A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
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A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
''A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments'' is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace. In the title essay, originally published in '' Harper's'' as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses of his one-week trip in the Caribbean aboard the cruise ship , which he rechristens the ''Nadir''. He is uncomfortable with the professional hospitality industry and the "fun" he should be having, and explains how the indulgences of the cruise cause introspection, leading to overwhelming internal despair. Wallace uses footnotes extensively for various asides. Another essay in the same volume takes up the vulgarities and excesses of the Illinois State Fair. This collection also includes Wallace's influential essay "E Unibus Pluram" on television's impact on contemporary literature and the use of irony in American culture. In 2019, the collection was ranked in ''Slate'' as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction works of the past 25 years. Essay ...
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David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', which ''Time'' magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, '' The Pale King'' (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The ''Los Angeles Times''s David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended Amherst College. He taught English at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. In 2008, he died by suicide at age 46 after struggling with depression for many years. Early life and education David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, to Sally Jean Wallace (' Foster) and James Donald Wallace. The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illino ...
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Lost Highway (film)
''Lost Highway'' is a 1997 surrealist neo-noir horror film directed by David Lynch and co-written by Lynch and Barry Gifford. It stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, and Robert Blake. The film follows a musician (Pullman) who begins receiving mysterious VHS tapes of him and his wife (Arquette) in their home. He is suddenly convicted of murder, after which he inexplicably disappears and is replaced by a young mechanic (Getty) leading a different life. ''Lost Highway'' was financed by the French production company Ciby 2000 and was largely shot in Los Angeles, where Lynch collaborated with frequent producer Mary Sweeney and cinematographer Peter Deming. The film's surreal narrative structure has been likened to a Möbius strip, while Lynch has described it as a "psychogenic fugue" rather than a conventionally logical story. The film's soundtrack, which was produced by Trent Reznor, features an original score by Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson, as well as ...
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1997 Non-fiction Books
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of the most observed comets of the 20th century; Golden Bauhinia Square, where sovereignty of Hong Kong is handed over from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China; the 1997 Central European flood kills 114 people in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany; Korean Air Flight 801 crashes during heavy rain on Guam, killing 229; Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner land on Mars; flowers left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Titanic (1997 film) rect 200 0 400 200 Harry Potter rect 400 0 600 200 Comet Hale-Bopp rect 0 200 300 400 Death of Diana, Princess of Wales rect 300 200 600 400 Handover of Hong Kong rect 0 400 200 600 Mars Pathfinder r ...
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American Essay Collections
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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Books By David Foster Wallace
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arrangement is ''codex'' (plural, ''codices''). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it contained. Each part of Aristotle's ''Physics'' is called a bo ...
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I'm Thinking Of Ending Things
''I'm Thinking of Ending Things'' (stylized as i'm thinking ''of'' ending things) is a 2020 American surrealist psychological thriller film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. It is an adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Iain Reid. The plot follows a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who goes on a trip with her boyfriend ( Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis). Throughout the film, the main narrative is intercut with footage of a janitor ( Guy Boyd) going to work, with both stories intersecting by the third act. ''I'm Thinking of Ending Things'' was released in select theaters on August 28, 2020, and on Netflix on September 4, 2020. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the two lead performances and the cinematography. Plot A young woman contemplates ending her approximately seven-week relationship with her boyfriend Jake while on a trip to meet his parents at their farm. During the drive, Jake attempts to recite a ...
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Bossypants
''Bossypants'' is an autobiographical comedy book written by the American comedian Tina Fey. The book topped ''The New York Times Best Seller list'', and stayed there for five weeks upon its release. As of November 2014, the book has sold over 2.5 million copies since its debut, according to Nielsen BookScan. Additionally, Fey's Grammy nominated narration of the audiobook has sold over 150,000 copies on Audible.com. A paperback reprint edition was released in January 2012, from Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown. The front cover features hand model and actor Joe Rosario. Background In 2008, the prospect of a Tina Fey book was reportedly the subject of a bidding war among publishers, which led to an advance of $6 million. As part of her deal with Little, Brown & Co., a gift was made to the New York-based Books for Kids Foundation. Reception ''Bossypants'' received greatly positive reviews, Janet Maslin for ''The New York Times'' calls ''Bossypants'' "a spiky blend o ...
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Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the comedy series ''30 Rock'' (2006–2013) and ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'' (2015–2020). Fey is also known for her work in film, including ''Mean Girls'' (2004), ''Baby Mama'' (2008), ''Date Night'' (2010), ''Megamind'' (2010), ''Muppets Most Wanted'' (2014), ''Sisters'' (2015), '' Whiskey Tango Foxtrot'' (2016), ''Wine Country'' (2019), and ''Soul'' (2020). Fey broke into comedy as a featured player in the Chicago-based improvisational comedy group The Second City. She joined ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') as a writer, later becoming head writer and a performer, appearing as co-anchor in the ''Weekend Update'' segment and, later, developing a satirical portrayal of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in subsequent ...
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A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again
"A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again" is the nineteenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 29, 2012. In the episode, the Simpson family goes on a cruise after being convinced by a bored Bart. He enjoys himself on the vacation until Rowan Priddis, the director of the cruise, performs a song called "Enjoy It While You Can" that makes him realize the cruise is soon to be over and he has to return to his boring life. Bart decides to trick the crew and the passengers on the ship that the world is coming to an end back on land because of a pandemic and that the ship therefore has to stay out at sea. He manages to do this with the help of a large television screen, on which he displays a scene from the film ''The Pandora Strain'' that features a general named William Sullivan warning humanity about a deadly virus. Treat Williams guest starred in ...
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The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture and society, television, and the human condition. The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with producer James L. Brooks. He created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after his own family members, substituting Bart for his own name; he thought Simpson was a funny name in that it sounded similar to " simpleton". The shorts became a part of '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' on April 19, 1987. After three seasons, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and became Fox's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–1990). Since its debut on Dece ...
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John Hodgman
John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as '' The Areas of My Expertise'', ''More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is All'', he is known for his personification of a PC in contrast to Justin Long's personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign, and for his work as a contributor on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. His writings have been published in ''One Story'' (to which he contributed the debut story " Villanova"), ''The Paris Review'', ''McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', ''Wired'' and ''The New York Times Magazine'', for which he is editor of the humor section. He contributes to ''This American Life'', and CBC Radio One’s ''Wiretap''. His first book and accompanying audio narration, '' The Areas of My Expertise'', a satirical tongue-in-cheek almanac that contains almost no factual information, was published in 2005. His second ...
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That Is All (book)
''That Is All'' is a 2011 satirical almanac by John Hodgman. It is the follow-up to Hodgman's 2008 book ''More Information Than You Require ''More Information Than You Require'' is a 2008 satirical almanac by John Hodgman. It is the follow-up to Hodgman's 2005 book '' The Areas of My Expertise''. It was released October 21, 2008. The full title reads: ''More Information Than You ...''. It was released November 1, 2011. ''That Is All'' is the third and final part of a trilogy of "COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE". This series of books is a collective whole, featuring continuous page numbering - that is, the last page of ''The Areas of My Expertise'' is page 236, and the first page of ''More Information Than You Require'' is page 237. "That Is All" starts on page 607. One of the book's topics is preparation for the upcoming end of the world. Each page includes a fictionalized calendar of events leading to the end of the world on December 21, 2012. Hodgman refers to this time ...
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