WEBVTT

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I'd like to welcome David Foster
Wallace back to the University

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of Arizona, where he received
his MFA in Fiction in 1987.

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Wallace, who currently
lives in Illinois,

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has been the recipient
of numerous awards,

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including a
MacArthur Fellowship.

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He is the author of Broom of the
System, Girl with Curious Hair,

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Infinite Jest, Brief
Interviews with Hideous Men,

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and A Supposedly Fun
Thing I'll Never Do Again,

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which is a compilation
of essays and arguments.

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His work has appeared
in various publications,

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including The New Yorker,
Harper's, and The Paris Review.

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With the publication of
Infinite Jest in 1996,

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Wallace found himself in
the literary spotlight,

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being called the
next step in fiction

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and one of the big
talents of his generation.

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Wallace's fictional characters
are as varied as his lexicon.

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They're game show participants
and recovering addicts,

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therapy patients and sadists.

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And while critics praised
Wallace's satirical commentary

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on American pop
culture, the writer

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himself has said
that he's always

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chasing a fictional
flick or rhythm

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and that while television
and pop culture provide

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the backdrop to much
of his work because it

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is our contemporary landscape,
a big part of fiction's purpose

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is to give the reader
imaginative access

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to other selves.

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That since an ineluctable
part of being human

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is the experience of
suffering, through fiction,

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we may find redemption
and nourishment,

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becoming less alone inside.