David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) wrote the acclaimed novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System and the story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Girl with Curious Hair. His nonfiction includes the essay collections Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and the full-length work Everything and More.
Fatalism, the sorrowful erasure of possibilities, is the philosophical problem at the heart of this book. To witness the intellectual exuberance and bravado with which the young Wallace attacks this problem, the ambition and elegance of the solution he works out so that possibility might be resurrected, is to mourn, once again, the possibilities that have been lost. -- Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of <i>Thirty-six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction</i> As an early glimpse at the preoccupations of one of the 20th century's most compelling and philosophical authors, it is invaluable, and Wallace's conclusion... is simply elegant. * Publishers Weekly * This book is for any reader who has enjoyed the works of Wallace and for philosophy students specializing in fatalism. * Library Journal * [A] tough and impressive book.Financial Times -- Anthony Gottlieb * Financial Times * an excellent summary of Wallace's thought and writing which shows how his philosophical interests were not purely cerebral, but arose from, and fed into, his emotional and ethical concerns. -- Robert Potts * Times Literary Supplement * Fate, Time, and Laguage contains a great deal of first-rate philosophy throughout, and not least in Wallace's extraordinarily professional and ambitious essay.... -- Daniel Speak * Notre Dame Philosophical Review * Valuable and interesting. -- James Ley * Australian Literary Review * A philosophical argument that deserves a place in any college-level library interested in modern philosophical debate. A lively, debative tone keeps this accessible to newcomers. * Midwest Book Review * Fatalism, the sorrowful erasure of possibilities, is the philosophical problem at the heart of this book. To witness the intellectual exuberance and bravado with which the young Wallace attacks this problem, the ambition and elegance of the solution he works out so that possibility might be resurrected, is to mourn, once again, the possibilities that have been lost. -- Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Thirty-six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction As an early glimpse at the preoccupations of one of the 20th century's most compelling and philosophical authors, it is invaluable, and Wallace's conclusion... is simply elegant. Publishers Weekly This book is for any reader who has enjoyed the works of Wallace and for philosophy students specializing in fatalism. Library Journal [A] tough and impressive book.Financial Times -- Anthony Gottlieb Financial Times an excellent summary of Wallace's thought and writing which shows how his philosophical interests were not purely cerebral, but arose from, and fed into, his emotional and ethical concerns. -- Robert Potts Times Literary Supplement Fate, Time, and Laguage contains a great deal of first-rate philosophy throughout, and not least in Wallace's extraordinarily professional and ambitious essay... -- Daniel Speak Notre Dame Philosophical Review Valuable and interesting. -- James Ley Australian Literary Review A philosophical argument that deserves a place in any college-level library interested in modern philosophical debate. A lively, debative tone keeps this accessible to newcomers. Midwest Book Review