Contents

1. Cover
2. Title Page
3. Welcome
4. Introduction
5. FICTION
   1. “The Planet Trillaphon as It Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing” (1984)
   2. Afterword by Kevin J. H. Dettmar
   3. THE BROOM OF THE SYSTEM (1987)
      1. 1
      2. 5 /a/
      3. 11 /c/
      4. Afterword by Gerald Howard
   4. GIRL WITH CURIOUS HAIR (1989)
      1. “Little Expressionless Animals”
      2. Afterword by Hari Kunzru
      3. “My Appearance”
   5. INFINITE JEST (1996)
      1. Year of Glad
      2. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
      3. “In the eighth…”
      4. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
      5. Autumn—Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland
      6. As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
      7. Winter B.S. 1960—Tucson Az
      8. “Here is how…”
      9. “But there’s this…”
      10. “If, by the…”
      11. “The bathroom has…”
      12. 14 November
      13. 8 November
      14. Winter, B.S. 1963, Sepulveda CA
      15. “It is starting…”
      16. “As at all…”
      17. “And re Ennet…”
      18. “Joelle used to…”
      19. 11 November
      20. Afterword by Nam Le
      21. “The ceiling was…”
      22. Notes and Errata
   6. BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN (1999)
      1. “A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life”
      2. “B.I. #14”
      3. “B.I. #40”
      4. “Forever Overhead”
      5. “The Depressed Person”
   7. OBLIVION (2004)
      1. “Good Old Neon”
      2. “Incarnations of Burned Children”
      3. Afterword by Nick Maniatis
      4. “The Suffering Channel”
      5. THE PALE KING (2011)
         1. §1
         2. §5
         3. §6
         4. §8
         5. §9
         6. §33
         7. §36
         8. Afterword by Deborah Treisman
   8. TEACHING MATERIALS
      1. Introduction by Sally Foster Wallace
   9. ENGLISH 64A
      1. First-Day Pop Quiz
      2. Student Data Sheet
   10. ENGLISH 170R, SPRING 2003
       1. Course Syllabus
       2. Student Info Sheet
       3. Specs and Guidelines for Peer-Review Missive
   11. ENGLISH 183A, FALL 2004
       1. Guidelines for Writing Helpful Letters of Response to Colleagues’ Stories
   12. ENGLISH 183D, SPRING 2008
       1. Syllabus
       2. Student Data Sheet
   13. ENGLISH 183A, YOUR LIBERAL-ARTS $ AT WORK
       1. 16 October 2002
       2. 30 October 2002
       3. 13 November 2002
       4. 6 October 2004
       5. 1 December 2004
6. NONFICTION
   1. “Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley” (1990)
   2. Afterword by Mark Costello
   3. “E Unibus Pluram” (1990)
   4. Afterword by David L. Ulin
   5. “Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All” (1993)
   6. Afterword by Anne Fadiman
   7. “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” (1995)
   8. “The Nature of the Fun” (1998)
   9. “Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed” (1999)
   10. “Authority and American Usage” (1999)
   11. “The View from Mrs. Thompson’s” (2001)
   12. “Consider the Lobster” (2004)
   13. Afterword by Jo Ann Beard
   14. “Federer Both Flesh and Not” (2006)
   15. Afterword by Sven Birkerts
7. About the Contributors
8. Copyright Acknowledgments
9. About the Author
10. Also by David Foster Wallace
11. Newsletters
12. Copyright