted wholesale from his much longer Harper's essay, "Perchance to Dream", but it was still good)
* John O'Brien's "31 Questions and Statements about the Future of Literary Publishing, Bookstores, Writers, Readers, and Other Matters" (a lot of fun)
* Christopher Sorrentino "Specially Marked Packages" (I am weirdly jealous of the way he is able to write)
* Curtis White's "Writing the Life Postmodern" (I can't personally relate to his depiction of the state of literary studies in academia, but he depicts it very well)