I love this

Juliet Lapidos on Slate posted an entry with a link to a list of words circled in David Foster Wallace's dictionary.

I have to admit, there was some fun in analyzing the choices. Some of the words he seemed to choose for their brazen obscurity, but a lot of them are not all that obscure, such as "Aquavit" or "apathetic". And I remember Michael Chabon (I think it was him) talking about how sometimes when you are writing you are looking for word with a certain rhythm, and I think we all do that, whether we know it or not. Maybe these choices have more to do with accent and sound than meaning.

You could puzzle on it for a long time, looking for a pattern. That kind of puzzle doesn't interest me as much as just poring over the words and reading the definitions. It makes me want to pick up my own dictionary and do the same. You never know where you might find some inspiration.

You hear people joke about reading the dictionary likes it's a bad thing.

Only DFW knows for sure what he meant. RIP, Mr. Wallace.

Comments

[katrina craig valvis]

i am an unrepentant dictionary reader. i also keep a list of words i like to say, just because they are fun: ragnarok, excoriate, skedaddle…