The New Canon: Oblivion by David Foster Wallace

Those scared off by David Foster Wallace’s 1,100-page magnum plus, fearing that Infinite Jest may be no laughing matter, will find the short stories in his 2004 collection Oblivion an easier access road to this brilliant and quirky writer. Think of it as Wallace’s Dubliners, but without the epiphanies. As for those whose only experience with this author is via his expansive and unwieldy major novel, they may be surprised at his deftness in the shorter form.

Say what you will of this author—and pretty much it was all said, in the aftermath of his suicide death at age 46—his writing never lost its capacity to morph into surprising new forms. Some authors seem destined to tell the same type of tale over and over, but even in the context of the eight stories that comprise Oblivion, Wallace revealed his ability to recalibrate his approach to match the subject at hand. And whatever he addressed throughout his all-too-brief career—tennis schools, lobsters, Alcoholics Anonymous, you name it—he did so with an intensity of perception that leaps off the page.

For example, the opening story of Oblivion, “Mr. Squishy” deals with an unlikely literary subject: market research and product positioning. These are areas I have some experience with—at one point in my own repeatedly “recalibrated” life I managed the market research and strategic marketing function for a NYSE company. Wallace’s ability to get inside the thinking of a marketing executive is uncanny, and he has mastered all the jargon and pseudo-scientific techniques of the trade—so much so, that I can’t help but wonder what research or personal experiences he drew on to make this portrait so vivid. The ad account execs on Mad Men come across as kids playing at marketing concepts by comparison.

The story ostensibly surrounds the anticipated launch of a new snack food. Okay, War and Peace it’s not. But Napoleon himself never planned a battle with the angst and zeal of the execs focused on this money-making project. Of course, with Wallace, he doesn’t just present his story straight. The quasi-mathematical language of consumer research gradually collapses into the demented discourse of the mentally ill. This is no easy transition to pull off, but Wallace handles it deftly. This is a virtuoso performance, and I can think of few contemporary writers who would have been able to construct a story of this depth and complexity with the starting point of a “high-concept, chocolate-intensive, Mister Squisy-brand snack cake designed primarily for individual sale in convenience stores.”

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool. You can follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tedgioia.

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