Followers

Search This Blog

Showing posts with label David Foster Wallace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Foster Wallace. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Book Review-Quack this Way. Conversation between Bryan A. Garner and David Foster Wallace

Quack this way is a transcript of a 67-minute-long interview between David Foster Wallace and Bryan A Garner. David Foster Wallace is a writer of extraordinary renown. He is a hero amongst the younger writers while practicing his art as a novelist, short story, and magazine writer. He is known as a real polymath:  he was a  mathematician, philosopher, and logician. Bryan Garner,  whose name was not well known to me, wrote the definitive American Usage dictionary titled:  Garners Modern American Usage. It has been favorably compared to Fowler’s Usage Dictionary for American English. I had not known about the usage dictionary until I read about Garner and as soon as I learned about it I bought it.  It is a treasure trove for anyone who even pretends to be a writer.

What started the friendship was that David Foster Wallace wrote a very complimentary review of the Garner’s Dictionary of American Usage. Harpers condensed it to a publishable length and published it. Wallace felt that they had cut out what he considered to be essential in his review, so he published it in his own book of articles called Consider the Lobster in its full length. He felt very strongly about that review.  Garner and  Wallace became good friends and they kept in touch through emails and phone calls; they've actually only met twice in person. This is the transcript of the second time. Garner was able to film their conversation in an LA hotel  to preserve for eternity, and we are lucky to still have this recording.

If you were to tell me that I would be geeking out over a book about English usage I would call you crazy, but it is indeed a crazy kind of intellectual stimulus that makes me happy these days. The  transcript is short, but chock full of very deep insights and repartee. The interview took place in February of 2006, the subject is language and writing. They started out with Garner asking Wallace about the advice Wallace ˗ who was teaching writing at Claremont College at the time ˗ what key things he wants to get through to his students. Much of what he had to say is philosophical in nature,  he does get into the nitty gritty details of communicating in English and it's obvious that he loves what he does, the intricacies, the mental turns, and the technical details. In fact, both of  them have the passion; that came through clearly in the interview.

Wallace riffs about the writer’s job, amongst other things. How he needs to teach the  very bright and gifted students and how he enjoys the challenges. He does go off into the wild about some esoteric writing foibles as well as specific types of writing, such as writing for the law and  marketing. As an example, he also delves into the use of passive versus active voice, as he is not an absolutist in that regard, and he makes the point that it is all about what you need to convey which should finally dictate the voice.

Eventually, Garner and Wallace gets into the book review that brought them together. Wallace talking about the deeper points that he wanted to make with the review, but which was edited out by the Harper’s editors.

Reading this transcript made me wish to have been present for the conversation itself and to have the chance to interject, asking both Wallace and Garner questions because as an enthusiastic amateur, I am just beginning to  appreciating the black art of communicating in English through writing,  I'm now coming around to being able to understand enough to be able to understand the art, beyond just appreciating.